Apr 6, 2009 10:30 AM
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Tue Feb 9
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Now that Fast and Furious has has a record-breaking opening weekend, perhaps studios should take star Vin Diesel's desire to play a supervillain more seriously. Here're some roles executives should be offering him.
Metallo
Yeah, yeah; he's got the hair to play Lex Luthor - or Brainiac, for that matter - but somehow we don't think we'd buy Vin as a supersmart mad scientist. So why not look elsewhere in Superman's rogues gallery for a potential role? Coming slightly out've left field, we'd love to see a Superman reboot that featured the cyborg with a kryptonite heart, and think that Diesel could make us believe in the genuine threat hidden behind the thug exterior.
The Titanium Man
So Metallo is part man, part machine...? Sounds like an Iron Man villain to me. So why not lobby Jon Favreau to bring Diesel into the third Iron Man installment as longtime foe, spy and fellow armor-wearer the Titanium Man? Admittedly, a rewrite of his backstory may be necessary - would anyone want to see another Russian spy after IM2's Black Widow? - and his secret identity has to go. Who would really buy a character called Boris Bullski these days?
Electro
He'd have to lose the green and yellow outfit, but if Sam Raimi wants to ditch the new-fangled villains and go back to some classics for Spider-Man 4 and 5, he could do worse than pick Maxwell Dillon, the workman given control over electricity that appeared in the first year of Spidey's existence.
Kraven The Hunter
Sticking with the Spider-Man universe for a minute, I have to admit that there's something weirdly compelling about seeing how well Diesel's Russian accent skills are holding up these days and making him into Sergei Kravinoff, the big game hunter who comes to New York to try and capture Spider-Man for the publicity... only for it to become increasingly personal. I'm sure there's also a fanbase out there who'd happily watch him bare-chested and in leopardskin pants for a couple of hours, as well.
The Absorbing Man
This is, no joke, the supervillain role that Diesel was born for - Crusher Creel, a boxer and low-life tricked by the Norse God Loki into becoming a supervillain who can absorb the properties of whatever he touches (Like the X-Men's Rogue, but with inanimate objects). Fast and Furious shows that audiences like watching Diesel as a tough guy, and how much more tough can you get than a guy who goes toe to toe with Thor? Plus, the Absorbing Man even looks like Diesel already. Why Marvel aren't already on the phone with Diesel's agent already, I have no idea.
Send an email to Graeme McMillan, the author of this post, at graeme@io9.com.
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