Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Keanu Reeves? Are They MAD?

Aint it Cool have some Watchmen casting scoops and...

Well, first of all, let's have the worst news. Keanu Reeves has been offered the role of Dr. Manhattan. No no no no no no. That's awful. Dreadful. Catastrophic. Listen, I like Keanu just fine, really - he was spot-on for Thumbsucker and, well, there's no doubt that Bill and Ted were both perfectly cast. This, though... foolish. It seems like Manahattan's demeanour has been confused for that of a cod-zen stoner - the kind of mistake only a stoner could make. And one would think quite an arrogant stoner too.

How incredibly frustrating.

Secondly, Jude Law has been offered the role of Ozymandias. Not so terrible, but not exactly a perfect move. I think we knew Tom Cruise wasn't going to get the part, but in an ideal world he would have. There are many, many worse choices than Jude Law, however.

And finally - and this is probably the least troubling to me - is the casting of Patrick Wilson as Dan Dreiberg.

There's a long standing rumour
(in my circles, anyway) that Jackie Earle Haley is going to play Rorschach, so that might make for two Little Children in the cast. What about Kate Winslet and Jennifer Connelly too? Are there perfect fits for them, do you think?

That'd be odd. But it would make for a good pub quiz question.

8 comments:

Mark H Wilkinson said...

Reeves has often displayed a very flat quality, which might lend itself well to the role if the director makes good use of it.

That is, of course, assuming there's any weight to this story.

Brendon said...

Wrong kind of flat.

Mark H Wilkinson said...

At least tell me you were joking about Tom Cruise.

Brendon said...

I think casting Tom Cruise would have made sense in the way casting Catherine Zeta Jones in Chicago made sense - I wish there was a better otpion, but this person really meets the mandate, so...

The public persona of Cruise plus Ozymandias equals interesting subtext, I think.

Anonymous said...

Jennifer Connelly would be well cast as the second Silk Spectre. Jude Law as Ozymandias would be good, he does smug very well which is always how I saw the character.

Anonymous said...

I was arguing about this with another fellow nerd today.

I really have to give Keanu the benefit of the doubt. He's been very agreeable with the laid-back slacker thing, but when listening to him on the Scanner Darkly commentary I was surprised at how lucid and intelligent he comes off. Also, he projects a kind of "cosmic innocence" that I don't think any other big-name actor has.

So while I wish I could be as instantly dismissive as the rest of the fanboys, this choice has my blessing... not that that means anything.

Max

Anonymous said...

Keanu would be like todally excellent... not

Anonymous said...

like cosmically innocent, dude