Constantine (NBC) Official Thread
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DillaDeaf
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This is the official thread for the NBC show, Constantine (yes the same character Keanu Reeves played in a movie)
First let's get the basics out of the way (cliff notes from wiki) :
And the cast :
First let's get the basics out of the way (cliff notes from wiki) :
Constantine is an upcoming American television series to air on NBC, based on the characters appearing in the comic series Hellblazer published by DC Comics under their Vertigo imprint.[3] The series will star actor Matt Ryan as John Constantine.[4][5] The pilot episode will be directed by Neil Marshall and written by Daniel Cerone and David Goyer.[6] It is scheduled to premiere on October 24, 2014.[6][7]
Synopsis
The series will focus on John Constantine, a dark exorcist, occult detective and con man who is struggling with his past sins as he tries to protect humanity from a gathering supernatural threat.[8]
Development
The series was developed by Motive creator Daniel Cerone and The Dark Knight trilogy alum David S. Goyer, with the pilot episode directed by Dog Soldiers, The Descent and Game of Thrones director Neil Marshall.
The show will remain more faithful to the source material than the 2005 film, although on-screen depiction of Constantine's chain smoking habit will be absent due to broadcast television restrictions.[12][13] Additionally, the character will be straight as opposed to bisexual as in the comics. Executive producer Daniel Cerone said, "In those comic books, John Constantine aged in real time. Within this tome of three decades [of comics] there might have been one or two issues where he’s seen getting out of bed with a man. So [maybe] 20 years from now? But there are no immediate plans." This was met with criticism from the LGBTQ community.[14]
And the cast :
Matt Ryan as John Constantine, an enigmatic and irreverent con man-turned-reluctant supernatural detective who is thrust into the role of defending us against dark forces from beyond.[9]
Harold Perrineau as Manny, an authoritative angel assigned to watch over Constantine. He communicates with him by temporarily stepping into other people's bodies.[9]
Charles Halford as Chas Chandler, Constantine’s oldest friend and staunch companion who possesses powerful survival skills that might possibly be supernatural.[9]
Angélica Celaya as Zed Martin[10]
Lucy Griffiths was cast as Liv Aberdeen to appear in the pilot, as a guest star.[9] Joey Phillips and Miles Anderson have been cast as the demon Nergal and Dr. Roger Huntoon, respectively. Astra Logue will also make an appearance in the series. Newcomer Michael James Shaw is set to recur as voodoo king, Papa Midnite.[2] The Fall actor Emmett Scanlan will recur as Jim Corrigan/The Spectre.[11]
Comments
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I saw the pilot a long time ago. Can actually watch it here: www.couchtuner.eu
It was alright. Granted this was a test pilot and i heard the actual first episode will be quite a bit different since they changed the cast a bit. Im looking forward to the villains in this show more than anything. And the Specter is supposed to show up somewhere in this show, that should be dope. -
Ok this a little bit of a long read -OR- you can skim to the storyline you want:
Since Hellblazer comic series is huge (300+) , ya'll post which storyline you want (from the 10 best storyline list) and I'll find the storylines ...which is more manageable to find links from google....
Here's the TOP 10 best Constantine storylines taken from a online list:
10. Hold Me
Issue 27, 1990
Writer: Neil Gaiman
Artist: Dave McKean
Aside from an educational insert about AIDS and a cameo in the first Sandman arc, John Constantine only fell under Neil Gaiman’s pen once in this bittersweet standalone story about a very cold ghost. Hold Me is a simple, touching tale that lets Constantine veer from his selfish bastard holding pattern while keeping in line with his cockney everyman charisma. The mix of supernatural folklore and sociopolitical reflection is such a fantastic fit for Gaiman that it’s a shame he didn’t produce more Hellblazer material, but you can’t blame him for tending his multimedia empire instead. Speaking of multimedia, Dave McKean works past his haunting cover work to pencil the interior pages, illustrating some truly stunning panels in monochrome, punctuated by splashes of brown and pink. Also: if that ghost isn’t Alan Moore, than he at least takes extensive fashion tips from him. Hold Me is one of Gaiman’s favorite pieces of his early work, and while the individual issue is incredibly hard to find, it appears in Gaiman’s odds-and-ends collection Midnight Days and the recent reprint of The Family Man trade paperback.
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9. Newcastle: A Taste of Things to Come
Issue 11, 1988
Writer: Jamie Delano
Artist: Richard Piers Rayner
Ever wonder why John Constantine spent three years in a mental hospital? Or why there’s a constant greek chorus of bad guys reminding him about that time he accidentally sent a possessed child to hell? Some folks just won’t let go. Newcastle: A Taste of Things to Come is the first step in a reckless journey of failure and suffering for Constantine, and an early chapter that produced characters and events that echo throughout the entire series. In this flashback issue, an inexperienced Constantine and group of friendly mystics trip on a young sex-abuse victim named Astra who summons a giant baboon dog to eviscerate her ? father and his sleazeball friends. A brash Constantine takes his first step into the baby pool of demon conjuring, thinking he can combat the hell beast with a subservient devil. He fails epically instead. Newcastle isn’t a perfect issue by any means, with some unclear storytelling and odd logic gaps (did we mention that convenient baboon dog?), but it stands as a powerful thesis of the innate flaws that makes Constantine such a compelling character. After all, Astra is one of the first souls in a graveyard of collateral damage that follows in the character’s destructive wake.
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8. Down All the Days / Rough Trade
Issues 68 – 69, 1993
Writer: Garth Ennis
Artist: Steve Dillon
What sucks more, a malicious vampire ? or an apathetic society that allows its impoverished members to starve on the street? Garth Ennis tackles this weighty topic in a 2-part story arc (previously collected in the ? collective) that pits an alcoholic, homeless Constantine against the first bloodsucker in history. The script is especially confrontational in its depiction of the homeless, walking the reader through the substance abuse, prostitution, and sheer indifference shown to the poor throughout everyday life. Introduced in Issue #50, the King of Vampires is a planet-hopping parasite who drained the first man before taking on Constantine’s ancestors in the World War I trenches. And though he bares a striking resemblance to James Dean, this vampire definitely doesn’t sparkle in the sunlight. Constantine doesn’t put up much of a fight, wallowing in despair and ? after losing the love of his life in the previous arc, but the dual still ends on an incredible note that takes full advantage of Hellblazer’s dense continuity.
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7. Happy Families / Reasons to Be Cheerful
Issues 200, 202 – 205; 2004
Writer: Mike Carey
Artists: Leonardo Manco, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Steve Dillon, Marcelo Frusin
Nobody would argue that parenthood is easy. The responsibility of rearing infant humans under your direct responsibility is one of life’s most sacred and difficult challenges. That challenge becomes significantly more complicated when your children are destructive demon spawn reared under the illusion of domestic bliss. No, we’re not talking about Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, but this corrupt arc that features the she-demon Rosacarnis wrecking Constantine’s life with three bundles of joy sired from him in a fake reality. This baby-making scandal is by far the most extensive con ever played on our favorite conman, and it stings Constantine to his cynical core. The storyline begins on a particular high note with issue #200, which shows the three illusory timelines where the new Constantine progeny drive Dad nuts by torturing Swamp Thing and stabbing homeless folks. The arc also progresses in interesting directions, with the children targeting Constantine’s friends and family to isolate their patriarch before attempting to destroy him. Reasons to Be Cheerful also sports the best cameo of Shockheaded Peter since his 1845 debut in the morbid German nursery book Der Struwwelpeter.
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list cont....
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6. Ashes & Dust in the City of Angels
Issues 170 – 174, 2002
Writer: Brian Azzarello
Artist: Marcelo Frusin
This is a controversial one among fans. Brian Azzarello wraps his Constantine-in-America saga with a provocative love story that took turns absolutely nobody expected. And we mean nobody. The grand orchestrator of Constantine’s imprisonment turns out to be a media mogul named Stanley Manor, who bears more than a passing resemblance to an orphaned crime fighter, except this one feeds orphans to vampire bats instead of dressing up like one. Manor holds an unwavering grudge against the Hellblazer due to an elaborate con pulled on him when they were both teenagers, but the billionaire’s animosity peaks after Constantine hosts a seance between Manor and his murdered parents that goes depressingly awry. Manor burns Constantine alive, and for all but flashbacks and two end panels, the titular mage is a ghost for all five issues of the arc. The real twist arrives with the revelation that Manor and Constantine were actually ? lovers at a seedy ? Club until the latter’s grisly death, and it’s no illusion. The real question is whether Constantine finally found a true soul mate after dating a china shop of fragile young women who eventually died or went mad, or if he just swapped teams as part of another elaborate con. Probably both. With his divisive final chapter, Azzarello showed that he could still veer Vertigo’s marquee title in directions that both challenged and expanded its foundation.
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Rake at the Gates of Hell
Issues 78 – 83, 1994
Writer: Garth Ennis
Artist: Steve Dillon
Ingenious Pogues reference aside, Garth Ennis wraps up his tenure on Hellblazer in grand fashion, as the First of the Fallen finally enacts his revenge. It’s a big, brash production that weaves all of the extensive threads Ennis planted throughout his three years on the title into one searing ? . Astra, the little girl engulfed by hell after Constantine botched her exorcism, returns in an unexpected way along with such mainstays as Gabriel and Chas while England and hell erupt in chaos. Aside from divine warfare, Constantine also attempts to reform an ex-girlfriend turned junky prostitute while racist militants burn down London. A lot happens and not everyone survives (check out the introduction of the arc’s first chapter). Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s run on Hellblazer is only eclipsed by their subsequent work on Preacher, as both injected a resonant mix of characterization and drama into a book that relies primarily on supernatural fireworks and horror pastiches. That insightful approach made all 42 of their issues truly magical.
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4. Original Sins
Issues 1 – 9, 1988
Writer: Jamie Delano
Artists: John Ridgway, Alfredo Alcala, Others
The very first Hellblazer issues weren’t organized into tight arcs, but took on the sprawling soap opera format popular in the eighties and early nineties. A veteran of the gritty 2000 AD imprint where Vertigo adopted most of its writers, Jamie Delano introduced John Constantine’s solo title with breathless pace and little mercy. His introductory chapters gave us giant hunger bug gods, a racist cult of demon fetishists, and delusional Vietnam Vets burning a swath through Middle America. Each issue opened a new avenue in a world teeming with mystique and myth, and these inaugural adventures laid the foundation for some of the title’s most memorable characters. Of special note is Constantine’s battle against the demon Nergal and his Damnation Army, a dual that turned the very real issue of London’s racism epidemic into a biting and occasionally hilarious allegory. These first stories can feel a tad busy and the prose narraration overdone, but the underlying plots and relationships set a lasting foundation for the next 291 issues.
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3. Hard Time
Issues 146 – 150, 2000
Writer: Brian Azzarello
Artist: Richard Corben
This story arc will make you want to bathe in rubbing alcohol after you’re done. It’s that filthy. In Hard Time, an incarcerated Constantine navigates an American maximum prison brimming with destitute mob bosses and sexual predators. This new scenario forces Britain’s favorite conman to rely on slight-of-hand manipulation to rule a savage ecosystem built on submission and brutality. The first American Hellblazer writer, Brian Azzarello brings the greasy noir he honed in 100 Bullets. He ditches the supernatural and gothic elements to focus on bad people doing worse things to other bad people in clever ways. This arc also marks the return of Constantine as self-destructive wild card, the same trickster ? hiding behind a mental wall of self-loathing last seen Garth Ennis’ fantastic ? collection. The moral corrosion of “Hard Time” takes on a special sheen with Richard Corben’s decaying textures and menacing expressions, conveying the atrophy with a stylish hi-def clarity that makes it all too easy to look at.
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2. Haunted
Issues 134 – 139, 1999
Writer: Warren Ellis
Artist: John Higgins
After wrapping his political cyberpunk epic Transmetropolitan, Warren Ellis took on Hellblazer and created one of the most merciless villains in Joshua Wright, a sociopathic magician who uses one of Constantine’s ex-girlfriends as his personal “? of Babylon” before murdering her. (The Mortician’s report of her corpse is nauseating in ways that pure prose shouldn’t be). Wright’s crimes feel invasive and personal and help define what little sentimentality Constantine hides. Ellis juxtaposes the fragile innocence and wonder of Constantine’s former relationship with her degradation at the hands of a ? . Constantine gets his vengeance by forcing Wright to ingest acid before locking him in a coffin with the corpse of his victim. But the real ? hits when the mage enlists a friendly spirit to ? his deceased lover into the afterlife. It’s as happy an ending as anyone could expect in a Hellblazer yarn, and it certainly lives up to this resonant story’s namesake.
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1. Dangerous Habits
Issues 41 – 46, 1991
Writer: Garth Ennis
Artist: William Simpson
Garth Ennis’ debut arc on Hellblazer is possibly the most intimate story in the title’s epic history, but that doesn’t make it any less intense. Ennis begins with one hell of a cold open: John Constantine has terminal lung cancer. For a character who routinely battles mages, vampires, and rebel deities, this twist adds a biting layer of humanity that dwarfs his previous struggles. Constantine spends the rest of the story pondering the significance of his existence, getting dangerously ? on magical stout with another terminally-ill buddy, and making friends at his local cancer ward. Ennis does such a fantastic job of immersing the reader in the character’s domestic struggles that when Satan and his lords show up to collect his soul, the spectacle feels that much bigger. Dangerous Habits reinterprets Faust for the 20th Century, and its strengths should neither be confused or underestimated. This isn’t the super man, but the common man defying the super; resistance to the amorphous powers that rule on high and a celebration of defiance. This is also the quintessential thesis statement of Hellblazer and required comic reading.
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Looking forward to this show sucks that they are taking away the smoking though that's his trademark aside from cursing. I hope nbc doesn't water it down too much.
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He'll have the smoking patches..and they work in the smoking without showing it. They can't do the "Dangerous Habit" storyline without showing the effect of smoking.
I wonder how NBC nabbed Constantine........this show is a better fit on FX up there with SOA and AHS. -
Gotta remember to record.
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? this show, I'm looking forward to the sequel
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? this show, I'm looking forward to the sequel
Bruh, let the show play out first.........? said the same ? about Arrow.
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The first episode was great even though it, obviously, took some liberties.
I miss the chain smoking for one and the correct pronunciation of the man's name.
But good start. -
I hope they don't even attempt the Dangerous Habits arc if they won't let him smoke on-screen.
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Focal Point wrote: »
Constantine 2 is currently in development -
Focal Point wrote: »
Constantine 2 is currently in development
Development hell? -
First episode wasn't bad. I'll give it a few more episodes but I do wish it was on another channel I don't trust nbc at all.
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I actually missed the ep, was busy as ? last nite, lucky I got Hulu Plus. About to watch this show right now on the laptop while eating breakfast and watching College Gameday on the TV
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It was good to me.
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It was actually good, give it time. I like the fact they straight off referenced Newcastle so that means they will def do the Newcastle arc. We still haven't seen Papa Midnite yet either. I'm gonna post up the links to the Newcastle comic storyline so ya'll know the basic of the things that made John into John and how he first tangle with his archnemesis
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TheManInBlack4.0 wrote: »
lol pretty much. Guillermo Del Toro is still writing his script that will reintroduce John Constantine to movie audiences. He even said he's open to using the Constantine from this show depending on how things go. -
Del Toro should just drop the Constantine movie and use this constantine in that Dark universe movie with swamp thing and zed and all them. Deadman.
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Here it is -- Newcastle - -pretty much the origin story of Constantine coming into his own and the intro of his archvillian:
http://www50.zippyshare.com/v/24213560/file.html
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Lou_Cypher wrote: »Del Toro should just drop the Constantine movie and use this constantine in that Dark universe movie with swamp thing and zed and all them. Deadman.
There is no solo Constantine movie. Del Toro is writing John Constantine into that Dark Universe movie. Justice League Dark's defacto leader is Constantine this is how he'll be reintroduced to a movie going audience that only knew of Constantine as some movie starring Cool Breeze.
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Thinking about posting up #1-10 ( Original Sins tradeback) soon tonite while doing my homework and watching Gotham.
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Still haven't checked the pilot but I eventually will now that Boardwalk Empire is done with, a slot opened up lol
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Show was decent, I could get into it.
But still Keanu Reeves>>>>>>>>>>>
