BlackGeekdom Science-Fiction from a Different Perspective

I admit that I can be more than a little negative about upcoming movies that look like bad ideas.  So, in order to do something different, I am going to write positive things about a movie which should be avoided at all cost.  I am going to give you 10 reasons I am going to go see Conan.

1.  Jason Momoa: I liked Jason Momoa’s character in Stargate: Atlantis.  If he plays Conan with the same amount of intensity that he played Ronin, then you can be sure he’s going to throw everything he has into the role.  I want to see him do well.  The Sci-Fi Fantasy genre could use a good young minority lead actor.

2.  Mickey Rourke: Mickey Rourke will most likely be cast as Conan’s dad.  This is  a good choice.  No one in Hollywood is as rugged and haggard looking as Rourke.  He’s been riding his success in the movie The Wrestler and has turned it into numerous upcoming roles, especially as Whiplash in the upcoming Iron Man sequel.  He’s a great actor, and is especially good at playing characters who aren’t necessarily evil, but have a skewed moral compass.

3.  Conan:  I am a fan of the character Conan.  Conan the Barbarian and Conan the Destroyer starring Arnold Schwarzenegger are a couple of my favorite movies.  It makes me happy to see a possibility that the franchise could be resurrected.  Conan the Cimmerian is one of the few comics I follow every month.  He’s a great character who often times finds a way to come out on top no matter the odds.  He’s relentless, unforgiving, and fears nothing.

4.  Arnold Schwarzenegger:  Just a whisper of a rumor that he could make an appearance in the movie.  That would be worth seeing it.

5.  I saw Pathfinder (Marcus Nispel director of Conan, also directed Pathfinder) and 10,000 B.C. in the theaters….If I can spend good movie theater money on them, I can do the same for Conan.

6.  Epic Fantasies are the reason I go to the movies.  And I believe that Conan is going to be an epic fantasy.  The interest level is so high for a Conan movie, and the studio has to be hoping for a franchise, so this has to be bigger than Pathfinder and 10,000 B.C.

7.  Bob Sapp. MMA star Bob Sapp is apparently cast as a villain according to /Film.  Sapp  was pretty impressive in the last match I saw him in.  So, the fight scenes will be good.  And it’ll keep him off the streets.

8.  It’ll be in 3-D more than likely, and I haven’t seen any 3-D movie in the theater, ever.  Not even Avatar.  Actually, when I was 11 I saw Starchaser: The Legend of Orin in 3-D, but I don’t count that. (at least I think I saw it in 3-D)

9.  Djimon Hounsou:  This movie will open up the possibility that the Thulsa  Doom movie starring and produced by Djimon Hounsou will become a reality. Thulsa Doom was an immortal sorcerer who was originally played by James Earl Jones in Conan the Barbarian.  He’s a prominent character in the comics and in.  According to Lobo, this movie will give us a chance to see an African culture that isn’t Egyptian in a movie.

Okay. I came up with 9.  It was an ambitious list to begin with.  Oh, and Conan the Cimmerian or Conan the Barbarian is a character created by Robert E. Howard.  There’s a really good movie called The Whole Wide World starring Vincent D’Onofrio as Howard.  Check it out.

Posted under Articles, Movies, Rumors

Source: IMDB

According to IMDB, Brad Pitt has agreed to portray Sherlock Holmes nemesis in the upcoming Guy Ritchie movie starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law.   Honestly, I didn’t really see the point of doing a Sherlock Holmes big budget flick without Moriarty in at least a cameo.  Now, my feelings are justified.  It seems the studio isn’t happy with the rough cut.  However, I am going to side with the studio on this one.  Sherlock Holmes isn’t Sherlock Holmes without a Moriarty.  Eve if it is just to set up the sequels, I think a cameo by his greatest foe would be welcome, especially for Sherlock Holmes fans like me.

Sherlock Holmes hits theaters this Christmas.  Guy Ritchie directs Robert Downey, Jr. as Sherlock Holmes and Jude Law as Dr. Watson.

Posted under Movies, Rumors

Source:  Scifi Wire

“No flight, no tights.”  Those were the rules established at the beginning of Smallville’s run.  We have seen Clark fly (as Kal-El), and he’s been running around as the Red/Blue Blur.  Now it appears that they are going to put him in tights, well sort of.  Here it is.

Posted under Rumors, Television

LL Cool J is in talks to join the spinoff of popular CBS TV Show NCIS.  The show will be about the NCIS undercover division based in L.A.  LL Cool J would play Sam Hannah, a former U.S. Navy Seal.  It’s not genre news, but anytime a brother gets a job in Prime Time Television, I think that’s news.

Posted under Rumors

Source:  The Los Angeles Times

It’s being reported that talks have broken down between Samuel L. Jackson and Marvel about reprising his role as the one-eyed superspy and Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.  To me, it sounds like these hard economic times are making the fledgling movie studio is tightening its budget (taking into account its breakdown of talks with Terrance Howard), especially with the slate of future movies that it has already announced.  Maybe Marvel thinks it can sell its movies just based on characters and fanboys alone.  But I hope they realize that mainstream consumers aren’t interested in the Ultimate Marvel Universe, but do want to see the actors they know in big action movies.

If this interests you, please read the L.A. Times article by Geoff Boucher.

Posted under Articles, Movies, Rumors

Three months ago, Lobo posted a story saying that there was going to be a relaunch of the Black Panther.  The story behind that was that T’Challa would be replaced by a woman. Now, we think that that woman is going to be Echo.  Apparently, after Dark Reign (if you don’t know what that is, go grab the one shot) Echo, also known as Ronin, quits the Avengers only to end up in Wakanda after T’Challa is attacked.  Given, she is Hispanic-Native American, but could this spell the end for Black Panther as a viable comic book series?  Who really knows who Echo is?  I am not completely against it, but this move somewhat vexes me.  Are there any other women who could be the Black Panther?  Storm?   But other than Echo, is there any one remotely qualified?  Probably not.  So, we will have to see.

Posted under Comics, Rumors

Source:  IGN

I called it, sort of.  (Thor Has a Director).  Kevin McKidd is in talks to play the Norse God of Thunder.  This was reported by IGN straight from McKidd himself.  I think he’d be perfect.  The only other person who comes close to the gravitas he would bring would be Karl Urban.  But if they wanted to go young, I wouldn’t have a problem with True Blood’s Alexander Skarsgard.

McKidd seems to be as excited about Kenneth Branagh directing as I am.  This movie would make a perfect complement to Iron Man if done properly.

My only problem is that I am still stumped on who to play Captain America.

Posted under Movies, Rumors

If you wanted to shake things up then this it the way to go.  The source Rich Johnston mentioned in the article is pretty reliable, but I will still keep my fingers crossed.

Source Scifi.com

David Tennant hasn’t yet abandoned his starring role in the BBC SF series Doctor Who, but rumors have already begun circulating that Paterson Joseph–who guest-starred in the first season–may be the leading candidate to replace Tennant as the 11th Doctor. Joseph would be the first black actor to assay the iconic role.

Joseph’s agent reportedy denied the Doctor Who rumor when approached about it last week. When SCI FI Wire contacted Joseph directly, his initial response was a text message that said, “I am on a list of God knows how many others, but flattered to be considered.”

That was followed by an e-mail a day later, saying, “The news on Who was news to me as of last Wednesday, when my agent said they’d had lots of journos asking if the rumors were true. That’s all I know, and I’m very pleased to even be thought of in this way. It’s a blast!”

The rumor, which should be taken with a grain of salt, was first reported by British journalist Richard Johnston last week in his online column “Lying in the Gutters.”

Joseph played Roderick in the Doctor Who two-part episode “Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways.”

Joseph’s recent TV appearances include the U.K. series Peep Show, Green Wing and Hyperdrive, but he is probably best known to genre fans for his scene-stealing performance as the Marquis de Carabas in writer Neil Gaiman’s short-lived 1996 BBC series Neverwhere.

Perhaps more germane to this particular story is the actor’s work in last year’s Jekyll miniseries, which was created by Steven Moffat, who will be taking over as the new Doctor Who show runner in the upcoming fifth season in 2010. Did that role give Joseph the inside track? Only time will tell.

While many Doctor Who purists are already resisting the notion of a black actor taking on the role, the biggest obstacle could actually be Joseph’s role as Greg Preston in the BBC’s upcoming revival of the 1970s post-apocalyptic drama Survivors. According to the show’s producer Adrian Hodges (Primeval), “He’s a lovely actor, and he has immense likability on screen. To me, he has hero written and integrity written all over him, and he’s a great actor. We’re very pleased with him, and we won’t kill him off anytime soon, I promise you that!”

The fourth season of Doctor Who will be released in the United States on Nov. 18. The series is currently on hiatus in the United Kingdom but will continue with a series of one-off specials, after which a new production team will take over with season five in 2010. –Joe Nazzaro

Posted under Rumors

This movie sounds better and better, a Hulk vs (Iron man, Thor, Captain America,  etc.)  in a film is too good to be true.   You cant pass that up.   In the comics the Avengers came together to stop a rampaging Hulk( who was manipulated by Loki Thor’s brother).   In comic book style the team up to fight the true villain Loki.     I have a feeling that Marvel is planning a film that’s based on the Ultimates Vol. 1 ( where General Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D.establishes a strike force of government-sponsored meta humans which includes Captain America; scientist couple Henry and Janet Pym (Giant-Man and the Wasp); Bruce Banner (the Hulk) and Tony Stark (Iron Man). Together they are based at the S.H.I.E.L.D facility, the Triskelion. When Banner injects himself with the super-soldier serum and goes on a bloody rampage as the Hulk, he is eventually stopped by the other metahumans with the aid of Thor. The team then join forces with the mutants Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch and agents Hawkeye and Black Widow against the alien shape-shifters the Chitauri, who are defeated.)

Source: MTVNews

Everything in the Marvel Film Universe is leading to the eventual superhero tag team-up, “The Avengers,” with Iron Man, Ant-Man, Thor, and Captain America all fighting side-by-side. What possible villain could compete with that?

“The Incredible Hulk” director Louis Leterrier told MTV News this past June that he didn’t think any villain could, and suggested that they use a hero instead: his.

“Iron Man” writers Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, who themselves may be writing another Marvel movie in the near future, couldn’t agree more, they told MTV News, insisting that everything is building towards making The Hulk the villain in the eagerly anticipated 2011 movie.

Read More…

Posted under Movies, Rumors

Source: Variety

Continuing the long line of comic book movies Josh Brolin is in negotiations to play Jonah Hex. Jonah Hex is a comic book about a confederate soldier who later becomes a bounty hunter.  I don’t care for westerns, much less comic books that are about westerns.  When I was younger, I did read a few issues of Hex after he had been teleported to the future.  But other than that, I have nothing good or bad to say about the comic.  However, its funny how it seems that every comic book character is about to be put on the big screen.  I have complete faith that no one will go see this movie, no matter how much the fanboys sing the praises of Jonah Hex’s exploits.  The mainstream does not know who he is, and I bet that he doesn’t have a big enough fanboy base to even register as a blip on opening weekend, if and when this movie ever comes to fruition.

Westerns generally don’t do well, and C-List comic book characters can’t possibly do well.  So it stands to follow that a movie featuring a C-list comic book character is doomed for failure. This is going to be a part of a long line of movies that could really make DC and Marvel look bad (how much faith can they really put in a movie about Ant-Man?)  If this movie can get made, where the hell is my Black Panther movie?  Where is the Wonder Woman movie?  Where’s Green Lantern?  The list goes on and on of more deserving movies.  But alas, we are going to have to wade through the deep end of whatever Hollywood and the comic book giants give us.

Posted under Comics, Movies, Rumors