There are an unlimited amount of simple truths in this world: the sky is blue, the grass is green, The Thing is orange, and nerds hate it when you break their stuff. With comic books becoming the common source of movie material, the roots of the stories start to wither away. Can it be that the only movie-making hands our favorite superheroes can be trusted in are the hands of our own kind?
Fan Films aren't exactly a new thing, they've actually been around since the late 1920's. "Anderson 'Our Gang" was a short film based off the 1922 "Our Gang" film series. Now to accurately set this to comic books, in 1964 Andy Warhol-yes, that Andy Warhol-produced and directed a Batman fan film called "Batman Dracula" without the permission of DC Comics. What a rebel, that Warhol. From the 1960's to the 1980's American comic book films were remade by other countries for their respective movie audiences. For example, "Supermenler" was a Turkish film influenced by Superman. Starting from the 90's and the years that followed, fan films based on non-comic book properties like Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who, Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and many others have been produced by loyal fans of the series. Even today fan films are a common genre online, and with the kind of technology and social media we have today, producing and presenting fan films is something anyone with the right mindset and equipment can do. And of course the thread that connects all fan films together are the creators behind it; the fans.
The next generation of film makers are getting their start in the industry online and it's also this generation that grew up watching and reading superhero stories. If you were a kid in the 90's you had animated shows based on Batman, Spider-Man, The X-Men, Superman, The Hulk, Iron Man and so many more as the years went on. If these future film makers were big enough fans of these characters on television, then as teenagers shifted their interest towards comics, by the time they became adults they'd know these characters forward and back. That's why I firmly believe these people are the best suited to make a comic book movie, because they understand the characters on a level Hollywood directors don't. They're able to write these characters knowing seventy-five years of history behind them. Usually Hollywood directors only use select pieces of a character for their interpretation. Not counting the guys over at Marvel Studios, those schmucks have it down to a tee. One of the only things hindering these up-incoming fan film makers are the movie studios themselves. Filmmaker Mike Pecci was sent a cease and desist by Marvel Studios for attempting to release his Punisher fan film "The Dead Can't Be Distracted". Apparently this fan film was so damn good, Marvel Studios demanded it not be released so that "viewers would not be confused and believe this fan film to tie into the Marvel Cinematic Universe". The company demanded Pecci never produce a fan film based on a Marvel character again. Because of the fear that their squeaky clean, studio owned, company controlled movie universe may be tainted by a love letter to one of their most historically relevant characters stole a great fan creation from the comic book community. Business is business and it's business as always.
Now you loyal readers know me to be very vocal about what I envision for comic book cinematic adaptions. My interest into the fan film medium started with the "Nightwing" fan series done by a Youtuber named Ismahawk. Watching these fans make videos straight off the comic book panels is truly remarkable. If the future of comic book movies needs to lean on anything other than the comics themselves, they should lean on the fans attempting to do the same thing they're doing. Only what these fans are doing is special. Thanks for reading!
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