I trust Christopher Nolan

I've been meaning to blog about this for, oh I don't know... forever, but have been sidetracked by one thing after another.

A couple weeks ago, Warner Brothers and Christopher Nolan announced their cast for the third Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises. This was a highly anticipated announcement, as the fantasy casting for this film has been beat to death, dragged out back and kicked around a little more (not just by me... by millions of fanboys and fangirls all over the interwebs). And, the fan choices have be interesting, to say the least.

I've seen fans clamoring to see Joseph Gordon-Levitt play the Riddler, though one bright young soul proclaimed to the blogosphere last month that Joseph Gordon-Levitt would be cast as The Joker... figure that out, if you can. In any case, I am willing to bet that the number of names batted around the fandom as "sure things" could number well into the hundreds.

Needless to say, there are not hundreds of celebrities cast in this movie.


**Quick note: I do fantasy casting... not reality casting... regardless of what I know about the industry (very little, admittedly) I blog about who I would like to see do certain parts. I'm never going to be right. I also never insist that I am right. Or that I have the ability to predict casting events far into the future. There's a difference. It's the difference between fun and obstinacy.**


I blogged about my fantasy cast a few months ago- you can go look at it if you would like, but I'll sum it up for you; for Bane I chose a man named Nathan Jones (who was actually a suggestion from my husband, the comic-book-nerd-extraordinaire) and for Catwoman, I chose Megan Fox.

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**Another side note: why does she spend so much time in her underwear?**

In case you are unaware of the casting choices made for these two parts, Nolan chose Tom Hardy as Bane and Anne Hathaway as Catwoman. Neither of which I could have seen coming, not even from five feet away. 

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 He looks... nice.

Bane is supposed to be this entirely insurmountable obstacle for Batman. He literally "breaks" Batman- in every way imaginable. He's a juggernaut, an imposing figure. Tom Hardy is 5'9" (and a half!). At least, he is according to IMDb, which means there's a good chance he's actually 5'7".

Not exactly imposing... nor insurmountable.

Here's the thing, though: Nolan is always right. At least when it comes to Batman, he is.

I blogged once before about some surprising choices made in films, and Nolan had a couple of Batman cast members on that list. He cast a Welshman as the American Batman, he put a pretty boy heartthrob as the most sadistic villain of all time, and while we are on the subject, let's mention the fact that he cast Liam Neeson, and Irishman as the Arabic Ra's al Ghul.

He nothing if not unconventional. Wait... is that too many negatives? What I mean is... he's really unconventional.

And it works. In the history of all superhero movies, I cannot find a single other film in which an actor or actress was nominated for an Oscar, besides Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight. Not only was he nominated, but he won! (spare me the philosophical lectures on posthumous awards- he deserved that award.)

Sure, superhero movies have been nominated for Golden Globes, but those are the "party" awards. Also, they've been nominated for sound/editing/costumes/makeup/cinematography, but they very, very rarely win. No, Nolan stands alone as king of the mountain in the casting and directing of superhero films. He picks unconventional choices, and he brings out the best in them.

So the fact that Tom Hardy seems to be the guy who would be voted Least Likely To Break Batman in high school, I trust Christopher Nolan, and therefore support this choice.

And the fact that Anne Hathaway is very near the bottom of the list of people I would expect to see in skin-tight leather brandishing a whip, I must also concede the brilliance of this choice. She's a brilliant actress and I trust Christopher Nolan.

horaz.com

Please post your ideas in the comments- whether you agree with me or not!

Captain Jack Sparrow is Rad

Yes. I said "rad."

I'm being featured over on It is a big deal, it is to me! And I'm talking about, you guessed it, Jack Sparrow.

What? Is this not an everyday type of conversation for you? Well, it is for me... go check it out!

EDIT: Here is the original text as it appeared on It is a big deal, a big deal to me! Yes. I said "rad."

First, look:

That's the best use of guy-liner ever. Seriously, ever. I'll admit, there's not a lot of stiff competition in this category. I mean, there's Pete Wentz and Adam Lambert and Boy George and that's about it, right? But Captain Jack Sparrow certainly takes the cake in the guy-liner competition, hands down. It's smoky and smudgy and smoldering hot.

Now, let's talk about that fact that the character is one of the first original Disney characters in... one hundred thousand years. OK, that's a slight exaggeration, but Disney does have a knack for reinventing old characters: fairy tales, legends and remakes make up the bulk of their wheelhouse, and to see a completely fresh character based on an original Disney ride is awesome.

Once this entirely fantastic character had been laid to paper, Depp breathed life into it by basing his interpretation of it on Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones. While we're on the subject of Keith Richards, how fabulous of a guy is he to step in and make the cameo appearance in the third film as Sparrow's dad? Talk about being a good sport, right? Most celebrities would balk at the caricaturization, but Richards embraced. Good man.

Jack Sparrow oozes confidence- he literally rode a sinking ship right up to the harbor, and walked off as if it had been the QE2. He walks into the clutches of danger and negotiates his way into his version of safety time and time again.

I mean, come on, the man convinced an entire pirating community that he had used his own back hair to lash together sea turtles and ride them away from an island he had been marooned on. Now, I know he was lying, but the fact remains that people believed him capable of this feat. And, in leadership, having your subordinates believe you are capable of something is as important as actually being capable of it. That's charisma.

By the middle of the third film, I was so tired of the back and forth, wishy washiness of Elizabeth and Will, that I kinda wanted Elizabeth to wind up with Jack. Am I alone in this? Good to know.

OK, I'll admit, the cannibal scenes got a little... silly and out of control. But, I won't hold Jack responsible for that. That's just poor writing. Everybody knows cannibal jokes are in bad taste.

Here's to Captain Jack Sparrow, the worst pirate I've ever heard of. But at least I have heard of him ;)

Gina blogs over at Fantasy Casting where she's usually spouting her opinion about who should be cast in the film versions of her favorite books. You can contact her here.

Doomsday

OK, Fantasy Casters, the day has come. I knew it would, I just didn't know it would come so soon.

I have run out of books to cast.

Temporarily, anyway. I have been reading like crazy- I always am- but apparently everything I have read since April 15th of this year (I checked my reading list on GoodReads.com just to be sure) has either a) been made into a movie already b) I have already created my fantasy cast for it or c) is not movie material. And by "not movie material," I mean these are political rants or parenting books. I promise... they are NOT movie material.

So, here we are. And now we're going to play a little game. I want to know two things from you, my dearest of dear readers:

1) What character casting do you feel was spot on, totally perfect, impossible to improve upon? The book was wonderful, the movie was awesome, and this one character was what made it all come together for you.

2) The opposite: What character casting do you feel was the definition of wrong? So terrible, it was like nails on a chalkboard to you?

I've blogged about my favorite (several times, because I'm cool like that): Severus Snape played by Alan Rickman. Seriously, Rickman is the man. Can we start a petition to get the man an Oscar already? The shifty eyes, the duplicity, the unnerving habit of convincing you that he is truly evil. Awesome. 

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For my pick as the worst screen adaptation of a book character, I'm going to have to go with: Robert Redford as Jay Gatsby. He's supposed to be in his 20s, Redford is closer to 40. And this isn't one of those situations where I think older actors bring something to the table that a younger actor can't, this is one of those situations where a respectable man looked a fool because he was playing such a youthful, shallow character. No bueno.

lookslikeatangent.blogspot.com

 
So tell me: your picks for best and worst. I'll even post some of your ideas (giving you credit and a link, natch) next week. Because I seriously doubt my book situation will improve significantly during the next three days.

And on that note, I'm now looking for guest bloggers. Be willing to write about books, movies or books and movies. Leave a comment, or email me at BlogManager at Live dot Com.

Please post your ideas in the comments- whether you agree with me or not!