Another Peek
I’ve been lurking behind the scenes of the upcoming HTG Comic Con, set to launch this weekend (December 12th), doing my favorite thing: People watching. In one booth, getting ready to unveil his daunting version of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ brilliant graphic novel WATCHMEN, is JGraham. Graham has been instrumental in organizing this convention and I applaud his diligent work in that department. However, the Watchmen fans I polled all have one major gripe: casting. Despite solid choices such as Guy Pearce as Adrian “Ozymandias” Veidt, Mickey Rourke as The Comedian and Liev Schrieber as John “Dr. Manhattan” Ostermann, the rest of the top-lining stars are…odd choices. John Cusack as Night Owl? Too comedic…I see someone more like Tim Robbins or William Hurt. Rachel Weisz as Silk Spectre? Too young. How about Demi Moore? Most glaring is Daniel “James Bond” Craig as Rorschach. Rorschach is much better suited to William H. Macy or David Caruso than the tall, imposing Craig. Whatever. The Phantom will still see the film, despite my disappointment.
At the next table setting gear to whore the upcoming Daredevil: The Devil You Know…is writer Scott Kessler and Exec. Producer Kris Greet. Their casting choices aren’t much better. Edward Norton as Daredevil? I don’t see it, despite Norton’s solid acting chops in films like Primal Fear, American History X and Fight Club. He just doesn’t scream SUPERHERO to me. Maybe I’m wrong, but I’d love to have seen Brad Pitt in this role, with former WWF wrestler King Kong Bundy as The Kingpin. I know, The Phantom is having another of his famous pipedreams. Both Kessler and KG looked at me like a piece of lint when I asked for an interview, so f**k them.
I wandered around for a while, looking at the displays as they were unveiled to the press. An array of colorful sci-fi paraphernalia drew me to the Firefly booth. Ok, The Phantom is going to go ahead and mark himself as a pariah here in HTG: Joss Whedon sucks and his movies/TV shows are crap. Has anyone forgotten (the original) Buffy The Vampire Slayer (Starring Kristy “WhereAmINow” Swanson and Luke “Not a pretty boy anymore” Perry) or Alien Resurrection (A remake of ALIENS with pirates…ARGH Me Matey…Argh!!)? For those of you who do, can you remember the stink that permeated your soul as you watched these films? Does anyone really care about the adventures of pretty, WB-ready people in space? Does anyone know (or care) who the hell Nathan Fillion is? Does anyone else remember Adam Baldwin when he made movies (Full Metal Jacket) that mattered? Eh…whatever keeps the kids tuning in I guess.
On the other hand, The Phantom IS excited about the return of some real heroes: Superman…Green Lantern…Judge Dredd…just to name a few. I’ll be back to ramble about those and everything else that happened at the convention in my next column…until then I await hate mail from all you Joss Whedon/Buffy/Angel/Firefly fans! C’mon…I won’t read your letters, but burning them will shave a few bucks off my electricity bill this winter!
Time will tell…
