Ok, Mandrake The Magician

Jesus, I'd rather see a Defenders Of The Earth film than this, and that's saying something.

I like old pulp and comic characters, too. But quite honestly I completely zoned out half-way through that write-up.

I love you, Devin.

Was the thinking behind this to get such a ...blah creative team together to make the public so apathetic that no nerdrage can be mustered?

Reboots, Reboots and more Reboots.

No, I'm with ya. I'm also a fan of movies about magic (I'm interested in the developing Houdini project) and heist/impossible mission flicks too. It's a shame the lead's so... un-charismatic. The less said about the Prequels the better, and I got through JUMPER on premise and direction alone.

See, this is a classic case of a property that "sits around" for so long it winds up getting made with no clue as to how or why anyone might've thought making it was a good idea in the first place.

The basic concept of a guy with some specific oddball skillset being recruited into quasi-spy hero-hood (looking at you, "FX," "XXX," etc) isn't in and of itself interesting or novel, and the Angel/Blaine descriptive virtually-garauntees he's just going to be Xander Cage with card tricks and wannabe Suicide Girl hangers-on. (I'm assuming Honsou is playing Lothar, yes?) That's a fundamentally dull hook on which to hang ANY franchise, let alone one who's really, REALLY small fanbase isn't going to give a shit if he's not the "classic" Mandrake. I mean, the ONLY remotely interesting thing about Mandrake is that he looks like a classic-style hammy stage magician only he actually puts his money where his mouth is, so to speak. If Christensen were going to be running around in a top hat, mustache and cape confounding his enemies with puffs of smoke and bunnies from nowhere... THAT at least would have novelty. Criss Angel: International Man of Mystery? No way.

Two easiest predictions anyone'll make this year:

1.) They'll end up just calling it "Mandrake." Because "magician sounds GHEY!"

2.) Lothar will be a proudly super-tough, nobly super-smart, proudly omnicompetent, noble all-around badass who is proud and noble as all hell. Did I mention he will be both noble and proud? Every other word out of his mouth will serve to demonstrate (with pride and nobility, natch) that he is most-definately NOT Mandrake's "servant" or any such thing in stern and damning indictment of the "racist" past in which the original Lothar was concieved. Did I mention he will be both proud and noble?

I certainly never imagined that someone would cross-breed XXX with Mandrake the Magician.

I will watch it if and only if Ice Cube gets cast as Mandrake.

Fucking hell. I never read the comics or anything like that, but I always kinda liked the idea of Mandrake; like moviebob said it's a sorta/maybe cool idea that old style vaudeville bunny-puller really could pull of actual magic. A period piece thing where they potentially get away with Lothar tooling around in a leopard skin print loin cloth would be gold, but an Xtreme Magician, with scenes at Burning Man no less?
Pass.

Coincidentally, this weekend I was reading an old MAD compilation from Al Jaffee that I found in a box in my attic. One of the sections was a "What if cartoon characters acted like real people?" that included Mandrake the Magician. The plot: Mandrake has a flat tire. Lothar says, "Mandrake, why can't you just gesture hypnotically and fix the tire?" Mandrake says, "Because, Lothar you idiot, I can hypnotize you into thinking the tire is fixed, but how do I hypnotize a tire into thinking it's fixed?"

And sadly, I think I'd love a "Defenders of the Earth" movie.

I'm with OCallaghan - I'd have preferred a '30s setting, maybe a noir-ish piece or a movie serial feel like The Indiana Jones flicks. I could see Robert Downey Jr. or George Clooney really rocking this, as opposed to Hayden Christensen as a Criss Angell clone (while I liked him well enough in Shattered Glass, as an action star, I'm not seeing it, even after Revenge of the Sith).

Besides, who doesn't like top hats, capes, and pencil-thin mustaches?

Just make GOB: The Movie already.

When are they going to realize the period setting is 99% of the charm of these licenses? Do they think The Shadow would have been more successful if it had been set in the 1990s?

I can't believe Buck Rogers is still lying dormant (HA!), especially with the success of the new Star Trek movie.

Maybe because Trek has been around in one form and another for fourty-plus years. Buck Rodgers hasn't been around since maybe the 50s.

Although trying to envision Hayden Christensen as a douche-riffic Criss Angel-type makes me laugh.

Gil Gerard would like a word with you.

I'm sure he would care about what I thought regarding a show that ran from 79-81.

He probably would, actually. What'd he do before or since, besides show up to some horror/sci-fi conventions to sign autographs?

Daffy Duck would like a word then.
Problem is, besides Indy, early 20th Century pulp heroes don't do that well at the BO (Shadow, Phantom, Sky Captain, etc). Zorro and Pirates are from an earlier area (still risky though at the time) and are in that swashbuckling high-adventure mode. This sounds too niche for general audiences (screm 'em, I say, but...). I'd dig a period piece pulpy magician/spy flick, but that's me... Maybe things'll change if RDJ's HOLMES takes off.

Did THE PRESTIGE and ILLUSIONIST make money? EDIT: Moderately, worldwide.

That was Duck Dodgers. Whole different thing.

Id kill to see a Duck Dodgers movie.