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You know by now that Ben Affleck is the new Batman.
Which means you’ll be seeing stuff like this on the Facebooks and Twitters and whatnot for the next week.
I have been enjoying the general weeping, wailing and knashing of teeth over the announcement – mainly because I’m old enough to remember when Michael Keaton got the role for Tim Burton’s film.
No one thought he could do it either. And he ended up surprising a lot of people.
As did plenty of other actors who met similar resistance from the fanbase who think they know a lot more about casting than people paid to do it.
Sure, people are going to point to Affleck’s filmography (especially Gigli and Daredevil) and Golden Raspberry awards (he’s three for six, incidentally). But all that really tells me is that Affleck has been in some really bad films – some so bad that De Niro-level acting couldn’t have made them better. Affleck’s also been in some really good films, too.
I could go on, but Patton Oswalt has made a good case for Affleck on Facebook. And Oswalt’s a bigger nerd than I am. So that probably settles it right there.
While we’re talking about this, I’ve had this idea for awhile that I’ll share with you now.
After years of listening to fanboys complain about superhero movies getting stuff “wrong” – casting, storylines, continuity, whatever, some of it justified, much of it nitpicking – I think Marvel Studios should make one major Marvel comics film entirely controlled by fans. Let them write the story, do the casting, pick the director, the whole thing. Give them 100% control over the final product and let them make the film they say they want.
I want them to do this to test my hypothesis, which is this:
A 100% fanboy controlled and approved superhero film would be one of the worst films ever made. Even if fanboys actually love the film, they will be the only ones who do.
It’s just a hypothesis, mind. And no movie studio would ever greenlight a budget for something like that, so I’ll never get to test it. But I think it would hold up.
How do you like dem apples,
This is dF
Which means you’ll be seeing stuff like this on the Facebooks and Twitters and whatnot for the next week.
I have been enjoying the general weeping, wailing and knashing of teeth over the announcement – mainly because I’m old enough to remember when Michael Keaton got the role for Tim Burton’s film.
No one thought he could do it either. And he ended up surprising a lot of people.
As did plenty of other actors who met similar resistance from the fanbase who think they know a lot more about casting than people paid to do it.
Sure, people are going to point to Affleck’s filmography (especially Gigli and Daredevil) and Golden Raspberry awards (he’s three for six, incidentally). But all that really tells me is that Affleck has been in some really bad films – some so bad that De Niro-level acting couldn’t have made them better. Affleck’s also been in some really good films, too.
I could go on, but Patton Oswalt has made a good case for Affleck on Facebook. And Oswalt’s a bigger nerd than I am. So that probably settles it right there.
While we’re talking about this, I’ve had this idea for awhile that I’ll share with you now.
After years of listening to fanboys complain about superhero movies getting stuff “wrong” – casting, storylines, continuity, whatever, some of it justified, much of it nitpicking – I think Marvel Studios should make one major Marvel comics film entirely controlled by fans. Let them write the story, do the casting, pick the director, the whole thing. Give them 100% control over the final product and let them make the film they say they want.
I want them to do this to test my hypothesis, which is this:
A 100% fanboy controlled and approved superhero film would be one of the worst films ever made. Even if fanboys actually love the film, they will be the only ones who do.
It’s just a hypothesis, mind. And no movie studio would ever greenlight a budget for something like that, so I’ll never get to test it. But I think it would hold up.
How do you like dem apples,
This is dF
