Batman Begins: The Thread

A) there's a bit of the cypherish blandness to a lot of the non-big comic properties as a result of their lack of, um, bigness (and by "non-big", I mean the characters in the Marvel / DC universes that serve as the Special Guest Stars in the books featuring the characters that are raking in the hundreds of millions);

B) no doubt the (presumed lack of) success of recent property-born superhero flicks (cf. Blade: Trinity & Ang Lee's Hulk & Elektra & Daredevil) would limit the $$$$ studios want to budget for these type of mid-level things (barring involvement of a Cruise / Soderbergh-type), which would probably relegate such works to Sci-Fi Channel purgatory (HELLO MAN-THING!);

C) in light of the success of The Incredibles, studios will probably opt to "politely borrow" from these mid-level properties in creating their own version of, say, the Silver Surfer, as it's more cost-effective, and the opportunity to sucker in non-comic folk (where the box office receipts really lie) who could give two squirts about the source material trumps the $$$$ lost from folks who feel their favorite character has been slighted and maligned by the Hollywood machine;

D) Characters like Batman and Spidey (and Superman!) have enough substance to them to carry the burden of fifteen bazillion sequels, and as long as quality folk are attached to the making of these fifteen bazillion flicks, I'm all for Hollywood pumping them out like Play-Doh snakes; I don't know that a Ghost Rider or GREEN LANTERN CORPS (eeesh) has that sort of innate substance to be able to justify even one flick worth a damn.

Also, this is soooooo nitpicky, but be careful conflating "super-hero" w/ "comic book", unless we're going to raise our pinkies from our wedgewood demitasses and call the source material for American Splendor and Ghost World "graphic novels".

http://ia.imdb.com/media/imdb/01/I/89/00/12m.jpg

CHRIS TUCKER IS MR. SINISTER
CHRIS TUCKER IS MR. SINISTER
CHRIS TUCKER IS MR. SINISTER
CHRIS TUCKER IS MR. SINISTER
CHRIS TUCKER IS MR. SINISTER
CHRIS TUCKER IS MR. SINISTER
CHRIS TUCKER IS MR. SINISTER

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y298/hukl/batspank.jpg

-- latebloomer: Pain Don't Hurt (posercore24...), June 7th, 2005.

to clarify, i was agreeing with his enthsiasm for this:

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y298/hukl/batspank.jpg

ihttp://wetmen.provocateuse.com/show.php/christian_bale

Completely Optimistic Batman Begins Anticipation Thread

- Bale was well cast but not genius
- Holmes is worthless, except for her stunt nipples
- Caine was great
- Neeson was great
- Freeman plays himself, or whatever it is that he does on every film he's in
- Oldman was nearly unrecognizable
- C. Murphy was genius cast
- Wilkinson wasn't great
- the script was fairly great with only a few "ham it up for the retards" lines
- beautifully shot and directed

sounds great. (OTM re: Morgan Freeman. so tired, so one-note. "let's get a token black guy in this movie" = his entire career)

DR. STRANGE appears to be back in turnaround, despite a draft by David (Blade/Batman Begins/Ghost Rider/The Flash) Goyer. This is not surprising In Teh Current Climate, given that the lead wears tights and a cape, sports meticulously groomed facial hair, is generally persnickety, and lives in Greenwich Village with his Asian houseboy.

Nonetheless, I see Jennifer Tilly as Clea the Magic Beard.

SILVER SURFER is rumored to be moving forward again. Probably start from scratch, though Andrew Kevin Walker may have done a draft back in the last millenium and Vin Diesel once expressed interest. Dude, Radd!

And of course, Nic Cage IS Johnny Blaze. Which is a bit of a disappointment, as Clifford Smith would have been the natural choice.

And Paramount just scuttled WATCHMEN.

Electric Company excepted, presumably

Clea the Magic Beard is my new children's band.

(I never saw Electric Company - I'm thinking more of the numerous token black guy/Uncle Tom roles he's played with what the Academy would probably call "a quiet dignity". Robin Hood, Unforgiven, Driving Miss Daisy, etc.)

they were minimal roles.

Is it just me, or is he actually very rarely recognizable? Like, I think the only time he was in a movie I realized it was him instantly was in Harry Potter.

I don't know. I like him. He's like Owen Wilson, or even Paul Newman. He's not got a huge range, really, or maybe just doesn't make very bold choices in terms of roles, but he's always interesting to watch. He's got PRESENCE.

I'd rather them play the token quiet black guy than the token black thug/sidekick, frankly. Even if they don't have much range.

Nic Cage is SOOO wrong as Johnny Blaze though.
http://aintitcool.com/images/johnnyblaze.jpg

(he did do a great voiceover as the posessed motorcycle in Heat Vision and Jack)

Tim Booth from James?

Keep in mind, Freeman went from being recognized mainly as Easy Reader on The Electric Company to playing a bunch of convicts, cops, and criminals, and getting his big break as the scariest pimp in screen history in 1987's Street Smart. Maybe he's played variations of a troubled, moral force ever since, but I never get sick of watching him in Johnny Handsome, Clean and Sober, Driving Miss Daisy (a bum rap in the making for a dude who once played Malcolm X), and Se7en. It's not necessarily his fault that Hollywood otherwise doesn't have enough imagination to cast him in anything but the roles of a loyal black friend or respected elder (Joe Clark, the president, God, etc.). Nurse Betty came close. Somebody should get him to play Professor Longhair.

http://pantiesupskirtdown.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/your_opinion_counts.jpg

batman returns pwns batman begins.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKjra8i2XTw

But yes Returns is the best.

batman returns pwns most superhero movies

batman's Not A Superhero but u know what i mean

The logo for the first movie is still pretty eye-catching. Cropping the sides of the Batsignal was a brilliant idea. It's like "This movie is so big the logo can't even fit on the VHS box".

OTM. one of the best vhs covers ever
http://img0105.popscreencdn.com/158054161_-specifics-batman-vhs-video-jack-nicholson-michael-.jpg

ha yeah

Emphasizing the frame was a clever way to subconsciously remind everyone it will be on video tape.

so the making of batman was interesting. but it seemed to gloss over . . . michael keaton? i mean, the biggest story in the run-up to batman's release was the casting of keaton, over some action-star type. that had to put incredible pressure on the entire project. and it paid-off; he was a comic who showed uncommon depth (like bill murray in lost in translation, those that was a far different type of film, obv.). but until they knew the audience would recognize keaton's greatness in the role, they all had to be living with the weight-of-the-world pressing on them. funny that the making of ignores this key point (and, indeed, mostly ignores keaton entirely).