V For Vendetta press conference

The press conference for the V For Vendetta movie was held on friday with producers Joel Silver and Grant Hill, stars Natalie Portman and James Purefoy, and director James McTeigue. For those unfamiliar with the book (probably the vast majority), it's about a freedom fighter dressed as Guy Fawkes in a totalitarian version the United Kingdom who uses terrorism to stand up against the oppressive government. For a full report on the conference you can go here. I'm definitely looking forward to this movie. With the team behind the Matrix trilogy: Joel Silver and the Wachowskis producing, this will definitely be a high profile release, and from the way the interviews sounded, it seems like this will be much more character driven than those movies were. Natalie Portman is perfect for the role of Evey, and this will definitely be her most disturbing performance yet. I'm also very happy that they didn't cast a "star" for the part of V and the fact that he will in fact be masked for the whole movie is very encouraging. The jury's still out on director James McTeigue who is making his directorial debut with this movie, but he was the first assistant director on all three Matrix movies (Matrices?), and love them or hate them, you have to admit they were wonderfully shot. There are still a few things however that leave me unsure about this film. For one, if they did in fact change the backstory so that it takes place in a world where Germany won World War 2 (as was reported by Rich Johnston here), then I think that takes a lot of the satirical teeth out of the picture. I agree with the stance that a big part of the weight of the story comes from the fact that the people essentially brought this government on themselves. This change might make the film a little less controversial, especially at a time like this where artists are forced to look over their shoulders so much. When making a film like this though, shying away from any controversy is essentially admitting defeat. I'm also a little concerned with Silver's remarks about visual effects and CGI. It's been a long time since I read the book but I don't remember too much that would warrant an expensive effects budget or any CGI at all. For the most part though, I am cautiously optimistic at this point. There has still not yet been a movie adapted from works by Alan Moore that has even come close to the source material. Constantine was the best one yet, but miles away from Moore's brilliance. I guess we'll find out within the next year if V For Vendetta is the one.

Oh and I'd be remiss if I did not point you toward Amazon.com where you can pick up a copy of the book. Right now you can get it together with Moore's greatest work, Watchmen (also currently in pre-production at Paramount) for just $27.14.