Popular nerd-director-slacker Kevin Smith is famous for some of his anecdotes about the making of films in Hollywood, including the story of his battle with Jon Peters around the script of Superman Lives. Peters wanted many odd inclusions to the script, including the demand that Superman not appear in the suit, not fly and fight a giant spider in the third act (at 8:00, if you want to skip the set-up). It’s a tale that’s used to show how Hollywood doesn’t “get” nerd properties, often distorting the character(s) to suit whatever whims they have.
It’s a funny story, but it came to mind a few days ago when I stumbled across a review of Smith’s work in Batman: The Widening Gyre, a story where Batman admits to having wet himself due to excitement / fear… and I don’t mean he spilled his drink, either. And there’s the crappy Watchmen “homage”, Superman calling Robin a “little shaver” and a host of other things that sail naturally into WTF territory.
Smith is very clear about where he was when writing The Widening Gyre: stoned out of his head.
It’s so very easy to turn into the very thing you once used to mock.
