How does something as awesome as this get droppedGenre: Action-Adventure (in the Comic Book Blockbuster affair sort of way)
Premise: After the death of Batman’s new wife, Batman teams up with Superman to battle the Joker, who was actually hired by Lex Luthor.
About: After a few aborted attempts, including which Akiva Goldman was inexplicably brought in, Wolfgang Peterson left to direct Troy and Walker’s script was dumped for another Superman story. All engaged parties show interest in the project so I wouldn’t be surprised if anywhere from five to twenty years from now we do see a Superman VS Batman movie.
Writers: I read a draft of the script, which was written by Andrew Kevin Walker (Seven, 8 MM) right after Seven and his initial catapult into screenwriting fame. The version also had current rewrites by the famous screenwriting star/hack Akiva Goldman (I could list his credits, but let’s just say he got a main writing credit on Batman and Robin). This is the equivalent of having Stephen King rewrite Faulkner.
There’s this situation you encounter if you’ve read a fair share of Batman and Superman comics. While Superman is very much the 1940’s mentality of truth, justice and the American way; Batman is much more the equivalent of a Peckinpah hero who rides into town in the middle of night and settles his own scores however he finds necessary. As a result, these two are always sort of bickering about their methods. And that’s fun to watch onscreen because we’re not quite sure who to side with.
My biggest problem with Asylum, is that once Batman realizes the Joker set in motion the entire plan to kills Bruce’s wife, the story becomes much less about this tension between two of the greatest superheroes of all time and starts being another film in which Batman must settle score with the Joker. And that I’ve seen, dozens of times with varied results. I wish the Batman/Superman tension could have been maintained further, and ultimately would have escalated into an all ought to the death battle. I understand that’s not where this script was going, but when I’m made an awesome enough pitch that I’m going to see Superman and Batman together in a film inevitably that’s what I’d like.
And while I’m not going to try and attribute different scenes to different screenwriters, let’s just say that parts of this script are dark and nourish, but other parts are happy and chipper. It comes off like a varied experience. And that can be a tad bit unsettling. But, this difference in tone aside and a storyline which ultimately reverts to being very formulaic and resultantly predictable, Asylum is one of my top ten scripts I’ve read so far on Hunting for Isla Fisher.
Scooby Doo (Complete Crap)
Atilla (Poor, Few Redeeming Qualities)
Wedding Crashers (Mediocre)
[X] - Hot Rod (Good)
Definitely Maybe (Pretty Darn Good
Isla Prospects: Not that many female roles. With the exception of Batman’s wife, who is killed off before the end of the first. So not much territory to cover here. Although, I did read recently Isla had been in main consideration for the role Maggie Gyllenhal played in Dark Knight. Talk about a missed opportunity.
What I Learned: The greatest thing about this script is that it takes storylines we’re familiar with and plot conventions, then by inverting them on their head just a bit, manages to come up with nothing we’ve never seen before. This script is structured in a very predictable way (Call to Action, Rising Escalations, and Very Big Fight) but by giving the audience The Batman/Superman thing we’re able to enjoy the story as if it were brand new. Screenwriting isn’t really about reinventing the wheel so much as it is giving the audience something they want and haven’t quite seen before.
Premise: After the death of Batman’s new wife, Batman teams up with Superman to battle the Joker, who was actually hired by Lex Luthor.
About: After a few aborted attempts, including which Akiva Goldman was inexplicably brought in, Wolfgang Peterson left to direct Troy and Walker’s script was dumped for another Superman story. All engaged parties show interest in the project so I wouldn’t be surprised if anywhere from five to twenty years from now we do see a Superman VS Batman movie.
Writers: I read a draft of the script, which was written by Andrew Kevin Walker (Seven, 8 MM) right after Seven and his initial catapult into screenwriting fame. The version also had current rewrites by the famous screenwriting star/hack Akiva Goldman (I could list his credits, but let’s just say he got a main writing credit on Batman and Robin). This is the equivalent of having Stephen King rewrite Faulkner.
There’s this situation you encounter if you’ve read a fair share of Batman and Superman comics. While Superman is very much the 1940’s mentality of truth, justice and the American way; Batman is much more the equivalent of a Peckinpah hero who rides into town in the middle of night and settles his own scores however he finds necessary. As a result, these two are always sort of bickering about their methods. And that’s fun to watch onscreen because we’re not quite sure who to side with.
My biggest problem with Asylum, is that once Batman realizes the Joker set in motion the entire plan to kills Bruce’s wife, the story becomes much less about this tension between two of the greatest superheroes of all time and starts being another film in which Batman must settle score with the Joker. And that I’ve seen, dozens of times with varied results. I wish the Batman/Superman tension could have been maintained further, and ultimately would have escalated into an all ought to the death battle. I understand that’s not where this script was going, but when I’m made an awesome enough pitch that I’m going to see Superman and Batman together in a film inevitably that’s what I’d like.
And while I’m not going to try and attribute different scenes to different screenwriters, let’s just say that parts of this script are dark and nourish, but other parts are happy and chipper. It comes off like a varied experience. And that can be a tad bit unsettling. But, this difference in tone aside and a storyline which ultimately reverts to being very formulaic and resultantly predictable, Asylum is one of my top ten scripts I’ve read so far on Hunting for Isla Fisher.
Scooby Doo (Complete Crap)
Atilla (Poor, Few Redeeming Qualities)
Wedding Crashers (Mediocre)
[X] - Hot Rod (Good)
Definitely Maybe (Pretty Darn Good
Isla Prospects: Not that many female roles. With the exception of Batman’s wife, who is killed off before the end of the first. So not much territory to cover here. Although, I did read recently Isla had been in main consideration for the role Maggie Gyllenhal played in Dark Knight. Talk about a missed opportunity.
What I Learned: The greatest thing about this script is that it takes storylines we’re familiar with and plot conventions, then by inverting them on their head just a bit, manages to come up with nothing we’ve never seen before. This script is structured in a very predictable way (Call to Action, Rising Escalations, and Very Big Fight) but by giving the audience The Batman/Superman thing we’re able to enjoy the story as if it were brand new. Screenwriting isn’t really about reinventing the wheel so much as it is giving the audience something they want and haven’t quite seen before.
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