Yesterday we brought you the news that British comedian Lucy Punch was getting cast as half of the main detective duo in the upcoming FX adaptation of Brian Michael Bendis’ Powers comic series.

It looks like the network wasn’t stopping with casting Detective Deena Pilgrim, as former hero Christian Walker is also getting a real-life counterpart in 80s actor Jason Patric. Here’s the scoop from THR.

Patric will play Christian Walker, a cop who works in the Powers division of the police force and deals with crimes involving those endowed with special abilities.

The first story in the Powers comic, which is serving as the basis for the pilot, involves the murder of Retro Girl, a superpowered celebrity. Walker, who gets paired up with a rookie on the case, is determined to track down the killer even if it costs him his badge.

With Patric and Punch playing the leads, it looks like FX and series director Michael Dinner is trying to stay away from fan favorites and is going for more of a gritty and off-beat casting style, much like what AMC’s The Walking Dead did. We all know how that turned out.

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This week’s pick is the 1988 cult classic from director Kevin Reynolds (Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), The Count of Monte Cristo (2002) The Beast a.k.a. The Beast of War, which stars George Dzundza (Commander Daskal), Jason Patric (Konstantin Koverchenko), Don Harvey (Kaminski), Stephen Baldwin (Golikov), Erick Avari (Samad), and Steven Bauer (Taj).

The film is set in 1981 as the Soviet Union has entered its second year of their war with Afghanistan. The film centers around the crew of a Soviet tank platoon whose T-62 tank becomes lost in a valley after an attack on an Afghan village. The first few minutes of the film are brutal as it shows a combined tank assault on a Pashtun village which house some Mujahideen rebels who have been fighting the Soviet occupation of their province.

The Soviets use poison gas, flame throwers, RPGs (rocket propelled grenades) and the famed AK-47 assault rifle as they mop up their attack on the villagers. Taj (Bauer) returns home to find his village destroyed and his brother crushed by the tank commanded by the ruthless Daskal (Dzundza) who deals harshly with the guerrillas. Taj becomes Khan (tribal leader) and vows to destroy the tank and avenge his brother’s death.

Not knowing that the valley that Daskal has led them into eventually becomes a dead end, the Soviet tankers go about their duties and hope to rejoin their column. The crew are made up of four Soviets and one Afghan named Samad (Avari) who is not trusted by Daskal who suspects Samad of being a turncoat. The film is a classic example of cat & mouse as the Soviets are chased by the determined Mujahideen rebels who are armed with rockets to destroy the tank.

Koverchenko (Patric) respects the Mujahideen rebels who have them on the run and builds a relationship with the outcast Samad who teaches Koverchenko the rules of Pashtunwali which is their code of honour and civility. Koverchenko begins to suspect that Daskal is going over the edge due to his increased resentment for Samad and for the safety of the men.

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I did you a favor and refrained  from making a pun out of the film’s title in my headline, though I had to physically restrain myself from doing so. From acting to editing, to continuity and dialogue, this film was an awful mess.

I’ve grown to  enjoy and look forward to comic book adaptations over the last year. Watchmen and Kick-Ass were some of my favorite films of the last twelve months, so I went into The Losers (based on a comic by Andy  Diggle) with an open mind and high expectations.

Things went swimmingly well  for the first five minutes  or so, but then the movie had its first action sequence, and director David Sylvain embarks on a torrid love affair with ill-advised editing.  He loves slow-motion. He loves the fast edit. He loves the stop/go/stop again editing. Most of all, he just loves to edit the holy living crap out of any scene he can get his hands on. As long as the camera is moving erratically, he is like a kid in a candy shop, and it ruins the movie.

The editing tricks become the primary focus of the movie, and once you start noticing them, they will plaque you incessantly until the conclusion of the film. There is just no need for a lot of it.  For instance, there is a kinda-sorta hot love scene between Zoe Saldana and Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

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For those of you waiting to see the teaser for The Losers that was supposed to drop today, forget about that. The full trailer is now online. And full trailers are always cooler than teasers.

In this trailer you see the gang in all their glory plus there’s lots of explosive, comic book inspired mayem. And really, who doesn’t love that? Based on the highly regarded comic book series by Andy Diggle and Jock, The Losers is directed by Sylvan White and features Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Idris Elba, Chris Evans, Oscar Jaenada, Columbus Short, Zoe Saldana, Jason Patric and Holt McCallany.

It hits theaters on April 9, 2010. Until then, check out the trailer after the break. For the HD version, head on over to MSN.

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