Duncan only one case of unconventional superhero movie casting

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In noting Michael Clarke Duncan’s recent passing in this blog, I mentioned the minor furor after the “Green Mile” actor was cast to play the Kingpin in the Ben Affleck “Daredevil” movie.

Duncan worked as Marvel’s kingpin of crime however, and became the latest in a string of offbeat and unorthodox casting for comic book movies.

Some of them worked and others did not. Here are a few examples.

Offbeat casting that worked:

Michael Keaton as Batman. When Tim Burton cast Michael Keaton to play the title role in his 1989 “Batman” adaptation, the furor among fans was crazed. If the Internet had been in every basement at the time, it would have melted down. Keaton was best known for comedic roles like in “Night Shift.” And what about that jaw line? But Keaton was perfect as the grim-faced Dark Knight and the distant Bruce Wayne.

Hmmm. We’re still making up our minds:

Jessica Alba as Sue Storm. Alba is as beautiful an actress as you can find in Hollywood. But she just looked fake as the blonde adventuress, the Invisible Woman.

Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man. I thought director Sam Raimi’s first two “Spider-Man” movies were pretty damn good. But Maguire seemed too old to be a believable Peter Parker. Or maybe I was just reacting to foreshadowing of his emo-laden dancing in the third movie.

Nope. That’s just wrong:

Kate Burton as Lois Lane. “Superman Returns” had a number of problems. Brandon Routh wasn’t one of them, but Burton was. She’s a lovely actress but far too lightweight to be the tough and spunky ace reporter from the Daily Planet. Here’s hoping Amy Adams works better in “Man of Steel.”

Michael Chiklis as Ben Grimm/The Thing. How much do we love Michael Chiklis? A lot. But while he was an okay Ben Grimm he just didn’t work in a Thing suit. And he just wasn’t tall enough. When “Fantastic Four” gets rebooted, I think they should go the Hulk route and combine live action and CGI.

Jack Nicholson as the Joker. Sorry, fans. I love Nicholson. But he wasn’t right for the Joker. He was too old, not physical enough and – while he had an admirably goofy vibe – just didn’t have the right psycho demeanor. When I’m watching “Batman” now I like Nicholson’s pre-Joker performance more than his post-Joker performance.

And one wild one: When the producers of the Christopher Reeve “Superman” movie were considering actors to play the Man of Steel, they considered everybody from Robert Redford to Paul Newman (two of the biggest stars of the time). One of the Salkinds suggested casting the most famous man in the world, Muhammad Ali.

Ali wasn’t right for the role, but what an idea!

RIP Michael Clarke Duncan

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Here’s some sad news as reported by The Associated Press: Actor Michael Clarke Duncan has passed away at 54.

Duncan was probably best known for his role in “The Green Mile,” but I always think of him as Wilson Fisk, the Marvel comics crime boss known as Kingpin, in the Ben Affleck “Daredevil” movie.

Duncan also provided the voice of Kilowog in the “Green Lantern” movie.

Duncan, who some reports pegged as six-five and 300 pounds, had been in a Los Angeles hospital since a July heart attack.

There were a number of … off … elements about the “Daredevil” movie, although I think it gets more right than it gets wrong.

But one of the things that it got right was casting Duncan as Kingpin. It was a controversial move considering that Duncan was black and Fisk/Kingpin had always been portrayed as white in the comics.

This wasn’t a case of the character being changed in latter-day comics, as Marvel has gradually morphed Nick Fury into the image of Samuel L. Jackson, first in its Ultimates line of comics and now in the everyday Marvel world, where the original Fury’s son, who is black, has taken the name Nick Fury Jr.

At the time of the “Daredevil” casting, some people online complained that Duncan shouldn’t have been cast. Kingpin, who is also a Spider-Man enemy, shouldn’t be black, they said.

But there’s no reason besides the way the character has been drawn to rule out the color-blind casting.

And Duncan himself was good in the role of the dapper NYC gang boss.

Interestingly, we’ll see Laurence Fishburne as Perry White in next year’s Superman saga “Man of Steel.” There hasn’t been a lot of controversy about it and it’s possible that Duncan’s casting can be credited with paving the way.

 

 

 

The Essential Geek Library: The Film Classics Library

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It was 1974 and the videocassette recorder was, at least for home use, still on the distant horizon. If movie fans wanted to relive a favorite classic movie, they had few choices. The could wait for an art-house re-release. They could hope to catch it on late-night local TV.

Or they could buy Richard J. Anobile’s Film Classics Library.

Published by Avon and selling for the then-substantial price of $4.95, Anobile’s Film Classics Library was the closest thing to owning a copy of a favorite film that most of us fans could imagine … up until the time we could actually own a copy of a favorite film.

Looking back from the perspective of today’s instant access for movie fans – Want to see a movie? Pop in your disc. Watch it on On Demand. Stream it online. – Anobile’s books were ingenious and just what we needed back then.

Each movie was recreated in the pages of the oversize paperback through every line of dialogue and more than 1,000 frame blow-ups.

The books were, in a way, like comic books. Anobile took images and dialogue from the movies and reproduced them, in sequence, in such a manner that readers could relive the films.

Everything was included except for movement and audio. Opening and closing credits are included, as are lap dissolves and fades, which, Anobile noted, preserve the feel of the film.

I spent hours of my adolescence studying these books, looking at the still shots and reading the dialogue.

I still own two of the entries from the series, covering James Whale’s “Frankenstein” and Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho.” I remember but don’t own Anobile’s recapturing of “Casablanca.” Checking around online today, it appears editions of “The Maltese Falcon” and Buster Keaton’s “The General” were also released.

A few other movies and TV shows, including “Star Trek,” received a similar treatment before the advent of VCRs. None of those later books could match the classic appeal of the FIlm Classics Library.

‘Last Kind Words’ mixes crime, family

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Most crime novels are told from the point of view of the cops or a PI because that’s who we sympathize with. Author Tom Piccirilli’s “The Last Kind Words” is squarely in the corner of a Long Island, New York, family whose business has been, for generations, crime.

And you’ll find yourself sympathizing with them (at least most of them) and even rooting for them.

It helps that Piccirilli, author of several books, is such a solid writer and that he centers his book on Terry Rand, the youngest son in the family. Terry returns home after a five-year absence. He fled after his brother, Collie, went on a killing spree, shooting, stabbing and strangling several strangers one particularly horrific night.

The family finds Terry and lets him know that Collie wants to see him in the final days before he is executed.

Terry comes back and, reluctantly, returns to his old life and his family’s home. He’s reunited with his teenage sister, Dale; his mother and father, his grandfather and his two uncles.

Dale isn’t in the family business yet, although her current boyfriend is a mob wannabe. But his uncles, Mal and Grey, are still hustlers and card sharps. His father, Pinsch, is obsessed with his porcelain figurine collection but can’t resisting breaking and entering a house now and then. Terry’s long-suffering mom is caretaker for Shep, the family patriarch who, despite being nearly lost to dementia, is still the smoothest pickpocket around.

And then there’s Collie.

Collie has asked the family to contact Terry because of a bizarre twist from the night of the killing spree. In a prison visit, Collie tells a disbelieving Terry that he didn’t kill one of the eight people he was convicted of murdering. The killer is still out there and is still killing.

Terry must overcome his anger at his brother as well as the distance he’s put between himself and his family to try to arrive at the truth.

Plaguing Terry throughout the book: Is evil inherited? Sure, everyone in the family except for their mother and Dale is a thief, a pickpocket, burglar or scam artist. But does that make them evil?

And what pushed Collie over the edge? And could that madness affect other members of the family?

There’s an element of danger for the Rand family in a dogged cop who years ago pursued the family but, because of his own loneliness, has become something of a family member.

But the greatest threat to Terry comes from within himself and within the family.

Piccirilli’s sly sense of humor is an undertone in the book. If you noticed anything odd about the names of the family, Piccirilli gradually reveals that they’re all named after breeds of dog. (Terry’s name is Terrier, for example.)

“The Last Kind Words” is a terrific book. It’s steeped in cool noir, with bad guys and even badder guys.

Best of all, Piccirilli is working on another book about the Rand family. I’ll be reading it.

 

 

iPhoneography: Knoxville

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We get down to Knoxville at least once a year, usually in the summer, and I always think about what a livable city it is. At a little less than 200,000 residents, the city has the bustling University of Tennessee campus, a pretty thriving downtown and the beautiful Tennessee River. It’s a natural for iPhone pics.

One of the highlights of the city’s downtown is Market Square, a large public square, surrounded by shops and restaurants, with a scenic fountain as well as space for arts performances.

 

If you walk around you’ll find some interesting sights, like the cemetery at First Presbyterian …

And if you stick around until dark you can enjoy the nightlife.

The Tennessee Theatre is a great indoor performing arts spot. And they still show classic movies there.

Go to Mast General Store while you’re downtown. They have an entertaining assortment of stuff.

Including the kind of old-time candy you don’t see much anymore. Gee, why would anybody think these were supposed to look like cigarettes?

 

 

‘Buffy,’ ‘Angel’ and modern-day cable

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“Buffy the Vampire Slayer” ran seven seasons and its spin-off show, “Angel,” ran a too-short five. Both aired on what were considered “mini” networks, The WB and The CW, but networks nonetheless with obligations to meet the standards of broadcast networks and bring in some semblance of traditional over-the-air ratings.

But we can only dream about how those Joss Whedon series as well as his “Firefly” and “Dollhouse” series might have faired if they had aired on channels that were decidedly off-network.

I’m thinking of TNT, FX, USA, AMC and A&E, channels – not networks, since networks are networks of stations, while cable channels have no physical presence out in the real world – that schedule, carry and nurture high-quality episodic drama.

Can you imagine “The Shield” or “Mad Men” or even “Falling Skies” on network TV?

I can’t. I can’t imagine those niche shows pulling enough viewers to stay on the air. “Firefly” sure didn’t.

I can’t imagine the networks allowing the creators of those shows to produce as few as 10 or 12 or 16 episodes per season, something that’s become routine with shows like “The Walking Dead” and “Breaking Bad.”

There seems to be less pressure without a 22-episode, big network season. Less expectation of Super Bowl-sized ratings. Less expectation of quickly meeting the 100-episode threshold for syndication.

With those shorter seasons, you can weed out the deadwood episodes. Okay, some of us were a little impatient with how long last season’s “The Walking Dead” spent on the farm. But it didn’t have to be that way. Look at last season’s “Mad Men” as an example. While the season had its critics, I thought almost every episode was riveting. Would that have been the case if the creators had been compelled to turn out twice as many episodes to fill out a network season?

Who doesn’t think “Smallville,” for example, would have been better with about a half-dozen fewer episodes per season and a little less filler? How about “Lost?”

There are some drawbacks. Out of sight, out of mind. “The Sopranos” and “Mad Men” took their time and sometimes a year or even more passed between seasons. It was torture but it made us look forward to their return even more. That trick wouldn’t work for every show, however.

And admittedly, there’s still less visibility on cable, at least for some audiences. We live in a world where the biggest ratings are still garnered by standard network fare like cops-and-robbers procedurals. We can take solace in knowing that we’re cooler because we know all about “Justified.”

So in my alternate reality TV word, “Buffy” and “Angel” and “Firefly” are still chugging along, well  into the double-digits in years on the air. They’re just airing fewer episodes and every episode is greeted with a sense of anticipation and celebration.

Whedon, Marvel to do S.H.I.E.L.D TV series

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Breaking news and, well, duh.

Deadline.com is reporting that ABC has ordered a pilot for a live-action TV series that follows the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – the super spy agency headed up by Nick Fury – that brought together “The Avengers” in this year’s biggest movie.

Of course.

For months there’s been speculation on what Marvel might do in its foray into live-action TV. A Jessica Jones/Heroes for Hire series was apparently sidelined and a live-action Hulk remains ill-defined.

So when news broke a few weeks ago that Joss Whedon had, in addition to his “Avengers” sequel directing duties, agreed to develop the big live-action Marvel TV series set in the Avengers universe, all of us went a little meshugana.

And we started talking about possibilities, including a Black Panther series, a Daredevil series, one featuring the Marvel cleanup crew Damage Control and any number of other possibilities.

Of course, a SHIELD (forgive me, I’m dropping the abbreviation practice until further notice) series was proposed and seemed like a natural.

Marvel has spent several movies setting up the workings of SHIELD, introducing us to characters like Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) and Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders).

While we don’t know what kind of series SHIELD  will be (well, presumably not a sitcom) and we don’t know if Jackson or any of the established actors will show up – please, please, please give us Tony Stark and Bruce Banner cameos – the flashy spy stuff that’s a natural part of the SHIELD universe makes this the most likely Marvel TV vehicle.

And since in the comics SHIELD is pervasive throughout the Marvel universe, we still could see meaty roles for fan favorites: Not just Fury and Coulson (yes, I know, I know) and Hill but others from the comics. Matt Murdock could represent Hill on a bogus murder charge. Fury could recruit the Punisher for a mission.

While the series will certainly be set in the present day, wouldn’t it be cool if it had some of the trippy feel of writer/artist Jim Steranko’s ground-breaking work on the comic a generation ago?

Yep, SHIELD is a no-brainer. And with Whedon behind the scenes and his frequent collaborators Jed Whedon and  Maurissa Tancharoen working on the series too, I think we’re going to get more of the Marvel goodness we enjoyed in “The Avengers.”

Comics classic: The Avengers Kree-Skrull War

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When fandom realized, a few years ago, that Marvel was planning an “Avengers” movie, half of those who thought about it said it would be a huge hit and half said it couldn’t be done.

And all of them said the plot should cover the Kree-Skrull War.

Well,  now that we’re on the other side of a billion dollars in box office receipts and great critical and fan reception, we know that it was doable, especially with Joss Whedon in the director’s chair.

But what about those Krees and Skrulls?

For those of us reading comics back in the day, the Kree-Skrull war was everything that was great about Marvel Comics, especially compared to DC.

Marvel had, by the time Avengers 89 came out in June 1971, spent nearly a decade building a universe that included not only costume-clad superheroes like the Avengers and the Fantastic Four but also more “cosmic” creatures like Captain Marvel, a Kree warrior come to Earth, and the Skrulls, alien invaders and shape-shifting imposters who fought the FF.

Writer Roy Thomas and artists Sal Buscema, Neal Adams and John Buscema gave us, over the course of eight monthly issues, a nice introduction to the larger universe outside Earth’s atmosphere and outside the influence of its “everyday” heroes.

Although Thor, Captain America, Iron Man and lesser-known Avengers like Scarlet Witch, Vision and Black Panther were the kings of New York superherodom, they were pitted here against alien menaces. While some of the storyline was large in scope – including space battles – other moments were (literally) small scale: One of the most famous sequences came in Avengers 93, when Ant-Man shrinks to microscopic size and goes inside the Vision to effect repairs on the android Avenger. The overall series plotline is almost ridiculously complicated and involves everything from the Fantastic Four to Skrulls masquerading as cows.

Because comics of the time were rarely planned out months in advance as “big events” are now, it was extraordinary that Thomas and company took the better part of a year to tell this story. DC comics was still, at this point, doing “one and done” stories. For all of us elementary school kids out there, the Kree-Skrull War series re-emphasized how different – and how much better – Marvel was.

So we didn’t get a Kree-Skrull war in the “Avengers” movie, although we did get a dose of Marvel’s cosmic characters. Particularly when Thanos shows up in the credits.

And of course, the Skrulls figured into the “Avengers” movie as the Chitauri, a disguised version of our favorite galactic marauders.

So maybe we’re inching toward a big-screen version of the classic comic storyline.

In the meantime, we can enjoy the original, which has been reprinted as a trade paperback a few years ago. The full-color paperback really emphasizes the artistry of Adams, one of my favorites.

 

iPhoneography: Zombie Walk

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Really, who doesn’t love a good zombie parade?

Today’s Zombie Walk in Muncie – sponsored by local groups to benefit Second Harvest Food Bank and Animal Rescue Fund (ARF) – was held around the Ball State University campus.

Several dozen people turned out for what was rather a brisk Zombie Walk. It was a lot of fun and made for good iPhone pictures.

There was a medical theme to some of the zombies. I saw at least one in surgical garb and this patient, complete with IV.

Zombie Jesus or Zombie Russell Brand? You decide.

Zombie Bandana Guy was properly freaky.

Some charming zombies ladies in dresses. I’m a fashion know-nothing. Are these supposed to be out-of-date old lady zombies?

You think you have problems, all you zombies out there. This zombie had two heads. TWO HEADS! Yet she seemed relatively upbeat.

This photo doesn’t properly show it off, but this zombie had a drooping eyeball. Great makeup.

If you’ve got zombies, you need some paramilitary human presence. Goes without saying.

You can tell the zombie kid to the left is thinking, “What’s the deal with the guy in the red bodysuit? I thought this was a zombie walk.”

The organizers put a green screen near the end and asked zombies to pass in front of it. Made for some great closeup pics.

This kid was totally into it.

Zombie Blues Brothers. They’re on a mission from God.

TV: What I’m watching, given up on and looking forward to

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When I was a kid, besides going back to school and the run-up to Halloween, this time of year was a big deal for me because of the new fall TV season.

Yes, I was a TV geek.

I eagerly anticipated the fall season, which usually had at least one or two shows that I wanted to see. Besides, who could guess just how great “The Night Stalker” or “Planet of the Apes” (the TV series) might make the fall of 1974?

There’s less anticipation about the fall TV season nowadays because the TV year is so fractured – worthwhile series debut throughout the calendar year – and, speaking only for myself, I watch less TV.

Because I watch less TV, I try to make every random hour and half-hour count.

So here’s what I’m watching right now as well as what I’m anticipating, what I’ve given up on and what I’m worried about.

“Copper” is a BBC America series – the channel’s first original production – that just debuted last Sunday. It’s about cops in New York City in 1864. The city was a lawless place, full of casual cruelty to children and others who couldn’t defend themselves, and the police department wasn’t much better. Into the mix comes Kevin Corcoran (Tom Weston-Jones), an Irish-American veteran of the Civil War who has come back to the city to find his wife missing and his child dead. The series, which has a nice gritty tone, follows Corcoran as he investigates crimes – the murder of a child prostitute in the first episodes, for example – and patrols the grimy streets and brothels of the city.

“Justified” is returning for a fourth season sometime in early 2013 and it’s likely that our favorite Kentucky-born-and-bred U.S. marshal, Raylan Givens, and his longtime friend and sometimes antagonist, Boyd Crowder, will find themselves up against some new lowlife. Timothy Olyphant and Walton Goggins lead a great cast.

We don’t have to wait until next year to see “The Walking Dead.” The AMC series returns on Oct. 14 for its third season. The series will be split between the prison the survivors were near in the final episode of last season and the town of Woodbury, presided over by the Governor. The first eight episodes air this year, with eight more beginning in February.

I’m not sure when “Mad Men” and “Falling Skies” will be back – hopefully early in 2013 – but I’ll be watching the two very different series. Both came off solid seasons this year.

Few series have been as enjoyable in the past three years as NBC’s “Community,” an odd and offbeat show about a group of misfits who become friends in a study group at a second-rate community college. But I’m worried about “Community” this year after the departure of creator Dan Harmon. By most accounts a genius with people skills issues, Harmon got fired at the end of last season. The cast is great and the stories – complete with blanket forts, paintball apocalypses and genuinely nice character moments – are wonderful. But can the show survive without Harmon? Or will it become another kooky sitcom like “Scrubs?”

I’m not sure I’ll be around for a second season of “Longmire,” the A&E series based on Craig Johnson’s enjoyable series of mystery novels about a Wyoming sheriff. The show looked pretty good and the cast was fine, but the mysteries were mediocre. When the show did take a page from one of Johnson’s stories, as it did in the season finale, it didn’t bring the author’s charms.

I’m not sure I’m looking forward to anything on TV quite as much as a live-action Marvel Comics series set in the “Avengers” movie universe. Luke Cage? Daredevil? S.H.I.E.L.D? Where will creative genius and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” mastermind Joss Whedon take this series? Wherever it is, I’m following.

The best part about TV is that, in any given season, some really terrific show can suddenly appear and make you glad you gave it a try. I’ve felt that way about every show on this list at one time or another.