V for Vendetta, the movie

News on Natalie Portman's involvement here. The Wach-suck-ski Brothers are involved, so expect MTV-ized Chinese Action Cinema in a story that originally left more of its main action sequences to the readers' imagination. (Andy W: "No no no, we can't have that!" Larry W: "That's too sophisticated for mainstream consumers. We need slow-mo backflips, crane kicks, and bullet-dodging by cartwheel!") Another cosmetic change is that it is to be a "What if the Germans won WW2" scenario. I kinda go both ways on that last one, basically because I'm such a purist when it comes to Alan Moore-stories-turned-into-film. Why make it the Germans? The original was, in many ways, Moore's commentary on current British politics. Casting the Brits as facist bastards would be a bitter pill for movie-goers to take, but doesn't that push the envelope a bit more and add to the story's overall flavor? The fact that society (perhaps any society?) turns to facism is more than just a piece of the setting/background and, I dunno, blaming it on the Nazis seems sorta like a cop-out.