Topic: The Movie Thread

I saw Le Mans '66 /For v Ferrari yesterday. Decent film. Not the most touching of biographical flicks you'll ever see, but Damon and Bale make it. The pace keeps the relatively long runtime feel brisk too.
Bale's accent is rather inconsist, I had to google where his character was actually from (not far from me) to confirm what he was going for 😂 It's a good performance though.

Michael B. Jordan has reportedly pitched his vision to WB for Superman. JJ Abrams has had meetings with WB for Superman as well.

Also, there are rumours that Pattison is having trouble bulking up for the role as Batman.

@WanderingBullet If WB have any sense (they don't), they'll shift that very much to the back-burner, or at least just make him John Henry Irons or have him show up as Calvin Ellis in some multiverse thing. There's no need to ethnicity or sex-swap characters, certainly not major players.

JJ will probably get Superman (though I was under the impression that a deal was already done). If TROS 'bombs', perhaps WB will get cold feet though.

They could get away with an incredibly athletic build if he could manage it. That said, there's nothing to say that we actually have to see him in any particular state of undress and still have the portrayal a convincing one. In addition to that, even Affleck and Cavil'ls suits are padded and sculpted. There are very few ways to get the look of a defined physique (no matter how defined that physique is) without relying on incredibly thin materials that probably wouldn't look great on screen.
So long as they don't go overboard with the muscle suit like Shazam or make him look like an action figure (Routh in Superman Returns) - it'll probably be fine. I expect it'll be the same team behind the new bat suit as have done them for years anyway.

@LN78 FlyBy was McG's film in the end, but JJ did the script - early 2000s. The only reason that didn't happen was because McG refused to film in Australia.

EDIT: on the casting, Matt Bomer was wanted by Brett Ratner when he was in charge. We've all seen the Cavill screen test pic by now too. WB wanted Hartnett. I don't think I've ever seen anything saying that Chris Rock was attached. But Den of Geek reckons as I've read elsewhere that Shia Labeouf was cast as Jimmy, Scarlett Johansson was the preferred choice for Lois Lane and RDJ was signed up up as Lex Luthor.

There's a couple of versions of the script out there. Both very JJ, and mostly not very good. Elements of it all can be seen in both Superman Returns and Man of Steel.

@LN78 Interesting. That would've been around '98 or early '99 - well before Flyby was a thing. Maybe WB were turning over some of Smith and John Peter's stuff in prep of getting something moving.

@LN78 Yeah. Just happy cashing the cheques! Which is Fair enough.

If you want the weirdest Superman movie stuff - see if you can find Ilya Salkind's original story treatment for Superman 3

@LN78 It's certifiably bonkers. Braniac yes. In a weird love triangle with Superman and Supergirl that involves time travel to medieval England and Superman and Braniac posing as rival knights. I am not making this up!

@LN78 It's certainly the best explanation!

@LN78
Didn't look very hard, but this is all I could find that lays it out as I recall:
https://www.comicbookmovie.com/superman/a-review-of-the-origi...

Sweet bejesus, The Irishman is 3 and half hours long. Gonna need a big tube of Pringles to get through that.

@KALofKRYPTON I think WB should stick with Cavill. He was pretty decent as Supes. Problem is where do they go from here? The shared universe didn't really panned out that well for them but at the same time it would be weird for them cast him again if they decide to reboot the character. Hopefully, the next one they do isn't as dark tone wise.

Also, I thought The Irishman was a pretty good movie. De Niro was great in it but I loved Pesci's and Pacino's performances especially. They probably should've used a body double for young Frank Sheeran, though cause even with the de-aging thing his movements still looked a bit stiff.

@WanderingBullet I agree. I like Cavill. It's a shame his Superman wasn't really given a chance to just be Superman.
I think if WB wanted to, they could quite easily get a separate Superman film done again with him. Exec's only think about the bottom line though - and I fully expect them to continue letting JJ fail upwards and take over the DC films.

I'll get to The Irishman - may have to give it a couple of sittings though.

@LN78 That's probably a good shout. My interest in Bond as a movie character is waning though. I've been reading the Fleming books and find them far more engaging than any of the films have really managed.

@LN78 thread jumping

@LN78 I recalled watching an interview where Cavill expressed his interest in playing James Bond but I didn't know he had auditioned for the role.

It's also pretty interesting that back then Burt Reynolds was offered the role after Sean Connery retired but he turned it down.

@WanderingBullet @LN78 There have been some bizarre, but fascinating, Bond casting stories over the years. My favourites are the Sam Neill screentests, done for The Living Daylights I believe, and the fact that James Brolin practically started filming Octopussy before the producers realised they needed Roger Moore back to compete with Connery's unofficial Bond film, Never Say Never Again (Brolin's screentests, and even a brief scene with Vijay Amritraj, are on the Blu-Ray). The casting process for GoldenEye also saw Liam Neeson, Mel Gibson and Denzel Washington considered, before they knew Pierce Brosnan would be definitely available.

Coincidentally, given that we're due a teaser trailer for No Time to Die next week, and I'd spent all day playing old PSone Bond games, I watched SPECTRE last night. I'm still not 100% sold on the film's third act, especially since I reckon the first two-thirds of it have incredible potential. Given how serialised Craig's films have become, it'll be interesting to see whether his final outing builds upon and justifies its randomness, or whether it remains unaddressed for all time.

Although shame on them for wasting the outstanding Monica Bellucci on such a two-dimensional, throwaway role, and for having Sam Smith's nauseating falsetto ruin a perfectly good orchestral theme.

@LN78 @RogerRoger
I'd say that Evans is too old.

They really should aim at someone 25 - 30 if they're planning on getting several films out of them. Craig is a rather craggy looking bloke anyway so his ageing is slightly less noticeable - but certainly by Spectre, he looks like a melting Riddler (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Riddlers).

Has anyone seen Boogie Nights? I just started watching it the other night and was thinking of getting the soundtrack. Is it all disco, soul and funk?

@LN78 @KALofKRYPTON Yeah, I doubt the Cold War period piece angle, too (they were gonna do that when the Iron Curtain fell, and the rumour has kept circulating ever since, but an important part of Bond's appeal is each film's comment and relevancy to its time period... plus, you can't have product placement Xperia phones in the 1960s). I think, if anything, they'll retire the James Bond character and make Double-Oh Seven films with original characters carrying the number.

@LN78 The character has been the franchise... and heck, still could be. As long as they don't kill Daniel Craig's Bond, he could pop up in a mentor-esque, Felix Leiter support role for the new (probably female, or probably BAME) Double-Oh Seven. Stranger things have happened, and in the current rush to provide woke diversity in film, I can see the appeal of Bond's character fading (or at least, his critics getting louder in the wake of each adventure).