Keanu Reeves as Superman 531
M.C. Hampster writes "Fox News is reporting in this article that Superman is back in the planning stages at Warner Bros. with a possible Keanu Reeves playing the title role. Is this possibly the worse fit for an actor in a superhero role since Michael Keaton in Batman?" Perhaps they too will rotate in a new actor for each feature.
SCrew that... (Score:2, Interesting)
Keaton (Score:4, Interesting)
Here we go (Score:5, Interesting)
In all fairness, it's probably pretty hard to find someone who can play the role. My take on it is that they should find some actor who isn't known to the public. If someone has played other characters, it's kinda hard to get over that association. No one thinks of Superman as someone you'd know from somewhere else.
(Sort of on topic - I was very glad to hear the news that Christopher Reeve has regained some sensation and muscular control.
http://www.cnn.com/2002/HEALTH/09/13/reeves.rec
There's a real story of inspiration and hope. My hat's off to him. This is why you never give up.)
Re:OMG! M. Keaton rocked as batman (Score:2, Interesting)
They should have stopped after the first two.
Of course the same could be said of Adam West. *POW* *BANG*
Re:Real Superman having a more impressive comeback (Score:4, Interesting)
Nerve injuries CAN recover, but continued stimulus is a big key. Real life case: Several decades ago my uncle was trapped under an upended road grader for several hours, while acid dripped from the battery onto his elbow. Ate a hole in his hide and completely destroyed the main nerve that controls everything from elbow to fingertips. Even after the acid burn healed, he had no feeling or motion in the hand or forearm AT ALL, and was not really expected to regain any use of it.
After 9 months of daily stimulus (mainly massage, with some forced exercise by moving the arm and hand around manually) he began regaining use of the limb. Within a few more months he had full use of the hand again.
At the time (this was ca. 1967) some progressive doctors believed that if sufficiently stimulated, severed nerves would regrow at a rate of about an inch per month. Which is roughly consistent with my uncle's experience. (Also with my own experience when I severed the nerve in my thumb. Took about a month to regain feeling in the tip.)
And you're right. Christopher Reeve will be Superman forever, the one and only.
Re:Here we go (Score:2, Interesting)
Agreed! I believe that's one of the things that made Spider-man so successful. They didn't take a teen heartthrob or some singer/actor or even some already well-known and loved actor. Becoming familiar with the new actor was part of the fun of the movie. You didn't know what to expect. Now if they could have just gotten someone besides Kirsten Dunst...
Nerve regeneration... (Score:3, Interesting)
I went to University on a rugby scholarship, and played for years. In '97 I had what is commonly reffered to as a "carreer-ending injury" where my right knee was dislocated by about 5 inches, quite effectively ripping 3/4 of the ligaments in my knee completely apart, and severing the nerve that services the lower right side of my leg and all the muscles on the top of my right foot.
I went to the hospital, had it examined, and was told that it was a sprain... "don't worry about it, come back in a week if it's still bugging you".
One week later, I still couldn't lift my foot or feel anything in my leg. So, I went to a specialist.
Long story short, it was one of the "cleanest" (as in no blood, it was as if it was surgically damaged) and most destructive knee injuries they've ever seen. The nerve damage was too old to repair, and after many visits to many neurosurgeons, they all agreed that I'd be lucky to regain 60% usage in 10 years.
Now, I was a pretty active guy... mountain biking every day, rugby 4 times a week, gymn twice a day, so I was in pretty good shape.
They gave me these rehab "protocols" that must have been written for couch-sitting housewives..."the 4 week goal is to bend the knee 25 degrees with minimal pain". Give me a break! I'd done that in 2 days! I threw them away and proceded to do what I could on my own... completing 6 months of protocols in about 3 weeks. The physio guys were blown away, and while concerned, couldn't see anything bad happening. I continued mountain biking, walked to exhaustion, always pushing myself but not to the point of further damage. I was wearing out the "protective" brace every 3 weeks and having to have it replaced (which they said I'd have to wear for the rest of my life, BTW).
I should take a second here to really thank my orthopedic surgeon (Dr. Ross!)... he took the time to show me how to perform basic examinations on my knee and leg, teaching me the signs to look for, and allowing me to monitor my progress. It really helped me guage the amount of exertion I could apply and when I should stop. It was REALLY refreshing to NOT get the whole "well, you're not a doctor, so you wouldn't understand, so I'm not going to teach you" attitude.
After a year and a half, I'd regained a LOT of use of the damaged nerves... I still remember the day that I could lift my foot up for the first time (the guys at work thought I was nuts when I started jumping around and yelling and screaming!).
3 years and 4 knee surgeries after the injury, I could run somewhat normally on the knee (I was never a great runner to begin with!), was practicing rugby, mountain biking normally, and playing other sports... all without the brace. The biggest damage I had was psychological.
I went back to the neurosurgeons who initially examined me, and said "hey, can you retest me?" and they were quite shocked to see that I'd recovered to be about 90-95% of what is normal.
Now, I am what I consider to be 100% recovered; same weights in the gymn, playing rugby again without a brace (not as competitive, but I'm old and lazy now
So, at the end of the day, and after doing a LOT of research on my own in the local medical libraries, I found that neurologists really don't understand SQUAT about nerve regeneration, and I tend not to believe any limitations they want to put on them. I threw away their advice of relying on a brace for the rest of my life and "taking it easy", and I'm glad I did.