249: Corporate Fanfic

[Dillon Sinnott]

Corporate Fanfic

You may think fanfiction is a laughable attempt at literature. But did you know you've probably already paid good money for it? Dillon Sinnott examines the phenomenon of "corporate fanfiction," when a company ditches the canon to make a quick buck.

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[Fists]

You know, I think someone who wrote a rather lengthy poem about learning to abstain from all sin, including those of passion such as furiously butchering things, would have had some problem with being portrayed doing just that.

And after checking wiki he didnt seem to have much of a revelation at the end which could have been redeeming, he still insisted on smiting stuff.

Sorry probably not that relevant but I read The Inferno shortly before they anounced the game and it makes me pretty angry that they bastardise his name like that, calling the game "The Inferno" and changing the protagonist's name would make it a little easier to swallow.

/rant

 

[Delock]

You know, I think someone who wrote a rather lengthy poem about learning to abstain from all sin, including those of passion such as furiously butchering things, would have had some problem with being portrayed doing just that.

And after checking wiki he didnt seem to have much of a revelation at the end which could have been redeeming, he still insisted on smiting stuff.

Sorry probably not that relevant but I read The Inferno shortly before they anounced the game and it makes me pretty angry that they bastardise his name like that, calling the game "The Inferno" and changing the protagonist's name would make it a little easier to swallow.

/rant

I really don't think he would mind at all. After all, he did put everyone who made his life miserable in hell and had himself being buddies with Virgil and having an dead saint talk to his lover so that she could call Virgil to help Dante. Keep in mind that this was a Saint that he later put on the same level as Adam when he went up to heaven, meaning that he thought his quest was pretty important if she had to be the messanger. Sure he was a violent crusader in the game, but Dante himself might have used that to once again bash the church's corruption as he did in his own poem so many times.

As for me, I actually liked how the game turned out, but that's partly because I've accepted that Dante isn't actually the Florentine, and that the game's called what it is only because it's taking place in the world envisioned by the actual Dante known as the Infenro.

 

[Formica Archonis]

Was wondering if the first post would be horror over Dante's Inferno or horror over a Monopoly movie. And I thought when Robot Chicken turned the Hungry Hungry Hippos into a cop movie ("Hungry... FOR JUSTICE!") it was a joke.

You figure Variety was making a stealth joke when they said 'The property with the most current momentum is "Monopoly," which Ridley Scott and Scott Free have been developing.' I know they're Hollywood terms, but come on, property? Developing?

You know, I think someone who wrote a rather lengthy poem about learning to abstain from all sin, including those of passion such as furiously butchering things, would have had some problem with being portrayed doing just that.

Methinks the depiction of Beatrice would be the first thing he'd take issue with. But that's just me.

Sorry probably not that relevant but I read The Inferno shortly before they anounced the game and it makes me pretty angry that they bastardise his name like that, calling the game "The Inferno" and changing the protagonist's name would make it a little easier to swallow.

/rant

I don't know. The fanbase was bound to be unpleasable on this one. I just can't believe the cheap bastards released the Longfellow translation with a game art cover. If it had been a modern translation, I'd actually defend them a bit. But Longfellow. Bloody hard to read but free to publish without having to pay Ciardi, Pinsky, Mandelbaum, et al. for their work. That's the real disservice here - the cheap money grab from teenagers who judge the book by its cover, trying to sell itself as a way of introducing people to the classics.

 

[Elesar]

My problem with the Watchmen film wasn't what it changed, not directly. My problem with it came as a result of some of those changes and more importantly, because of the changes of the medium. My problem was simply this: It watered down the message and characters. Let me throw down an example before MovieBob tears my head off (AWOOOOOGA, MASSIVE SPOILERS OFF THE PORT BOW):

In both the comic and the movie, the final moments of Rorschach are taken as he heads off to go warn the world of what had happened, forsaking world peace for his own sense of right and wrong. Dr. Manhattan comes out to stop him. So far so good, right?

In the comic however, there is no commentary from Rorschach on the morals of it, no Nite Owl. He simply tears off his mask, crying for the first time since we saw him cry in flashback and screams at Dr. Manhattan to just do it. Meanwhile, Nite Owl is upstairs sleeping with Silk Specter. It was a HEARTBREAKING moment, precisely because of the subtleties of the moment.

In the movie however, he gives some half-assed lecture to Dr. Manhattan about how this is his fault, and when Dr. Manhattan does it, Nite Owl drops to his knees screaming and gives another half-assed lecture and I was sitting there wondering how Zack had managed to ruin the most moving scene in the comic.

I'm still not sure where I stand on the Watchmen movie. It wasn't the generic action-flick that was League of Extraordinary Gentlemen film, nor did it's point, story, characters and themes get quite as neutered as in V for Vendetta (a okay enough film on it's own, but when compared to the comic, it's pathetic). I guess they did as well as they could with a Watchmen film...

I also guess that's not good enough.

 

[gartoo]

Actually I can think of one comic to movie adaptation that was pretty good, faithful to the original and didn't fundamentally alter any of it's characters.

Hellboy

I know no the greatest of the comic books or movies but with the writer Mike Magnolia tied closely to the project and director del Torro no going crazy for computer generated effects (Lucas, Bay) both movies did turn out pretty good.

 

[SpaceCop]

Honestly it was the buildup to the Watchmen movie that kind of ruined it for me; months of interviews with Snyder playing up how faithful the movie would be to the book. And then... it wasn't. It kept the characters--kind of--and went through the motions, but it replaced crucial and characterful dialogue with Hollywood mush, played self-depreciating parts straight, and glorified in the violence Moore was writing against, radically changing the tone if not the message of the original... Apparently in Snyder's mind a deluge of f-bombs and gore are all that's required to tell an "adult story", without regard for subtlety or maturity. And seriously, a faithful adaptation means more than making sure the props in the background match the comic panels perfectly.

Don't get me wrong, it was an entertaining audio-visual spectacle that genuinely felt like a labour of love, and of course there's no way everything could have been crammed into one film. I did enjoy it; but I felt a little cheated at just how far the film deviated from its roots in ways beyond costume and colour scheme.

By contrast I totally loved Sin City, which I thought preserved the grit, tone and spirit of the comics, without compromising the entertainment value of the end result. "Put the original creator in the director's seat"? Fuckin' A.

...Not that Frank Miller's other attempt at directing was exactly stellar...

 

[OtherSideofSky]

While I agree that most major movie adaptations tend to lack whatever was good about the original work, I think that this is primarily a result of the people who decide what gets made usually not caring at all whether or not something can work in a different medium. As a result, I find that lower budget budget and less main-stream adaptations are often of a higher quality because someone had to actually care to make them.

Lately, I've been finding that reimaginings which use the original as a jumping off point to do something completely different with the idea can be quite entertaining and often help me to see the original in a new light. Done properly, such creations display what the person who made them found to be most interesting or compelling in the source material, which makes for an interesting experience.

Also, on the subject of corporate-funded fanfiction in video games, the Super Robot Wars series is absolutely wonderful, probably because it's made by people who love giant robot shows.

 

[RaisonD'etre]

I felt the same way about the new Sherlock Holmes movie to be honest. Just like Dante; Holmes, Watson and even Irene Adler were turned into something that fits the role of a modern protagonist while pretty much all the other aspect of the story were cast aside, which brought great sadness to old hardcore fans of the books. They wouldn't have done it 10 or 15 years ago. It would've been too soon after the death of a great Holmes actor Jeremy Brett and the finale of what is regarded the best Holmes television portrayal in decades (or ever).
Such a movie would've been inexcuseable at that time.

 

[BlueInkAlchemist]

There also tends towards fanservice and thereby fanfic ideas in many Japanses games and many of the Final Fantasy games. FF X-2 is a great example whereby Rikku was used almost purely for fanservice.

Rikku when't from this;

To this;

FanFic eat your heart out.

Also SHE'S FIFTEEN!. Yeah you feel bad now don't you.

Bad? No. Dirty? Definitely.

OT: I too was a little miffed at the way Dante's Inferno was co-opted into a God of War clone. Other than continuing to foster new ideas out in the wilds of the Internet and possibly other publications, I'm not sure what can be done to stem the tide of corporately-sponsored fan-wanking.

 

[DefunctTheory]

I actually don't mind if movie studies dick around with original content to make it fit into movie molds (It has to be done, one way or another), as long as they keep the SPIRIT of the original.

Spider-Man failed, Watchman failed, and Dante's Inferno was a spit in the face. I'm with the other guy: I would have been fine if it had been someone ELSE just going through Dante's version of hell. But making Dante into a more morally upright Kratos and having him chase his personal squeeze through hell is a joke.

 

[Naheal]

Corporate fanfic: AKA, the so-called Prequel trilogy. Also, the Matrix sequels

 

[Aptspire]

as someone without a PS, looking for an action game, I was pleased with Dante's Inferno. sure, it doesn't follow the original, but then again a game based on the original wouldn't have been an action game, now would it?

 

[ClanCrusher]

I'm sorry, but I take a little offense to this article. Not for all the corporate BS that is constantly going on, but the fact that he refers to fanfiction as an 'obsession' like it's some kind of disease. Makes me feel like I have some sort of sickness or something.

I've been writing/reading/criticizing fanfiction for about five years now because I am passionate about it and I love the originals of which they are based on. Are some people obsessed? Yes. There's always a few, but to make a blanket statement like that feels wrong.

 

[Grand_Marquis]

This article went in a completely different direction than I expected. When I think of the concept of "corporate fanfic" I'm thinking of things way, way, WAY more ubiquitous than the examples given. Sure, original films/series based on existing franchises count as fan fiction. No question there. But everyone pretty much knows that's the case. Here are some forms of professional fanfiction that maybe people aren't aware of.

Every TV drama you have ever watched, ever. In your life.
Because of the high turnaround in writers over even a single season:
Counts as Fanfiction.

Every sequel you have ever watched, ever.
Because they're rarely written by the original screenwriter:
Fanfiction.

Every comic of an established superhero you have ever read, ever, past the golden age.
Fanfiction.

Every Star Wars novel; every Star Trek novel; etc, ect, etc, and ect.
Fanfiction.

Every Dune sequel written by Frank Herbert's son; the final "Wheel of Time" novel.
Fanfiction.

Every original movie which, during preproduction, needed a new scriptwriter to come in and make major revisions.
Fanfiction.

Any original creation that employs the Cthulhu mythos. Sorry Stephen King. I like your work but:
Fanfiction.

Dante Alighieri's "The Divine Comedy"
Fanfiction.
OH SNAP! That's right I went there.

 

[Dr. wonderful]

A better example of Corporate fanfiction would be the dirty harry series. At the end of Dirty harry, Harry. C, turn in his badge because he felt that the Police was too soft on crime.


...Then Magnum force came out, Recon the ending (With a superboy prime punch no less) and made Harry stayed on the job.

 

[Dr. wonderful]

I think some games newer ittorations decend into fanfic. Most recently Moder Warfare 2 felt like it had been written by a deranged fan of both the original modern warfare and every micheal Bay movie ever made.

I think the same was true for Bioshock 2, sure it was well crafted but the very idea of being a Big Daddy with a drill for an entire game was one i first heard and dissmissed in gushing fan forums.

There also tends towards fanservice and thereby fanfic ideas in many Japanses games and many of the Final Fantasy games. FF X-2 is a great example whereby Rikku was used almost purely for fanservice.

Rikku when't from this;

To this;

FanFic eat your heart out.

Also SHE'S FIFTEEN!. Yeah you feel bad now don't you.

I always thought she looked a little...out of place.

Meh, I kind of like it.

 

[vxicepickxv]

Speaking of Corporate Fanfic and comics, I'm surprised, in fact, even slightly shocked that neither the Ultimate or Marvel Zombies series got mentioned.

I will give the writers credit though with the Ultimate series. It takes a lot of work to tell new stories and mix things up without breaking making the series seem like a clone of the original with new artwork, but still making it at least slightly familiar.