The 'Superhero Movies' Thread (1 Viewer)

[JoelB]

I think Brad Pitt is wrong, wrong, wrong for CA. He would need to add 2 inches and 50 lbs. Capt. looks like a NFL linebacker. He would be more suited to play Flash than Vin Diesel.

 

[Scott Weinberg]

A few X-Men 2 tidbits from CHUD.com :
Ethan Embry (That Thing You Do!, Can't Hardly Wait, Vegas Vacation) has been cast as Nightcrawler.
Good for Ethan. He's a goofily likable actor that hasn't been around much lately.
Also, newcomer Aaron Stanford will be playing Pyro.
Thanks to those who keep this thread going. I'm trying to keep it a "catch-all" for the Superhero flicks. (Starting up a new thread entitled "Ethan Embry cast as Nightcrawler!!" seems a bit silly.)

 

[Andy Sheets]

Ethan Embry (That Thing You Do!, Can't Hardly Wait, Vegas Vacation) has been cast as Nightcrawler.

Hope he does a good German accent I'm not sure how I feel about that since Nightcrawler's always been one of my favorite X-Men. Whenever I thought of actors to play him, I would lean in the direction of somewhat older, preferably European actors. Every time I think of Ethan Embry, he's that crazy-eyed kid from Can't Hardly Wait

 

[Larry Sutliff]

Somebody just told me that Robin Williams is being considered to play Doc Ock in SPIDERMAN II. God, I hope that's not true!

I would hate to see the SPIDERMAN franchise descend to the "Special Guest Villian" syndrome that plagued the BATMAN series, having unsuitable actors play the roles for name recognition(Arnie as Freeze, Tommy Lee Jones as Two Face,etc.).

 

[Norm]

Robin Williams, Oh no I hope thats false. Doc Ock is not a comedic character.

 

[Scott Weinberg]

Apparently Ethan Embry will not be playing Nightcrawler, as Variety now reports that Alan Cumming (Spy Kids) has signed on for the role.
As far as Robin Williams as Dr. Octopus...they could do worse. But going just from memory...my pick to play the tentacled one would be...Michael Keaton.
Anyone else wanna make a Doc Ock pick/prediction/wish???

 

[Scott Weinberg]

Little blurb picked up at www.darkhorizons.com :
After a bit more digging, I learned that Avi Arad and Stan Lee appeared on the TV show "Extra", and they mentioned Thor and Fantastic Four as the latest projects being discussed.
Hmm. Kurt Russell as Thor? Dunno.

 

[Andy Sheets]

Kurt Russell...? I like the guy but Thor is supposed to be HUGE! You need an Arnold type to play that character. If Walt Simonson's involved, however, that sounds good to me.

 

[Norm]

Russell would probably only play the Doc part, not the whole Thor.

 

[Andy Sheets]

Oh, that's right. I guess that would work, even if I never liked the Donald Blake concept.

 

[Vlad D]

Great thread. I am a huge comic book fan. I have 5000+ comic books, all bagged, boarded and boxed. My wife thinks I am crazy.

Looking forward to X-Men 2 (X-Men are by far my favorite, the Claremont/Byrne issues the best), Hulk, DareDevil, Hellboy. Can someone elaborate about the "ridiculous changes" to the Hulk. I haven't read much about that.

Would love to see a Thor flick. Don't know about Kurt Russel.

Would also love to see Neil Gaiman's Sandman or Alan Moore's Watchmen on the big screen. Very cool.

Does anyone remember the Flash TV series?

 

[JonZ]

According to Dark Horizons, heres the new Kitty Pryde
Link Removed

 

[Norm]

Are you taking about the Hulk movie? If you are go to this thread. Hulk Movie Thread

 

[Vlad D]

Yes, I am Norm. Thanks for the link.

 

[Seth Paxton]

I agree with not making any of these films just places for stars to show up, but I disagree on the Tommy Lee Jones thing. I couldn't think of a better casting for that role. He was perfect.

The bigger problem with those films was the need to shove too many characters into a film. I think the "guest stars" angle could have been much better if the actors were given full-fleshed roles rather than 1-liner gimmick spots.

I mean Tommy Lee was WASTED as 2 Face. Cramming he and Carrey into the same film along with Robin introduction was just too much. Even Batman Returns had way too much going on.

Great villans deserve as much time or more than the hero in B&W character films like comic films are. Just ask anyone if Darth Maul got enough screen time for example, then go look at all the screen time Vadar got.

Maybe 2 villans can work if the hero is already established and you make all the other aspects very secondary (like romance), otherwise you are going to make the villan into just another thug for the hero to catch.

Look how long Spidey runs and that is with a shortened Goblin sequence as it is and a semi-treatment of the romance. But it's good because all that time is spent on developing the main character of the film...Spidey.

For Batman we dump all the "how he became" storyline and replace it with Joker's origin instead, but other than that the template is similar and has similar success. Joker leaves that film as dominate as Batman as a character.

Then for Superman we go back to how Spidey is done, and Superman is way more dominate than Lex in that film. Lex becomes mostly something just to work against, but that's okay since this is an origin film for Superman.

So I say, keep it to one origin per film and make it pretty well investigated. Any other characters are going to have to be secondary as it is. But having ALL the characters being secondary because you tried too much leaves you with an empty jumble.

Singer barely avoided this with X-Men and he already had it focused on an issue more than an origin. He only dabbles with character focus except for Rogue and Wolverine. Imagine if he lost the issue focus and tried to explore Magneto more and then tossed in the Storm origin too, along with expanding Rogue and Wolverine's parts. Then you would have a big mess like the Batman films.

Pick a single focus or perhaps a duality. Then let everything else circle it. A film usually only has time to tell one or two GOOD stories, so stick to that. X-Men also benefitted by not being a star power film. Good to hear that they probably will continue that concept.

BTW, regarding the Hulk rumors. I was reading the AOTC "treatment" that had made the rounds online last year or so. While it had some aspects pretty close, it also had a bunch of other stuff totally wrong, misunderstood, and/or misplaced. (like the assassin being caught and killed at Dex's diner??? for example)

So I'd take rumors on the Hulk film still a year out with a grain of salt. They might be true or semi-true, but they are definately out of context right now.

 

[JonZ]

I disagree about Tommy Lee Jones as TwoFace.

Two Face is serious,interesting, cold,calculating,tragic and Tommy Lee Jones turned him into a bummbling howling baffoon. Jim Carrey wasnt any better. Their performances were nothing but exercises in hamming it up.

 

[Norm]

Seth, The rumors on the Hulk have been coming from multiple sources, and it seems clear that Banner is not going to get hit with a Gamma Bomb, which to me is an origin change, and Marvel should not let this happen. Lee may still make a great movie but it won't be the Hulk I grew up loving, and I would rather have a director that stays true, at least to the origin story.

 

[Seth Paxton]

Jon, I can see that point. I think some of that was by reducing 2 Face to a secondary character with little meaningful screen time or story time. I liked the look of 2 Face but agree that his character ended up being just some goofy puppet-thug not capable of being a crime threat on his own.

He is a good enough character that giving him a prime spot would have worked much better, but I think you just have Riddler, Penguin, and Cat Woman get their own primary screen time. You would need another film to fit in 2 Face. It kills me that they have not been able to truly franchise any of these superhero films with the lists of unique villans and other storylines already set out for them. Just listing the Batman villans can give you 10+ excellent films without going anywhere near lesser characters or repeats.

Norm, perhaps that is due to a time shift. If Banner is placed in modern America it would be pretty tough to get him to a nuclear bomb test site, let alone an above ground test. That's probably the big problem they are running into with that.

Maybe if his DAD was exposed and had his DNA damaged so that he DIDN'T become the Hulk, but did pass on DNA such that Banner starts becoming Hulk at some point like mutants do, then that might still work. I agree it makes it more like X-Men, but nuclear testing just isn't what it was when they first came up with the character.

 

[JonZ]

Theres a excellent review at Coronas Coming Attractions about a Hulk script that really sounded great. It involved a experiement with a Gamma Sphere(dogs and inheritance just stink), had the Leader and Absorbing Man and the reviewer loved it. Too bad this isnt the script theyre using.
Heres a link:
http://www.corona.bc.ca/films/details/hulkA.html
Its the July 7,2000 scoop.

 

[Norm]

The Hulk is not a Mutant! A Gamma Bomb is pure fiction anyway. They still test Nukes underground in Nevada.