george reeves Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Clint's Books, a local comic book store in the Kansas City area, will put on display a couple of very exciting pieces of geek memorabilia -- two classic George Reeves era Superman costumes. One of the costumes is the classic Superman color scheme the world is familiar with, while the other is a color variant designed to register well against a black and white color scheme. The owner of the shop, Jim Cavanaugh, is a lifetime Superman fan; he says his parents bought their first television the same year he was born, and some of his earliest memories are of watching Supes in black and white. Cavanaugh acquired the costume in a trade with a former Hollywood stuntman, complete with certificates of authenticity from the costume shop which designed and created them. Cavanaugh coughed up his vintage toy collection for the costumes, which he will now proudly show off in his comic book shop.

If ever there was a serious geek trade, it's a comic book shop owner trading his vintage toy collection for two Reeves' era Superman costumes. And oh, what deal he got!

The tragedy of George Reeves' life, according to the badly-titled new film Hollywoodland, is not that he failed to parlay his small role in Gone with the Wind into a bankable film career. It's that, following rejection, he demeaned himself by turning to television. "Take the job. Cash the check," his sweaty agent tells him, and with head hung low, Reeves heads off to a shades-drawn casting office from which we expect to see a woman come running, holding her top on. He is offered the lead role in a silly kids' show about an alien with a bulletproof torso who pranks everyone into thinking he's a human named Clark Kent. Smelling disaster, Reeves, played by a bulky and subdued Ben Affleck, puts up a small fight. "I see myself as more of a villain," he mutters. But it's too late. They have their mark. He's quickly fitted into Superman's traditional gay matador-looking outfit -- stone-gray, instead of blue and red, since there's no need to waste on color -- and pushed in front of a nation of cowboy-hatted children. To his horror, they fall in love with him.

Hollywoodland seems giddy over the fact that it's beaten James Ellroy to the punch on a story that would fit snugly into his peek-under-the-skirt-of-post-war-L.A. milieu. That special gin of seediness and sadness that abounds in Ellroy's L.A. Quartet has been mixed with care here, and it fills every nook and cranny of the movie's L.A., from the dysfunctional suburban outliers to the simmering streets of inner Hollywood. It's a town where everyone you meet has "contents under pressure" stamped on their forehead. The pool in the center of a cheap, wrap-around motel seems built for drowning someone in. The only person standing near it is a man with a tangerine-colored tan, grimacing as he lifts weights alone in the hot sun. Inside one of the motel's rooms is Louis Simo, who's having an impenetrable three-way conversation with a man in a suit and a young lady. Simo, it turns out, is exactly the kind of private dick who meets strangers in low-rent motels like this one, to pour out and pick through their dirty laundry.

Before Hollywoodland's release, it may be time to study up a little on the mysterious death of George Reeves. Reeves, played by the one and only Ben Affleck, played Superman on television in the 1950s. In 1959, he was found dead of a gunshot wound -- which may have been self-inflicted, or otherwise. Personally, I think it's obvious: Orson Welles did it. All we have to do is establish motive and opportunity, and the proof will be right there.

As Kate Winslet says in Heavenly Creatures, Orson Welles is the most evil man who ever lived. We've seen him kill inumerable people on screen, and he was also skilled at faking deaths and planting evidence. One beyond-the-grave act of malice Welles carried out recently was pinning the Thomas Ince hit on William Randolph Hearst: The Cat's Meow's director Peter Bogdanovich claims he heard the story from Orson himself. (Well, that makes it unimpeachable. Remember when he told us the Martians were coming?) My guess: Ince is another body we can chalk up to Welles. Swimming out to the yacht Oneida in a frogman suit would be a prodigious feat for a nine year-old, but this is the Blofeld-like Orson Welles we're talking about.

By now, you've heard everything you need to hear about Superman Returns. You're done. Exhausted. And about to check yourself into Bryan Singer rehab. Or Brandon Routh rehab. Or (insert whatever Superman addiction you need help with) rehab. I know I'm there. For movie writers, building up to a giant summer film is like planning a wedding -- once the film finally comes and goes, you're absolutely drained from covering it and desperately in need of some R & R. However, I'm going to ask you to hold onto those Man of Steel dreams for now because we're not done with the guy yet.

A trailer for the upcoming film Hollywoodland has hit the net, due out the first week of September. Hollywoodland? Huh? What's that? How about I tell you it stars Ben Affleck as Superman --  does that get your attention? Okay, Affleck doesn't really play Superman, but he does play the guy who played Superman. Pic is based on the real events that surrounded the supposed suicide death of beloved Superman actor George Reeves and the investigation that followed. The film also stars Adrien Brody, Diane Lane and Bob Hoskins. After watching the trailer, I just may dig Hollywoodland a bit more than Superman Returns. I mean, you've got a mysterious death, a love affair and an evil studio exec -- what's not to like?

[via AICN]

Allen Coulter has been working on a biopic of George Reeves, the barrel-chested original Superman, for Back Lot Pictures and distributor Focus Features for a while now; shooting is done, and the project is thought to be either locked or virtually completed. The film's tentative title is Truth, Justice, and the American Way - which, since it's the motto of the character that made Reeves famous, seems fairly appropriate. As the studio behind the Superman movies, however, Warner Brothers, didn't agree, and threatened to sue Focus if they didn't change the title. So, as pretty much anyone would when faced with the iron fist of Warners' legal department, Focus caved, and the movie is now back to its original, just-as-catchy title: Untitled George Reeves Project.

The movie, which I don't remember hearing anything about until right now, is packed with stars: Ben Affleck (who looks only slightly more like the man than I do) plays Reeves, and among his costars are Adrien Brody, Diane Lane, and Bob Hoskins.