Hollywood roundup

Since the biggest thing in Hollywood for the past decade has been comic book movies, the biggest news seems to inevitably revolve around that genre.  But the comic book movie really got its start back in 1978 with the original Superman, so it makes sense that the big story this week was the casting of Henry Cavill as the latest incarnation of the Man of Steel (which also seems to be the working title for the new movie).  Teenagers at this point are probably not as familiar with Christopher Reeve in the role, so it's a good time to sell the character to a new generation. (I'll give Brandon Routh credit for doing a decent job in the otherwise forgettable Superman Returns.)  I've never seen any of the work Cavill has done, but I am willing to trust that Zack Synder (director) and Chris Nolan (producer) know what they are looking for.  Ultimately it will come down to those two taking the character and story in a new direction.  They know the comic book movie pretty well - I thought Synder did a fantastic job with Watchmen, and obviously Nolan has done alright by Batman with his two movies.

Speaking of which, the rumors online (or maybe just the wishful thinking) for awhile now have had Joseph Gordon-Levitt as The Riddler in Nolan's next Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises. Once the announcements of Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle and Tom Hardy as Bane came out, those rumors seemed to die out.  But those fires seem to be rekindled with the report that Gordon-Levitt is in talks with Nolan to join the cast of the The Dark Knight Returns.  Nobody is saying what his role would be, and with two villains already announced, it seems unlikely that The Riddler would be the part, but it will be interesting to find out exactly how he fits into the mix.

I don't think the original mini-series of Stephen King's The Stand was perfect by any means, but I am pretty sure the problem wasn't that it was too long.  It's a heavy, intricate book with a lot of great ideas and subplots, and it naturally seems like something that is better told in long form.  So while I am not surprised that a studio would be interested in going back to the source material, I find it a little puzzling that they are looking at it as a feature film.  Warner and CBS both have ties to premium cable channels where the story could play out as another mini-series (with an increased budget and no broadcast restrictions like the original ABC version had).  If a book like Band of Brothers can be turned into a 10-hour event, something like The Stand could easily go the length of a standard cable season (13 hours or so).  Beyond that, there is plenty of material there to expand it into a regular series, even without tapping into the expanded material that has come from the Marvel comics series.

Long form is the direction that Stephen King's other magnum opus, The Dark Tower, is headed.  We're all still waiting to hear if Javier Bardem is going to accept the part of the gunslinger, but that's not the only choice Bardem is facing.  It seems that he's also being enticed to take the part as the next bad guy in the Bond series.  Not too much is known about this next installment, but Sam Mendes is an intriguing choice as director, and whatever he told Bardem seems to have gotten him intrigued as well.  Between those offers and Bardem's surprise nomination for Biutiful, he's certainly becoming an A-list name in 2011.