Week 9: Scott Pilgrim vs. the Powers

This week, we began to tease out the importance maintaining the fandom of Bendis and Powers when adapting our film. Using the recent adaptation of Scott Pilgrim as a miniature case study and launching point for our discussion, we learned some valuable lessons in terms of fans jumping from medium to medium. While the Scott Pilgrim franchise does not share the same style/ tone we wish to evoke in our adaptation, it does serve as a topical comparison in terms of adapting comic to film. Moreover, both Powers (2000) and Scott Pilgrim (2004) began publication not too long ago which suggests both series’ are still building a fan-base unlike others such as Batman or X-Men which are recycling their audiences.

The final volume of Scott Pilgrim was released to coincide with the largely popular San Diego comic con. While this is a common means for advertising a comic series, it also served as an advertising ground for the film which was to be released only a little over a month following. They staged screenings of the film at the convention in order to receive early opinions from fans willing to wait in hefty lines. A review from Chris Sims of comic book fan site Comics Alliance was one of such fans willing to wait in line. Sims offered a greatly positive review and stated that he felt most the audience shaqred the felling (although he soberly admits that these are fans of the novels and had spent the last few hours having them hyped). He praised it as a comic adaptation done right, or ‘Wright,’ I should say, as his praise is generally aimed at the director who he feels maintained the themes of the novel. Sims notes that Wright “gets it,” going on to explain that he beautifully maintained themes and aspects of the novels while recognizing he was telling the story through a completely separate medium. He admits characterization was sacrificed in the switch to the time constrained medium, but praises the actors for remaining true to the characters they were portraying. All in all, the fans are happy; biased as they may be, the fan review reveals the desire for themes and character to remain apparent in the adaptation. It is also worth noting that the film also faired well with critics.

This is great news; after all, we hold in our mission statement that we wish to remain true to the dark themes and style of our novel in order to hold on to the growing fan-base. Excellent. No? Well, an interview with Wright and the author of Scott Pilgrim, Bryan Lee O’Malley, discusses the pathetic gross of the film. The interviewer from the Canadian Press  notes the film grossed just over $45 million world wide only denting the $60 million budget. However, Wright explains that much like his other films, it will find steady success on DVD becoming a cult favourite similar to his other films; he notes that the films complicated style needs time to spread—a time that simply isn’t offered in a theatrical run. Fair enough, this is another parallel we have in our project as we express our mission to create a cult film rather than a summer box office hit. Moreover, O’Malley notes in the interview that the film increased the sales of the 1^st volume suggests the rise in a fan culture. But has the DVD been as successful as the creators hoped? Another look at The Numbers reveals DVD sales to be above $14 million in the US alone thus far, 4 months after release. Moreover, the DVD, which was released late December in the UK, was reported to be the number 1 selling blu-ray upon release. This is clearly a tall percentage of the films gross—it’s also the only one which can continue growing. So perhaps Wright is apt in making his prediction: the product is great, but the fan culture needs time to grow. After all, the reviews this film has received call for it to be seen, even if not on the big screen.

To summarize this case-study research in terms of our project, it is clear that our mission statement will remain to be loyal to (and emphasise) the thematic and stylistic structure of Powers while also maintaining similar character portrayal. Like Scott Pilgrim, the fan-base of Powers is still growing, and we wish to build upon them, bringing fans of the text to the film and vice-versa. Of course, we cannot say the profit of Scott Pilgrim is the most desirable, but we can learn from one of their mistakes. While the popularity for the franchise grows on DVD as Wright suggests, the profit ends there. However, if they were to make a sequel, it would be a much larger success in terms of the box-office as there would be a larger fan-base. Unfortunately, the film summarized the series and this is hardly possible unless the rights are bought from O’Malley or he continues to write more volumes. Our film needs time to continue growing off the fan culture of the text like Scott Pilgrim, so, through the use of sequels, we will avoid this problem and afford opportunity for audiences to acquaint themselves with the material. Thus, we are still justified in maintaining the tone of the text and playing to the fan-base of the text so long as we correct the mistake of Scott Pilgrim and introduce sequels to please the growing following found on DVD. We do not plan to compete in the summer box-office as the full potential of the film relies on a young culture of fans for Powers which can grow through the same reciprocating power that O’Malley suggests for his own text.

Apologies for the length of this post, we saw many connections between this film and ours and did not want to sacrifice any implications that arose in our research.

“Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.” The Numbers. Web. Mar. 18, 2011. <http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/2010/SPILG.php>

Sims, Chris. “10 Thoughts on ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.” Comics Alliance. July 26, 2010. Web. Mar. 18, 2011. <http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/07/26/ten-thoughts-on-scott-pilgrim-vs-the-world/>

Szklarski, Cassandra. “Scott Pilgrim vs. the disappointing box office.” The Canadian Press. Nov. 4, 2010. Web. Mar. 18, 2010. <http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/article/886087--scott-pilgrim-vs-the-disappointing-box-office>

Top 40 Blu-Ray Archive-8^th January 2011. Official UK Charts Company. Web. Mar. 18, 2011. <http://www.theofficialcharts.com/video-archive-chart/_/26/2011-01-08/>