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This Monkey’s Not Yet Gone to Heaven

A few weeks ago I blogged about Shia LaBeouf turning down the role of monkey-shouldering Yorick Brown in the upcoming Y: The Last Man movie, which is still being scripted. I respected his decision, considering his reason for rejecting the proposed role was that he didn’t want to be typecast. He felt that by the time the film rolled around, he’d have outgrown it.

Smart move, right?

Well … dunno. Geeks of Doom now reports that the actor hasn’t completely dismissed the idea. He just wants to do some other things first before he actually makes a decision, but he loves the idea. So basically we have no clue, and Geeks of Doom—and everyone else—spoke too soon. Hooray.

Substitute pulling the trigger for spinning the rumor wheel, and you've got the LaBeouf mess.

In other film news, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows—based on the last book of J.K. Rowling’s children series—will probably be broken up into two movies, the first ending on a cliffhanger. While the Harry Potter novels are monstrous little buggers jam-packed with plot and other enjoyable fantasy crap, making two movies out of one book is just bullshit. If the Lord of the Rings could pull off one movie for each book in the trilogy and make fantastic films, then Harry Potter has no excuse. They just want to make more cash—it’s as simple as that.

And even though it’s not as ridiculous as splitting The Fucking Hobbit into two movies—around 150 pages, give or take, compared to over 500 pages for the first trilogy movie alone—when nobody cares anymore because the Lord of the Rings movie hype is long over, drawing out the Harry Potter movies is still going to stumble just the same. Why? Because the Harry Potter books have ended, and no one’s going to care about the ever-capricious movies and their round table of directors with dramatically varying styles.

That many hours of hobbits might end up something like this. Oh, the horror!

Whether you agree or disagree, the point remains the same: They want your precioussss monkey! Err, I mean money. Damnit, LaBeouf.

Side Note: The Hobbit is one of my all-time favorite books, and I love the Harry Potter books, too. I just can’t believe anyone could justify this crap.

Tags: Geeks of Doom, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, no one needs two movies of hobbits, Shia LaBeouf, The Hobbit, Y: The Last Man
Posted in Books, Comics/Manga, Movies/TV | 5 Comments »

LaBeouf and the monkeys

Okay, so unless you’re a tween girl who probably viciously adores Hannah Montana, chances are Shia LaBeouf isn’t high on your list of favorite actors (or people). While I’m not a big advocate of him, either, I don’t think he’s quite as terrible as most people seem to think; at any rate, we all better get used to his mug, because he’s not going anywhere. In fact, he just keeps getting better and better gigs.

That happens to be the problem. In an effort not to be pigeon-holed for the rest of his life, LaBeouf has turned down his evident movie role as Yorick Brown from the successful comic book series by Brian K. Vaughan, Y: The Last Man:

You take Sam [Witwicky from Transformers] and you put a monkey on his shoulder. I don’t know if it’s that big a differential. It seems like he’s the ordinary guy in an extraordinary situation again.

I’m not willing to make that movie currently, and may be too old to play the role by the time it does come around.

Hooray or, “Oh, God, no!”? I’m not terribly bummed about this—hell, I didn’t even know LaBeouf was supposed to play Yorick in the planned film adaptation, which allegedly will be directed by D.J. Caruso. I didn’t particularly love Caruso’s Disturbia, although it wasn’t a bad movie, either. So in this case, an artistic separation between Caruso and LaBeouf sounds like a good idea.

Anyway, it looks like the phase of LaBeouf’s awkward attachment to monkeys has officially ended. Thank God.

At least Yorik doesn't have to swing through the jungle with monkeys in bad CGI.

Tags: bad monkey business, D.J. Caruso, Shia LaBeouf, Y: The Last Man
Posted in Comics/Manga, Movies/TV | 3 Comments »