Next in, "Oh word Hollywood? Riight..."

So sometime in the last week I was browsing ONTD and accidentally came across some more pending info about the upcoming Green Lantern movie staring Ryan "Deadpool In Name Only" Reynolds. Lately, comic book movies have been awesome, but sometimes the casting list fails me (I'm looking at you THOR), so I wasn't expecting much, but as it turns out, they did me proud.

Initially.

Angela Bassett has been (all but) confirmed to play the role of Amanda Waller, aka Scarer of Batman aka the Ninja aka the Boss etc.

In any case, I think Bassett is one of the most underused actresses of all time *kanye shrug* but in this case...er, I had to think about it.

If you've ever seen an episode of Justice League Unlimited featuring Waller, or god forbid you read the comics, OR you look at this here source you'll know that Waller is...not petite. She's full figured (her weight kind of fluctuates depending on her portrayal but she's usually some sort of overweight). Angela isn't a stick herself but...yeah.

The Comics Alliance link (article & the 4 comments so far at last count) does a pretty good job of pointing out how weird this is both in concept (uhh she didn't have much to do with the intergalactic Lantern Corps, anything she DID was indirect) and casting decision. I'm curious myself as to if CCH Pounder, who did her voice in JLU and seems to be the most popular candidate (I also envisioned S. Epatha Merkerson), was just busy or something.

I had a long think in the shower tonight about whether anything sinister (for Hollywood) was going on here. Is there? I don't really think so--for once. I can't explain why Waller's even in the film unless it's just a cameo spot or DC is in fact trying to create a longer lasting franchise a la Batman & Superman (honestly it's about damn time, I could watch about 50 well done GL movies and never be worse for wear) which have been drained with every damn interpretation you can think of for half a goddamn century--

Ahem. Er, anyway, I realized this may just be...unfortunate. In (mainstream) movies, the fat one is usually the dopey character, the mean bully and/or villain, greedy, things of that nature. Waller isn't really any of these. If she were played by a more full figured actress would she somehow be pegged as the "villainess" in a world where glowing rings can blow up planets and shit? I'd really hate to think that was the factor here. It could just be purely economic. Or it could even be a subversion! Or I could be thinking about it waaay more than these folks did.

In any case, it'd take a lot (like, a serious miscasting of Guy Gardner and a lack of John Stewart) to disappoint me in this and it's probably because DAMN I wants me a live action Green Lantern film, but I'm willing to wait. I'm confused, but maybe for once Hollywood will mystify me with it's reasoning. I guess.