Can Batman Be Black?

After Warner Brother's maddening decision last Thursday to cast Ben Affleck as Batman in the upcoming Batman/Superman flick, movie critic Matt Zoller Seitz jokingly mentioned Idris Elba as the ideal choice.

Some quick Googling showed that not all Elba-as-Batman fans aren't joking. They've taken to editorials, Buzzfeed, and Facebook to push the statuesque and intense British (and black) actor as an ideal Caped Crusader choice. Elba, best known as the enterprising drug dealer Stringer Bell in "The Wire," has become a staple of Hollywood summer flicks, including this year's "Pacific Rim" and last year's "Prometheus." (He's likely to be in the Oscar discussion later this year for playing Nelson Mandela in "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.")

But that raises the issue--can you have a black Batman? This is something that pops up in superhero entertainment every couple of years. In fact, Elba himself has been at the center of it before, when he played a Norse god in "Thor." And the Fantastic Four reboot has generated some controversy with reports that Michael B. Jordan, a black actor, will play Johnny Storm.

My 2013 Fantasy Football Team #1

QB Colin Kaepernick
RB Arian Foster
RB LeSean McCoy
FLEX DeMarco Murray
WR Roddy White
WR Marques Colston
TE Tony Gonzalez
D/ST Bears
K Justin Tucker
BE Miles Austin
BE Ben Roethlisberger
BE Denarius Moore
BE Le'Veon Bell
BE Isaac Redman
BE Chris Givens

Some Spoiler-Riddled Thoughts On "Star Trek Into Darkness"

"Star Trek Into Darkness" is fun. It's a muscular, rousing piece of summer entertainment of the sort that J.J. Abrams has mastered.

I find it almost impossible to say more without spoiling the myriad of plot surprises built into its plot. Others apparently aren't having this difficulty, so feel free to read them if you're spoiler-phobic.

Believe me, this movie has surprises.

So seriously, if you don't want to have your surprises stolen, stop reading. I'm not talking about a spoiler here or a spoiler there. I'm going to spoil the whole darn thing, right till the end. Might as well go whole hog here.

This is your last chance.

OSCAR PICKS

Best Picture: Lincoln
Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis
Best Actress: Jennifer Lawrence
Best Supporting Actor: Tommy Lee Jones
Best Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway
Best Director: Steven Spielberg
Best Original Screenplay: Amour
Best Adopted Screenplay: Lincoln
Best Animated Film: Wreck-It Ralph
Best Foreign Film: Amour
Best Cinematography: Lincoln
Best Editing: Lincoln
Best Production Design: Life of Pi
Best Costume Design: Les Miserables
Best Makeup: The Hobbit
Best Original Score: Life of Pi
Best Origina Song: Adele Skyfall
Best Sound Mixing: Les Miserables
Best Sound Editing: Les Miserables
Best Visual Effects: Life of Pi
Best Documentary Feature: Searching for Sugar Man
Best Documentary Short Subject: Open Heart
Best Short Film, Animated: Paperman
Best Short Film, Live Action: Curfew

It's Weak, But the Reid-McConnell Filibuster Reform Package Is More Substantial Than You Think

Depressed about the newly announced filibuster reform deal? You're in good company. Even though it will likely pass in a landslide, it apparently pleases no one--especially those who were hopeful that at long last, the political stars were aligned to truly change the senatorial institution which has so often stymied progressive (and some non-progressive) causes.

Well, fear not. True, this legislation will do little to change the fundamental of the Senate--but, truthfully, that was never a significant possibility. Even the most ardent reform advocates were pushing for changes which were little more than theatrics. And, quietly, this reform proposal would chip away at the Senate's institutional culture of stagnation.

The meat of the bill would reduce the amount of debate required for a bill or nomination which has already passed the filibuster hurdle. It would also make it easier for the majority leader to bring a bill or nomination to the floor--either by striking a deal with the minority leader a bipartisan group of 14 other senators, or by ensuring that the minority will have the opportunity to offer a limited number of amendments. (Under normal order, the majority leader controls amendments.) The bill could still be filibustered when it comes to the floor.

A Requiem for the Big Ten

R.I.P., the Big Ten. 1896-2012.

It had a pretty good run, more than a century. It's the oldest athletic conference in the country, home to some of the most storied programs and most towering figures in college football. It developed the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry, perhaps the most intense rivalry in sports.

But all good things have to come to an end, and that's what the Big Ten apparently is going to do today. Ironically, Rutgers--one of the schools that was involved in the creation of college football nearly 150 years ago--may be involved in its demise. It hasn't made a move yet, but the Maryland Board of Regents is expected to vote today on whether to leave its long-time home, the Atlantic Coast Conference, and join the Big Ten. With Maryland mega-booster Kevin Plank, the CEO of Under Armour--(the responsible party for those hideous uniforms)--behind it, expect a slim but controversial pass. After Maryland joins, Rutgers is expected to follow. Oh, we'll still have the Big Ten, but it'll be the BTIN--Big Ten In Name Only.

Why Disney's Star Wars Sequels Feel So Wrong

"Star Wars" began with a snub.

Forty-some years ago, a young George Lucas--fresh from making "American Graffiti" and "THX"--approached Italian film titan Dino De Laurentiis to pitch him his vision of a "Flash Gordon" epic. De Laurentiis certainly wanted to make a movie based on the iconic 30's star crusader--he had, after all, bought the movie rights, and his taste for spectacle would earn him the nickname "Dino De Horrendous." But he was perhaps expecting something a little bit more old-school, and was hoping to coax legendary fellow Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini--who had worked on the Flash Gordon comic strip decades ago--into directing. So Lucas was politely rebuffed.

And then, in a historic cinematic "Fuck you," Lucas went ahead and made "Flash Gordon" anyways, except he changed the name of the hero to Luke Skywalker. The resulting movie, of course, was "Star Wars," and it was the top-grossing movie at that point in history, revolutionizing Hollywood and redefining the blockbuster. De Laurentiis was forced to rush his own now-forgotten "Flash Gordon" epic through three years later, to mediocre reviews and horrible box office performance. (Poor old Dino had a habit of screwing up valuable franchises--he also sold away the rights to "Silence of the Lambs.")

Who knows how much the "Star Wars" franchise was worth from 1977 to 2012. But now, we know exactly how much it is worth from 2012 on--$4.05 billion. As everyone now knows, that's how much the Disney company paid George Lucas to buy LucasFilm and all of its intellectual property, to launch an new "Star Wars" film in 2015.