Like Tarzan, The Lone Ranger is a classic property that the movies just can't seem to get right. I keep waiting for a great adaptation of the material, but Hollywood keeps wanting to go tongue-in-cheek with the western hero. The most recent attempt was a complete misfire to me. Johnny Depp as Tonto? What were they thinking?
This cover is the result of a suggestion by Ken Roskos, a Patron of this blog. Thanks, Ken!
Ironically, that Depp Lone Ranger flick was to feature werewolves.
ReplyDeletethe best lone ranger was clayton moore.....THE worst lone ranger movie was the 80's legend of the the lone ranger with clinton spillsbury...good idea for a movie...just a VERY bad actor....lol
ReplyDeleteSo many classic properties -- Green Hornet, Doc Savage, and the Shadow come to mind, in addition to the two you mention -- just can't seem to be done right. Perhaps they're too much of their time? Remove them from their 30s milieu (and values -- it's hard for people to look at heroes as pure good guys anymore) and they flounder.
ReplyDeleteThis doesn't bode well for the Shazam film. Every recent comic attempt I've seen has floundered. An orphan kid who becomes a radio (or TV) broadcaster? Can't see that premise happening today (unless Billy becomes a youtube sensation, or reality TV star). But the character of Capt Marvel himself is perhaps hard to swallow for today's jaded generation. And if they make him flawed and introspective -- then it won't be the Big Red Cheese.
Perhaps the success of the first Capt America and Wonder Woman films will allow more heroic films to have period settings. That might help. Though I don't know if filmmakers will trust audiences enough to watch something set in the past on a regular basis.
Maybe all these heroes should be on the small screen? That would allow much more character development. The Shadow would work so well on a weekly TV series!
Agree completely with Dr. OTR. Movie makers feel need to tinker otherwise it is "not theirs".
ReplyDeleteThe latest Spider-Man movie I barely recognized Spider-Man as a "What If?" version - "What if Peter Parker was illegitimate child of Aunt May and Tony Stark". I had no issue with what they did with the Vulture abilities wise but the whole Peter's girlfriend (not, they did not have one date before prom)'s father is just a copy of Harry & father relationship and OF COURSE villain needs to know Peter's secret identity. And Peter's new friend seems to be directly taken from new Spider-Man. Not even buying movie from discount bucket bin.
I'd love for them to accurately adapt Kevin Smith's Green Hornet or one of the better modern takes on Doc Savage, the Shadow or the Spider.
I remember a fairly recent (=10 or 15 years ago)) Marvel one-shot featuring the Two-Gun Kid going up against some werewolves in the 19th-century West!
ReplyDeleteThe prologue used a thinly-disguised--and ill-fated--Lone Ranger pastiche to set up the rest of the short story. Is that where you got the images for today's cover?
P.S. @my namesake: Not a bad actor! Just poorly named. Clinton Spillsbury??? He should've adopted a more-classic sounding stage name.
ReplyDeleteLike, say, Derek Crane.
Great cover. And behind it would have to be the wonderful "Dime Novel Hero" story from Creepy Magazine:
ReplyDeletehttp://diversionsofthegroovykind.blogspot.com/search?q=dime+novel+hero
Several versions of this concept over the years... remember reading the Creepy version and others... enjoyed them all... including our friend here.
ReplyDeleteAnd they decided that the only 'Biggles' film made so far had to involve time-travel...
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Mind you, this picture takes me back a few years: I was one of about eight people present in a gaming shop when one White Wolf fan began enthusing about how a [then] recently-published expansion for that company's Werewolf game was set in the Wild West.
Him: "Nobody there will have silver weapons, so they'll be able to do whatever they like."
Me: "Who was that masked man anyway?"
Everybody else: "Why, that was the Lone Ranger!"
Him: "Oh."
^_^
Thanks Ross, it would be something to see your archives. Looks like the Wolfman is going to get the worst of it. But the Lone Ranger will see the real tragedy soon enough. Maybe. Dr. OTR's comments are sadly true. Even with today's film technology, nothing can take the place of reading a comic, and the experience of being pulled into that world. (Even when the characters lived in a strict, binary world of justice.)
ReplyDeleteIf we had today's Marvel film universe forty years ago, (following their continuity then) I would have been on cloud 9. But now the liberties Hollywood takes with the original material makes it so hard to watch. The only thing I forgive is GOTG, since its been tinkered with so much already.
Don't forget Hercules. Another character that Hollywood can't seem to get right.
ReplyDelete@Wolfhammer: Not since the heyday of Steve Reeves, anyway.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Kevin Sorbo's Hercules could be teamed up with Aztek With a flashback version of the Native American prophet Mormon along for the ride.
ReplyDeleteIt'll be an interesting conflict. The classic Lone Ranger would have compunctions about killing a werewolf, knowing that it is really a man. If it turmed into a straight conflict, like the cover, I don't
ReplyDeletethink poor Jack Russell would have a chance. But I believe the daring and resourceful masked rider would find a wiser and more compassionate solution.
He's just that kind of hero.
Great cover!
I agree about the latest Lone Ranger movie. It turned into an incoherent vanity piece that (IMO) missed on every level.
ReplyDeleteThe best movie, IMO is The Lone Ranger and the City of Gold. WE finally got to see Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels working with a good script and a decent budget.
The Clinton Spillsbury Lone Ranger film from the '80s will always be near and dear to my heart. I was in the 3rd grade and it was the first film i ever saw on cable television at a relatives' house. It was surreal for me cuz the movie had only just stopped running in theaters a few months earlier!! It almost felt illegal!!
ReplyDeleteThe Clinton Spillsbury film has the opposite memories for me. It was a Christmas release, and I was home for the first time in a couple of years, and dragged the whole family out to the theater to see it. And had to spend the rest of the vacation apologizing to them for putting them through that.
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ReplyDeleteMy favorite version of the Lone Ranger will always be the animated cartoon series from the 1960's. Inspired by the successful campiness of the Adam West Bat-series, Halas and Batchelor of London ("the other H-B") brought CBS a Saturday morning offering that combined nostalgia (for the Clayton Moore series) with their experience at producing cartoons (re: the syndicated adventures of DODO THE KID FROM OUTER SPACE) plus the then-current popularity of the steampunk spy-fy series "The Wild Wild West!"
ReplyDeleteAnd I--being of elementary school age, back then--eagerly soaked it up like a sponge. :-)
"Fly, Taka! On, Scout!"
yes, i agree. my favorite version of the lone ranger was the 1960's cartoon inspired by the tv series the wild, wild west.
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