rupert evans Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Back in February, I briefly mentioned through a casting bite that Alejandro Amenabar was gearing up for his next film, and had cast Rachel Weisz and Homayoun Ershadi from The Kite Runner. Now Variety has fleshed out the whole project. It's called Agora, the filmmaker wrote it with Mateo Gil, and it will be Amenabar's second English-language feature, after The Others.

Rachel Weisz and Max Minghella (Art School Confidential) star in the film, which takes place in Ancient Egypt. More specifically, Weisz will play the astrologer-philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria, in Roman Egypt during the fourth century. "Trapped in the Library of Alexandria as religious riots flare on the city's streets, Hypatia battles to save the collected wisdom of the ancient world. Meanwhile, her slave Davus (Minghella) is torn between his love for his mistress and the freedom he could attain by joining the rising tide of Christianity." Aside from Ershadi, Oscar Isaac, Ashraf Barhom, Michael Lonsdale, and Rupert Evans have roles.

Amenabar plans to use a "hyper-realist approach" to bring Alexandria to life, and says: "We want the audience to see, feel and smell a remote civilization as if it were as real as the present day." To me, it definitely sounds worth is, and is certainly better than Weisz doing a million Mummy sequels. Are you ready to get dirty in Ancient Egypt?

He's faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and yet the folks in charge are moving slower than a snail when it comes to casting the Man of Steel in Justice League of America. Additionally, it may take years before we get another solo Supes flick after Superman Returns writers Dan Harris and Michael Dougherty were tossed aside while the studio sought out some new blood. Here are two updates on both fronts:

The other day we told you how someone wrote in to Dark Horizons claiming to have information on the casting of Superman in the Justice League movie. According to the scooper, Brit actor Rupert Evans had landed the part. Not so fast says IESB, who spent hours upon hours trying to get a hold of someone who represents Evans. Eventually they did, and were told the rumor is indeed false. Exact quote: "We don't know where that rumor started, there's no truth to the rumor at all." When asked if Evans had even auditioned, they replied, "No, not at all." Yay, another ridiculous rumor spreads like wildfire and then gets squashed -- how fun! No other casting tidbits to report at this time, sorry.

About that long-delayed follow-up to Superman Returns. I suggested a long time ago that this project was being delayed and delayed for a reason, and all you readers did was yell at me -- bow down to Bryan Singer -- and call me all sorts of devilish names. Well, look where we are now: the original writers were yanked off the film, and Warners is looking for some new writers to most likely reboot the franchise, a la The Incredible Hulk. I like to call these "movie do-overs." The first candidate to pop up was writer Mark Millar (Wanted), who went after this project with full force. Unfortunately, because he had done some work for Marvel (and is still under contract with them), he cannot cross over to work on a DC property. So there goes that. Will Warners seduce Kurtzman and Orci into taking on Superman? They'll probably try, but as it stands right now, we've got nada ... and I'd expect Singer to be off the project too. Back to the drawing board ... and how about this time we scratch Brandon Routh and bring in Channing Tatum. He'd make a much better Superman; whaddya think?

A day does not go by without someone receiving a scoop regarding casting for the new Justice League of America film. Just this morning, I met a kid outside while walking my dog who claimed to be "close to a few studio execs." I asked him if he knew anything about Justice League, and he claimed to know who had been cast as Batman. "Oh really?" I replied. "Who?" That's when he smirked, spit something out of his mouth and said, "Your Mothah! Oh, Snaps!" Gotta love New York. Anyway, the latest rumors come to us from Dark Horizons, who received an anonymous email from someone claiming to be "in the know" when it came to JLA casting sessions over in London. And what do they know, you ask?

Well, for starters, they claim British actor Rupert Evans has landed the part of Superman in the live-action flick. Here's a quote from the email (which may or may not be legit): "Anyway after going through a whole bunch of British actors, I heard today that one of them has been cast as Superman. Anyway, the guy everyone is talking about is called Rupert Evans." ANYway, who knows what the deal is -- right after that sentence, the person claimed Jesus Christ himself had been cast as Martian Manhunter ... SO take it all with a grain of salt. (Actually I'm kidding about the Christ stuff, but wouldn't that be an interesting move?) Evans starred in the 2004 film Hellboy, and he certainly has those cute, boy-ish, All-American looks ... except for the fact that he's not American, he's British. Which brings me to my next question: Are you cool with a Brit playing Superman? Of course he won't speak with a British accent, but would it bother you hardcore Supes fans at all if you knew the actor portraying him was not American? Think about it over coffee, debate with your co-workers and leave a comment.