Movie snark

[kellinator]

Dear 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.

Comments

[ermyx.livejournal.com]

ACtually, in teh good old days, Actors could sing, dance, and often fence or else had some other skill that allowed them to play a multitude of rolls on film and stage. These days, you're lucky if your movie actor has done any stage or television work.

Frankly, I applaud any actor who tries his hand at another creative outlet. I think Americans are stupid, in general, for judging someone's creative talent by the first one they become known for.

John Tesh? AMAZING composer and piano player. He'll NEVER sell a million copies of any of his CD's here because of the fact that most people won't see him as anyone but "that guy from Entertainment Tonight".
David Hasselhoff? Plenty of singers today are WORSE than him and have long standing careers. Why's he only famous in Germany and Japan and not here then? Michael Knight. Even during his Baywatch days, people kept making talking-car jokes.

On the other hand, did you ever see The Wiz? AMAZING production, that movie. And not a single singer in that movie hwo had a previously existing career as an singer got anywhere with an acting career, even though they tried. I think Cher and Barbra Streisand are much rarer precedents than they should be, and I think they both deserve every theatrical and musical award they've ever gotten, because they're both excellent at both.

I'm somewhat excited about Beyonce as Lois Lane. I want to see if she's got the chops to be a real actress or not. I'm hoping she kicks ass at both.

-elf-

Yep

[opalturtle.livejournal.com]

Did you know that for a while the Hollywood guys were on such a musical kick that they had pretty much every body sing something in some movie or other?? I think it was in one of the That's Entertainment shows they had clips of Jimmy Stewart and Clark Gable singing in musicals. Not a good idea. Specially Clark.

But yeah. . .lots of the good old singers were also good actors - Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Bing Crosby, Howard Keel. . . . .the list goes on.

Yeah, I think it's kinda silly to say that because someone's a movie actor they ought not sing and if someone's a singer they ought not try to act. Heck, stage actors have to be able to do both lots of times, why not movie actors??

I thorougly agree with you in other words. :D

Re: Yep

[ermyx.livejournal.com]

I know that sometime near when West Side Story came out and kicked ass at the Oscars that everyone and their grandmother was producing musicals. I've seen a bunch of them (and my parents owned a few) but the only ones that stick in my head are Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, a horribly chauvenistic story about mountain men stuck in a small house run by seven sisters until the snow thawed enough that the road back to their town/village would be clear again. The only reason why I even watched it is because the actor who played the lead Jet in WSS (which I love) was in 7B47B. He's not as good in that one, but that's probably because his part was a lot smaller.

*shrug*

I've managed, by sheer luck, to totally miss out on the two lastest musicals (Moulan Rouge and Chicago), but I did catch the musical episode of Xena and instantly fell in love with it. Man, that was a good episode.

I think anyone in the entertainment business should be multiskilled (not just talented), because they bring so much more depth to their craft than if they did JUST that one thing.

-elf-