Let’s Go Out to the Movies
I think it’s been a while since I’ve written about movies that are coming out or are currently in development. So let’s get to that. We’ll start with the slew of comic films that are in the burner.
CATWOMAN
The French film, Vidocq, directed by Pitof, who is currently at the helm of Catwoman, is a captivating and stylistically unique film. I was very excited to hear that he was the one directing Catwoman. However, recent reports talk of a strain between the director and his actors. It seems that he is pushing his artistic vision and basically just taking the name of Catwoman and abandoning the comic-book version. This worries me. The future of DC Comic properties in film are riding on this movie. If they screw it up the funding to Batman and Superman could be yanked. That Green Lantern script I have been trying to write could never be produced. What Marvel has done right (as Catwoman is a DC-Time Warner property) is find a balance between making a film anyone can watch while at the same time staying true to what all of the fanboys want to see. And personally, I think this costume is damn ugly:
The PUNISHER
I was never a huge Punisher fan growing up and hearing that awful metal song during the preview to this film completely turned me off. Plus, it has John Travolta and unless Quentin Tarantino is directing John Travolta, I’m not interested.
SUPERMAN
I was so excited to hear that this was finally moving forward. I was sad that the amazing script by Kevin Smith was rejected, but I could let that go. Then I began to heavily weep inside when I found out that McG, the director of Charlie’s Angels, was at the helm. I decided to suck it up. Dread set in again when it was rumored that Brendon Frazer would be donning the red and blue tights. Apparently that is not in stone, so there is still hope. Now, the new rumors are just killing me. Beyonce is rumored to be Lois Lane. Originally the rumors said Natalie Portman or Selma Blair. Natalie would have been my first choice, but Selma could work. Beyonce???? What the??? Lois Lane is one of the most well-known secondary comic book characters in history. And what is this about Johnny Depp as Lex fucking Luthor?!? I want to give him credit, I love Johnny Depp, but it just sits inside me with so much unease. This is not an MTV video! This is an American icon! This is modern mythology! You don’t mess with it! More kids could probably tell you that Clark Kent is Superman than could tell you Dick Cheney is the Vice-President….shit…Dick Cheney should be cast as Lex Luthor. It makes perfect sense….not like he has anything to do anyway.
Fantastic Four
Haven’t heard anything new. Know it has been green lit with a possible 2005 release date. I’m excited about it. Good for me.
G.I. JOE
Do kids today know who GI Joe is? Is this really going to be live action?
NAMOR
Not many non-comic geeks know who Namor is. Marvel hopefully won’t try to sell this as a comic book movie. I can see this one being very cool if it plays up the hatred of Atlantis and Namor…the Prince of Atlantis…towards the land dwellers. It could come off as a War of the Worlds type thing. It would be really cool if they did tie it to the Fantastic Four somehow. Namor carried a Torch for the Invisible Woman for a long time and I’m sure that there was someThing fishy going on behind Mr. Fantastic’s back (there were so many ouns in that last sentence that so many people won’t even get). Persoanlly, I always chose Aquaman over Namor, but seeing as DC will never get an Aquaman film rolling, I am really curious as to what direction this will go in.
Iron Man
Rumors are flying about this one. Tom Cruise is apparently pushing for it to get made and I think that I may be able to see him as the flamboyant, alcoholic, playboy, inventor Tony Stark. The rumor is that they want to take this in a James Bond type direction. That could be cool. One of Iron Man’s biggest enemies was a guy named The Mandarin and based on China’s rising place in the world, it would make sense to have part of it take place in China. I just don’t know if the writers would think of that.
The BLACK DAHLIA
This is a non-comic film, but is one of my favorite true crime stories. I’ve read a lot of the theories around the death of wannabe actress Beth Short and I’m interested in seeing the direction they will choose to take this. Will the film have someone playing Beth Short? Or will it be about the fumbled investigation by the LAPD afterwards? The rumor is that Scarlett Johnassan of “Lost in Translation” fame is cast in the movie.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Another non-comic book film. I’m not really a Jim Carrey fan, however, the previews to this Charlie Kaufman penned film look wonderful. I think I was one of the two people who didn’t gush about “Adaptation.” In fact, I remember disliking it quite a bit. This film better be good because it is the one that will determine if I ever spend a dime going to see one of Charlie’s movies again.
That’s all I feel like writing.
