The bad news first, after Spiderman, Fantastic4, Hulk and Batman, the big majors pushing also in 2009 more superheroes onto screen. Here we can see the movie trailer WATCHMAN. I think this concept of adaptations of novels is approved for majors to give the fans a good mood but do we feel exciting enough to run into the cinema? Don’t get me wrong, i like the old comics and they did a great job over the last century but it feels a bit unimaginative to see one comic remake after each other on the big screen over the next years. Where are the new Neo’s, where is the future of dark science fiction and how long can science fiction life in the past? In the music business independent labels came up with great ideas beside the 4 big major labels but for the science fiction movie scene it is nearly unreachable to take place for independent film makers because the best friends from science fiction movies are breath taking special effects which means a big budget that indies don’t have.

Die Bezeichnung Major-Label entwickelte sich als Gegensatz zur Bezeichnung Independent-Label und kennzeichnet die kapitalstärksten und marktdominierenden Plattenfirmen (auch Label genannt) in der Musikbranche. Derzeit existieren vier große Major-Labels, die mit einem Marktanteil von rund 80 Prozent den Weltmarkt beherrschen. Dazu gehören die Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, EMI Group und die Warner Music Group. wikipedia

So, without excitement more and more people download the movies over torrent from home and this is what major’s scares most, so the evil evil superheroes from RIAA are entered the game armed with mass class action suits (massenklagen) against their own fans. Scary times! More and more people get angry about this actions and it does not worked out because surprise surprise mass class action suits do not bring excitement back. Lets see if Apple’s iTunes online rental platform which is not available at this time in europe can heal this process. Some time ago i visited a class about “movies after 1945″ and the interesting thing was that back in the middle of the 80’s more people watched movies at home on VHS video than walking into the shiny buildings. Industrie gets more income from secound life rental services than from cinemavisits. With new streaming bandwidth this could make a renaissance. So let’s see if history repeats like the comic novels itself.

Anyway, the next Superheroes movie called WATCHMAN is on it’s way. A preview has landed on myspace with some background info’s about this comic novel from 1986/87 by Alan Moore (Text) and Dave Gibbons (Drawings). The main actor in this comic named Rorschach is going his way for justice beside the law. On Rohrschachs face there is a fluctuating dark mask with patterns that look like a rohrschach test. Rohrschach test is an incplot test method of psychological evaluation. Here an example that looks a bit like a batman sign to me. If we can see this movie in 2009 is not completely sure because in the background there are some lawsuits between FOX and TIME WARNER.

release march.6.2009
International Movie Database link
watchmen on wikipedia

Es scheint so als ob auch 2009 die Superhelden nicht aufhören die Welt zu retten, zumindest auf der Leinwand legen sich die Helden für uns wieder kräftig ins Zeug. Watchmen wird voraussichtlich mitte 2009 in die Amerikanischen Kinos kommen, wann das spektakel dann wirklich anläuft weiß noch niemand so genau denn FOX und Time Warner zanken sich noch um die Rechte.

more upcoming SF movies and remakes:
Spider-man 4
Resident Evil 4
X-Files 3
Robocop 3-D
Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen
20012 (in 2009)
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
When Worlds Collide
Creature from the Black Lagoon
They Live (remake)
The Graveyard Book
The Hobbit
The Book of Eli
Battle: Los Angeles
The Days Before
Forbidden Planet
The Forever War
Tron 2
Time Traveler’s Wife
Tekken
Doctor Strange
Voltron - Defender of the Universe
Bioshock
Barbarella
Red Sonja
Witchblade
Incredible Shrinking Man
The Avengers
Robotech
Avatar
Thor