It’s All Geek To Me — Geek Smash Puny Casting Rumors!
So, what have we learned this week, ninjas? If you’re a talented everyman-with-an-edge actor/writer/director who gets cast as the mild-mannered alter ego of a gamma-irradiated monster on the run from the army in a Marvel Studios production, don’t smash the hand that feeds you. In simpler terms, don’t be a douchebag.
To be fair, we don’t really know what went on during the negotiations between Marvel and Ed Norton over reprising his role as Bruce Banner for Joss Whedon’s Avengers movie, and we probably never will. Marvel essentially painted Norton as a big meanie, and Norton’s agent has implied the real cause for the split was money. Norton’s own public statement about the split was classy, restrained, and completely devoid of useful information. I do remember there were some problems during the shooting of Louis Leterrier’s The Incredible Hulk over the script, with Norton doing a re-write and getting promised more creative input, which he was ultimately not given, and some angry words were exchanged (some of them undoubtedly in French, so, fun!). Perhaps during talks over the new contract Marvel used the Eye of Agamotto to peer into the future and see Norton could be a problem again, so they decided to nip the whole thing in the bud.
At this point, though, I’m beginning to suspect that Norton is just a victim of Marvel’s desire to keep everyone talking about the Avengers movie. Now that he got the boot, all the wild and crazy casting rumors can be let free to run rampant on the web like little information gremlins. Joaquin Phoenix! David Tennant! Mark Ruffalo! Stephen Colbert! Okay, I made that last one up, but I’ve always wanted to start a rumor of my very own. Spread little rumor, spread like the wind! For the record, I think these are all fine choices, and they seem to indicate that Marvel does care to fill Norton’s shoes with some quality talent. Until the ink is dry on the contract, however, we’ll just have to do the old wait-and-see.
In a related story, Eric Bana just bought a pizza.
On the subject of casting, let’s discuss this Andrew Garfield person. I’d never heard of the guy before his being cast in the Spider-Man reboot, but I just happened to have rented The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus the same weekend of the big announcement, so I got to see him in action, and I heartily approve of the choice. In Parnassus (a great, if uneven film that Terry Gilliam fans will probably dig), Garfield plays a lovesick and slightly gawky teen with great panache. It was very easy to see how the brass at Marvel could find their Peter Parker in him. Kudos to all the casting directors at Marvel Studios who’ve done such a great job with their productions thus far, and taking their jobs so seriously. Although in the comic book adaptations of their lives I can see the potential for Ed Norton and Terrence Howard to team up as super-villains to exact revenge in the near future.
Finally, in news of a production with no official casting yet, reports, or rather a single “tweet” from Production Weekly says Marvel’s The Runaways is set to start filming early next year. If you’re not familiar with the story, I have three words for you, or more specifically, two names and an initial: Brian K. Vaughan. Yeah, that one. Vaughan’s awesome comic series about a group of (mostly) super-powered teens whose parents are all part of a villainous cabal is ripe for a movie treatment. So here it comes! Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist director Peter Sollett will be directing, with a script from Drew Pearce, author of the British cape-and-cowl sitcom, No Heroics. As self-respecting comic fans we all owe it to ourselves to get in line early for this one, if only to help boost the Vaughan factor at the box office. Why, you ask? “Y,” indeed. Maybe a little Runaways love will finally get THAT epic story into theaters.
So anyway, to recap, blah blah blah Ed Norton, blah blah screw Mel Gibson, blah blah blah casting, blah blah have fun at Inception.
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