Benedict Cumberbatch To Play Doctor Strange

deadline Hollywood ^

[Perdogg]

EXCLUSIVE: Marvel has finally found its Doctor Strange. I’m hearing Benedict Cumberbatch is the studio’s choice for the superhero pic, and negotiations are about to begin. The news comes after talks with Joaquin Phoenix around the time of Comic-Con went south, and Marvel went back to the drawing board. With names like Jared Leto and Tom Hardy also in the mix, this is obviously a coveted role. I expect this deal to make.

[Vaquero]

I didn’t mean porn. I meant real adult movies, like North by Northwest, Gone with the Wind, etc.

Wow. Really? I'm 65 and those are ancient stoggy stuff to me. Adult movies to me are directed by the Coen Brothers (Fargo) or Quinton Tarantino, or films like Coppola's first two Godfathers.

[Rodamala]

I heard on the radio a few weeks back that Marvel and DC are on board to crank out something bizarre like 40 of these superhero films in the next few years.

It’s superheroes, romantic comedies that demean men, profaggotry, or “coming of age (and getting an abortion)”, global warming, or anti-America films otherwise...

There are a LOT of episodes of Gunsmoke on DVD to watch instead, I guess.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I'm with you! No more comic book movies, how about some adult fare for a change.

It seems to be a fact that Marvel and DC are the R&D Department for Hollywood.

[Seruzawa]

I'm with you. I'm fatigued comic book movies. It's like anything else in Hollywood. Some genre makes some money and after a bit we are inundated with a never ending stream of formulaic derivatives. One of the best examples was Diehard. It was a great action movie but spawned a flood of lookalikes. Now a lot of action movies are rewrites of Diehard and you can predict what's going to happen down to the black sidekick/comic relief.

[stellaluna]

Somebody was complaining about both movies back then, I’m sure. In 1930 people complained that movies were ruined by sound. IN 1919, somebody was complaining that films were sinful and that people should not go to them.

[Ultra Sonic 007]

Who said I was referring to smut either?

It’s sad that the cultural sewage is such that ‘adult fare’ immediately makes one think ‘porn’.

[Inyo-Mono]

True.

[Viking2002]

Sounds like young Mr. Bandersnatch is a busy boy these days. He’s even keeping tight-lipped about a possible appearance in the new Ocri-helmed Nu-Trek III next year.

[Lizavetta]

Congratulations, Benedict Cumberbatch, on your engagement to Meredith Grumblestance, niece of Oswald Cobblepot, daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Crumptydump.

[GeronL]

Nobody ever talks about LicketySplitty

[tet68]

Note: Doc Strange was not a super hero in the “super”
sense of the word, he did introduce parallel universes
early on though.

One of my favorites from the old days.

[rabidralph]

I thought Cumberbatch did a great job in the second Star Trek movie. He was pretty arrogant there.

[who knows what evil?]

‘Captain Marvel’ serial was great...he knew how to deal with the bad guys...machine-gunning them in the back as they ran for their lives; throwing them off buildings from twenty stories up...good times.

[greene66]

And for another, even more lethal, serial hero, there’s “The Spider’s Web” (1938). That guy didn’t mess around, either. Astonishing body count in that one.

[who knows what evil?]

I used to read ‘The Spider’ pulps...extremely violent. I’m surprised there was anyone left alive in NYC at the end of each issue.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

The studios are getting worried, because all of their eggs are increasingly in the comic book superhero basket and hugely expensive films, and they know that at some point the public is going to tire of them. Then they’re gonna be screwed because all their money is tied up in the next five $300 million movies in the pipeline.

[greene66]

I’ve read about a dozen “Spider” pulp reprints. Indeed, sometimes rather shockingly violent. Never had an original issue of one, although I still have a box of old miscellaneous pulp mags, covering most genres.

[who knows what evil?]

I stumble across ‘Shadow’ and ‘Doc Savage’ pulps now and then, but a copy of a ‘Spider’ pulp is a real find...scarce and expensive. I see that someone has posted a decent copy of ‘The Spider’s Web’ on YouTube...have to check it out when I get a bit of time.

[mrsmith]

The best Dr. Strange portrayal is Dr Orpheus

on The Venture Bros.

But Marvel has a good formula for their movies. Generally capture the spirit of Flash Gordon.

[greene66]

That first “Spider” serial is quite good. Much better than Columbia’s later superhero serials devoted to The Shadow, Batman, Brick Bradford and such. Indeed, it was Columbia’s best serial, by a pretty wide margin. The sequel serial “The Spider Returns” wasn’t so hot, however.

I don’t have much in the way of ‘hero’ pulps, outside of things like Dan Fowler in “G-Men Detective” or Ki-Gor in “Jungle Stories.” Always too rare and pricey. Although I do have a few of the shudder pulps like “Terror Tales,” put out by the same publisher as “The Spider.”