zod Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Now take this all with a huge grain of salt (why do the majority of my posts begin this way?), because I don't consider Just Jared the greatest movie news source on the planet. You want blurry photos of Cameron Diaz picking her nose in a bikini? Go see Just Jared. Major casting scoop for the next Superman flick? Eh, not so much. Regardless, the celebrity gossip site claims Orlando Bloom was spotted chatting up the sequel with director Bryan Singer and producers Mindy and Jon Peters at the Tower Bar restaurant in Hollywood. Granted, we're not entirely sure that that's what they were talking about -- for all we know, the four could be scouting potential participants for a touch football league. Yet, since Singer and the Peters pair last worked together on Superman Returns, there's a good chance the Man of Steel was on the menu.

So, could Orlando Bloom be interested in jumping from one major franchise to the other? And, if so, who would he play? There's no way I can see the cutesy Bloom playing a villain; Just Jared speculates that Bloom could be up for a part as a new Lois Lane love interest. Yeah, that won't happen. Since there's no chance they're replacing Brandon Routh in the title role, I'm completely baffled. Unless -- dare I say it -- they want him to play Zod. Even if Bloom were to play Zod, he's way too soft for the role. We'll keep you updated on any and all further developments; if it happens, Superman: The Man of Steel (aka Superman Returns 2) is scheduled to fly into theaters in 2009.

Over the years, we've seen several lists that attempt to name the top movie villains of all time. From Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) in Die Hard (my personal favorite) to Jack Nicholson's Joker, we could probably sit here, throw out a number of intimidating bad guys and debate all day long. But what about the least intimidating? Those baddies who were supposed to frighten us, but couldn't quite live up to their evil reputations?

Well, The Phat Phree has come up with a list of the 11 least intimidating movie villains of all time ... and I must say, they're pretty spot on ... except for two. Let's see, we have Mr. Glass (Samuel L. Jackson) in Unbreakable, Madison Lane (Demi Moore) in Charlie's Angels 2, Chucky in Child's Play (c'mon, it's a doll!), The Goblin King Jareth (David Bowie) in Labyrinth, Darth Vader (the Hayden Christensen version), Nuclear Man (Mark Pillow) in Superman IV and (perhaps their best pick) John Travolta in everything (Broken Arrow, Battlefield Earth, Face Off, The Punisher, Swordfish), among others. One of the villains I strongly disagree with is John Kreese (Martin Kove) in Karate Kid 1, 2 and 3. Talk about intimidating -- when I was growing up, that guy scared the crap out of me. I actually quit Karate lessons just so I didn't have to run into one of him down the line. Seriously.

Another bad pick (thrown in as an honorable mention) was Zod (Terrence Stamp) from Superman 2. No way! Zod was The Man! And certainly a very intimidating villain. Check out their list and let us know who should or shouldn't be on there. If you ask me, almost every Batman villain (Danny DeVito as The Penguin? Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze?) should've at least got a mention. What say you?

A small but very interesting rumor popped up over at the Moviehole mailbag, in response to a reader's question about Bryan Singer's Superman sequel. Since the early days of Supes sequel news, we've been led to believe the sequel would feature the proud cinematic return of one of the franchise's most beloved villains -- Zod. Naturally, the thought excites most Superman fans, and it makes sense because he's one of the characters which transcends the comic pages and is familiar to most of the general public due to his previous film appearance. Mailbag Clint, however, has a different story for us.

Keep in mind, this was dropped in a one line answer with no real sources cited, so get your big old grain of salt handy before you react, okay? He claims the next major villain to challenge Brandon Routh's Superman will be none other than Brainiac. Brainiac, in one form or another, is a long established character in the DC universe, and a favorite of your faithful Geek Beat writer (insofar as I pay attention to DC Comics, that is). But is Brainiac a strong enough villain to carry a major motion picture? I think so, but my opinions are notably skewed by my fanboy nature. What say you, good readers?