Slashdot Mirror
Keanu Reeves as Superman
M.C. Hampster writes "Fox News is reporting in this article that Superman is back in the planning stages at Warner Bros. with a possible Keanu Reeves playing the title role. Is this possibly the worse fit for an actor in a superhero role since Michael Keaton in Batman?" Perhaps they too will rotate in a new actor for each feature.
Woah
The ultimate network admin tool needs HELP!
Maybe they'll create a new super-character! Think about it, SuperNeo would have no weaknesses! "There is no kryptonite."
My other sig is funny!
George Reeves played the original superman on TV.
Christopher Reeves played him in the movies from the late 70's early 80's.
So logically they want Keanu Reeves now..
Hey, wait a minute... I _LIKED_ keaton as batman! The first (OK, not first, but you know what I mean) movie was by far the best of the lot. Of course, that could be attributed to Nicholson...
-- Minds are like parachutes... they work best when open.
They should do what they did with Spiderman - find a little known but good actor and have him re-invent the role. That way, the audience won't bring any misconceptions into the cinema, which will ruin the whole experience.
Michael Keaton played THE BEST batman, everyone I know agrees. He brought the perfect mix of mystery, drive, and intellect. You could see the dark motivations in his face, a person driven by the slaying of his parents. George Clooney? That was a cruel joke.
If this "mistake" is as bad as batman, I'll be first in line for the theater.
"I don't know that atheists should be considered citizens, nor should they be considered patriots." George HW Bush
The only movie I've seen this guy work well in was The Matrix, basically because he was perfect for the roll without needing to act. (Ok, I was entertained somehow by Speed, but don't ask me why. I haven't figured it out.)
o ve ry.ap/index.html
In all fairness, it's probably pretty hard to find someone who can play the role. My take on it is that they should find some actor who isn't known to the public. If someone has played other characters, it's kinda hard to get over that association. No one thinks of Superman as someone you'd know from somewhere else.
(Sort of on topic - I was very glad to hear the news that Christopher Reeve has regained some sensation and muscular control.
http://www.cnn.com/2002/HEALTH/09/13/reeves.rec
There's a real story of inspiration and hope. My hat's off to him. This is why you never give up.)
"I object to doing things that computers can do." -- Olin Shivers, lispers.org
Keaton's choice was also greeted with skepticism by fans, but I think he did a good job. Which is why I would be willing to give Keanu Reeves the benefit of the doubt. But unfortunately Keanu is a lousy actor IMO -- he did okay in Matrix, but he stunk in just about everything else (his "performance" in Much Ado About Nothing was embarrassing).
Maybe the Hollywood execs thought they were 'honoring' Christoper Reeve by having an actor with nearly the same last name play Reeve's most memorable role. ;-P
But Christopher Reeve will always be the "real" Superman for me -- he was born to play that role IMO.
Cheers,
Ethelred
Everyone wants to be Ethelred. Even I want to be Ethelred.
Instead of kryptonite, his enemies will just use big words to stop him.
Superman is not a caucasian, he's from another planet.
Why would he be white? He was created by two jewish guys as a continuation of the golem myth (protecting the weak and all that), with some resonance of Nietchze thrown in.
Superman is Kryptonian. He's a different species. He's not a member of any human "race". We're lucky he's even bilaterally symetrical.
One of the few movies I like Keanu in (Matrix), he doesn't say a lot. One of his biggest lines is "Whoa!" And that's a Good Thing.
Neo can get away with that, but Superman is suppose to give patriotic speeches and such, which would require Keanu to talk, which is bad. I don't have any evidence for this, but I bet as the number of words Reeves says in a movie increases, the quality of the movie decreases.
Why do we need ANOTHER superman anyway? Four wasn't enough? 3 Indiana Jones' wasn't enough? 2 Home Alone's was pushing it. Why so many sequals. Oh, that's because the movie industry is just reusing old ideas to make big bucks instead of making quality films with new stories in new directions. Maybe something with a little social commentary here or there.
Matt Fahrenbacher
James Tiberius Kirk: "Spock, the women on your planet are logical. No other planet in the galaxy can make that claim."
His psycho bent on it was fantastic. Who did you prefer? VAL KILMER? GEORGE CLOONEY? Please ...
In recent news, for those of you who missed it...
(shortened - please excuse any bad english since I'm translating from Swedish.. perhaps anyone has a good link?)
Christopher Reeve Defeating His Paralysis
"For the first time since his spinal paralysis, Christopher Reeve can move fingers and toes. This makes his doctors believe that he might be able to walk again.
- No one that have been affected by such severe injuries have regained motion and feeling in the way Chris has, said doctor John McDonald at Washington University of Science.
Breathes On His Own
In the last months, Christopher Reeve's health has dramatically increased. Besides his motion and feeling abilities, he can breathe on his own for one and a half hour. He is grateful of the progress and says the best thing is that he can feel the hugs from his wife Dana and his three children.
- To feel the smallest touch is truly a gift, he says in the coming issue of People Weekly.
Reeve also mentions that he can feel needle stings over large parts of his body, make difference between warm and cold and sharp and blunt.
But the treatment hasn't been free. His muscle stimulation and special training has cost the 49 year old movie star more than 2,5 million per year (not sure if that's 2,5 million swedish crowns or USD). The costs has partly been covered by his insurance and partly by collections made by his friends in Hollywood."
So, to me, Superman will still be the only super man to me, especially after reading this.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
And fell.
--
# Canmephians for a better Linux Kernel
$Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.net";
What makes Keanu a worse actor than say Sean Connery? As near as I can tell, what most people mean when they say he can't act is that he has a particular style that tends to come through no matter the role. That's definitely true of Sean, and he's one of the world's favorites. I'm really curious, because I think he's done a good job in a wide variety of roles.
Micheal Keaton was good for Batman because he could pull off a better Bruce Wayne. Any idiot can play "Batman".
If I were Keanu I would be veeery leary of taking on this role:
George Reeves committed suicide (or was murdered);
Christopher Reeves became paralyzed;
Reeve(s)-Superman is statistically a cursed combination;->
Indeed, any actor should probably stay clear of this one...
Best
Samawi
[wil@hollywood]$ mv /actor/unemployed/wil.wheaton /actor/rich/famous/wil.reeves
Keaton portrayed someone who was damaged. You could see in him someone who was uncomfortable dealing with the niceties of his high society surroundings, someone who knew that there was a dark thing writhing in the city that could only be fought against by something equally dark. The other players of Batman treated him as a one dimensional heroic figure.
I thought the first Batman movie was excellent. If only Jack had been 20 years younger he would have been the perfect Joker. He still pulled off a fine job.
The second movie introduced some nearly over-the-top performances (Danny DeVito and Christopher Walken) that seemed to give permission to the people who produced the next couple of movies to return to the campiness of the television series. The formula that is the theme of Batman (person is emotionally and physically wounded, person puts on a mask and exacts revenge on the rest of the world) is made truely formulamatic in the last few films. Tim Burton realized that such a formula could be made into camp unless you had actors with depth who could flesh out the struggle of dual persona. That is where Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson, and Michelle Pfeiffer succeeded.
The Moore-Murphy Law: The number of things that will go wrong will double every 2 years.
Instead, I think they should use Chris Klein.
Mordor...a magical, mythical land where women are more rare than dragons--but where every man would rather find a dragon
He was not born in the U.S. Heck, he was not born on earth.
Still, you have to admire his willingness to stand up for Truth, Justice, and the American Way when he isn't even eligible to run for president.
Does this
(For Reference)
Wil "Wheaton" Reeves as Superman
Patrick "Stewart" Brando as Jor-el
Brent "Spiner" Hackman as Lex Luther
Jonathan "Frakes" Beatty as Otis
Margot "Marina Sirtis" Kidder as Lois Lane.
Yes Mr. Reeves, most of us would pay to see that.
/^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
I remember when Tim Burton first announced that Michael Keaton was going to play Batman -- "there's something in his eyes," he said -- and the fanboy crowd went ballistic. They shouted that Batman wasn't Mr. Mom, and that Burton had ruined the one comic book movie that fans had been waiting their whole lives for.
Now, a decade later, nearly every post says Keaton was the definitive Batman, and all the other actors (who at first blush seemed to be perfect Batman types) were the ones who ruined the franchise.
Michael Keaton's gotta be proud. He played a legendary character no one thought he could pull off, and then walked away from it, so everyone could see just how tough the job actually was. Now he's doing, what, Jack Frost II? Hollywood oughtta make him Perry White, Clark Kent's editor, in the new Superman pic. They owe him.
FWIW, I don't think we've seen the definitive Superman performance yet. Chris Reeve's Clark Kent was too buffoonish, his Superman too milquetoast. If Batman is supposed to have gone off the deep end because his parents were killed, how much more insane would losing your parents, your species, and your entire planet make you? Superman's a fascinating character, in his own way at least as flawed as Batman. I hope Hollywood can find an actor who can give as much to Superman's character as Keaton did to Batman.
(I should say that I have nothing but respect for Chris Reeve as an actor and human being. Superman is fantasy; Chris is real, and through his tireless advocacy and fundraising he may ultimately be responsible for saving more lives than his comicbook counterpart.)
He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense.
..a few more years until the current cast of Smallville is old enough to be convincing in the parts. (Which shouldn't be long, they're a little old for the parts now -- but it's still an enjoyable show.)
;)
Although I'm curious about how and when Chloe Sullivan changes her name to Lois Lane.
-- Alastair
I can agree from first-hand experience.
;), and on the mornings that I wake up with knee pain, it usually takes me a couple of minutes to realize that it's the "good" knee! It's almost like they rebuilt the bad one better than the original. :)
I went to University on a rugby scholarship, and played for years. In '97 I had what is commonly reffered to as a "carreer-ending injury" where my right knee was dislocated by about 5 inches, quite effectively ripping 3/4 of the ligaments in my knee completely apart, and severing the nerve that services the lower right side of my leg and all the muscles on the top of my right foot.
I went to the hospital, had it examined, and was told that it was a sprain... "don't worry about it, come back in a week if it's still bugging you".
One week later, I still couldn't lift my foot or feel anything in my leg. So, I went to a specialist.
Long story short, it was one of the "cleanest" (as in no blood, it was as if it was surgically damaged) and most destructive knee injuries they've ever seen. The nerve damage was too old to repair, and after many visits to many neurosurgeons, they all agreed that I'd be lucky to regain 60% usage in 10 years.
Now, I was a pretty active guy... mountain biking every day, rugby 4 times a week, gymn twice a day, so I was in pretty good shape.
They gave me these rehab "protocols" that must have been written for couch-sitting housewives..."the 4 week goal is to bend the knee 25 degrees with minimal pain". Give me a break! I'd done that in 2 days! I threw them away and proceded to do what I could on my own... completing 6 months of protocols in about 3 weeks. The physio guys were blown away, and while concerned, couldn't see anything bad happening. I continued mountain biking, walked to exhaustion, always pushing myself but not to the point of further damage. I was wearing out the "protective" brace every 3 weeks and having to have it replaced (which they said I'd have to wear for the rest of my life, BTW).
I should take a second here to really thank my orthopedic surgeon (Dr. Ross!)... he took the time to show me how to perform basic examinations on my knee and leg, teaching me the signs to look for, and allowing me to monitor my progress. It really helped me guage the amount of exertion I could apply and when I should stop. It was REALLY refreshing to NOT get the whole "well, you're not a doctor, so you wouldn't understand, so I'm not going to teach you" attitude.
After a year and a half, I'd regained a LOT of use of the damaged nerves... I still remember the day that I could lift my foot up for the first time (the guys at work thought I was nuts when I started jumping around and yelling and screaming!).
3 years and 4 knee surgeries after the injury, I could run somewhat normally on the knee (I was never a great runner to begin with!), was practicing rugby, mountain biking normally, and playing other sports... all without the brace. The biggest damage I had was psychological.
I went back to the neurosurgeons who initially examined me, and said "hey, can you retest me?" and they were quite shocked to see that I'd recovered to be about 90-95% of what is normal.
Now, I am what I consider to be 100% recovered; same weights in the gymn, playing rugby again without a brace (not as competitive, but I'm old and lazy now
So, at the end of the day, and after doing a LOT of research on my own in the local medical libraries, I found that neurologists really don't understand SQUAT about nerve regeneration, and I tend not to believe any limitations they want to put on them. I threw away their advice of relying on a brace for the rest of my life and "taking it easy", and I'm glad I did.
$0.02 (CDN)