They say God never closes a door without opening up a thread. We’re here to do his work.
A quick rundown of geek hits: rumors fly that The Office’s John Krasinski is in consideration to play Captain America, that Ole Miss will change its mascot to Admiral Ackbar, and that Conan O’Brien has been blowing people away with his Tweets. Sorry; that last one sounded kind of dirty. And yet it’s the story most likely to still be true three months from now. Isn’t that how Hollywood works?
Question: Which actor would you like to play Captain America? Which pop-culture icon should become your school’s mascot?
There's potential for an OTI article here - how long can an Internet meme lay dormant before reviving it again becomes funny? It certainly forces us to IT'S A TRAP! ... sorry. that slipped out.
In less entertaining news, “Growing Pains” actor Andrew Koenig was found dead in a Colorado park yesterday, after having gone missing for several days. Police suspect suicide. His father, Star Trek veteran Walter Koenig, said that Andrew had been dealing with depression for some time. Among child actors who peak early, this isn’t unheard of.
Do you have anything cheerier for us to end on? Then by all means say it! Because this is your … open thread!
Q1: there’s one actor (not well known over here but in Britain he’s very popular) I want to play Captain America is John Barrowman. He stated a few years ago at Comic Con (where he was on the Doctor Who/Torchwood panel) that he was being considered for the role and that led to a huge kerfuffle because John is openly gay and people (not me) don’t want “his kind” to play a character that is strongly associated with America and how tough it is.
I feel that’s a load of BS; the person most qualified and best fit for the role should get it and it think that John would really show us his acting chops if he got the role.
I love the idea of John Barrowman (Captain Jack) playing Captain America, I think it would be a great role for him. Some people need to stop worrying about foolish things…what matters is how well he plays the part.
Another actor that I think would make a great Captain America is Chris Hemsworth, who played George Kirk in the latest Star Trek.
I grew up with Captain America. I’m not exactly sure where the script is starting, but I’m very curious where Hollywood is going to cast his age at. One guy who I think would be OK (read- fun to think about, but not sure if it really work) would be Nathan Fillion (The Waitress, “Firefly”/Serenity, “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along-blog” “Castle”). He has swagger, the face of “America”, good with the ladies, some dark/pissed off roles, and has done a good job in leads.
In other news, a giant iceberg calved off Antartica ( http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124105970 ). What exactly does that have to do with submitting pop culture to a level of scrutiny it probably doesn’t deserve a.k.a. OverthinkingIt?
At what point (if ever) does writing a screenplay or mini-series for entertainment cross the line of distracting from the conversation about it? Auschwitz movies or movies about Vietnam or even Iraq are examples I can think of. The timeline is getting shorter and shorter. This iceberb is likely to cause mild to significant disruption to the deep ocean ecologies around the world wildlife within the next ten years. Some climatologists and glaciologists suggest that this one iceberg crashing and creating another will effect weather patterns because of this deepwater effect.
Would a movie about it add/subtract/distract/enhance the conversation about the reality?
I love the idea of John Barrowman but I think he’s too old to play Cap. Its a shame, I think he would have been perfect 5 years ago – espically with as many as 9 movies. He’s already 43, if they even make a few – he’ll be in his 50’s for Avengers. Like Chris Hemsworth as a second.
Am I the only one pumped about Ole Miss? I will watch their hockey games – “What are their defenders doing in the Neutral Zone?” “Its a trap!”. Basketball – “The Akbars are setting up their defense in a 1-3-1 pattern. What is it?” “Its a trap!” Downside – they would be the AA’s.
Wasn’t there talk a while ago of Will Smith as Captain America?
It might be difficult now they are setting it in WWII, but I still think he would be pretty great.
Personally, I’d lve to see Aaron Eckhart in the Role.
There is something that has been bothering me for a while, and I would love to see the Overthinker take on it: Who is Justin Bieber, and why is he always amoung the top trending topics on twitter?
Ole Miss football: “The QB’s been sacked! Looks like the Ackbars couldn’t repel firepower of that magnitude!”
Re: Ole Miss, at first I thought that was a non sequitur reference, but then I googled “Ole Miss Admiral Ackbar” and found this may actually happen:
http://www.wired.com/playbook/2010/02/admiral-ackbar-poised-for-ole-miss-glory/
So it may not actually happen, but at least they won’t be named after slave-owning Conferedate Rebels any more. And that’s a huge improvement. It used to be tradition for fans to wave huge Confederate flags and for the band to play “Dixie” at football games.
It was truly disguisting, and I’m glad Ole Miss is finally putting an end to this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ole_Miss_Rebels_football#Confederate_symbols
(end obligatory rant from minority who grew up in the South)
For those folks suggesting Chris Helmsworth, he’s actually going to be playing Thor, so that kinda takes him out of the running for Cap. Woulda been a good choice though.
‘Lethal Drinking Games’ are a great way to scrutinize culture that can be uplifting. They way it works is to find a piece of pop culture (like a movie) that has some unique repeated phrase or action that, if one were to drink every time it happened they would die of alcohol poisoning before the thing was over. An example of this is to watch the movie Dune and drink every time they say the word “spice.”
The University of Nebraska at Omaha needs Capitan America as depicted by Brad Pitt.
Some producers have recently stated that they want the actor playing Captain America to be american born, so I don’t think Barrowman fits their idea.
This is my third try- the others were eaten. Let’s see…
Alright, now that it worked FINALLY…
I had suggested Nathan Fillion before the comment was eaten and, unprovably, before you, Darin. I’m glad I’m not the only one thinking of him!! Ever since a fake (but amazingly done) trailer featuring him as Green Lantern was shown to me, I’ve hoped he’d get his own superhero movie. But that’s also on the stipulation they don’t go the route it has seemed as though they would up until now: from what I have read, Cap is going to be pretty young, something like late high school or early college aged. If they stick to this, I’d prefer a relatively unknown teenager (or early-twenty-something that looks it). My meta-knowledge about Filian would make me like it more, but my meta-knowledge of any popular teen actor lately would make it harder to watch; and I also get distracted when someone clearly much too old to be in high school or college tries to play someone of that age.
My other attempts to leave comments had links, so I’m not going to try posting one here, in case that’s why they kept disappearing… BUT… The Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice awards nominees were announced this week, and if you look at them, they’re quite interesting and make me wonder what the process is for getting on the ballot (which is a nice way of saying, “WTF were you thinking?”). The Favorite Couple category has three fictional couples and one real-life, for one thing. Favorite Book has one book that’s decades old; and the other three are series, not individual books, and even two of THOSE seem to be of questionable age. And Favorite Reality Show has at least one game show. It seems they’re going more for what’s popular as opposed to what would make sense. So us old foagies should push for our own gems more, I say.
(I also take serious issue with Kobe Bryant being nominated for Favorite Male athlete, but that’s a can of worms of a different nature.)
@Darin and @Gab, I would *love* it if Nathon could be the Cap, he could pull it off.
There was a 90’s movie ‘Captain America’ (real orginal right?) up on Hulu and it’s on my list of things to watch (right after S2 of Babylon5). From the sound (and look) of it, I shouldn’t hold out much hope.
@Megan from Lombard: do watch the 90s Captain America for an example of how *not* to do a superhero movie. I thought of it when I heard about the new Captain America quest, and died a little inside all over again.
CA has never been a favorite of mine, because on some level there’s a slight Batman ripoff element there in the whole CA/Bucky relationship (I’ll rely on someone more comic-book savvy to note if Batman predates CA or if it’s the other way around). He’s Barry Bonds with a shield and an overly patriotic costume that protests his patriotism a little too much (no doubt CA might have faced questioning before the HUAC/McCarthy crowd in the early Fifties…hey, that could be a good idea for a graphic novel, “Captain America Vs. McCarthy”). Give me a more complicated character like Spider-Man any day over a walking billboard for soul-crushing conformity and illegal use of government funds for creating a super race of soldiers.
Maybe I’m confusing the cardboard CA from the movie with the one in the comics, who admittedly wakes up some years after the fact with everyone that he knew either dead or older than he remembers. But CA isn’t my idea of a superhero.
My school mascot (the Clemson Tiger) is pretty fine with me, but if I could exchange him for someone from the world of pop culture, I’d stay in the Star Wars mold and go with Chewbacca. You can’t tell me a ref would be intimidated against making an unfavorable call by the prospect of an eight-foot Wookie prowling the sidelines, just waiting for the excuse to rip someone’s arms from their sockets.
@ Trevor – Not a big Cap fan, but part of his fascination is the dichotomy of how he feels being a national treasure. Superman is used in the DC Universe as the ‘All American’ and he loves that because he that makes him feel like a human and not an alien. Cap is a regular soldier who is forced into becoming the ‘All American’ superman, being pushed into it by the American Government. When done well, you get a Dr. Manhattan with actual feelings. When done poorly, well watch the 90’s movie.
@Bob – That would make for a very compelling film, the way that you explained it. And yes, the early 90’s movie gets it wrong in so many ways (not the least of which is this: I remember the big hype in comic-book circles about the Red Skull’s makeup effects, and it’s in the movie for about three seconds before he reverts back to looking like Jurgen Prochnow).