World’s Finest: Can Sandy Collora do it again?
Jul 21, 2004 by Vic Holtreman
I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Sandy Collora (creator of the fan film Batman: Dead End, which you can view by clicking on the movie title), was all set to premiere yet another short film at the San Diego Comicon titled “World’s Finest”. It would have shown both Batman and Superman, and from images I’ve seen, Lex Luthor as well.
Unfortunately, Warner Brothers pulled the plug on the premiere, due to copyright issues I suppose. Or maybe the fact that a guy with a $20,000 budget can pull together a cool superhero movie in a matter of months, while they’re so paranoid about creating the “Perfect Movie” that it takes them years to even get started.
Sandy Collora gained notoriety last year when he unveiled Batman: Dead End at last year’s comicon. People went nuts, and it spread like wildfire, much to the chagrin of the studio, I’m sure, which had been trying to get a Batman film off the ground for years.
People are now expecting a lot from World’s Finest, although I don’t know how we’ll get to see it.
Apparantly Sandy is pals with the owner of CapedWonder.com, who has posted a few production photos of the film shoot. From the look of it, Clark Bartram is back as the caped crusader, but I don’t recognize the guy in the red and blue tights.
Now the REALLY cool news is that some time soon, a 2 1/2 minute trailer for the film will be made available at that same site. There is no target date yet, but when it hits, I hope the guy has some serious bandwidth available because his site is going to get hammered.
I’ll keep you posted and let you know when the trailer is up.
Source: SuperheroHype.com
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Personally, I don’t see the logic in shutting down a movie like that. All I know is, if the last image of Batman in my head is from the abysmal Batman and Robin, I’ll take my sweet time heading out to the theater for the next Batman movie, if I see it at all. But if I’ve seen Dead End and World’s Finest, I know that Batman can be done well. It’s free publicity for the upcoming Batman movie, and if it gets people excited about Batman, how can that do anything other than get more people in the seats when the theatrical version is released? I don’t get these movie studios sometimes. They’re stepping over a dollar to pick up a nickel.
Brian
I can only think that the studio’s reasoning falls in line with what you said… their version (Batman and Robin) sucked, independent-low-budget-no-big-names version was way better.
And we all know it.
Vic
Have you seen Grayson? While I enjoyed the story arch of “World’s Finest,” *I actually wasn’t really into it until I saw the Alien appear” I must say the production behind Grayson is world’s better. And, well, the thought put into the story may be better as well. But, you be the judge(s).
Larry,
I’ve never heard of “Grayson”. What is it?
BTW, I think the greatness of “Dead End” is the look and feel of the thing much more than the story, and I think that’s what Sandy Collora was going for.
Vic
I wonder how long it will be before people are making and posting their films on the internet.
I have this . . . nasty suspicion about the media moguls. This includes publishers of books and music and movies. It seems like the trash makes it through their mafia like process, but there are people of real creative genius that get pushed off to the side and ignored.
Grrrrr….. I guess it’s true, Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
I don’t know if this is any conspiracy against Collora. I am sure it is ‘marketing’ as not to confuse the public about ‘Batman Begins’ and the recently finalized creative team for the next Superman movie.
Collora does well with ‘Dead End’. The production and overall look was very realistic and the fight scene was believable. A couple of other things though bothered me about it, the biggest being the the ‘shifting’ lighting.
I give SC 4/4 Stars nonetheless. He is doing what every fan wants to do; pay homage to his favorite characters.
I certainly don’t think it’s aimed at Collora per se… just anyone who can put out something better than the studio has done in recent memory.
Vic
I think Grayson is slightly better than Dead End merely because it’s more than just a tough guy slug fest. As far as Dead End goes… if every night is like that for Batman, he’d have died 300 times by now lol. Both films were cool of course. For a comedic approach to the characters, check out “The Eyeball Papercuts” on ifilm.com and “Fast Times at Hero High”… personally I think Papercuts is way better but they are both funny. luv Carrie
I did think that “Fast Times” was funny, but I just couldn’t get through “Papercuts”. It didn’t move along fast enough for me to want to set aside, what… 40 minutes(?) to watch it.
“Grayson” had much more depth to it than “Dead End”, yeah, but “Batman: Dead End” gave us a Batman (done right) fix to tide us over until “Batman Begins”.
Vic
i watched the “eyeball papercuts” like you suggested and i thought it was great. a bit lengthy, but worth every minute. i recognized the two brothers who starred in it from something… if you know what it was let me know. this will drive me nuts! :0) as for the “serious” films… i’d definitely take “grayson” over sandy collora’s works… but for a batfan, they are all good!