Bits o' Bite-Sized News Pt. 2: A-Team and Thor Casting,Plus Battleship

Still cleaning the gunky build-up out of my geek-news collector...

It's not a bad time to be in the Bradley Cooper bidness. At the moment, a large number of you are still saying "Brimley who?", but that's going to be changing in the very near future. The one-time Alias and Kitchen Confidential TV guy has been steadily popping up in supporting roles this past year in films such as The Rocker, Yes Man, and He's Just Not That Into You.

And in a few weeks he (and the Great Zach Galifianakis) should get a major profile bump off The Hangover--similar to what Carell got off The 40-Year-Old Virgin. My guess is that Cooper will soon be wrasslin' Ryan Reynolds (hey, there's your celebreality show right there: Wrasslin' Ryan Reynolds: It's Complicated!) for the role of the snarky, subversive, handsome, charming leading man.

Fanboy chat boards have all been a-twitter lately (can we still say "a-twitter"? or is that now a copyright thing?) with rumors that Cooper will play Hal Jordan in the upcoming Green Lantern movie (not be to confused with Michel Gondry's Green Hornet project with Seth Rogen and Stephen Chow--totally different masked superheroes). Cooper still denies the Lantern news is true, but now he's also juggling speculation (first reported at IESB) that he's going to play Faceman in Joe Carnahan's upcoming A-Team film. (That's right--you now have an answer for the future trivia question, "What do Bradley Cooper and Katee Sackhoff have in common?")

That seems a fairly perfect fit, but it still leaves open the question of who will play Hannibal Smith, B.A. Baracus, and Howlin' Mad Murdock. We got into some speculative casting back in January. Erika thought maybe Greg Kinnear for Faceman and Bruce Willis as Hannibal. I said Dane Cook for Murdock, Chris Evans for Faceman (but clearly Evans is slipping in the race to be the Next Big Leading Thing), with Vince Vaughn and Sam Rockwell as back up in either role. I figured a rapper-actor for B.A., and maybe Sam The Man Jackson as Hannibal (though he's already has plenty of "Team Leader" roles lined up). Joe Allen had some great suggestions, too: Dwayne Johnson as B.A., Morgan Freeman as Hannibal, and Harland Williams or Johnny Knoxville as Murdock. Care to add to the shopping list?

More bits o' geek news after the jump, including Thor casting and a Battleship director!

Meanwhile, Kenneth Branagh's Thor is putting its cast together. As you know, the film version of Marvel's hammer-wielding, super-villain-smacking God of Thunder will be part of the company's ambitious attempt to launch several new superheroes (Iron Man and Hulk already, followed by Thor, Captain America, and perhaps a Nick Fury solo film) and then bring them all together in the super-group movie The Avengers. 

So while you're picking up some Bradley Cooper stock, grab a few shares of Chris Hemsworth as well. The hunky Australian actor--last seen jerking every last tear from us while ramming the USS Kelvin into a Romulan warship so his newborn son Jim Kirk could be hustled to safety--will play the Norse god Thor. (He's also signed to take The Swayze's role in the Red Dawn remake.) Hemsworth will also be following his brief but memorable Star Trek performance later this year with parts in the thrillers A Perfect Getaway and Joss Whedon's The Cabin in the Woods.

It had been rumored that Josh "Devourer of All On-Screen Energy" Hartnett would play Thor's arch-nemesis--his devious, manipulative half-brother Loki. Thank Odin that turned out to be false--the Norse trickster will be played instead by Tom Hiddleston, a mostly unknown British thespian whose lean, angular face looks perfect for the part.

So that leaves their father, Odin... Any suggestions? Should there at least be one Scandinavian in a major role? (Stellan Skarsgård, maybe? Is Max Von Sydow still alive?) I know this is so wrong, but for some reason when I think of Odin, I keep thinking of Rip Torn. But that's just me. I'm guessing that's not the image Branagh is going for. More likely, he'll tap one of his fellow RSC alums--Brian Blessed would seem likely, right? Or a Christopher Plummer type? (Just to tie this all together, in the animated Ultimate Avengers DVD, Odin is voiced by... Dwight Schultz... the original A-Team's Murdock.)

Erika mentioned the new games-to-movies trend a few months ago, including Candy Land and Monopoly. Now the Battleship production has a director lined up: it's Peter Berg, director of Friday Night Lights, The Kingdom, and who's also working on a new big-screen version of Dune. Word is the Battleship film will be an "epic naval action adventure."

Now as we know, I love me some big sea-battle movies. And I've always felt Berg was just a few tweaks and tucks from being a really fun, exciting director (he's got a great eye and way with actors, but he's never fully knocked one out of the park for me--though both the Friday Night Lights film and TV show come close). So I'm going to give everyone the benefit of the doubt on this one. Will Battleship lean more toward a sort of hyper-stylized "game" version of fictional sea warfare in the first half of the 20th Century? Will it try dovetail into actual historical events? Will it be gritty and realistic? Or more along the lines of light, exciting action?

My father was a Marine anti-aircraft gunner on the USS Pennsylvania and was in the Battle of Leyte Gulf in the fall of '44, the largest and last real sea battle in history. By that point battleships were no longer the front-line, heavy hitters of a modern navy--they were used mostly for land bombardment and as defense against air attacks.

That said, and as much as I'd love to see a big, realistic, accurate portryal of WWII South Pacific sea battles (it looks like the HBO Band of Brothers follow up, The Pacific, will focus more on island fighting), I'm perfectly happy if Berg wants to go for something that feels more like a big game brought to life and is more about exciting, entertaining fun than historical gravitas.

Comments

[Noite]

Actually, I think Josh Hartnett would have made a great Loki. He was really good in Lucky Number Slevin, despite the fact that the movie wasn't that great.

[Locke Peterseim]

That's just crazy talk, Noite...

Okay, I admit that in the past I've sometimes found Hartnett passably entertaining, but too often he's just a gigantic sinkhole, not only devoid of charisma, but sucking it out of every actor around him.

And he's got those lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, he doesn't seem to be livin'... until he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then... ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin'...

[refreshen]

"So that leaves their father, Odin... Any suggestions?"
How @ Nick Nolte or since he is sizzlin' right now, Mickey Rourke?

[Locke Peterseim]

Wow, Nick Nolte is so crazy it just might work! Rourke might still be a bit too young -- believe it or not, but I don't think he's quite grizzled enough yet... but he can check back in a decade or so!

[Jason]

Put a salt n pepper beard on him and rourke would be perfect. But I totally see what you mean about Rip Torn. He could pull of the look and the voice, but I don't know if he has the subtlety.