By I have to say, this is the first legitimately interesting piece of casting news to come out of Man of Steel since my man Michael Shannon got cast as General “Kneels-A-Lot” Zod. Laurence Fishburne of Apocalypse Now and Pee Wee’s Playhouse fame has been cast as Perry White in Zack Snyder’s Superman reboot. For those that somehow went your entire life without seeing a Superman move or comic book, Perry White is the cigar-chomping editor in chief of the Daily Planet where Clark Kent and Lois Lane work. He’s not the abrasive personality that you find in Spider-Man‘s J. Jonah Jameson, though. More of a hard-traveled, old-school newspaperman.
I’ve always been a big fan of Laurence Fishburne when he’s not struggling with the faux-philosophical claptrap of the Matrix movies, so this is pretty cool. Also, in an age of Hollywood “racebending” where the Akria adaptation stars all white dudes (if that ever gets off the ground) and any racial diversity from an Avatar: The Last Airbender film is erased, it’s refreshing to see a black man in a traditionally white role. Fingers crossed for a founding fathers biopic starring the remaining members of Run DMC. Whatever happened to those guys, anyway?
[Via EW]