As per yesterday:
Andrew Miller: What’s the best horror movie that most people haven’t heard of?
I’ll go with Demons 2, Dario Argento’s sequel to his somewhat more famous but less scary Demons. For those not in the know: the Demons films are essentially “fast zombie” films twenty years before fast zombie films became a thing – the titular demons attack and either kill their victims or turn them into more demons in a very zombie-like way, and the movies are gory and violent. The first one is okay, but the second one takes place entirely inside an apartment building where the demon attack begins when a girl watches a TV show with a demon in it and then the demon on the TV sees her and comes out of the TV – which is ridiculous, of course, but it sells the horror quite effectively and the movie as a whole is a pretty good take on the “locked in the building with zombies” genre. Except, as I said, twenty years before that was really a thing. The original Demons isn’t bad either, but I like the second one better.
What’s the best horror movie that has an undeservedly poor reputation?
Probably The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation. Yes, the one with Renee Zellweger and Matthew McConaughey. I’m not going to say it’s good exactly, but it got pilloried for being total shit because it’s not like the earlier films in the series – this one is just sort of insane in a weirdly entertaining way and I think it deserves to be resurrected as a bold failure if nothing else.
Goattoucher: Why, God? WHYYYYY?!?
Bud Dry.
Darren K: Do you like travelling? Have you done much of it? Left the continent? Been to Winnipeg?
Yes, no, yes (Australia, Bolivia, and South Africa when I was little), and yes (it’s quite pretty along the river, but other than that – sorry, too small for me).
Bret: Pete Ross (The Superman supporting character): Why doesn’t he work?
Pete Ross doesn’t work because there is nothing special about him; he learns that Clark Kent is Superboy completely by accident and that is basically all there ever has been to the character, and it’s simply not enough because A) Lois either already knows or will eventually figure out that Clark is Superman, B) there’s a strong argument that Perry White and Jimmy Olsen know (or have at least guessed) and are just playing along because Clark is their friend and they’re covering his ass, as friends do, and C) Batman knows, and if you’re gonna write a Superman story, are you going to team him up with Batman or Pete Ross? The answer to that question is never going to be Pete Ross.
mason stormchild: Do you think reddit is basically becoming 4chan with a veneer of respectability?
“Becoming”?
Brendan: What do you think the best policy is for coming up with fantasy names/words without making them sound too silly?
Take a name from the culture you want the character to reflect/imitate (since nobody is really imaginative enough to truly come up with their own completely original culture, when you get down to it). Change 1-3 consonants depending on how many syllables the name has (if it’s two syllables or less, only one), keep the vowel sounds intact, and you’re done.
Kai: Marvel Studios, riding high on their successful series of movies all leading up to the Avengers (which is going to be a hit whether it’s actually awesome or manages to totally suck, let’s be honest here), is looking for their next big Marvel-verse thing and comes to your door with a dump truck full of cash and a request for you to take the helm of their newest project, a Doctor Strange movie. So how do you do it? Who do you cast? What’s your script breakdown look like? Bear in mind that you have to try and keep things roughly within the style and tone of the Marvel movies we’ve seen so far, but beyond that you can tackle it however you like.
Dr. Strange is, I think, one of the great unexploited origin stories in comics and a film version of it would be the wisest course for an initial Dr. Strange film: a bad (but not irredeemable) person becomes a good one when his quest to make himself whole becomes a quest of an entirely different sort. The overall tone would be more contemplative than your average Marvel film (although still with comic moments) and lean more in the direction of Guillermo del Toro visuals than Joss Whedon-style wit because you really have to sell the otherworldliness of Dr. Strange in order to make him stand out from the superheroic crowd, but you’d still have the vicious and awesome magical battle with Dormammu as your closing piece. I would probably borrow a few story elements from JMS’s Strange miniseries since it had some excellent ideas in it.
And: Benedict Cumberbatch as Strange, Daniel Dae-Kim as Wong, James Hong as the Ancient One, August Diehl (from The Counterfeiters) as Baron Mordo and Rosario Dawson as Clea.
Related Articles
41 users responded in this post
IIRC that strange miniseries was the one in which Strange was fated to be Dr. Strange and the ancient one was just waiting for him in which case SCREW THAT NOISE!!!!
The mere fact that you said James Hong for the Ancient One tells me that I would watch that.
Isn’t that pretty much Iron Man? How would you make Strange distinct from Stark?
I would cast August Diehl from “Inglorious Basterds” instead. 😛
@skemono they could make him a useless toolbag instead oh wait that was green lantern.
I agree that Benedict Cumberbatch would be a good choice in some ways, but it occurred to me while reading this that he’s too young. He’s 35, and Doctor Strange is old enough to be a cocky, experienced, specialist surgeon before even starting to get into magic. You’ve discussed this before and said that he should be five years or so younger than the character, but that’s more like 10 years younger or even more.
I think George Clooney would be even better as Strange. (I can’t claim credit for this; someone mentioned it in the thread I linked.) Not only is he older, but he generally plays a different kind of asshole – cocky rather than merely insensitive. Cumberbatch’s Sherlock doesn’t try to be rude to people, it just sort of happens because he doesn’t think about other people. Clooney seems like he could do a better job of selling someone who enjoys power and being the smartest one in the room.
I do like the idea of using Dr. Strange as the main character of an ensemble or shared-universe superhero story, and for that you could use Cumberbatch and just drop in a line of dialogue indicating that he’s older than he looks because, well, magic. But that’s very different from the origin story.
Also, I’m going to make the controversial statement that Clea should be left out of a Dr. Strange movie, at least if it’s an origin story. Hollywood likes to shoehorn a romance angle into everything, but as long as we’re fantasy-producing the ideal Dr. Strange movie, we don’t need to do that. Even Hollywood might not need it. If either Cumberbatch or Clooney can’t bring in at least a few women to see the movie, and the superhero with the most hallucinatory themes of all can’t bring in teenage boys, then nothing would.
Casting question follow up: if Dormammu has a voice, who voices him, and how much does he talk?
I wanted to say that that comment struck me as incredibly Torontonian. But I wanted to say it without sounding like a jerk. Maybe putting an emoticon at the end will do it. ;).
…Nope, that didn’t work.
…Although having obviously no idea how blockquotes work doesn’t help either. The bit I was quoting was the parenthetical “(it’s quite pretty along the river, but other than that – sorry, too small for me).” And that was the bit that struck me as… Sigh. I’d give a lot for an edit button right now.
Fixed it for you.
As for the sentiment – it’s simply the inverse of the “Toronto? How can you live there with all the crime and danger?” bit you hear from small-town Canada all the time and the Toronto-hate that the rest of the country has for reasons we have never quite understood. I don’t hate Winnipeg or Ottawa or Halifax or Peterborough or Medicine Hat: they’re all nice places in their own way, mostly, and usually I can understand the appeal of living there. But I sure as hell don’t want to live there myself, and my feelings in this regard are pretty standard for Torontonians. You can have your places in Canada and I’m glad you’re happy there; I’m happy here because it is the best place.
You guys have a place called Medicine Hat?
Anyway, I’d always thought Liam Neeson would make a good Doctor Strange, maybe that’s skewing a bit older, but I always saw a Doctor Strange movie taking place after he’d already become the Sorceror Supreme, and then doing an in-depth flash back to explain how he became him. Though I’d definitely watch a Benedict Cumberbatch DS.
‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation ‘ always reminded me of something Joe R. Lansdale might write.
And not to be picky, but the first two “Demons” films were actually directed by Lamberto Bava. (The third one was retitled “The Church”, and was made by Michelle Soavi- it’s very different, so I can see why they changed the name).
Ah, ignore my inexperience with properly making use of blockquotes.
@ MGK: Thanks for the fix. And I didn’t mean to sound overly derogatory; I’ve lived everywhere from rural Saskatchewan to Toronto (albeit only for a month or so), and it’s a hell of a lot easier to adjust to the urban side of that spectrum than the other side.
Dormammu = guy who was singing demon from “Once More With Feeling”
Dr Strange = Photoshop a Dr Strange moustache on every actor in Hollywood and see who looks most badass
Solved!
I agree completely with about three-fifths of your Dr. Strange cast. Cumberbatch, Kim, and Hong? Pitch perfect. The other two? Not so much…
I always pitcured Mordo as being more heavy-set, and August Diehl just doesn’t fit the mold. Granted, that visual could be easy to look past, but I don’t see Diehl as having the noble bearing necessary to carry the role. I’m picturing maybe Sean Bean.
As for Clea, well, I’m not a huge fan of Rosario Dawson, but maybe she could do a perfectly serviceable job. I’d have Amy Adams at the top of my casting list, though.
And I’d have Dormammu as completely CGI, with the voice of Keith David.
Thank you for answering my question. If I may ask a follow-upAre you a native Torontonian of did life take you there?
Rosario Dawson in a platinum wing could work, though casting the daughter of an extradimensional alien entity as ‘ethnic’ is an unusual choice.
Hugh Laurie might work, and he’d be available. You could basically run an episode of “House” leading up to the accident.
@Temporis – because the obvious choice is to cast a real-life extradimensional alien entity?
Mark Temporis: Hugh Laurie as Clea? Kinky. But if anyone could do it…
Best Mystery Science Theatre 300 episode (if you have one)?
@Temporis – I just wouldn’t be able to watch it if it were Hugh Laurie, and not just because I hate House.
I hate House, by the way.
I wouldn’t be able to watch it because it would be impossible to divorce the character of Strange from that of House. It would smack of stunt-casting and while Hugh Laurie has definitely sold us on his ability to be a self-righteous and manipulative asshole with a license to practice medicine I don’t think he’d be able to convince me that he used to be that guy but now he’s got his shit together and is here for a bigger purpose.
Yeah, you had me till Rosario Dawson. No thank you, I’ll wait for the DVD.
@Travesty: Well, considering that, give or take a vicodin addiction (although wouldn’t that make a neat twist?), Dr. Strange basically was House pre-origin, I can see it.
I don’t think he’d be able to convince me that he used to be that guy but now he’s got his shit together and is here for a bigger purpose.
Try watching a few episodes of Laurie playing a complete git as Bertie in the BBC “Jeeves and Wooster” series, which is awesome and should cleanse your palate sufficiently to believe him in just about any role.
Strange was a brilliant surgeon pre-origin, House is a brilliant diagnostician
“You guys have a place called Medicine Hat?”
-Steve
It’s in Alberta (which is basically Canadian Texas). According to Canadian radio personality Stuart McLean, the city got its name when a First Nations medicine man dropped his hat near the river while being chased (the identity of the chasers escapes me).
And before anyone asks, I am aware that ‘The Vinyl Cafe’ is a corny show. I find it entertaining in a charming, wholesome way, like Jimmy Stewart.
Cripes, people were so damned rude when I visited British Columbia (which I very much liked) as a teenager. They’d ask me where I was from, I’d answer Toronto, and they’d say something totally inappropriate to someone they’d just met. “Toronto? Yuck!”
Because MGK specifically mentioned Peterborough above: that was the first town I moved to after growing up in Toronto. At first I utterly hated it, there was tremendous culture shock. But I grew to love it, and 13 years after moving to Kitchener-Waterloo, I still miss it. I miss Toronto too, but after so many years away it would definitely be an adjustment if I were ever to move back.
I’m thinking Dormammu has no neck.
Not in the thug way, but his body is a seamlessly headless torso with a ball of eldritch fire floating just a bit too far above it, maybe drifting now and then.
@Urthman: I’d have gone with the third series of Black Adder myself, but yours works, too. 🙂
@Mitchell Hundred: I haven’t listened to The Vinyl Cafe in years, but I totally agree. (I maintain that the Dave and Morley turkey story would make for a great animated holiday special. With Stuart McLean narrating, naturally.)
@Evil Midnight Lurker: That’s exactly how I pictured him, too. The flame would just kinda hover there, like a butane lighter or something.
For the Dread Dormammu I think that Keith David would be the perfect choice as a voice . I hope you’ll keep what makes him relatable (he’s not a bland abomination, ,he has a younger sibling that conctantly pisses him off ! You bet your ass I can relate to that exiled Faltine !)
Hell, 4Chan has gotten more civilized than Reddit.
Driving around town shouting (optionally comprehensible) insults at people is a big hobby in Peterborough. It may even be an organized sport.
I would argue that House is NOT a brilliant diagnostician. He seems to be to diagnostic medicine what ‘hunt and peck’ typing is to a master typist – technically, yes, proficient, but god you wouldn’t want to be relying on him.
I think I’ll stick to Clive Owen being my personal version of Dr Strange for a while longer. His Sir Walter Raleigh is a good similar visual reference.
Joe Bob Briggs loved TCM: Next Generation, so you’re in good company there. And I think it has plenty in common with TCM 2’s more broadly comic tone, when you get down to it.
I’m not as fond of Demons 2 as you are, but the set-up is great, and the TV scene is phenomenal. And the scene with the kid hiding in the vent was tense. But I’m more into the first one, which somehow manages an almost impossible to work with setting really well, and generally feels wilder to me. I should say that I’ve seen a 35mm print of Demons, but not the second one, so that’s probably affecting my view on them.
Both had BOBBY RHODES, though, so point for both.
the show presents what a diagnostician does badly, just as Dr. Strange’s origin presents what a surgeon does badly and pretty much every show, movie, novel, or newspaper story ever made depicting an activity not deeply familiar to the writer presents that activity badly from the viewpoint of anyone having some familiarity with that activity.
Winnipeg? It’s like a (much) colder, more densely populated Alaska. I’d rather go back to Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
I agree with Temporis about Hugh Laurie for Strange…and not cuz he’s likely an evil Time Lord….
I think Christopher Nolan talked about casting Liam Neeson in a “mentor” role, that he has instant credibility as one due to his other roles, so you don’t have to spend time really establishing that. Laurie as a jerk doctor would have the same feel.
And Laurie is a brilliant actor so there’s that.
Or just give me Eddie Izzard.
Putting Dr. Strange in a movie right now has to inevitably lead into an appearance in an Avengers movie, and with the way that they’ve set up magic in “Thor”, putting Dr. Strange and Thor on the Avengers at the same time is like putting Aladdin and the Genie on one team at the same time.
“You can perform magic? Good for you, kid. We already have a guy who brushes ‘magic’ out of his teeth in the mornings.”