A Funny Look at Jared Leto

A really funny Jared Leto photo has just surfaced online and it gives us a bit of insight into what The Joker is going to look like on the silver screen. Leto is riding his bike around Toronto sporting a sleeveless shirt and, yes, short-cropped green hair. The green hair should not come as a surprise. That is The Joker’s trademark. What is surprising is just how buff Leto looks. The guys in the weight-room at Boraie Development assume the man definitely has been hitting the gym and hitting it hard.

This is usually atypical for The Joker. The character has always been rather lean and sickly in the books. Jack Nicholson did a rather fat turn as The Joker in the 1980’s, but no one has ever played a muscles up version. Mr. Freeze was never muscular either, but The Arnold did play a bulked up version. Okay, let us not think about that villain and film right now. We might jinx the release of Suicide Squad.

A buff Joker is not totally new. In Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, we saw a beefier version of The Joker appear. The change in the look of The Joker helped him appear a bit more menacing although he was no match for the bigger and stronger Batman.

A bulked-up Leto does help give his take on the Clown Prince of Crime an original perspective. This is important because audiences are not interested in a retread performance.

May 26, 2015 Add Comment

Ben Affleck admits asking for slave-owner ancestor to be removed from TV show

The fallout over the appearance of actor Ben affleck on the PBS ancestry show Finding Your Roots continues as the Batman actor admitted asking for the life of a specific ancestor not to be included in the final cut of the show. Reuters reports Affleck released a statement via his Facebook page stating he had serious reservations about a slave-owner ancestor of the Affleck family being included in the show as the thought of slavery had left a bad taste in the Argo director’s mouth. Maybe he should have downed a Bulletproof Coffee to get that bad taste out of his mouth.

The issue of Affleck’s appearance on the PBS funded Finding Your Roots came to light when Wikileaks released over 30,000 emails from Sony film and TV, which included a series of messages between Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Sony executives. Gates is the host and producer of the show and expressed his concern over Affleck’s questioning of the importance of including his ancestor in the show. Gates has already stated he made the final decision on the direction each show took in response to which were the most relevant and entertaining stories to tell. Affleck now admits he lobbied for the removal of the slave-owner, but other celebrities, including filmmaker Ken Burns allowed their salve-owner ancestors to feature in episodes of Finding Your Roots.

April 22, 2015 Add Comment