Geophyrd
05-Jun-2006, 12:26 PM
Spoiler contained for Xmen III late in the post, so if you read, its on you!
Has anyone noticed that whenever Big Stars sign up for cool genre projects, it kills the damn projects?
what sparked my thought was that today Keanu Reeves said there may not be a sequel to Constantine. I am a BIG fan of Hellblazers comics and John Constantine is one of my favorite characters. For those who don't know, Alan Moore created the character based on the look and personality of his friend, Sting. Somehow (I know how) the Brit wise-ass blonde Constantine became the dark haired, humorless (and American) Keanu Constantine. I guess when they thought about it, he was the One. The movie didn't suck and did tap some of my favorite past threads from the comic. But damn, it wasn't as good as the comic by a long yard.
Now, Keanu is saying there might be no Constantine 2. He said he'd love to, but that it was complicated. I would imagine that it is complicated because he's got a full roster of flicks ahead of him and he costs ALOT of money. Now, if we got a Vinnie Jones, a Jason Flemying, or even a Simon Pegg to play Constantine, we'd have a franchise that didn't cost enough, went further and lasted longer.
Sigh. I'll give another example. I don't know how anyone else felt about Interview with the Vampire, but I thought it was one of the best vampire movies ever. Cruise, Pitt and even Kirsten Dunst (who I mostly don't care for...rewatch Spiderman and think about how almost anyone else might have done better) kicked some butt. I suspect that without the high cost of the stars (and Cruise who refused some elements of the original story and then refused to do another one) Neil Jordan might have actually made several films in the series instead of just the one. Think Star Wars with fangs.
I'm not thinking about stars who got big in roles and then moved past. Patrick Stewart is probably right not to be Picard again. Shatner's moved past Kirk. Clooney's not on ER anymore and if he was, he'd probably not be very good. But I can think of a bunch of other examples when people are already stars kill the hand that feeds them and our imaginations. Can anyone else?
By the way, I personally believe that Ben Affleck was born to play Jesse Custer in Preacher. Yes, I'm aware that I may be violating my own rant, but I really don't think James Marsden has an ounce of Jesse in him. I believe in Xmen III, when he died, people would have cheered if the director had bothered to show his death. That said, if HBO is seriously considering making the series, they should consider Affleck but only if he's committed to at least 3 seasons!
This rant brought to you by a disappointing Sopranos season finale and an overly large cup of iced coffee.
Has anyone noticed that whenever Big Stars sign up for cool genre projects, it kills the damn projects?
what sparked my thought was that today Keanu Reeves said there may not be a sequel to Constantine. I am a BIG fan of Hellblazers comics and John Constantine is one of my favorite characters. For those who don't know, Alan Moore created the character based on the look and personality of his friend, Sting. Somehow (I know how) the Brit wise-ass blonde Constantine became the dark haired, humorless (and American) Keanu Constantine. I guess when they thought about it, he was the One. The movie didn't suck and did tap some of my favorite past threads from the comic. But damn, it wasn't as good as the comic by a long yard.
Now, Keanu is saying there might be no Constantine 2. He said he'd love to, but that it was complicated. I would imagine that it is complicated because he's got a full roster of flicks ahead of him and he costs ALOT of money. Now, if we got a Vinnie Jones, a Jason Flemying, or even a Simon Pegg to play Constantine, we'd have a franchise that didn't cost enough, went further and lasted longer.
Sigh. I'll give another example. I don't know how anyone else felt about Interview with the Vampire, but I thought it was one of the best vampire movies ever. Cruise, Pitt and even Kirsten Dunst (who I mostly don't care for...rewatch Spiderman and think about how almost anyone else might have done better) kicked some butt. I suspect that without the high cost of the stars (and Cruise who refused some elements of the original story and then refused to do another one) Neil Jordan might have actually made several films in the series instead of just the one. Think Star Wars with fangs.
I'm not thinking about stars who got big in roles and then moved past. Patrick Stewart is probably right not to be Picard again. Shatner's moved past Kirk. Clooney's not on ER anymore and if he was, he'd probably not be very good. But I can think of a bunch of other examples when people are already stars kill the hand that feeds them and our imaginations. Can anyone else?
By the way, I personally believe that Ben Affleck was born to play Jesse Custer in Preacher. Yes, I'm aware that I may be violating my own rant, but I really don't think James Marsden has an ounce of Jesse in him. I believe in Xmen III, when he died, people would have cheered if the director had bothered to show his death. That said, if HBO is seriously considering making the series, they should consider Affleck but only if he's committed to at least 3 seasons!
This rant brought to you by a disappointing Sopranos season finale and an overly large cup of iced coffee.