When Marvel TV Studios second season of DAREDEVIL is weeks from release and DC's sophomore effort to put their foot in this 'superhero cinematic universe' is due to land soon,

it's actually amazing that FOX studios adaptation of DEADPOOL is the hottest topic on everyone's lips. His film dropped this month and so did the jaw of everyone who saw it. Now rather than just write a review which agrees with about 80% of the world of how good it is (I'm saving that for my monthly 'Talk Nerdy to Me' vlog with Chris Wakefield, I'll put the link in below when it's uploaded), I thought I would look ahead. I thought I would really talk about how important this film is right now, for the film industry and movie-goers alike.

This film has pushed the envelope in more ways than I believe it meant to. A film that cost just under £60 million to make has currently grossed £500 million and that is predicted to keep rising. Add the fact that, as I write this, it's now the 6th highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time and you have a real game-changer in the industry. "So what JB?" I hear you say, as I lie under your bed, touching myself to you reading this on your tablet. The tablet that you got on a really good deal from O2. I know Lewis says he got his for just £10 a month but Lewis? Lewis is a fucking liar! His parents are well paying for it and his phone. He's not even got a fucking job! Fuck Lewis!

This film, from start to finish, felt like I was 100% in the comic. This was due to how close and true to the comic they were. Wait? A comic book film NOT done by Marvel Studios that stays true to the comic!? Well, yeah actually. The costume is perfect, even featuring the white eyes. A common superhero feature that gets omitted in films because it's just simply easier to. The tone and the way in which the story is told is exactly like the comics. Quick-witted, violent, gory, even speaking to the reader/viewer. And finally the voice that I've read in those yellow speech bubbles, that's rung inside mine and Wade Wilson's head, came to life. Word for "OH SUCK A COCK" word. It was part for part, lifted from the pages and put onto the silver screen. Even though this idea really shouldn't work according to the rules of Hollywood. And that's what is making this a landmark film.

The big deal here is that, before Marvel Studios starting churning out it's winners, movie studios rarely stuck to the source material for its adaptations. And to be honest, I've never really been able to figure out why. Some changes to the characters and the original material are downright extreme and mind-boggling (watch 2004's CATWOMAN...actually, don't). I mean not all change is bad, sometimes the odd change can put the character in a new light you've never seen before. Like for instance, Peter Parker not creating his web-blasters in 2002's SPIDERMAN. This caused a lot of hardcore Spidey fans to uproar but in all honesty, the webbing actually spinning and shooting from his wrists was more believable to me than this kid inventing these crazy web-blaster devices. However, I can't help feel this was to help along Sam Raimi's/Tobey Maguire's portrayal of Peter Parker. His Peter was a mopey, unpopular, pushover teen who would then turn into a street-crime fighting vigilante. In the comics, it's more believable because Peter is like a young Tony Stark but without the money or the power. Just this quick witted boy-wonder who's also a science genius. What was wrong with that character? Clearly nothing because 5 years later that is exactly the character Robert Downey Jr would portray stuck in a cave in IRON MAN. So what could lead a studio/scriptwriters to change the source material?

From what I can tell, it can be down to 3 things:

1) It aids in fitting this story into a feature length film. Think about it. We need to have a character's origin and their arc, then a plot development with other characters and finally a conclusion. All nice and neatly wrapped up. Some things are going to change and hit the cutting room floor.

2) It's an interpretation. When comics get rebooted normally the origin of the character changes somewhat. It's the same for movies.

3) There are so many parties involved, there isn't a commitment to keeping sacred to the original material. Normally these movies can have a shit load of money thrown at them and in order to keep everyone happy certain things need to be changed about the story to make it more sellable to the mass market.

This third point if very important in what DEADPOOL has done to Hollywood. Most superhero movies are given a budget of £100 million (For example, Ant-Man got £130 million to play with), with this sort of budget being provided, there's a certain expectations set. The studio wants to make its money back and then some. One thing to guarantee more bums on the seats is to make the film PG-13. These films make more money on average. Also, it's not impossible to tell a haunting, dark story in a PG-13 setting. Take 'THE HUNGER GAMES' (or as I call it 'BATTLE ROYALE' for pussies). A film about 24 children fighting each other to the death, meant changing some things that the book depicted but from what I have heard, nothing drastic. This film was given £80 million to play with, earned £155 million in its opening weekend before finally culminating in it almost grossing £700 million worldwide. Why would you risk those sort of numbers from your exec chair just because "It's not true to the comic/book" ?

For years though the comic book and film going community in general has shown great distaste for films deviating away from the original source. One reason you hear the most is that "IT DIDN'T DO THE BOOK, JUSTICE." Some stories need to be R-Rated or they just will never live up to the high expectation of the hardcore fan/moviegoer. So what do you do to get around a PG-13 blockade on your million dollar idea for a movie? Up until recently...not much. Marvel Studios decided to commission DAREDEVIL and some other properties to Netflix and got a lot more free range to play with. Some companies just outright refuse to budge and put their film through the very popular destination of "Production Hell". For example SPAWN has been needing a sequel/reboot for 18 years but has been unable to get greenlit because of the need for it to be R-Rated. However, this is where DEADPOOL was different. How? It created its own hype by leaking test footage. It gladly took budget cuts to meet its originally proposed R-Rating and was made for just $58 million. Finally it made sure that the people with money involved had a lot of love for the character. Ryan Reynolds himself was a producer.

This meant DEADPOOL could be portrayed exactly as we all want him to be and was a big FUCK YOU to all the suits in Hollywood who had interfered in the first place nearly killing the X-MEN cinematic universe (to be honest it's not completely out of the fire...but that's a discussion for a future blog). DEADPOOL has proven that you don't need to give in to the PG-13 crowd to get your money and by doing that, you can stick a lot closer to the source material. Which is something we've all been screaming from rooftops for years! Only now we finally have got all the movie execs running round like crazy!

Word is that the final WOLVERINE film for Hugh Jackman will be Rated-R. This is huge because all's we've wanted to see is him actually stab someone as bloody as the comics. The animated adaption of Batman's THE KILLING JOKE is rumoured to be leaning towards an R-Rating, which is fantastic as they story really needs it to give it that scary, perverted, dark edge. Between writing and publishing this it's been announced that 'Batman V Superman' is going to have an R-Rated cut. And even SUICIDE SQUAD has now been told that, if it wants to, it can go for an R-Rating. You have franchises going down the toilet looking like they can be revitalised. Franchises like 'The Terminator' whose last outing upset more people than the Oscar nominations. On top of that you have a host of all sorts of characters that previously, I would have been doubtful if I'd have wanted to see on the big screen, for fear of an average PG-13 portrayal. Characters like MOONKNIGHT, LOBO and the previously mentioned SPAWN can all finally have their moment without sacrificing source material or story unnecessarily. DEADPOOL has shown Hollywood the light and we are now going to reap its rewards with a larger variety of stories readily available, stories we know are going to work. I wonder how confident FOX is now in 'X-Men: Apocalypse'. I know I'm still not...

So thank-you to all the creative talent behind the DEADPOOL film. Because of you, I could wake up next month to find that they've decided to put the SAGA franchise into a theatrical trilogy and I wouldn't feel the need to go on a bloodthirsty rampage like Wade himself as it probably would be greenlit to be Rated-R. As I write this rumours are that SuperTed could be set to return for a new series...I wonder...