Comic Adaptation Week: Wes Anderson's Batman: Snow

Though Wes Anderson wouldn't make a very good Spider-Man film, he's an ideal director to make a comic book movie. Especially one free of the slathered-on pathos and darkness that's taken over every comic book blockbuster. The genius of Anderson's work is the way he breaks apart the "quirk", the fragile, perfectly-designed production he's known for and exposes something that feels extra-real, that really hits hard, because it's wrapped in artificiality.

Kinda like a comic book--this "juvenile", rather rote format that when done right, is all the more powerful because it isn't "supposed" to get serious or be all tragic and stuff. Imagine the awesome production design of Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy or the Adam West Batman show, tongue removed from cheek and focused on serious, down-to-earth concerns.

A Wes Anderson version of Batman: Snow would be perfect. The central theme of a singular focused individual whose kind of a jerk but ultimately sympathetic is already there, as is the multi-ethnic group of weirdos right there with the hero, as is the mix of deep empathy and just-as-deep irony. It's a strange approach to character in Batman: Snow--but Jesse already told you that--and Anderson is one of the few directors who I think, would really get it. Who could run you alongside of a destructive but sincere nutbar and show his ever-so-slight shift towards self-awareness.

Anderson's empathy, his Renoir-influenced "Everyone has their reasons" approach to character would be perfect for Mr. Freeze too, who just can't be a disturbed guy with a messed-up background who went "bad"--like say, Penguin in Batman Returns--but a character viewers really need to understand. And of course--the production design! The world of white snow and bright primary colors and weird, Seth Fisher-isms are totally in the Anderson wheelhouse.