Looking for name actor to play Jor-El in the next Superman, Bryan Singer et al have cast Marlon Brando in the Brando role. (No CGI – Apparently, there’s a lot of unused footage from Superman II lying around.)
Category: Casting
Good, Bad, and Sinbad.
With Neo, Constantine, and A Scanner Darkly all under his fanboy belt (we’ll put aside Johnny Mnemonic for now), Keanu embarks on The Eighth Voyage of Sinbad. Keanu in a period piece? Uh oh. At this point, though, I’m more worried about the director — Rob Cohen of XXX and The Fast and the Furious. Hardly a Harryhausen.
The Bombing Game.
Stephen Rea joins the Wachowskis’ take on V for Vendetta (with James Purefoy and Natalie Portman.) Unfortunately, according to Newsarama‘s Rich Johnston, the movie’s taking a few detours away from Alan Moore’s series. Given the terrorist protagonist, I’m dismayed, but not surprised. (2nd link via Ed Rants.)
Cage of Wicker.
Nicolas Cage has been cast in the Edward Woodward role in Neil LaBute’s Americanized remake of The Wicker Man. He wouldn’t be my first choice, but ok. Who’s going to be Christopher Lee?
From Jersey to Chevy Chase.
Kevin Smith suggests in a discussion on his site that Garden State triple-threat Zach Braff leads the running to play young Fletch in the possibly-forthcoming Fletch Won. That’s pretty good casting, but, as someone on the board noted, it probably means trouble for Jason Lee.
Lex and Kumar go to White Kandor.
Move over, Otis: Harold & Kumar‘s Kal Penn joins the cast of Superman as “Riley,” Lex Luthor’s #2. Will Supes be sent slip-slyding away?
Superman’s Pal.
Bryan Singer’s Superman gets his Jimmy Olsen, actor Sam Huntington of Detroit Rock City and Not Another Teen Movie. Well, ok then…just think of the spinoff potential.
That Ol’ Janx Spirit.
“Being asked to do the voice of The Guide is like having your birthday on Christmas Day, discovering a winning lottery ticket in your stocking and having chocolate poured all over you.” Longtime Hitchhiker’s fan and Adams compatriot Stephen Fry talks about his role in the upcoming film. I’d say his inclusion is another touch of class that bodes well for this project.
Some Pig.
Paramount and Nickelodeon announce the voice talent for the forthcoming live-action Charlotte’s Web (a la Babe), and it’s an all-star cast, including Julia Roberts (Charlotte), Steve Buscemi (Templeton/Rat), John Cleese (Samuel/Sheep), Oprah Winfrey and Cedric the Entertainer (Gussy and Golly/Geese), Reba McEntire and Kathy Bates (Betsy and Bitsy/Cows), and Thomas Haden Church and Andre 3000 (Brooks and Benjamin/Crows). No word on who’s Wilbur yet, although the ubiquitous Dakota Fanning is Fern. I’ve always had a soft spot for Charlotte’s Web — it’s the first book I ever remember reading — so I expect I’ll probably check this out (even if Julia is the spider.)
Kinsey on Lincoln.
Schindler, Rob Roy, Darkman, Qui-Gon, Kinsey…why not Honest Abe? Liam Neeson is apparently in talks to play Lincoln in a Spielberg-directed biopic, to be based on Doris Kearns Goodwin‘s forthcoming book, The Uniter. Ok, that’s not bad…but hopefully this project turns out better than Amistad.
Also in loosely related Lincoln-by-way-of-Kinsey news, Salon‘s Andrew O’Hehir casts a troubled eye at C.A. Tripp’s Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln. As he ably points out (as does George Chauncey in the excellent Gay New York), “the difficulty with assessing Lincoln’s private life (or that of anyone else who lived before the 20th century) is that the nature of private life has changed dramatically from his time to ours, and the distance between us distorts the view…Whether [Lincoln and Joshua Speed’s, with whom Lincoln shared a bed] relationship had a sexual component or not, it belongs to a vanished world of intimate male friendships of a kind almost unrecognizable to us.” In other words, sexual orientation is an historically dynamic idea. Homosociality does not necessarily imply homosexuality, and one cannot simply read 19th century sources and infer a 20th century mindset. You have to delve a little deeper. Update: Columbia’s David Greenberg also weighs in for Slate.