Zac Efron To Star In Bendis Adaptation

What? Nooooo! Look, I know the guy has his fans, but sticking him in as the lead in a gritty, violent and really damn good comic book story is just wrong and make my every atom quiver with fear. Word is that Zac is to tackle FIRE, the classic two issue indie title written and illustrated by comics luminary Brian Michael Bendis, in which he would play a college student who is recruited by the CIA for a secret program that takes a rather sinister turn.



It's nasty, hard hitting and really not the sort of thing I can see Efron pulling off. Then again, that's probably down to my abject dislike of High School Musical. I can understand the guy wanting to get away from his HSM days, but this just seems a bit wrong. Shia LaBeouf would have been great for the role, but if it's gotta be Zac, at least the flick will find a decent sized audience.

It's probably a good thing that FIRE, originally published by Caliber Comics and later reprinted by Image, was a pretty small scale tale that only the diehard comics geeks will have heard of, let alone read, as it means there's a smaller number of people that will be picking over the film for inconsistencies. It'll be interesting to see where this project goes.

GUY RITCHIE TO BRING SHERLOCK HOLMES TO LIFE

'Director' Guy Ritchie is to helm a brand new big screen adaptation of the legendary Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This news has been floating around for a little while now, but I’ve held my tongue on the subject until I heard what the direction was going to be. Upon reading the reports of how the film is going to be handled, I have been cursed with a feeling of impending doom, which is shared by many other people who have heard the news.

You see, instead of depicting Sherlock Holmes as a master of deduction in an atmospheric and weighty drama, he is to leap onto the screen in a comic-book style movie featuring him as a swashbuckling action hero. Due to hit screens in 2010 from Warner Bros, it is conjouring all manner of nightmarish visions of some sub-LXG aberration stuffed with ironic cameos and ‘witty’ one liners. Even the version of Watson to feature in this movie is described as a ‘Sidekick.’ SIDEKICK?! This seems like a train wreck waiting to happen (complete with climactic battle in a big CG waterfall, no doubt). The destruction of another literary character begins! I’m not holding much hope for the project whatsoever, but I do hope it is better than Van Helsing. Mind you, that isn’t asking much. How about Warners save themselves a few million quid, stick Stephen Fry in a chair in front of a camera, and have him read a couple of the original stories. That would be a much more entertaining way of getting Holmes onscreen than the cringefest that we are in for with this film. I hope I am proven wrong. Bring him to the screen faithfully, or not at all!

TERMINATOR 4 GETS ITS LEADING LADY

News on the forthcoming Terminator movie sequel, TERMINATOR SALVATION: THE FUTURE BEGINS, has been released- the film’s leading female character is to be played by a lady called Moon Bloodgood. Set to play a battle-hardened freedom fighter and colleague of John Connor (being played in the film by Batman star Christian Bale), Moon is to bring to life a major character in the film, and aside from being beautiful has a string of credible acting to her name, including work on Journeyman, Pathfinder and CSI amongst a lengthy list.

She is also currently filming the new video game film Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li, in which she plays Maya. I think we have the beginnings of a brand new Geek Queen here….The new Terminator movie is due for worldwide release in 2009.