we get [bad] signal!

[rone]

Via Warren Ellis's Bad Signal mailing list, he's let us know that Tilda Swinton will be playing the archangel Gabriel, and Rachel Weisz will play Constantine's partner, in the upcoming Hellblazer abomi^Wmovie. These actually sound like saving graces.

Ellis also says that Keanu is an underrated actor. I think he's just messing with us.

Comments

[johnstonmr]

At risk of plummeting as far down in your esteem as a person you don't really know can ... I agree with him, for much the same reasons Orson Scott Card does:

Of course, I think Keanu Reeves is a terrific actor who absolutely can sustain both a character and a movie, and those who criticize him usually reveal themselves to be utterly ignorant of what it is an actor does or what good acting looks like. (Here's a clue: It doesn't look like acting. That's why Meryl Streep is a constant irritant to people who understand what acting is supposed to be, and why Keanu Reeves is so wonderful.)

And

Keanu Reeves remains our most unfairly dissed actor. He has a marvelous core of reality that he never lets go of. He is not wooden. He acts with his eyes. And with dead-on line readings.

Content to remain in the tiny minority on this one,

Mahdi

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

I have a pithy two-word rejoinder here: "Johnny Mnemonic"

Oh, also: "Bram Stoker's Dracula"

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Another pithy rejoinder: "Dangerous Liaisons"

I think OSC is full of crap. A true actor shouldn't remind you he's not the character he's playing. Reeves fails at this a lot. Even in the Matrix movies, say, you can tell there's flashes where he thinks, "Whoa! I'm not Neo, i'm Keanu!", whereas Carrie Anne Moss is Trinity, always.

Ian McKellen acts with his eyes. Keanu? I guess he has eyes....

[fredfred.livejournal.com]

I thought Keanu doing Shakespeare (he was in Much Ado About Nothing) was a pretty poor attempt too, no matter how cute he is. I think he's better in the Matrix; he's supposed to be a cypher and god knows he worked hard in those martial art scenes.

Carrie-Anne Moss is an excellent (and imho underrated) actor. She plays an uptight bourgeouis French wife in Chocolat, for example.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Yeah, i was thinking of Chocolat, too. She did a good job there.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I think that Orson Scott Card says everything he says just to be as contrary as possible.

[ratphooey.livejournal.com]

Swinton and Weisz, hooray.

Keanu requires precise casting and careful direction. When those things are present, he's fine. If not, well, the eminient dr_memory has spoken.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Right, but also given Hollywood's horrible track record with graphic novel movies, the odds are already against the project.

As we're speaking of Hellblazer and Ellis, i'd like to point out that Ellis's Hellblazer arc, Haunted (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1563898136), is really very, very good and you should go check it out now.

[lots42.livejournal.com]

Keanu better do good with Constantine.