Get ready for 'Doom Patrol: The Movie'

Categories: Film

104415__doompatrol_l What the world needs now is peace in the Middle East, an exit strategy out of Iraq, and, most urgently, a substantiated Suri sighting that can quiet the Tom Cruise Conspriacy Cult. What the world doesn’t need at the moment is yet another superhero comic book being made into a movie — unless you’re talking about Doom Patrol. Which is why we cheer the news today that Warner Bros. is turning the ’60s-spawned comic cult classic into a big-budget flick under the Oscar-winning auspices of producer Akiva Goldsman. Why are we pumped? First of all, Doom Patrol is a freakin’ cool title. Second, the premise is a quirky/subversive/spooky blend of X-Men and Tod Browning’s infamous 1932 flick Freaks. Doom Patrol is about a trio of "normal" people who become "super" as a result of surviving catastrophic experiences. "Super" doesn’t mean "upgrade:" for example, there’s Robotoman, who’s basically a brain inside a clunky but strong bronze body. In other words, Doom Patrol has all the markings of a zeitgeist-y spectacle: a superhero team for our calamity-stricken historical moment. One problem, as we see it: The most famous Doom Patrol story ever told, written by the brilliantly twisted Grant Morrison, revealed that The Chief, the team’s paraplegic-in-a-wheelchair genius leader, actually engineered the catastrophes that created his heroes. That sounds very post-9/11 conspiracy theorish, but it also sounds like the big twist in M. Night Shyamalan’s deconstructed Superman fable Unbreakable. Then again, Unbreakable isn’t exactly unforgettable. And is this blog item perhaps the most geeky collection of words ever posted on PopWatch? [EDITOR'S NOTE: Not even close. Have you met Scott Brown?] So we’ll stop. But tune in next week in which we publish an intricate charticle that delineates the differences between Doom Patrol and Snow Patrol.

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Comments (1-6) of 6 Add your comment

Ned
Fri 07/21/06 12:33 AM

I grew up reading comics, but the only exposure I had to the Doom Patrol was a crossover they did with the Teen Titans. But it sounds interesting, so I guess I’ll go see it when it comes out.

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EP Sato
Fri 07/21/06 2:08 PM

I’ve always dug this anti-superhero clique. They were the first X-statix type superhero psuedo parody. Usually penned with great stories aimed for older readers, the series has had several revivals (most recently as a Vertigo title, if I recall correctly) and is fo shizza worth a look.
As for the movie? I am still hoping the suits at Warner Brothers will wake up and make the Watchmen into a movie. It’s MUCH more movie friendly than V For Vendetta ever was, it’s better written, and is RIPE to be made into a flick.
Now that the comic movies are starting to hit up the b list heroes, does anyone have a favorite they still want to see made? Besides Watchmen, I’d love to see a remade Judge Dredd, but one that’s actually based on the comic books.

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Baco Noir
Fri 07/21/06 2:25 PM

There’s one big problem with this project: Akiva Goldsman. He’s a hack, always was a hack, always will be. So, he won an Oscar (but that was probably on the Opie express for A Beautiful Mind), but the man clearly cannot write. How do you screw-up a cinema ready Da Vinci Code? Just give Akiva a call.

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call
Fri 07/21/06 7:05 PM

“Exit strategy out of Iraq”. Idiot.

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Geno
Fri 07/21/06 8:34 PM

Comic books are well written & well done these days!!
Give “100 Bullets” or “Runaways” a shot…

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Chris Richards
Fri 07/21/06 9:55 PM

SPOILER!?!?!?!
You just RUINED one of the best twists of any movie in the last two decades(And certainly M Nights’ best.

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