Although Warner Bros. had a notoriously difficult time bringing many of their most iconic comic book characters to life in the first decade of the 21st century, the studio found surprising success by adapting many of the graphic novels from the Vertigo Entertainment brand. The trick with these films is that they could be marketed as largely original crime films that didnt require any extensive knowledge of the superhero mythology; gritty thrillers like Road to Perdition and A History of Violence were met with positive reviews and even managed to score Academy Award nominations. However, no adaptation was more highly anticipated than V for Vendetta, which was directed by James McTeigue, and executive produced by Lana and Lily Wachowski, who were given a blank check in the aftermath of The Matrix trilogy. While it was undeniably an exhilarating action thriller, V for Vendetta dramatically reduces and minimizes many elements of the original graphic novel that had been so transgressive.