BOX OFFICE COLD WAR VICTIM

So Lionsgate has apparently dropped plans for a film based on Marvel Comics' superspy Black Widow. This is based on disappointing box office for leading action heroines, such as Ultraviolet and Æon Flux. Never mind that those movies are just excuses for wirework in a flashy package and looked like crappy video games.

It's like some kind of cold war manuevering, trying to out-think the market. This manuever is called total surrender.

I'm not entirely certain what writer/director David Hayter had in mind, but I doubt that's the model he was going for, based on the comments in one of the above links. I think Black Widow should be closer to a female Bourne flick with just the slightest, slightest bit of Alias thrown in. A mix of politics and action in a black catsuit (because come on, she's supposed to be hawt, throw the guys a...well, a bone).

Check out the two mini-series by Richard K. Morgan, you'll see what I mean. Especially the first one, Homecoming (though I really like the title of the second one, The Things They Say About Her).

Normally I don't comment on films. It's not where my head is at. Why am I commenting on this? Because Black Widow should be a TV show. This is where female heroines do work. Buffy ran for seven years, Alias was popular for the first few seasons. Starbuck's more front and canter than Apollo in the hero role on Battlestar Galactica. Let's throw in Veronica Mars while we're at it. I think it's because there's less wasted on being sexy and flashy in pursuit of nine bucks American at the box office and/or twenty for the DVD.

There's a whole treatment in my head.

It's #8,691 on my list of things that aren't fucking likely.