If you are a general movie fan (let’s be honest: if you’re here, you probably are) then you are probably aware how casting works for most films. Directors and producers seeks out the stars, or soon-to-be stars, that they really like for the roles and either build a film around them or make them work into their project.
But what if time and space folded in on itself, causing films like Inception and Drive to get made in the film era of Bela Lugosi and James Dean? Or if John Wayne actually got the part to play Superman instead of George Reeves?
These are questions that digital artist Peter Stults thought would be cool to explore, as he takes popular films and drops them into different eras and genres, with the farthest possible actors taking on the iconic roles.
After the jump, you can take a look at the whole slew of them, which include Sean Connery in The Fifth Element, Fritz Lang’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, and our personal favorite: Leonard Nimoy in Die Hard.
When asked about his role in Jaws 4: The Revenge, Michael Caine once said, “I never saw it—but I saw the house it paid for, and it’s fantastic!” I suspect John Turturro’s been saying something similar for the past four years whenever he’s asked about the Transformers movies. Now we can add John Malkovich and Frances McDormand to that group. And maybe Alan Tudyk.
The plot is as labyrinthine as it is unnecessary. Back in the early 1960s, a ship from war-torn Cybertron (if the Transformers spend all their time fighting, how did they ever evolve?) crashed on the moon. Among the cargo were several “Pillars” that have some sort of significance to the war.
Also, a big, tough Autobot named Sentinal Prime. The White House gets wise to this, and thus we have the impetus for the moon landing (apparently, many historical events were due to Transformers; they don’t get around to revealing that car in which Kennedy was shot was an Autobot, but there may be a fourth film).
Fast-forward to the present day, where the Autobots are now working for the Feds to preserve humanity (how did we ever get along without them?). While on a mission to Chernobyl, Optimus Prime discovers some remnant of the Pillars and decides that it’s high time to revive Sentinal. Also, the Pillars are somehow able to teleport things, which means that it can be used to bring an army of invading Decepticons to earth (according to Frances McDormand, National Intelligence Director).
When you think of current chart-topping pop singer Bruno Mars, Leonard Nimoy is definitely not the first name that comes to mind. Nor is it the second, third, or fifth, for that matter. That hasn’t stopped him from starring in the unused music video for Mars’ newest hit “The Lazy Song” (currently at #6 in Billboard’s Hot 100).
The song is a nice send up to the “classic” stoner anthems of the mid to late 90′s, with a fun summer twist to it. In this music video, we get a taste of what it’s like to live like Spock for a day, and how hilarious and lazy Nimoy can be, or at least how he wants it depicted.
Some great moments in the video, including a few digs and the ubiquitous William Shatner, and Nimoy’s general disposition to the people around him in the video are pretty hilarious.
Check out the unused, yet official video for the Bruno Mars song after the jump, and be sure to leave Spock alone if you ever see him in public. Oh, and don’t call him Spock.
Transformers: Dark of the Moon has a tough road ahead to win back the hearts and minds of all the fans Revenge of the Fallen disappointed in 2009. The second Transformers film might have been a financial success, but it failed on just about every other level.
Michael Bay needs to up his awesome this time around and he might have just played his ace in the hole. However, this might help.
EW is reporting that Leonard Nimoy is set to be the voice behind Sentinel Prime in the forthcoming film. This new character is Optimus’ predecessor and was the transformer featured in the first teaser trailer.
Nimoy is no stranger to the transformer universe, having already provided the voice for Galvatron in the mid-80s animated classic Transformers: The Movie. Michael Bay has been eyeing Nimoy for a voice role since the last film, but had some reservations.
“I was too scared to ask him,” the director says. “Plus, he’s married to Susan Bay, who’s a cousin of mine. So I had to be careful. I’ve met him at family functions. But he told me, ‘I would be honored. I’m glad to be back!’”
This is not the first news of Nimoy returning to the acting world after he recently retired. Hopefully this means he will also return to the another of the mega geek franchises he is known for. I eagerly anticipate an updated Ballad of Bilbo Baggins for the new Hobbit films!
This week on The Flickcast Chris and Matt dive into a whole bunch of topics for your listening pleasure. Among these are the new Netflix movie deal, the first pictures of Green Lantern’s mentor, the awesomeness of Gamefly, the original Star Trek pilots, the leaked final episode of Lost, the last season of Entourage, new True Blood info, Fringe season three and much more.
The boys also made some new picks this week including Matt’s pick of Rob Corddry’s Children’s Hospital and Chris’ pick of the Showtime series Dexter, featuring Michael C. Hall, Julie Benz and James Remar.
As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, at Facebook and MySpace or via email.
Sure, Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Picard, Riker and the rest of the “good guys” have always been the primary focus of Star Trek movies, TV shows and even comic based on the series. But what about the cool bad guys?
Well, at least one of them is finally getting his due in IDW’s just announced comic series based on the hugely popular Star Trek villain Khan. First made popular by the late Ricardo Montalban in the priginal Star Trek series, Khan will now live on and continue his story in comic book form.
According IDW:
“What happened to Khan and his followers on Ceti Alpha V? Star Trek: Khan: Ruling in Hellanswers just that, explaining how this once proud warrior-king turns into the grizzled maniac seen in Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan.”
In addition to the comic, IDW will also be offering a plush doll in conjunction with the release, available exclusively at comic dealers or via comicshoplocator.com.
Star Trek: Khan: Ruling in Hell will be written by Scott and David Tipton, with Fabio Mantovani bringing the story to life by doing the art.The first comic will be 32 pages and will be released in October.
Welcome to this week’s On the Radar where we delve into all corners of the entertainment, tech and geek Internets for news, views and whatnot that may have escaped our regular coverage this week. Let is know if we missed something.
• Yeah, we kinda feel the same way about Jonah Hex. Where did it all go so wrong? We know it isn’t Megan Fox’s fault, so what is is?
• Do you want a cool action figure featuring one of your favorite characters from Firefly Captain Malcolm Reynolds? If so, this isn’t it.
• You say you like Predators and can’t wait for Robert Rodriguez’s version to come out? Until then, check out these pics of the new/old Predators.
• A company has produced bars of soap in the shape of Han Solo in Carbonite. Sadly, more male users will buy this product than female.
• There’s something to be said about the originality of the newest wave of XXX parodies. At least, our inner teenager is excited for The Breakfast Club: A XXX Parody.
• Everybody loves True Blood. Even Snoop Dogg…for some reason. Oh, wait . . .
This week On the Radar Leonard Nimoy says goodbye to Spock, Robert Downey Jr. may journey to the land of Oz, and Mickey Rourke wants to play one of the most feared Mongolians in history.
Did Jason Voorhees just get killed? Oh, the irony!
However evil slasher Jason Voorhees may appear to be it seems there is something that can stop him afterall-movie studios. While the recent remake of Friday the 13th garnished nearly $100 million worldwide, producer Brad Fuller responded to a fan via Twitter and said a sequel may be dead.
Platinum Dunes does not seem interested in continuing the story at this time. Let’s not count Jason out yet, though. Freddy Krueger is about to leap bag onto the big screen in the Nightmare on Elm Street remake. If that’s successful, Voorhees may climb out of the grave once more.
Leonard Nimoy to hang up his Spock ears for good
While not as active as his friend William Shatner on the acting front, Leonard Nimoy took fanboys by storm by reprising his role as Spock in J.J. Abrams Star Trekreboot. He caused further excitement by taking on the enigmatic role of William Bell in the TV series Fringe. Unfortunately, it seems Nimoy is ready to step back from the celebrity life:
“I want to get off the stage. Also, I don’t think it would be fair to Zachary Quinto,” he says, referring to the actor who portrayed a youthful Spock in last summer’s smash Star Trek relaunch. “He’s a terrific actor, he looks the part, and it’s time to give him some space. And I’m very flattered the character will continue.”
Its beginning to smell a lot like Christmas but its not too late to get some great DVD’s for the movie lovers on your list. To help you decide just what to get, here’s a list of some of the new movie and TV shows coming to DVD and Blu-ray this week that we’re looking forward to seeing. Also, there’s some classic, and not-so-classic, movies hitting Blu-ray for the first time.
Of all the new releases, we’re particularly interested in the Blu-ray versions of movies and TV shows such as The Hangover, The Goods, Star Trek: the Original Series and the Blu-ray debut of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds (shown above with Brad Pitt and Eli Roth).
Check them out:
Movies
Cake Boss ~ Buddy Valastro, Joey Faugno, Mary Sciarrone (DVD)
G-Force (Single Disc Widescreen) ~ Nicolas Cage, Jon Favreau (DVD and Blu-ray)
The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard ~ Jeremy Piven, Ving Rhames, James Brolin (DVD and Blu-ray)
The Hangover (Unrated Edition) ~ Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis (DVD and Blu-ray)
Inglourious Basterds (2-Disc Special Edition) ~ Brad Pitt, Eli Roth, Christophe Waltz (DVD and Blu-ray)
It looks like the “gracious and classy actor award” is going to Patrick Stewart and not William Shatner — at least according to a post over at IMDB. After Shatner’s much publicized disappointment with being left out of J.J. Abrams highly successful Star Trek reboot, Stewart’s delight with the film was a welcome display of his class and style. Then again, that’s why we love Patrick Stewart and sometimes want to kick Shatner’s Denny Crane in his legal briefs, right?
Star Trek: The Next Generation star Stewart says he “loved” the much anticipated Star Trek movie, but says “It was a very odd experience to be in the cinema watching a Star Trek movie that I wasn’t in. With the exception of Leonard Nimoy, I didn’t know any of the cast but it’s still Star Trek. I got a great kick out of it.”
He even had kind words for newcomer Chris Pine, who plays a young Captain Kirk, calling him “brilliant, charming, funny and utterly delightful.” Such a British gentleman, that Jean-Luc. The J.J. Abrams film is a reboot of the Start Trek films and of course, the iconic 1960’s television series. With spinoffs like Stewart’s Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and four Next Gen films, the Star Trek franchise has fans of all ages, from my father to my six-year-old nephew, and most of the geeks in between.
You may be one of the millions of people who went to see J.J. Abrams new Star Trek this past weekend. If so, you probably had one of several reactions. You loved it as Matt and I did, thought is was just average as other people did or, if you’re a die-hard Trekkie, hated it for what its done to your beloved franchise and characters. If you happen to be in that last category, this video from the weekend’s Saturday Night Live is just for you.
In the video, available over at NBC’s Website, actors Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto (along with another actor you may recogzine) stop in at the Weekend Update desk to address Star Trek fans and try to relive some of their stress about the new film. It’s pretty funny. Enjoy.
If you are a general movie fan (let’s be honest: if you’re here, you probably are) then you are probably aware how casting works for most films. Directors and producers seeks out the stars, or soon-to-be stars, that they really like for the roles and either build a film around them or make them work into their project.
It looks like the “gracious and classy actor award” is going to Patrick Stewart and not William Shatner — at least 
Subscribe via RSS
Subscribe via iTunes