Can you imagine?..

[Martoto]

On these and other film discussion boards, decisions made by studios and filmmakers, particularly in the context of franchises, sequels and remakes, are constantly critiqued by us from our armchairs, like sports fans on a Monday morning. "OMG that will ruin the franchise!!!! What were they thinking?" etc.

Maybe in this thread we can highlight things that should have been an omen of inevitable failure, if we applied the same acumen that makes everybody online an unqualified expert in studio leadership and movie production.

Exhibit A: The Longest Day (1962) : This movie features future Bond star Sean Connery and villain of the often poll topping Bond film, Gert Frobe. Nothing remarkable about that, you might say. But have you seen them in it?

Can you imagine if Amazon announced tomorrow that the new James Bond actor was going to be a guy who, in the biggest war movie made to date, performed like a vaudeville act. Pratfalling off the landing craft and onto the beach. Then complaining about being all wet and so on. Red Buttons is more understated in this movie! Given the performance, the role could have gone to someone like Jamie Kennedy, if made this century. Yikes!

And can you imagine if they said that the villain in an upcoming Bond is going to be played by a guy last seen as a bumbling, Hogan's Heroes type, corpulent caricature of a German soldier. Leading a donkey hauling canteens no less. The kind of role that Jack Black would not look out of place in.

Can you imagine, if fandom was of the nature and of the voice that it is today, how that would go down?

[CreasyBear]

[RossyG]

Can you imagine how Batman fans would react to the guy from Beetlejuice being cast as Bruce Wayne?

They'd moan and then, having seen the result, like him.

And that's what happened in 1989.

[Martoto]

Originally Posted by RossyG

Can you imagine how Batman fans would react to the guy from Beetlejuice being cast as Bruce Wayne?

They'd moan and then, having seen the result, like him.

And that's what happened in 1989.

Your point being?

Can you imagine if they cast someone like Chris O'Dowd, Michael Cera, or Jason Sudeikis (or whoever you think has the equivalent of talent and star quality that Keaton had before 89) as The Batman today, the movie would stand a chance in the context of the influence that social media and grifters have today?

It doesn't seem to matter what the result is any more.

[Telemachus]

Yes

[joshsquash729]

Originally Posted by Martoto

Your point being?

Can you imagine if they cast someone like Chris O'Dowd, Michael Cera, or Jason Sudeikis (or whoever you think has the equivalent of talent and star quality that Keaton had before 89) as The Batman today, the movie would stand a chance in the context of the influence that social media and grifters have today?

It doesn't seem to matter what the result is any more.

Isn't that sort of what happened with Robert Pattinson as Batman? And, granted, he's still not everyone's cup of tea in the role (even if I loved him). Same with Heath Ledger as Joker (or RDJ as Stark, Ewan as Obi-Wan, Depp as Jack Sparrow- though that was a bit less, seeing as how the character didn't exist beforehand); people's preconceived notions of who and what a certain actor is always fuel their knee-jerk reactions (and often final opinions) on matters, whether they're right or wrong (which if subjective anyway). Oftentimes we forget that it's an actor's job to, you know, act, and unfortunately, with the business what it is, they just get pigeonholed into roles they may or may not even particularly like, even if they're good at it. At the end of the day, everyone's gonna have different requirements on what they deem to be a "good" performance as any given character, especially one as iconic as Batman. We nerds are often, ironically, not the best judges of things due to our biases. Truth is, we'll never really know until the final product is released, but I'd say it's becoming proven more and more that the right choices are made, especially for big superhero movies; a studio isn't going to risk such a big project on someone they don't think can play the role.

But I digress. I know that's not entirely your point. As you were.

[ImBlu_DaBaDee]

Imagine theeeeeere’s no forum. It’s easy if youuuuuu try.
No trolls below us.
Above us sane replies.

[spanky87]

[CreasyBear]

Originally Posted by spanky87

[Show spoiler]

Apparently, we lack the proper imagination.

[Lemmy Lugosi]

Originally Posted by ImBlu_DaBaDee

Imagine theeeeeere’s no forum. It’s easy if youuuuuu try.
No trolls below us.
Above us sane replies.

Imagine all the people
Living without HD

[HillSprinter]

I can imagine. But it’s private.

[Martoto]

I see. So kneejerk bonehead rejections are valid not matter what the actual outcome.

Got it.