by Beau Smith

It’s been going on for as long as there have been movies and television. Sometimes it goes on when you and your friends are hanging out. Other times, when you’re online on a message board, emailing, texting or in some sort of chat room. It even happens when you’re alone. The topic I’m hinting at is casting. Truth be told, we’ve all got a little casting director in us. We all think we’re right and sometimes we are.

For comic book readers, casting has always been something that is talked about at great length. Even back in the day when chances of making a film or TV based on a comic book character was as rare as Lex Luthor with a full head of hair, we still daydreamed hours away in school thinking about who would be the best actor to play Captain America or The Black Canary.

The problem with casting is that comic book readers today limit their creative casting to current actors, or should I say “This Moment/Flavor Of The Month.” I might also add that Hollywood casting directors do the same thing. Very rarely will you find out of the box casting. That’s what happens when you have the studio suits and non-creative publishers sticking their hands into the casting pie. I’ve tried to expand my casting horizons a little. I’ve started to include actors past and present to my list. Let’s face it, dead or alive, they have as much of a chance as any. Even with my own properties, I don’t have any say so with who plays my own characters when they hit the big or little screen.

The usual process is to take whatever actor or actress is popular for that second and slap the spandex on them. Sometimes they’re dead on with their choices like Christian Bale as Batman and other times dead wrong like with Halle Berry as Catwoman. I remember when they first cast Michael Keaton as Batman how I was in a fanboy uproar about him wearing the cowl. Even though I thought the movie was pretty terrible, Michael Keaton showed me that he was an excellent choice to be Batman. I never knew he had the intimidating acting chops to be a truly scary and tough Batman. He also surprised me with his great take on Bruce Wayne. In fact, I can’t really complain about any of the actors who played Batman/Bruce Wayne. Unlike Bale, the rest of the actors didn’t have the right directors to make their version of a Batman movie worth seeing.

I’m at the point now where I don’t think there is any way to really cast AND direct a proper Superman movie. I understand that I am in a minority because I have never enjoyed any of the Superman movies from the 1970’s on. Even when the Christopher Reeve films were brand new and we were all starved for any superhero to be on screen, I knew it just wasn’t right. Many others let their minds remain in the youthful state that they were in when they first saw the films. They let that cloud the fact (in my opinion) that they were really bad films with terrible casting, special effects and dialogue. The latest toe dipping into the Superman pool was even worse. I don’t think it was because the films weren’t “dark” enough, I just think too many cooks were in the kitchen and none of them remembered to add the right ingredients into the mix, let alone read the recipe. Of all the superhero movies to make, Superman should be the easiest and most clear cut. Trust me when I say that after all the money that The Dark Knight made we’re going to see a lot of superheroes get darker, both on the screen and in comics. (If that’s possible.)

Comic book movies based on non-iconic characters or new ones like Wanted and Men In Black have a much easier street to walk on. The casting is pretty wide open and unless you really swerve off course of the creation’s basics, most of the time you’re still going to be okay. As a comic book creator in this situation you must always keep in mind that once you accept that option money, the studios can pretty much do as they please with your story and character. You take the money, they do what they want, you pray that the director, screenwriter and studio understand your story and character, but don’t count on it. Ulcers are no fun and stress wrinkles don’t look all that good.

I think that in recent years Iron Man and The X-Men were as close to near perfect casting as you could get. I would put the latest version of The Hulk in there as well, but the CGI Hulk still looks like a video game every time he shows up on screen. Edward Norton and Liv Tyler were wonderful in their roles and I sure hope to see them revisit them.

I thought that I’d take a little time in this column to expose you to some of my choices in casting for comic book characters. I’m going to keep it pretty mainstream so that you’ll recognize most of the names and characters. As I mentioned before, this is always a lot of fun and even more so to be able to share them with you. With some, I’ve even come up with multiple choices. I guess that’s a good thing. With some of these choices I’ll list present day actors and, if warranted, actors from the past when they were in their physical prime. If you don’t recognize some of the names I’ve suggested, then check out www.imdb.com and look them up.

Let’s take a crack at them:

Captain America—Present: Daniel Craig, Paul Walker, Mark Valley, Joel Gretsch, Brian Van Holt.

Captain America—Past: Robert Redford (if he could’ve left his own lefty politics out of the role.), Jeremy Slate, Steve McQueen.

Batman: The Dark Knight (Frank Miller’s version)—Past: Clint Eastwood

Iron Man—Present: Robert Downey, Jr. OWNS the role.

IronMan—Past: Burt Reynolds, Tom Selleck.

Wolverine—Present: Hugh Jackman.

Wolverine—Past: Robert Conrad, Robert De Niro, Richard Jaeckel.

The Black Widow-Present: Rhona Mitra

The Black Widow—Past: Natalie Wood.

The Sub-Mariner—Present: Daniel Dae Kim, David Boreanaz.

The Sub-Mariner—The Past: Jack Palance.

Captain Britain—Present: Gary Daniels.

Hawkeye—Present: Ben Foster

Hawkeye—Past: Steve McQueen.

Daredevil—Past: Burt Lancaster

Wildcat—Present: Matt McColm, Tony Danza.

Wildcat—Past: Charles Bronson

The Hulk—Past Arnold Schwartzenegger

The Falcon—Present: Michael Jai White

The Falcon—Past: Carl Weathers.

Lois Lane—Present: Liv Tyler, Erica Durance (She does a great job on Smallville)

Lois Lane—Past: Julie Adams

Green Lantern—Present: Nathan Fillion

Green Lantern—Past: Gregory Peck.

Ambush Bug—Present: Jim Carrey.

Ambush Bug—Past: Jerry Lewis.

Guy Gardner—Present: Denis Leary

Superman—Present: Tom Welling (Hey, he’s the best one I’ve seen since George Reeves.)

As I said, these are just a few of the casting choices that I came up with. I’m more interested in hearing who YOU can come up with. If you have some suggestions and the time, just post them up here in the comment section of the Westfield site. We’d love to hear what you came up with on any comic book heroes of your choice. It’ll be fun. Who knows, maybe we’ll make some Hollywood casting director’s job a whole lot easier.

Your amigo,

Beau Smith

beau@flyingfistranch.com

www.flyingfistranch.com