As Tank Girl movie turns 30, why comic-book adaptation with Naomi Watts, Iggy Pop tanked
Fans of trash cinema love Tank Girl, but mainstream audiences did not when it hit cinemas 30 years ago despite a cast including Iggy Pop
This is the latest instalment in our From the Vault feature series, in which we reflect on culturally significant movies celebrating notable anniversaries.
After Tim Burton’s Batman hit big in 1989, Hollywood scrambled to find the next comic-book sensation to adapt. Some, such as 1994’s The Crow, struck gold; but most, such as 1996’s The Phantom, struck out.
Chief among the failures was 1995’s Tank Girl, which turns 30 this month.
Created in 1988 by Britons Alan Martin and Jamie Hewlett (later of the virtual band Gorillaz), and published in Deadline magazine, it was an unlikely candidate for the studio treatment, full of sex, drugs, in-jokes and attitude.
Director Rachel Talalay (Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare) was a big fan. Armed with a script by Tedi Sarafian, she shopped the project around every company in town, with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin declaring themselves not “hip” enough to attempt it. Martin and Hewlett made her a T-shirt that said, “Too hip for Spielberg”.