Movie snark
Feb. 4th, 2004 01:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kellinatorDear Hollywood,
If you can't make good comic-book movies, you shouldn't make them at all.
Love,
Kelly
This unsent letter was inspired by the morning DJs reporting that the latest casting news on the potential Superman movie is... Beyonce as Lois Lane.
Uh... NO. Not just no, but HELL NO.
Don't get me wrong, folks. I liked Beyonce just fine in the last Austin Powers movie. However, Beyonce was smart enough to pick, for her movie debut, a part that called for her to look good and have attitude and not much else. But Lois Lane? All I can hear in my head is "I'm Lois Lane and I'm a whole lotta woman!!"
Whatever happened to the good ol' days when actors were actors and singers were singers? I mean, we all know how well it turned out for Mariah Carey (can you say "straight to video", boys and girls?).
And that's not even the worst part about this supposed movie.
Playing Lex Luthor, Johnny Depp. Okay, that doesn't suck. That has potential.
Some British guy playing Superman. Okay, okay, there's a grand tradition of casting Brits to play very American roles (Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara, for example). But I have a feeling even Garth Ennis would object to this. (Ennis has said Superman's the one and only superhero he'd be interested in writing, and if you've read The Pro or Superman's appearance in Hitman, you might understand why. I think Ennis, for all his near-relentless cynicism, is interested in the idea of Superman because he's purely a good guy. But I digress.)
And worst of all... McG as the director. Yeah. That McG. Music videos and Charlie's Angels.
STOP TRYING TO MAKE SUPERMAN COOL!!!! Superman ISN'T cool!! He's a Boy Scout!! It's part of his charm!! Have you people never read a comic book?!
...Oh yeah, of course they haven't. They're movie execs.
If you can't make good comic-book movies, you shouldn't make them at all.
Love,
Kelly
This unsent letter was inspired by the morning DJs reporting that the latest casting news on the potential Superman movie is... Beyonce as Lois Lane.
Uh... NO. Not just no, but HELL NO.
Don't get me wrong, folks. I liked Beyonce just fine in the last Austin Powers movie. However, Beyonce was smart enough to pick, for her movie debut, a part that called for her to look good and have attitude and not much else. But Lois Lane? All I can hear in my head is "I'm Lois Lane and I'm a whole lotta woman!!"
Whatever happened to the good ol' days when actors were actors and singers were singers? I mean, we all know how well it turned out for Mariah Carey (can you say "straight to video", boys and girls?).
And that's not even the worst part about this supposed movie.
Playing Lex Luthor, Johnny Depp. Okay, that doesn't suck. That has potential.
Some British guy playing Superman. Okay, okay, there's a grand tradition of casting Brits to play very American roles (Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara, for example). But I have a feeling even Garth Ennis would object to this. (Ennis has said Superman's the one and only superhero he'd be interested in writing, and if you've read The Pro or Superman's appearance in Hitman, you might understand why. I think Ennis, for all his near-relentless cynicism, is interested in the idea of Superman because he's purely a good guy. But I digress.)
And worst of all... McG as the director. Yeah. That McG. Music videos and Charlie's Angels.
STOP TRYING TO MAKE SUPERMAN COOL!!!! Superman ISN'T cool!! He's a Boy Scout!! It's part of his charm!! Have you people never read a comic book?!
...Oh yeah, of course they haven't. They're movie execs.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Re:
Date: 2004-02-04 11:03 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2004-02-04 11:28 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2004-02-04 12:05 pm (UTC)Imagine the uproar if someone suggested Bruce Willis play Shaft, or Anthony Hopkins play Zorro (oh, wait... lol).
Re:
Date: 2004-02-04 12:37 pm (UTC)but there's a difference between "color-blind" casting and "culture-blind" casting. Shaft was a cultural character that I doubt Bruce (or any white actor) could credibly recreate. Commisioner Gordon, on the other hand, was a character that wasn't cultural-specific.
Re:
Date: 2004-02-04 01:06 pm (UTC)Commissioner Gordon is white in the comics for more than 60 years and has always been portrayed as white in every media format Batman has been presented in thus far -- why change, except to be PC? Morgan Freeman is a fine, fine actor that has made many mediocre movies great just by his presence in them... but is he really the only actor in Hollywood capable of performing this part? Are all the white actors in that age group busy during this movie's shooting schedule?
As I said, I really don't take it that seriously and shrug it off quite easily -- I just find it curious and don't understand it.
Re:
Date: 2004-02-04 01:14 pm (UTC)I don't take it too seriously either, but a fine actor is a fine actor - Morgan Freeman would be great for commisioner Gordon simply because he embodies the same characteristics as Gordon. Sure there's plenty other actors who would do the job just as well. I wasn't saying he is the ONLY actor who should be considered, or the BEST actor for the part. Just that he's worthy of the part. Bruce Willis, on the other hand, isn't (heh heh).
Re:
Date: 2004-02-04 01:18 pm (UTC)2) Bruce Willis isn't even good enough to play the part of "Bruce Willis's Wax Mannequin"!