Great Caesar’s ghost!
Laurence Fishburne has opted for both the red and the blue pill, signing on to play Perry White in the new Superman flick, Man Of Steel. The Matrix star takes over the role from Frank Langella, who played the crotchety newspaper editor in Bryan Singer‘s Superman Returns. This marks the first role for Fishburne after leaving his role on C.S.I. after two seasons.
Fishburne joins co-stars Henry Cavill as Supes himself, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Kevin Costner as Jonathan Kent, and Michael Shannon as (KNEEL BEFORE) Zod. Man Of Steel is produced by The Dark Knight‘s Christopher Nolan and directed by Zack Snyder, of 300 fame/infamy. Since Zack Snyder’s entire m.o. is “darker and grittier”, that’s what you should expect for the film. But it is incredibly hard to imagine the words “Amy Adams” and “gritty” in the same sentence.
Expect the usual vaguely racist nerd-rage to result from this casting news, since Perry White is traditionally a white character. Fishburne is an actor with enough nerd cache for a lifetime with his role as kick-ass mentor Morpheus in The Matrix to last a lifetime, so hopefully that will allay some of the the inevitable whining. While Man of Steel’s choice of director is still questionable, the cast that Snyder is assembling is an encouraging mix.
Man Of Steel starts filming this fall, and should hit theaters June 14, 2013
