Kiss of the Spider-Man
Apr 23rd, 2007 by milo
Despite my (super)heroic best efforts, I failed to land an invite to the Spider-Man 3 premiere on Monday night. Anyone passing by MovieMail towers would have heard the sound of chairs breaking and teeth gnashing. Still, there’s no need to rent a dinner jacket, which is a saving of sorts.
Being denied the chance to see the summer’s biggest film, I spent the day thinking about the superhero films I have seen already (damn you, Sony!).
Since Richard Donner’s Superman (1979), comic book adaptations have come and gone, but the best of them have always avoided typical Hollywood casting choices. As a superhero’s character is already set in the audience’s mind, putting a big star in the role is never going to work.
Instead, supposedly ‘low brow’ comics do best with highbrow casting.
Spider-Man (2002) became a mega-hit by casting the round-eyed kid from The Cider House Rules (1999) in the title role, and by dressing Scorsese’s Jesus, Willem Dafoe, in green tights and a Power-Rangers helmet. Similarly, Tim Burton’s Batman (1989) starred Michael Keaton, a short, curly haired oddball whose career consisted of offbeat comedies.
And who would have thought that roly-poly Brit character actor Alfred Molina, fresh from playing Diego Rivera in Julie Taymor’s Frida (2002), would be the perfect choice for the web-slinger’s cybernetically-enhanced nemesis, Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man 2 (2004)?
By contrast, Catwoman (2004) and Daredevil (2003), starring Halle Berry and Ben Affleck respectively - both supposedly box office dynamite - fizzled out (though I still have a soft spot for Catwoman, helmed by the director of Vidocq (2001), a fantastic French film that is still overdue a UK release).
For the latest Spider-Man, Director Sam Raimi spread his casting web even further afield. Anyone with eyes could see that Sideways (2004) was one of the best films of its year, but it takes a special kind of cunning to look at Thomas Haden Church’s craggy visage and see The Sandman.
Some say that Hollywood is running out of ideas, but if that forces casting directors to flex their imaginations and check out some of the more offbeat talent that’s out there, that can only be a good thing. So as the Spider-Man and Batman franchises grind on, it’ll be fun to see who turns up in the credits: This month’s MovieMail discovery could be the next big super-villain!
Anyway, I am off to hit the phones. Spider-Man 4 is due out sometime in 2009, and I want a front row seat…