Anonymous #1 3h

Well let’s take what we have from the original character. Johnny Blaze is haunted by a cycle of loss since he grew up in the circus after losing his parents and then his adoptive parents also die. Driven by desperation, he makes a deal with Mephisto to save Crash from a terminal illness and saves him but then he dies anyway in a stunt so Johnny’s bound to Zarathos

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Anonymous #1 2h

It’s easy to make it a story of guilt over this glaring mistake resulting in a curse but it’d be more interesting to explore it as a family legacy of the spirit of vengeance used to protect others at great cost. A great thematic journey could be a hellish uphill almost sisyphus battle for redemption where Johnny strives to stop punishing himself for events outside of his control and about not letting zarathos consume him by clinging on desperately the last bit of his compassion to find freedom

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Anonymous #1 2h

Arthouse often focuses on aesthetic uniqueness and some stylistic surrealism so it should be this larger than life opera that overshadows johnny’s curse and focus more on his internal emotional conflicts and fragile humanity. Think of dante’s inferno the people there aren’t suffering metal af torment. It’s punishment meant to fit the crime. It’s a realistic and visceral depiction of the effects of torturing oneself mentally with the figurative smoke blinding him into clawing desperately for help

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Anonymous #1 2h

Based on what we have, create a more surrealist tragedy with johnny being the fly in his own thematic web in the movie, blend style, imagery, and psychological thrills together, maybe anchor the movie in a 60-30-10 aesthetic of black, red and yellow to reflect older and grittier superhero cartoons now grounded in a visceral reality to portray a maniacal mercenary struggling to maintain a grip on reality in solitude as the line between humanity and animalistic desperation grows blurry

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Anonymous #1 2h

Booming score + suffocating visual style and aesthetic + dreamlike narrative + cosmic and otherworldly terror of hell imagery seeping out of the shadows of the real world with only one who can see them, maybe blend in some morbid german expressionism

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