For those who remember the Keanu Reeves movie, Constantine is a "working-class magician, occult detective, and con man stationed in London. He is known for his endless cynicism, deadpan snarking, ruthless cunning, and constant chain smoking, but is also a passionate humanist driven by a heartfelt desire to do some good in his life." He's visually based on the musical artist Sting (and for fans of Supernatural, Castiel's trenchcoat is a nod to Constantine). His titular series was Hellblazer, but was replaced by Consantine for DC's New 52. NBC has a live-action series in development with David S. Goyer writing and executive producing it. Welsh actor Matt Ryan is cast as Constantine with the villain being Papa Midnite. Lucy Griffiths will play Liv. Harold Perrineau as Manny. Charles Halford as Chas. The series is planned on being much closer to the source material than the movie. It has also been officially picked up by NBC.
That looks really good. And lately it seems like the British actors are taking the stage, which is not a bad thing at all. We just seem to see a lot more of them in American shows than just British shows. And I actually liked the film, but seeing this will be nice too. I never even knew it was based off anything either.
Well, even though he originated in the DC Universe in a Swamp Thing issue (did you know Swamp Thing was originally a comic book character?), he became famous under the Vertigo imprint of DC, a separate, edgier universe. However, he was recently moved into the main DC Universe for the New 52, leading the Justice League Dark, a team of occult-based characters (Frankenstein's Monster; Black Orchid, a shapeshifter; Madame Xanadu, a clairvoyant; Zatanna, a magician with backwards-speak magic; Deadman, a ghost who can possess people; Nurse Nightmare, the Greek Goddess of healing; Swamp Thing; and a few other characters here and there) and no, they didn't pick the name of their team. Guillermo del Toro is also planning a movie about the Justice League Dark, tentatively titled Dark Universe. He's stated that he would love if he can correlate it to the DC Cinematic Universe, given the opportunity, and that there's still a chance it might exist in the same universe as the show.
Didn't like much the pilot, too "clean" and too much "Supernatural" I was expecting other tone to it, even though he is more alike than Keanu for some reason I liked the movie more.
It would be more accurate to say that Supernatural possesses a "Constantine" sort of tone to it, as the latter's solo series was published as early as 1988. I'll pass on this. Apparently the creators handwaved the titular character's sexuality, which is somewhat of a disappointment (he was one of the first bisexual characters to "come out" in comic). Disappointing, but not surprising. I don't mind if other people like/enjoy this series for I was prepared to like it too, albeit I have no interest in supporting Goyer's production if he is going to do away with whatever aspects of the character he doesn't like/think important.
Unfortunately, production for the series has ended after the initial 13 episodes. NBC may change their mind and pick up a full season, but apparently, even Gotham is doing better. It's a shame; I hope things turn around. The show has definitely started to hit its stride after the "Feast of Friends" episode in my opinion. As much as I agree on the bisexuality thing, it seems that they're starting to get more leeway on that and the smoking aspects of the character. Though they weren't able to show him smoking at first and the creators were looking for a way around it, they showed him smoking while walking down the street in the (I think) second episode. It wasn't outright; he was shot from the back, but you can clearly see the smoke and even the cigarette when he turned his head. Also, near the end of the Feast of Friends episode, he kissed a male friend on the forehead. Though it doesn't really scream BISEXUAL, it seemed out of place for a normal show, making me think that it'll go the way of smoking (imply it at first, start showing bits here and there, and finally -hopefully- actually show it). Also, I wanted Jim Corrigan to be a little angrier.
