Casting Prince Namor's big-screen debut!
March 02, 2004 - Stax here with a Special Sub-Mariner Edition of The Stax Report! As I've done before with Fantastic Four, Dr. Strange, Captain America, and Iron Man, I'm offering up my picks for who should star in the feature film rendition of a Marvel Comics hero. I'll also provide my own take on how to bring this particular character to the big screen.
The Sub-Mariner is set-up at Universal Pictures with David Self (Road to Perdition, Thirteen Days) scripting and Misher Films (The Scorpion King) producing. According to The Hollywood Reporter, "Sub-Mariner follows the adventures of Prince Namor, a half-man/half-amphibian creature from Atlantis. A troubled rebel with a short temper, he has helped the human race and fought against it when humankind polluted his underwater kingdom with waste."
Rumored contenders for the title role have included Nicolas Cage and Matt Damon. There is no director attached yet but Marvel Studios CEO Avi Arad raves about the project in the April issue of Wizard Magazine and says it's proceeding.
"Namor is spectacular," Arad advised Wizard with typical understatement. "Universal is so interested in the opportunity in this movie. It's a fascinating story. We all had an incredible feeling that we're walking into something amazing. This could be an epic movie. It'll have a huge scope. We are going to expose people to an amazing new world."
Citing a Marvel Enterprises' Q4 2003 Earnings Conference Call, Superhero Hype reports today that Avi Arad called Sub-Mariner (a.k.a. Namor) "'Star Wars underwater... a fascinating frontier'. He compared it to Jurassic Park as something viewers have never seen before. They've got visual designs for the film already and are talking to directors for a 2006 release."
I'd like Sub-Mariner to focus on Namor's arc from being an enemy of the surface world to his forging an alliance with them against a common foe (perhaps even becoming humanity's unlikely savior). This would be in line with his World War II-era portrayal where, as Marvel reminds us, Namor "launched frequent pre-emptive attacks against humanity, causing untold destruction throughout New York City." I don't think I need to comment on how prescient or chilling that sixty-year-old storyline now seems.
Namor eventually teamed with Captain America and The Invaders against the Nazis in order to protect Atlantis. Marvel says Namor ultimately "realized he must put aside his hatred of humanity for the good of his people and banned official acts of war against Homo sapiens. Namor even grudgingly began using his superhuman abilities in defense of the surface world."
I'm not sure if I'd include Namor's post-war amnesia but the idea of a derelict discovering his true identity and destiny is very interesting. Still, it might just chew up a lot of screen time while we're waiting to see the Avenging Son of Atlantis kick some butt.
I've selected six contenders who could portray Namor. Many stars didn't make my shortlist – including Russell Crowe, Daniel Day-Lewis, Nicolas Cage, Keanu Reeves, Leonardo DiCaprio, Viggo Mortensen, Johnny Depp, Guy Pearce, Val Kilmer, Brad Pitt a) for various reasons (wrong age, too beefy, etc.). I've chosen the following because they have Namor's lean, otherworldly look and would also be convincing as the mercurial monarch.
Continue on to find out who my six Sub-Mariners are ...
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