Joaquin Phoenix In Talks To Play Joker In Standalone Movie

According to several reports, Joaquin Phoenix is rumored to play The Joker in a DC standalone film with Todd Phillips attached to produce and direct. This comes as quite a surprise since I had been hearing that Martin Scorsese was supposedly attached with Leonardo DiCaprio in negotiation to play the lead.

This is all still in the very early stages and WB has not commented. But if we follow my UHMC philosophy, I think Phoenix is a fine choice for the clown prince. My larger concern is Todd Phillips as director. Time will certainly tell in the coming months the rest of the cast and crew. I estimate that the film would release in 2020.

I’ll keep you posted.

UHMC: Darren Aronofsky’s Batman: Year One

Back in the year 2000, Darren Aronofsky was hired by Warner Bros. to collaborate with Frank Miller and write a live-action adaptation of Miller’s masterpiece graphic novel, “Batman: Year One.” Aronofsky was signed on to direct. Warner Bros. ended up rejecting the script because-for starters-they believed it veered too far from the original source material despite it being co-written by the original author. Warner Bros. and Aronofsky parted ways-no hard feelings-and the world ended up with Christopher Nolan’s trilogy.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m exceedingly happy with 2/3 of the Christopher Nolan adaptation. We got from it the performance of a lifetime-literally-that will go down as the greatest comic book character interpretation ever. But what if things had gone differently? Or better yet, what if we were given the best of both worlds and Batman and movie nerds like myself could’ve spent our lives debating it?

A while back, I had heard rumor that the elusive Batman: Year One script intended for Aronofsky to flesh out was still floating around.

Well I found it!!

UHMC: Street Fighter

2015 was and 2016 continues to be a time in movie history of too many remakes, re-imaginations, and sequels way passed a generation to count. Some are passible, few were good, and most have turned out to be awful. I touched up on this a while back in an earlier post. But if you can’t beat them, join them. Right? One of the ways I’ve learned to take my medicine on the subject is to create my own list of the perfect cast, crew, and storyline for some of my favorite previous pop-culture phenomenons that I grew up on. All seem to revolve around classic video games or comic book characters. This post will be no different. Tonight I consider one of the most successful fighting game franchises of all time, which was also one of the worst video game film adaptations of all time. I’m talking about Street Fighter.

If you’re anything like me, you probably spent countless hours at the arcade and/or in front of your SNES familiarizing and then button-mashing your way through the overly easy or overly cheap difficulty settings of the game with Ken, Ryu, E. Honda, Chun-Li, Blanka, Guile, Zangief, Dhalsim, and all the other Street Fighter pioneer characters. Fast forward 25 years and it continues to be one of the most successful fighting game franchises of all time. If any video game franchise deserves an appropriate and respectable movie adaptation, it’s this one. There was a well-produced fan film series that released in 2014 and a second season will premiere later this year, but I’m talking about a mainstream adaptation for the big screen.

My formula remains the same: I name the primary cast of characters along with who I believe would be the best corresponding actors to play them based on their previous work, physical likeness, etc. Then I’ll finish with a plausible storyline and who I believe would best suit the project for writing and directing. This is a little different than UHMC because of all the presumed fight scenes and stunts involved. So maybe this is more of an UHMC of stunt performers than for an actual cast because sadly most stunt performers can’t and don’t act. The only other option is if you go by way of “The Matrix” and have your actors train for over a year before filming.

The cast of the Street Fighter universe has become so vast over the last 25 years so I’m only sticking to the original cast of the 1992 video game in this post. Maybe future UHMC posts with secondary characters will follow.

Here comes a new challenger. 

UHMC: Aging Batman/Batman Beyond (If Written/Directed by Quentin Tarantino)

Quentin Tarantino is one of my all-time favorite filmmakers. Winner of 2 Oscars for best original screenplay, there is no question that he is one of the most intricate and unique writers out there. You can read more about my reasoning for that in one of my previous posts. I often wondered what it would be like if Tarantino would put his very unique spin on some of my favorite films or franchises. Naturally the first that would come to mind is Batman.

That being said, here is my in depth “theory” as to who I would cast in a film about an aging Batman well passed his prime and thus ultimately passing on the cape and cowl for good as well as an introductory character analysis as to how I think Tarantino would write them. You may see some familiar faces in my casting choice. It’s not me being lazy or that I haven’t thought this through. It’s because they were such a good choice the first time around, they just had the wrong script/director to guide them. That and being able to incorporate characters from other works since. 

UHMC: Super Mario Bros.

With news of the Sony leak and Nintendo partnering with Universal earlier this year, it’s only a matter of time before we see an attempt to reintroduce a film franchise based on the most beloved characters in the history of video games. Most of us remember (though we try to forget) the 1993 abomination starring Bob Hoskins, John Leguizamo, and Dennis Hopper. You’d think that such a stellar cast (and yes, that is stellar) would be able to make a Super Mario Bros. film at least bearable. But, no. In any case, I’ve done some thinking and I’ve come up with a stellar cast of my own. I’m not going to get into story ideas or concepts. This is strictly casting based on physical appearance and their performance in previous roles. 

UHMC: Alfred Origin Film

With the highly-anticipated “Gotham” series coming to Fox this Fall, the Batman franchise is being re-imagined once again in a healthy and innovative way, and it got me thinking. Much like I suggested a Joker origin video game, I wondered what it would be like to have an origin film based on Bruce Wayne’s most loyal and trusted confidant, Alfred Pennyworth. If anyone deserves an origin story in the DC universe, it’s certainly him. Much like Joker’s origin, there’s lots of fuzzy details as to how Alfred came to work for the Wayne family. I’ve actually started writing a script with my take on it which I hope to film later this year.

Unlike what I believe “Gotham” is going to do of starting the story with Bruce Wayne as a child, my story would start with Alfred as a young man; a rookie agent at Interpol. I’m about to tell you what is known as fact about Alfred Pennyworth, and which actor(s) should play him in a pseudo bio-pic.

UHMC: Futurama (Live-Action)

I’m at it again and it feels so good. To dream is a great thing. This time around, instead of posting my latest UHMC list out of anger in response to The “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” cast, this re-imagination is just another one of my pipe dreams that would be amazing and nostalgic for me. Futurama was nine seasons of hysterical episodes, characters, and a true story arc with developing characters never before seen in a primetime show, much less an animated one. It also had-in my opinion-one of the greatest ever-evolving love stories in television history.

Without further ado, here are my choices and reasons for my Ultimate Hypothetical Movie Casting for a live action Futurama film:

UHMC: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Despite my extreme skepticism and outrage, I will be watching Michael Bay’s TMNT abomination next year.  That being said, I know I’m not the only person who has thought about, debated, and dreamed about what could happen if some of our favorite or most-anticipated movies had different cast members or even writers and directors.  I’m sure everyone at least once has even thought about who would be cast in a new reboot or re-imagining of their favorite franchise.  With Social Media today, online campaigns run amuck for better or worse trying to have the fans’ voices heard (and in all likelihood ignored) to actually make these things happen.  It’s a double-edged sword, though.  When official movie pages on Social Media announce any updates, their fans respond/react accordingly.  And if it’s bad… well, you know the rest.

In the spirit of all that and in light of the reboot and re-imagination of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” I have decided to create a new category on my page with my suggestions for what I believe would be the best casting choices and beyond for past, present, and future films.  This will be my first of many to come in what I call

THE ULTIMATE HYPOTHETICAL MOVIE CASTING (or UHMC)

In regards to casting, I do so based at least partly on characters these actors have played in past rolls.  So in regards to the turtles, I believe that the four cast would work regardless of CG, makeup/prosthetics, or full suits like the 1990 original film.  (Disregard physical transformations such as bulking up, stunt training or martial art skills needed for now. I’ll get to that later.) I should also say that this would be a TMNT for my generation; the generation that grew up watching the shows and movies in the 80’s and 90’s.

Ready Player One (The Movie?!) Who Should Be The Ultimate Gunter?

A few months back, I wrote a review and discussed this amazing book Ready Player One.  Needless to say, the book is amazing!  I am actually in the process of re-reading the book and plan to write an additional more extensive review in the near future.  Just to give you an idea, the first time I read the book, I felt such a connection with the story’s hero Wade Watts, that I felt like the book was tailor-written for me.
The second time around, I feel it even more so.  But now I want to talk about the inevitable movie adaptation that is in negotiations.  Sure enough theories, rumors, and superfans are already voicing loudly about who should be cast to bring to life the characters of the semi-post-apocalyptic world set in the OASIS (and Oklahoma.)  Here’s what we know for sure so far: