CoMoOm Cast-call: CRAIG THOMPSON'S "BLANKETS"

(Next Post: What Movie Could Make a Good ComicBookMovie?)

So... how about an interlude for all those super-guys with capes and spandex costumes?

"Blankets" is one of the greatest graphic novels published in the last years. It has a huge potential for an alternative/indie kind of movie, full of modern rockband songs and intimate character relationships. That's why here we're not gonna discuss the story line of plot, it's all in the book. We surely will just suggest the team that could fit right in the heart of the film, as well as the list of songs for the movie soundtrack.

And there you... go!

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Directors: Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris from "Little Miss Sunshine".

Craig (Gael Garcia Bernal): fantastic actor, good-looking guy. Quite older than the character in the book, but that's just a detail that would not disturb the whole process.

Raina (Jessica Biel): beautiful woman, the one that could make Gael's character become really attached to. Besides, she looks just like the drawing of the book.

Craig's brother, Phill (Rodrigo Santoro) and his wife (Kate Beckinsale): these two would play fast roles, since Phill appears a lot in the book when kid. Two good supporting actors, though.

Mother Thompson (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio): easy job, maybe. The matriarch of the family is a quiet and very religious woman.

Father Thompson (Tom Selleck): the third most important character of the movie. Trough memories and representations of his father attitudes Craig discuss and think over the story main conflict: feelings we have to deal with at the same time that we supress our deepest and unbearable beliefs and prejudices. Life, after all, simple like that.

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THE MOVIE SOUNDTRACK!!!



The Next Big Classic Comicbook-based Movie Teaser is Online!!!

(Next Post: CoMoOm Cast-call for the "Blankets" graphic novel)

Stop everything you're doing.

This is THE movie of 2012...

The Dark Knight Rises

{Top Ten Comics That Would Make}GREAT ANIMATED MOVIES!

10- FELL (by Warren Ellis and Ben Templesmith)

Model to be followed: animated "Aeon Flux" MTV series.

09- BATMAN BLACK AND WHITE (by Various)

Model to be followed: the guys from the asian studio that created "Gotham Knight Animated".

08-SPIDER-MAN: TORMENT (by Todd McFarlane)

Model to be followed: there's no doubt that with Marvel-Disney association we could have "The Princess and The Frog" as an inspiration here (2D, please, fellas!)

07- THE LITTLE BEATLES BOOK (by Hervé Bourhis) 

Model to be followed: so the book author is french, isn't he? The perfect path to follow, then, is the french film "The Illusionist" (L'illusionniste).

06-BATMAN: HAUNTED KNIGHT (by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale)



Model to be followed: this is the cheapest project of all, just get together again Alan Burnett, Bruce Timm and Paul Dini (the guys from the classic animated Bat-series) and... there you go.

05-DMZ (by Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli)

Model to be followed: in order to not assume any risk of financial failure the right choice here would be the Ghibli Studios (the producers of Miyazaki's "Spirited Away").

04-THE BURMA CHRONICLES (by Guy Delisle)

The Model to be followed: ready to see a movie with lots of comedy and social-political content? Get the people from Aardman Animations (they made Nick Park's "Wallace and Gromit").

03-WE3 (by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely)

Model to be followed: mix up tons of 3D-CGI with great voices for the characters, add some frenetic soundtrack by Daft Punk (Tron who?) and follow the disposition of Zack Snyder's "Legend of the Guardians". That's a sure bet!

02-NEW YORK: LIFE IN THE BIG CITY (by Will Eisner)

Model to be followed: for the eternal master of comics and graphic novels, a classic kind of animation associated to some modern and efficient 3D technology, I mean, follow Disney's "Tangled" example. Hard would be the task of persuade Disney guys to produce a DC material...

01-MAUS (by Art Spiegelman)

Model to be followed: okay, guys, this could be the greatest animation ever! Get Robert Zemeckis as the director, accompanied by all his technology from "A Christhmas Carol" and "Tintin". Because of the movie plot and project Spielberg would be invited as the producer and Light and Magic people could deliver us a combination of powerful 3D scenes. John Williams once and for all had to be the soundtrack composer.

[_]What If Could Be an Elseworld of...[_]SAM RAIMI'S SPIDER-MAN 4? PART 2

The Cast!

Well, the main list of actors would stay untouched, but the new guys could give some fresh air to the saga.

1) Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker/Spider-Man

What reason do we have to change what's working fine? Let Tobey show us some dramatic skills on a much more emotionally messed character and all the rest will be history.






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2)Rosemary Harris as Aunt May

Another example of good actress perfectly fitted to the series enviroment. May Parker could probably demonstrate some resistance against Gwen introduction to the family, what could bring very good subjects to work in the film story.








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3)J.K. Simmons as J. Jameson

Simple like this: it's the perfect choice for the role. Always has been and always will be (maybe until Marc Webb's SM hit the screens...).







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4)James Cromwell  as Captain Stacy

He's done well in Spider-Man 3, altough for a short space of time. Spider-Man 4 would give James the chance of reprising his great moments of L.A. Confidential, coming to the top end of the movie in which Peter would have to face his strongest mourning.







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5)Bryce Dallas Howard as Gwen Stacy

Excluding all controversy related to "red-hair actress playing blond-hair girl" Bryce overflowded the screen with a sexy and beautiful Gwen Stacy in Spider 3, giving the audience a sample of what could be a real romantic interest for Peter in Spider 4. The character death, of course, would be the franchise milestone required to the series follow-up.



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6)Elizabeth Banks as Betty Brant

A kind of permanent fast-appearance actress of the series. However, according to Spider-Man comics mythology, Betty is an evident love menace either to MJ or Gwen Stacy. Maybe close to the movie final moments Ms. Brant could start to comfort Parker, letting lots of unfinished issues for both to be solved in Spider-Man 5.





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7)Mark Wahlberg as Maxwell Dillion /Electro

Former rap singer has shown Hollywood that he can handle pop movies. Our suggestion: get his best moments in "The Happening" joined to a good scary character played in "Fear" and you have the ultimate recipe for this role. Preferably the character would be just Maxwell in Spider 4, letting the appearance of Electro for Spider-Man 5 (we don't want another villain-overcrowded movie, do we?).
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8)Rosie Huntington-Whiteley as Felicia Hardy/Black Cat

Again just the introduction of the character would be made here. Felicia could be a new photographer of the Daily Bugle, rivaling with Parker and becoming his love interest and the hero enemy in Spider-Man 5 (we could, then, give some more extra vacation to madam Kirsten Dunst...).







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9)Jason Statham as the Scorpion

-hero's aunt, chief and girls: checked.
-strong and agressive opponent, capable of fast and acrobatic fight scenes, emotionaly fed by a serious trauma related to Spider-Man: checked.
Jason is the one if you want Peter to suffer, get defeated and overcomes himself in order to win the battle. Besides, contributing to the movie-series worship you get a classic (green) villain!


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Next Post: {Top Ten Comics that Would Make}GREAT ANIMATED MOVIES!

[_]What If Could Be an Elseworld of...[_] SAM RAIMI'S SPIDER-MAN 4? Part 1

Here's the thing: Sam Raimi did a great job in the Spider trilogy. Specially in  the first two movies, of course, but we can't deny the above-average quality of Spider-Man 3. We all know that a forth piece was coming when things got complicated and he decided to jump off. But... if he had chosen to stay?

Welcome to the hypothetical world of [_]What If Could Be an Elseworld of...[_] !

Title: Spider-Man 4.

Story: clearly all got complicated to the audience when two villains (three if you consider the Green Goblin in the beginning of Spider 3) had to share the story-line with Pete's journey into his dark side. It's also known that the emergence of Gwen Stacy as a love competitor to MJ overcrowded the movie with emotional issues hard to explore among all others Spidey's challenges. Besides, Kirsten Dunst said she was tired of playing MJ, bringing an additional broken link to fix.

The film would show Peter getting serious in his relation with Gwen, while MJ would be just quoted as the ex-girlfriend that went to Canada in order to improve her acting skills. Ms. Dunst would not even appear in the screen. On a back-to-basis strategy to aproximate the forth movie of the first two we could have a deeper follow on Pete and Gwen routine, with scenes where he gets so close to Captain Stacy that the chief begins to fill uncle Ben's place as the boy guider. In the Daily Bugle Peter begins to compete with a new employee, a girl named Felicia Hardy. Slowly she begins to generate investigations towards her possible implication in reports of tefht.

Meanwhile, still working with Dr. Connors, Peter would become friend of another young scientist, Maxwell Dillon, an impulsive and agressive boy with a life similar to Parker's. Along the intense engagement of Peter with the Stacy family and his relationship with young Dillon a private ivestigator will have his children killed during a fight between Spider-Man and the Sandman (did you think he was dead???). Thereafter the ordinary citizen Mac Gargan decides to offer himself as a volunteer for a genetic experiment sponsored by Oscorp and the Daily Bugle (back with J. Jameson, everyone!), becoming then the Scorpion. Looking for revenge against the wall-climber hero Scorpion gets to the end of the movie in an epical fight where Gwen Stacy dies. Drowned in anger Cap. Stacy and Spidey chase the villain. After another enormous action sequence Peter decides to slow down his fury in order to not kill the bad guy, just when Captain Stacy (completely out of his mind) appears to kill Scorpion. The three fellas fall from some hight spot of NYC. Cap. Stacy and the villain die. Full of sadness and anger Peter has a serious disagreement with Maxwell Dillon. The movie ends with a heavy and dark atmosphere, preparing the audience to the outstanding return of Spider-Man in the fifth film!

Follow the [CoMoOm Anagram] for the basic movie plot, next post: the cast of Spider-Man 4!

Nolan's Bat-Trilogy: Why is it so good? PART 2 THE BAD GUYS

Undoubtedly bat-villains are always one of the best parts of the whole Batman universe. In the case of Nolan's movies we are presented to some of the strongest ones and, above all, the archenemy...

1. Ra's Al Ghul is introduced at the very beginning of the 3-movie saga, but it's the character that will lead Bruce all the way trough the journey of transformation from an angry boy to a top hero. Not all the way, maybe, but the part in which Bruce faces his fears and decides what he wants to do with it. Liam Neeson shows his regular very good skills as a double-faced tutor that sees the apprentice overcomes and confront the master. He's such an important piece of the construction of Batman that Nolan has confirmed his appearance on the final film of the trilogy.
2. Scarecrow is somewhat the mascot-villain of the trilogy, reason why he can appear in the third film, even if just for some seconds. In BEGINS he plays a major role, but as a pon of Ra's bigger plan for Gotham. However, he's important while undressing all of Gotham's worst features. In TDK he's the sign of new times coming to town, such as Batman's copycats and violent mafia wars. In the end we all see he was just the weakest of all Gotham weirdos. Murphy is OK, but he can do better.
3. Two-face is a hard-to-define kind of bad guy. He is crucial as attorney and he's too damn important as an enemy. Too bad we have just a glimpse of what could be Two-face as a real challenge to the Bat. His importance to the story is more related to Joker's plan of turning Gotham's last hope into another one of its lunatics. Aaron was a very good choice: the ordinary (at same time obstinate)american looking for justice.
4. Ladies and gentleman, the key-role in all Batman mythology is based on the crime clown, the Joker. Nolan gets deep on the analysis of what's most important in the story: nobody is totally sane, nobody is completely insane. Ledger goes epic showing that when chaos subjugates we all turn into animals. Most of all, shows that a guy dressed as a bat can be as freak as anyone of us. Of course, the fact that Joker's plan is just to "watch the world burn" gives a huge force to the film depth.

[CoMoOm Anagram] Nolan's Bat-Universe Construction