The Week In Geek: Burton, Marvel Casting, Turtles
TIM BURTON TO GET RESPECTABILITY BACK AND MAKE AN ORIGINAL MOVIE AGAIN?
Even for a big Tim Burton fan like myself, it is pretty easy to roll my eyes whenever a new project of his is announced lately. It seems nearly every movie he has made over the last decade has been either a remake (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Planet of the Apes, Alice in Wonderland, the upcoming Dark Shadows) or an adaptation of pre-existing material (Sweeney Todd, Big Fish) Not all of these have been bad; Sweeny Todd and Big Fish in fact were both pretty damn good. But I’ve longed for a return to the Tim Burton who brought us classic original scripts and ideas like Edward Scissorhands and The Nightmare Before Christmas, and his most underrated classic, Ed Wood.
Well, it seems we might be getting something along those lines. It was announced this week that Burton would be reteaming with the writers of the screenplay for Ed Wood, Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, for a movie based on artist Margaret Keane. While you may not know the name, you definitely know her artwork; those kitschy 50’s paintings of children with giant saucer eyes, found in every Grandma’s house, dentist’s office, as well as decorating the walls of all hipster art chicks known to man. What you may not know is that her husband, Walter Keane, who mass produced prints of her artwork to be sold nationwide, took credit as the artist while she worked in anonymity in his basement. The entire ruse broke up their marriage, ending in an ugly court battle where the judge actually had both Margaret and her husband Walter paint big eyed creepy kids side by side for the jury to see. Of course, Margaret proved her skills in court and won the case. She then became a Jehovah’s Witness, and started drawing “happy children” who in most ways are creepier than the sad ones. If this all doesn’t sound like a great Tim Burton movie waiting to happen, I don’t know what does. My advice to Tim Burton: Don’t just produce this movie, direct it and get your reputation back as great director and not just as a Hot Topic sell out. And for once, don’t return Johnny Depp or Danny Elfman’s phone calls. There are other people in Hollywood.
MARVEL MOVIE CASTING
So the casting for X-Men: First Class keeps getting weirder and weirder. Apparently, actress Alice Eve has dropped out of playing mutant telepath/skank Emma Frost, to be replaced by Janurary Jones from AMC’s Mad Men (a perfect bit of casting in my opinion…I mean her real name is January, and she’s playing a character named Frost) the other characters announced so far have left me scratching my head though…we have C – List X-Men like Banshee and Havok, but lately they have been announcing some real bottom of the barrel mutants for this movie, like Azazel and Angel Salvadore. Even a long time X-Men fan like me had to google some of these guys. Why haven’t they announced Cyclops and Jean Grey yet? Are they really only gonna populate this movie with second rate X-Men? I trust you Matthew Vaughn, just don’t dissapoint us. X3 and Wolverine were bad enough.
In other Marvel casting news, apparently a list of finalists has emerged for the part of the female lead in the new Spider-Man reboot. Among the actresses being looked at are Imogen Poots, Ophelia Lovibond, Lily Collins, Teresa Palmer and Emma Roberts. What is interesting is that none of these girls is set to play Mary Jane Watson. So who will Peter Parker’s love interest be? The popular assumption is that it will be Gwen Stacy, but maybe after Spider-Man 3 no one wants to go there. Will Spidey’s #1 girl in this new trilogy be none other than Felicia Hardy, the Black Cat? Or is it Betty Brant? My money is on Black Cat, because she is the furthest from Mary Jane there is, and can actually do more than scream and be a hostage. But right now anything and anyone is possible.
TMNT GETS THE REBOOT TREATMENT
Sigh Another day, another reboot. This time though, it is early 90’s pop culture sensation the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Although this franchise was rebooted already in 2007 with an animated movie simply titled TMNT, this seems to be a return to the live action film heyday of the early 90’s. Paramount is hoping for a franchise to replace Transformers, and with the TMNT generation now spawning kids of their own, this seems to be the next big property. Now get ready for the bad news; Michael Bay’s awful Platinum Dunes studios are the one who are bringing this baby back to life. While TMNT was never a big part of my youth (the original 80’s Black and White comics were too “indie” for me as a kid, and I was already in high school by the time the cartoon aired) I know a lot of my younger friends are going to want to to jump of cliff at the notion of Michael Bay having anything to do with their beloved Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael.
And finally, the cover of this week’s issue of Rolling Stone, with the cast of True Blood. Just because.
