Monthly Wallpaper - January 2010: 2009 - The Year in Film

As 2009 comes to a close, it is time to look back on the year in film, and what better way then with the Movie Dearest calendar wallpaper for next month!

22 of 2009's most popular movies make up the collage, so you can spend all of January gazing at the likes of Brüno, Carl, Carla, Coraline, George, Jacob, Julia, Logan, Max, Precious, Ryan, Salvador, Spock, Summer and all the rest. What a way to start off a new year ... and a virtual Academy Award to the first MD reader who can correctly name in the comments section below all 22 movies pictured in the collage!

Just click on the picture above to enlarge it to its 1024 x 768 size, then right click your mouse and select "Set as Background", and you're all set. If you want, you can also save it to your computer and set it up from there, or modify the size in your own photo-editing program if needed.

Reel Thoughts: Not So Super

The drama of getting Watchmen into theaters is more compelling than the convoluted film director Zack Snyder (300) created. Based on Allan Moore’s much-loved graphic novel from the mid-’80s, Watchmen is at first gripping in the same menacing way The Dark Knight was. But then, it disintegrates into an ending that leaves you depressed at the wasted potential. I was also disturbed by elements in the film that I found unfortunate at best and homophobic at worst.

Watchmen tells the story of a group of crime-fighters who are anything but role models. In the film’s alternate reality, it is 1985 and President Nixon is enjoying his fifth term (having abolished term limits), but the country is virtually rotting away with corruption and crime. Superheroes, who live alongside regular people, have been outlawed as vigilantes, except for a glowing blue atomic creature named Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup, channeling his MasterCard ad voice to great effect) who is Nixon’s secret weapon against Russia. The Watchmen, who evolved from a group of crime-fighters in the ’40s called the Minutemen, have mostly gone into hiding or gone to seed.


When a particularly poorly-named “superhero,” The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), is brutally murdered, his paranoid fellow crime-fighter Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley, in a brilliant performance) tries to regroup the Watchmen to solve the killing. Dan Dreiberg (Patrick Wilson), a.k.a. Niteowl II, is a schlubby nebbish with an arsenal of amazing weapons and gizmos. Silk Spectre II (Malin Ackerman) a.k.a. Laurie Jupiter, the daughter of the original superhero (a boozy Carla Gugino, who plays her role like Lea Thompson in Back to the Future Part II), is a knockout who hates her neglectful mom. Ozymandias, a.k.a. Adrian Veidt (Matthew Goode), is the world’s smartest man, and he has used his powers to become incredibly rich and successful. Dr. Manhattan is a God-like do-gooder who is gradually losing touch with his humanity, despite his love for Laurie.

The world is pitted in the kind of nuclear arms race that seems ready to explode, and even having Dr. Manhattan on our side doesn’t seem to be scaring the Russians. In this pre-apocalyptic chaos, Rorschach finds that the killer of his ill-tempered friend may be someone closer than he suspects. At this point, all of the great performances so far can no longer save the admittedly great-looking film. The climax can’t work in a post-Cold War time, not that it would have been very logical or believable in 1987 either.


The opening credits, played as a set of living tableaus that detail the rise and fall of the Minutemen and the Watchmen to the tune of Bob Dylan’s “The Times, They Are A-Changin’”, are riveting and dazzlingly presented. It’s too bad that the rest of the film can’t match its virtuosity. Snyder fills the film with scenes of misogynistic violence and elements that, because they go unchallenged, are likely to inspire anti-gay reactions in less-intelligent audiences.

For instance, Silhouette (Apollonia Vanova) is a strong and sexy crime-fighter who is revealed as a lesbian with a girlfriend she meets at Times Square on V-E Day. Before the credits are over, they’ve both been murdered in an apparent hate crime. When Rorschach refers to her, he equates her with another Minuteman who has gone insane and is institutionalized, and as much as says she was asking for her fate because of her alternative lifestyle. It can also be argued that the killer who is unmasked is also the stereotypical gay villain.


Given the almost fetishistic attention given to the always-naked and well-endowed Dr. Manhattan, and the homoerotic exaggeration of the men’s bodies when in costume, I don’t know that the homophobia was intentional. Still, it’s totally unnecessary, as is the level of brutality shown in the violent confrontations.

Due to its dated premise, overindulgent running time, and unrelenting ugliness, Watchmen is a visually breathtaking waste of time.

UPDATE: Watchmen is now available on DVD and Blu-rayfrom Amazon.com.

Review by Neil Cohen, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Phoenix's Echo Magazine.

MD Poll: Wild About Harry

In our most recent MD Poll, Movie Dearest readers chose Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince as their "must-see" movie of 2009. The results are not too surprising, as we were supposed to get it last fall (in fact, it came in second to The Dark Knight in last year's polling).

Following Watchmen, another film delayed from 2008, Star Trek, came in third place, a huge leap from its ninth place finish last year. As usual, you can see the complete stats for this poll in the comments section below.

Reverend's Reviews: I Like Watching the Watchmen

Although I've had it on my shelf for several years, I only recently read Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' acclaimed graphic novel, Watchmen, primarily in anticipation of the beleaguered production that just opened in movie theaters. Set in an alternate 1985 United States — a nation on the brink of nuclear war with the USSR, and with Richard Nixon enjoying his fifth term as president — Watchmen on the page and, now, on film serves as a fascinating deconstruction of the superhero literary genre.

I wasn't as familiar with or as enamored by the source material as some prior to the movie's premiere. Nevertheless, I saw the film's potential for disappointing Watchmen's "fanboys." If the movie eliminated or departed from too much of the graphic novel's storyline or treated it with more of a camp mentality, I figured all hell would break loose. Unlike some of those fanboys and fellow critics, I was very pleased by the film adaptation. While it traffics in some of the same philosophical and moral themes as last year's über-smash The Dark Knight, I believe Watchmen does so more successfully and with a much more interesting visual style.


Director Zack Snyder (300) was a wise choice to helm this expensive movie. He respects the graphic novel's core plot and characters while only making a few departures that improve the story. One example: the movie's ending, which is the most dramatic departure from the book. The script, by David Hayter and Alex Tse, utilizes the same basic scenario — millions of people are killed rather than billions would be in a nuclear holocaust. But the means is quite different in the graphic novel: the villain creates a giant squid with psychic abilities that kills everyone in NYC. To those unfamiliar with Watchmen, I assure you I'm not kidding! Needless to say, I prefer the movie version, which takes advantage of one of the heroes not unlike Batman in The Dark Knight.

Snyder has also cast the film exceptionally well. While Jackie Earle Haley (Little Children) is a standout as the tortured vigilante Rorschach, Patrick Wilson (also of Little Children, as well as Angels in America) makes a strong impression as Dan Dreiberg, a.k.a. Nite Owl. Usually cast for his good looks but emotional blandness, Wilson has put on weight, glasses and a zest for the super- heroic life here that expands his image. He and Malin Akerman (as Silk Spectre) play the two Watchmen who most enjoy being superheroes, and they run with it.


The Comedian, whose murder the Watchmen plot pivots on, isn't as well developed on film as he was on the page, but Jeffrey Dean Morgan gives the character the requisite questionable morality. Matthew Goode (Match Point), as the ambitious Ozymandias, and a primarily-digitized Billy Crudup as the otherworldly Dr. Manhattan round out the cast well.

Between 300 and Watchmen, Snyder continues to reveal an unrivaled cinematic appreciation for the male form. Whether it be the loincloth-clad Spartans in his previous blockbuster or, here, the frequent but matter-of-fact nudity displayed by Dr. Manhattan and Nite Owl, Snyder clearly isn't afraid to show men for all they are physically as a means of revealing their overall strength. This has led some to question Snyder's sexuality (he is reportedly a heterosexual, married father of six children), or to accuse him of baiting gay viewers with homoerotic imagery while seemingly condemning homosexual tendencies or behavior in other scenes of both 300 and Watchmen. I don't share their concerns.


Similarly, my fellow Movie Dearest Man on Film, Neil Cohen, and I have been debating all weekend whether Ozymandias is supposed to be gay. Despite Ozy's presence at a Studio 54 celebration and his occasionally mincing mannerisms, I didn't find much evidence of homosexuality, unless being brilliant and cultured equals gay. (On second thought ...)

Watchmen is long at nearly three hours and it brings the book's graphic violence to vivid life on screen. Thoughtful viewers, however, ought to find the movie intelligent, engrossing and often exciting entertainment, whether one is familiar with the source material or not.

UPDATE: Watchmen is now available on DVD and Blu-rayfrom Amazon.com.

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Orange County and Long Beach Blade.

Cinematic Crush: Jeffrey Dean Morgan

Crush object: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, actor.

- He made his screen debut in the feature film Uncaged, but he is best known for his many television appearances, beginning with the short-lived action series The Burning Zone.

- His roles in a trio of hit shows have made him a familiar face to fans: Judah Botwin on Weeds, John Winchester on Supernatural and Denny Duquette on Grey's Anatomy.

- As the doomed heart transplant patient in the latter, he fell in love with Katherine Heigl's Dr. Izzie Stevens, got a new ticker, died tragically, and then came back from the dead to woo her once more in this season's most controversial plotline.

- Back on the big screen, he has appeared in P.S. I Love You, Kabluey and The Accidental Husband and plays the stogie-chompin' Comedian in this week's Watchmen.

- The busy actor will next star in the mystery All Good Things, go gay in Taking Woodstock and take on the romantic thriller Shanghai.

Film Art: Manhattan Project

Dave Perillo's "retro propaganda style" design for Dr. Manhattan, who will be seen in (all) the blue flesh in this week's highly anticipated new release Watchmen.

Cinematic Crush: Matthew Goode

Crush object: Matthew Goode, actor.

- Following his screen debut in Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, he appeared in such UK television productions as The Inspector Lynley Mysteries and He Knew He Was Right.

- His breakthrough role was as Mandy Moore's love interest in the romantic comedy Chasing Liberty.

- He has also co-starred in Match Point, Imagine Me & You, Copying Beethoven and The Lookout.

- Last year, he starred as Charles Ryder in the big screen remake of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, and his highest profile role to date will be as the enigmatic Ozymandias in next week's superhero epic Watchmen.

- Future films include A Single Man, directed by Tom Ford from the Christopher Isherwood novel, and Leap Year, opposite Amy Adams.

MD Poll: What Will Be Fine in '09?

As the 2008 movie year officially comes to a close with tomorrow night's Academy Awards, the latest MD Poll takes a look forward to the year ahead to find out what movie you are most excited to see in 2009.

Our short list includes two hold-overs from last year's poll (Star Trek and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince), as well as some other new takes on old characters (Sherlock Holmes, The Wolf Man), not to mention the requisite superhero epics (X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Watchmen). Two of our favorite actors, Johnny Depp and Viggo Mortensen headline the anticipated Public Enemies and The Road (respectively), and you can never count out Pixar for a good time — their prospects this year are looking Up.

And just in case we left one out, there's a wild card slot so you can vote for any movie not already included, and you can name it in the comments section below if you so choose. As usual, the poll runs for two weeks and can be found in the sidebar to your right.

UPDATE: This poll is now closed; click here for the results.

Poster Post: Almost Time to Watch

After years of speculation and months of legal woes, it's almost a little hard to believe that it is now a little less than a month away: Watchmen lands in theaters and IMAX March 6.

Monthly Wallpaper - December 2008: Super Heroes

2008 was the unofficial "year of the superhero", so it is only fitting that the final Movie Dearest calendar wallpaper of the year is a salute to our favorite celluloid supers.

From the classic Christopher Reeve Superman and Michael Keaton Batman to more recent editions to the ranks such as Iron Man and the upcoming Watchmen, this legion of superheroes will keep your desktop nice and safe from marauding super villains, at least for the next few weeks.

All you have to do is click on the picture above to enlarge it, then simply right click your mouse and select "Set as Background". (You can also save it to your computer and set it up from there if you prefer.) The size is 1024 x 768, but you can modify it if needed in your own photo-editing program.

Cinematic Crush: Patrick Wilson

Crush object: Patrick Wilson, actor.

- He first caught our eye by dropping his pants in the Broadway musical version of The Full Monty, which netted him his first Tony Award nomination; the second came for Oklahoma! He also starred in Off-Broadway's Bright Lights, Big City and the Broadway revival of Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park, and will be seen again on the New York stage later this month in another revival, Arthur Miller's All My Sons.

- For his performance as the closeted Mormon lawyer Joe Pitt in the mini-series adaptation of Tony Kushner's Angels in America, he received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations.

- His first major film role was in the remake of The Alamo, followed by his only foray into movie musicals to date, the screen version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera. Ironically, his next three films -- Hard Candy, Little Children and Running With Scissors -- all dealt in one way or another with child abuse.

- Along with his Evening co-star Claire Danes, he appeared in a popular commercial for the Gap's "boyfriend trouser".

- The busy actor will next be seen onscreen in the thriller Lakeview Terrace (in theaters September 19; watch the trailer here), as well as two other movies this year: another thriller, Passengers, and the comedy Barry Munday, wherein he plays a man who wakes up and finds out "he's missing his family jewels". Oh, and he's also in a little movie called Watchmen, due next year.

Fantastic Four

A quartet of high profile forthcoming fantasy flicks have been making headlines over the past couple of days:

- Will we be able to watch the Watchmen after all? The Warner Bros. superhero epic (directed by 300's Zack Snyder) has found itself in a nasty legal scuffle; seems Twentieth Century Fox is claiming distribution rights to the property. No worries though, for (as Entertainment Weekly's Jeff Jensen puts it), "Fox isn't actually interested in suppressing Snyder’s film — they just want affirmation of ownership and/or restitution, and there are many scenarios by which Fox could get paid, including a cash settlement or distribution rights to the film. Either way, look for Watchmen to be released, as scheduled, on March 6, 2009." Nevertheless, panicked fanboys are outraged over the whole thing, raising a ruckus the likes of which we haven't seen since, well, last week's Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince release date fiasco.

- Speaking of which, Cinematical sits down and debunks all the myths/rumors surrounding that unexpected/ unpopular move, while star Daniel Radcliffe reportedly reveals that Broadway's Equus won't be the only time soon he'll be going the "full monty". Could we be seeing a lot more of Harry's, uh, "magic gifts" in the saga's final chapters, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows?

- Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law -- who all stepped in to complete Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus following the accidental death of Heath Ledger earlier this year -- will donate their salaries for the film to Heath's three-year-old daughter Matilda. Furthermore, despite the movie's newsworthiness and four A-list leading men, it appears that it may have trouble finding a studio to distribute it.

- And finally: Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens (the Oscar winning screenwriters of The Lord of the Rings trilogy) will indeed be collaborating with Guillermo del Toro on the upcoming Hobbit prequels.

Poster Posts: I'll Take Manhattan

One would think that the image of a naked blue ass floating in the air wouldn't be the first thing movie marketers would think of when it comes to plug a big budget superhero movie, but there it is. Of course, this is not your typical big budget superhero movie we're talking about here, this is Watchmen.

(Actually, the most questionable aspect of this new poster is not Dr. Manhattan's derriere, but the phrase "From the visionary director of 300". Okay, if you say so ... )

For more character one sheets of the cast of Watchmen, check out 'em out at FirstShowing.net.

UPDATE: And be sure to check out the nifty comic-to-poster comparisons at PlasmicStudio.com.

Comic-Con 2008: Wrap Up

Comic-Con 2008 came to a close yesterday, which means it is time for some gratuitous shots of sexy costumes!

Continuing the tradition started last year, here's another 300 hunk, along with a bevy of comely Disney vixens, a studly Superman, a bearish Wolverine, and a whole pack of sexy Jesuses. If you ever wondered what is was like to be a superhero-for-a-day, Cinematical's buxom-for-a-day Elisabeth Rappe (that's her Lara Croft with the Hamlet 2 gang) blogs all about it over on her home turf.

Save for the Watchmen confab and that out-of-nowhere Tron 2 teaser (catch the covert footage online while you can), there wasn't anything all that earth shaking this year. That is, unless you count some paltry information about remakes (The Day the Earth Stood Still, Friday the 13th, H.R. Pufnstuf, Red Sonja, The Wolfman) and sequels (The Evil Dead, I Am Legend, Punisher: War Zone, Scream 4, Terminator Salvation) nobody really asked for, not to mention movies just begging to be franchises (GI Joe, RocknRolla, The Spirit, Twilight). And then there is always the tantalizing news of exclusive footage that no one outside of the Con can see for now (most notably, an extended trailer for X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which keeps appearing and reappearing on the net ... let me know if you find it). Most glaring was the complete lack of anything regarding the new Star Trek movie. It seems that now that Hollywood has more or less taken over the Con, the studios are holding all the cards ... and they're playing them very close to their vests.

Nevertheless, Moviefone has a pretty thorough overview of the entire geektastic weekend (including a tease about the two name actors who star in the fictitious gay porn flick Shut Your Mouth Before I F*** It in Kevin Smith's raunchy comedy Zack and Miri Make a Porno). And for more photo galleries of the fantastic fashions on display, visit Cinematical.com.

UPDATE: Who were the "hunks of Comic-Con"? Visit Thompson on Hollywood to find out. And for more of the best in retrospect, Cinematical has posted their "first annual Comic-Con awards!"

Reverend's Report from Comic-Con ... in Absentia

At the end of Comic-Con weekend here in Southern California, I hate to admit that I didn't make it down to San Diego for the first time in five years. I was registered and planned to attend Friday at least, but I had to stay in Long Beach on-call for my hospice "day job." Granted, tending to the dying is infinitely more important than movie previews and guys roaming around in 300 attire, but I still hated not being able to be there.

Alas, all was not lost. As my mother taught me when I was a kid: "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!" So I created my own, individualized Comic-Con weekend, with enough superheroes and genre events to tide me over until Comic-Con 2009:

Watchmen: I had been most excited about going to the Watchmen movie preview at Comic-Con on Friday. The trailer is amazing (and I'll give a special blessing to the first person to respond with the name of the prior comic book-inspired film that the Smashing Pumpkins song used in the trailer comes from). But Friday morning I realized, "I've had the original Watchmen graphic novel on my bookshelf for at least two years and have never read it!"

So on Friday, I started reading it. I haven't finished it yet, but suffice to say I could see within the first ten pages that the kudos heaped upon it since its publication in 1986 are well deserved. Great writing meets great, cinematic art, which will hopefully translate well to the big screen next March. Big, blue, naked Dr. Manhattan (personified by the talented, hot and digitally enhanced Billy Crudup in the film) is enough to get me to buy a ticket!

The Dark Knight: All indications were that it would have a huge opening weekend, so I didn't rush to see the latest Batman adventure. At the risk of upsetting my fellow critics and fans who have been raving about it, I think it's a very good movie but also highly overrated, not to mention overlong. The best movie of the year and/or best comic book movie ever? I think not. It struck me more as a classic-style gangster film than a superhero saga. There is too much talk/philosophizing/ moralizing, and at least three subplots and plot twists too many.

Heath Ledger was very good in a different interpretation of the Joker (especially when one lays it alongside his performance in Brokeback Mountain), but he wasn't necessarily better in the role than Jack Nicholson or even Cesar Romero. I think his untimely death has a lot to do with the adoration his performance is receiving.

The best performance in the movie is actually that of Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent/Two-Face. I didn't expect Two-Face to be as significant in this film as he is, and it is really his story rather than the Joker's or even Batman's. I encourage my fellow critics and fans of the film to give the overshadowed Eckhart the accolades he deserves.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army: I knew nothing about Mike Mignola's comic Hellboy when the first film inspired by it was released in 2004. The character intrigued me, the movie engrossed me, and I was eagerly looking forward to the sequel.

As directed and largely designed by Guillermo del Toro, Hellboy II is frequently beautiful to look at but lacks the creepy, apocalyptic spirit of its predecessor. It's more of a fairy tale about elves trying to overthrow the human race, and Hellboy's being the son of Satan doesn't figure into it much. Ron Perlman, however, continues to surprise and amuse as the big red bad boy trying to fit in and do good.

The X-Files: I Want to Believe: Comic-Con wouldn't be complete each year without The X-Files making its presence known, so I caught Mulder and Scully's new movie sequel to the TV series. I hadn't heard much about it in advance and had only read one review (which didn't reveal much), so I really didn't know what to expect.

Wow! Not only is I Want to Believe the best-written movie of the summer so far, treating a number of very serious current topics (including same-sex marriage) in a profoundly mature way, it is also very well-directed by series creator Chris Carter; wonderfully acted by David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson and the supporting cast; beautifully photographed by Bill Roe; and brilliantly edited by Richard A. Harris. Oh, and it's as eerie, scary and teasingly romantic as the series' best episodes were.

It didn't do very well at the box office this weekend (even Mamma Mia! grossed more), so please get out there and see it. Be sure to stay through the end credits!

Clearly, one doesn't have to go to San Diego each summer in order to have a Comic-Con experience. But Comic-Con is unique, and I'll look forward to returning there next summer, along with 125,000-plus of the craziest and coolest people on the planet.

UPDATE: Hellboy II: The Golden Army, The X-Files: I Want to Believe and The Dark Knightare now available on DVD from Amazon.com.

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Orange County and Long Beach Blade.

Jumpin' Jupiter

Of all the buzz-worthy properties buzzing about this year's Comic-Con, perhaps the buzziest is Watchmen, Zack Snyder's eagerly awaited big screen adaptation of the landmark graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.

Even with the first trailer still fresh in our minds, and the film's official website just re-launched, there was still plenty of other fresh information to impart to the fan masses at the Con. So much so that Cinematical posted not one but two reports on the official Watchmen panel. Highlights included:

- Extended clips showed why this movie won't be anywhere near a PG rating, including Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup) "kicking lots of ass in Vietnam". (And remember, Dr. Manhattan is big, blue and bald. And naked.)
- A look at the mask of Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley), which can change its freaky inkblot visage, in action.
- Regarding Patrick Wilson's Night Owl: "Yes, he does have a paunch." Too bad for us Wilson watchers.
- Some sexy moments between a redheaded Carla Gugino as Sally Jupiter (a.k.a. the original Silk Spectre; that's her in the accompanying illustration, by artist James Jean) and a sleazy Jeffrey Dean Morgan as the Comedian, who had this to say about getting into character: "I found getting in the costume and sticking a cigar in my mouth really got me in the mood to kill people".
- Most of the sets were real, not green screen, as in Snyder's 300.
- And finally: Matthew Goode (currently in Brideshead Revisited) was told this by a friend when he was cast as Ozymandias: "Looks like you're playing another gay, but this one's a stoner".

Watchmen opens in theaters March 6, 2009.

First Look: The Watchmen

Exactly one-year prior to its release date, director Zack Snyder has released the first official images of some of his Watchmen cast, including Jeffrey Dean Morgan (a long way from Seattle General) as the Comedian.

Others include Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach, Patrick Wilson as Nite Owl, Matthew Goode as Ozymandias and Malin Akerman as the Silk Spectre. Sadly, no advance look yet at Billy Crudup as the big blue naked guy Dr. Manhattan.

Watchmen will open in theaters March 6, 2009.

UPDATE: CinemaBlend has posted a nifty side-by-side comparison of the movie and comic characters (original link spotted on AfterElton.com).

Who Will Be the JLA?

After week and weeks (and weeks ... ) of speculation and conjecture, we still haven't found out who will star in Justice League of America, the superhero epic based on the long-running DC Comic. Everyone from Jessica Biel as Wonder Woman (no, god, no) to Columbus Short as Green Lantern to Rupert Evans as Superman have either been rumored to play the world's greatest superheroes or have stated they turned down the project. About the only thing concrete we know is that George Miller will direct and that it will be an "origin story", showing how the mighty group is formed.

Now it is being reported that, after extensive auditions in both America and Australia (where the movie will be filmed), the complete cast is locked in and will be announced by Warners any day now (none of that one name at a time stuff like over at Paramount). Expect lots of unknowns to make up the cast (a means to keep costs down of what will likely be a heavy effects picture), although let's hope they look a little more like what we expect them to then those poor slobs pictured above, who look more like a bowling league then the Justice League.

In related news, Miller seems to have a full plate ... and is going back for seconds. In addition to JLA, he is working on sequels to two of his earlier hits, Mad Max (without Mel Gibson) and the Oscar-winning Happy Feet. Furthermore, DC's rival, Marvel Comics, is still thinking about their own "all-star" line-up, The Avengers, for the big screen. And finally, regarding another supergroup movie on the horizon, Watchmen has cast Matt "Max Headroom" Frewer as the supervillain whose murder sets the plot in motion.

Links via Imdb.com, EW.com, MTV.com, IESB.net, Cinematical.com, HollywoodReporter.com and MovieHole.net.

Hammer Time!

Something tells me that Robert Downey Jr. is not in that Iron Man armor (pictured). Isn't it ironic that, for the most part, they cast all these big stars in these superhero movies only to cover their faces with masks (Spider-Man), make-up (half the X-Men) or just CGI 'em (Hulk).

One superhero that doesn't wear a mask is Thor - although he does get to wear a little winged hat. Stardust director Matthew Vaughn has signed-up to direct the movie, which, you will be happy to know, will need a tall, muscle-bound, golden-haired hunk for the title role.

I can just see the casting notice now:

"WANTED: Built, blonde Norse God, no previous experience necessary. Must look good in long hair and a cape and not speak with a lisp (dialogue will include a lot of "thee's" and "tho's"). Please bring your complete measurements and a current headshot. Prop hammers will be provided."

Any guesses who will don the mantel of "The Mighty Thor"? How about ... Channing Tatum?

And in related superhero news, AfterElton.com wonders if Watchmen's gay hero will make it to the screen.

Links via Imdb.com, Wikipedia.com, Variety.com, MostBeautifulMan.com and AfterElton.com.