Fun Stuff - Well, I am really in the mood for some fun, useless stuff today. I just read a commentary at MSNBC.com by Christopher Bahn about comic books that deserve to be turned into movies. Comic book movies are definitely taking off in terms of popularity and me being a comic book fan I love it. As a kid, I dreamed of seeing the Hulk on the big screen (sans Lou Ferrigno) leaping for miles through the air or Wolverine flashing his claws as he takes on Sabertooth. With today’s technology, these fantasies are becoming a reality. With great casting, such as Tobey Macguire as Spidey and Ron Perlmann as Hellboy, these comic book icons turned big screen flicks are awesome. Here are some of the comics that Bahn thinks should be Hollywood’s next big-ticket comic book movies and the stars that would be great and believable in the roles.

Sandman
What is it? Writer Neil Gaiman's mythic tale of the King of Dreams, one of seven beings known as the Endless who personify universal constants such as Death, Destruction and Desire.
How to film it: Put Johnny Depp in goth makeup and hair similar to his “Edward Scissorhands” role, and he'd be perfect. His sister Death's sardonic sense of humor might be a good match for “Buffy's” Alyson Hannigan.

The Dark Knight Returns
What is it? Frank Miller's exploration of Batman's dark side rescued the character from the excesses of the campy 1960s Adam West TV series, and was one of the most influential comics of its decade.
How to film it: Miller's story takes place in a dystopian future decades after Bats has retired, and tells how he's driven to put on his mask again to fight both new and old evils. He'd have to be played by an older actor whose persona exemplifies cold, distant aloofness and bursts of intense rage, someone who could still believably beat up a room full of thugs even at age 65 or 70. So if Clint Eastwood isn't available, call Charlton Heston's agent.

The Fantastic Four
What is it? Given strange powers by a burst of cosmic radiation, four astronauts return to New York City and take on foes including the megalomaniacal Dr. Doom. It was the first big success for Stan Lee's Marvel Comics, and the only one of its major titles (the others are “Spider-Man,” “The Incredible Hulk,” and “X-Men”) lacking a feature-film version.
How to film it: Even George Clooney admits he made a bad Batman, but we think he'd be great for Reed "Mr. Fantastic" Richards, the rubber-bodied scientist and leader of the FF. Paul Giamatti, who was wonderfully grumpy in “American Splendor,” has the right slouch and salt-of-the-earth attitude for the rocky-orange Thing. Dr. Doom, the egotistical antihero and longtime enemy of Mr. Fantastic, would be well played by Gary Oldman. Namor the Sub-Mariner, the undersea prince who's got a love-hate relationship with us surface-dwellers, could be Ray Liotta (“Goodfellas”). He has the right physical proportions, but more importantly can get an angry glint in his eye that's especially Namorian.

Watchmen
What is it? Alan Moore's masterpiece reinvented the superhero genre by injecting it with a dose of gritty realism, and features a plotline that is as beautifully structured as a fine Swiss clockwork.
How to film it: First, don't do this one as a feature film — the story is so intricate it needs more than two or three hours to unfold. Make it a miniseries for television. Then, find director Terry Gilliam, who spent years battling to get the funding to film “Watchmen,” and hand him a magical winning lottery ticket. And who to cast? We could see Greg Kinnear as the blow-dried, apparently harmless supergenius Ozymandias, and or perhaps Ralph Fiennes, so powerful in a similar role in David Cronenberg's “Spider,” as the paranoid vigilante Rorschach. Robert De Niro would be terrific as the right-wing assassin known as the Comedian, and as for the all-powerful Doctor Manhattan, we can't improve on a recent fan-created poster circulating the Internet that puts Ed Harris in the blue makeup.


Other notables from comic strip fame were Marmaduke and Peanuts. The Peanuts bit sounded interesting because Bahn suggests setting the film 30 years after the comic strip and cast actors such as Kevin James (King of Queens) to play Charlie Brown, Matthew Broderick as Linus, Sarah Jessica Parker as Sally Brown, Roseanne Barr as Lucy, Jack Black as Pigpen, Tom Hulce (Amadeus) as Schroeder, and Ellen Degeneres as Peppermint Patty.