Doctor Whom?

For your consideration.

With the announcement that current Doctor, Matt Smith, will departing the popular British series Doctor Who after the next Christmas special, the internet has been all a-buzz and a-Twitter regarding speculation about who will step into the role next.

Naturally, I have a couple of thoughts on the matter.
My first choice for the new Doctor is the same choice I made when the previous Doctor, David Tennant, announced that he would be leaving the role. Raza Jaffrey is a singer, dancer, choreographer,

actor, and action star probably best-known to American audiences as either Dev Sandarum on the NBC TV show Smash or Zafar Younis on the BBC import MI-5 (known as Spooks in the UK).

Jaffrey came to my notice in the British series Mistresses, and I remember thinking, “Tennant just said he’s leaving Doctor Who: they should call this guy.”

A great actor with outstanding charisma, I think that Jaffrey’s dance background would bring an interesting physicality to the role that would both complement and contrast Smith’s footballer athleticism in his incarnation of the role.

My alternate choices for the Doctor are – in no particular order:

If nothing else, it'll piss of Lenny Henry.

Chiwetel Ejiofor of Serenity, Love Actually, and American Gangster fame: a popular choice around the internet.

"Please, don't hold Hancock against me."

Eddie Marsan. Most of you probably know him as LeStrade from the Guy Ritchie Sherlock Holmes films, but, if you check his IMDb credits, I’ll bet you’ll say, “Oh, he was that guy?” in some other films you’ve seen. A very versatile performer, I recommend seeing him in Happy Go Lucky and the 2008 Little Dorrit mini-series.

"Expelliarmus."

Dean Lennox Kelly. Yes, he was William Shakespeare in the 2007 Doctor Who episode, “The Shakespeare Code,” but it would not be the first time that an actor took over the role of the Doctor after having appeared previously in the series in a different role. (Colin Baker did.) Check out the all-too-short BBC series The Invisibles for Kelly in a very different role.

Bam.

Paul Bettany. Bettany would be a slam-dunk as the Doctor, but perhaps a slam-dunk isn’t what the series needs so much as a three-pointer from beyond half-court. (I just used a sports analogy in a blog entry about a cult sci-fi series. I probably should have stretched first.)

Now, there has been some call from the internet that it is time for a female Doctor, and my initial reaction to that was: “No, I don’t like that. I don’t know why, but I don’t.” Having given it some thought, I realized that I still don’t like it, but I do, in fact, have a reason for that.

I do not think that the Doctor has to be a white male just because he has always been a white male. Physically, biologically, there are only negligible differences between races: skin color, a moderate predisposition toward size, etc. Most of the perceived differences between races are cultural and social – phenomena that are particular to our human experience that might not exist for a Gallifreyan native. (This does not, however, mean that casting Jaffrey or Ejiofor in the role might not bring about some interesting plotlines as the Doctor lands in different eras of Earth’s history.)
The differences between male and female are more significant, however. Women can become pregnant

Currently fending off multiple attacks by DT fangirls.

and give birth. Men cannot. This is a fundamental difference in the human experience. This does not make one gender more important than the other, but it does make them different. Even if you buy the (frankly, inconsistent) assertion that Time Lords reproduce asexually and emerge fully-grown from genetic looms, having the Doctor suddenly just become female – in my opinion – diminishes what it is to be female. I would rather have a spin-off with a female Time Lord (or Time Lady, as Romana was called.) Remember, Jenny from “The Doctor’s Daughter” is still adventuring her way somewhere out there in the universe.

"I don't look much like my dad."

As of this writing, it sounds like the role of the Doctor has been offered to Skyfall’s Rory Kinnear, though no word on whether he has accepted or not. Apart from his portrayal as the latest incarnation of MI-6’s chief of staff, Bill Tanner, I’m afraid I’m not very familiar with Kinnear’s work. I will reserve judgment, but I will say that I think that his late father, Roy Kinnear, certainly would have made for an interesting Doctor.

"Yes, you do."

In case Kinnear passes on the role, let me just - for your consideration - show you this clip of Raza Jaffrey performing in Bombay Dreams:

The Doctor's Doctor

Me at Denver Comic-Con.
I'm the one wearing the hat.

I had an opportunity at Denver Comic-Con this past weekend to chat with Daphne Ashbrook – known for playing Dr. Grace Holloway, the brief companion of the 8th Doctor in the 1996 Doctor Who film. More on that later.
I thought today would be a good opportunity to revisit the story of this one-off companion of the wandering Time Lord. For the uninitiated, there have been 11 official incarnations of the Doctor from the long-running (albeit oft-interrupted) British series Doctor Who. Hailing from the planet Gallifrey, the Doctor is a member of a time-traveling species known as the Time Lords. Time Lords are quasi-immortal, and when they are severely injured they can usually cheat death by regenerating into a new body. This was a solution that producers of the show came up with when the original actor playing the Doctor, William Hartnell, chose to retire from the show, and it has become a favorite part of Whovian (Doctor Who fanatics) lore. This is of immediate significance as Matt Smith, the actor playing the 11th Doctor, has recently announced his intention to leave the show. (This will be another blog entry unto itself. I assure you.)
But I digress. The initial run of the series ended in 1989 after 26 seasons and seven incarnations of the Doctor, due to waning popularity. However, it wasn’t long before work began on bringing the Doctor back in a new series, movie, or series of movies. This ultimately led to the 1996 TV movie, Doctor Who. Are we all caught up, now? Good. (Whovians: thank you for your patience.)

[Hereafter, there be spoilers. I don’t know why I’m talking like a pirate.] 
At the beginning of the film, the 7th Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) is transporting the remains of an evil Time Lord known as the Master back to Gallifrey. The Master is one of the greatest villains of both the original and current series of Doctor Who, so, naturally, in this combined British/American production, he is played by Eric Roberts.

"Listen to them. Children of the night. Now, stop
listening to them and get me a cappuccino."

Pardon me while I bang my head against my desk for a few minutes.

Okay, back to the story: Actually, the Master is only CGI ooze at the beginning of the movie, escaping from his urn and causing the Doctor to crash in San Francisco – specifically, Chinatown. The CGI ooze looks for a new host body and ultimately settles on an ambulance driver. . . played by Eric Roberts.

"Okay, I'm on set. Now, which one of you
drudges has got my costume?"

Back in a moment.

Okay, back again. Meanwhile, the Doctor is shot when he is caught in the crossfire of an attempted gang assassination. He is taken to Walker General Hospital and delivered into the hands of skilled cardiologist, Dr. Grace Holloway (Daphne Ashbrook). Unfortunately, Holloway’s skill does not extend to extra-terrestrial beings with two hearts, so in her attempt to deal with what appears to be an irregular heart beat, she brings upon the end of the 7th Doctor, forcing the subsequent regeneration into the 8th Doctor, played by Paul McGann.

"Wibbly.
Wobbly."

Distraught at killing (as far as she knows) a patient, and concerned over the disappearance of the same patient’s “corpse” from the morgue, Holloway resigns from the hospital. Soon after, she meets the new Doctor, and – after some convincing – comes to believe his story that he used to be Sylvester McCoy. (Or something like that.) Still reeling from the effects of the regeneration process, the Doctor is suffering from amnesia. Grace comes to his aid, and – when his memory returns – joins the Doctor in his search for Eric Roberts. One moment. Okay, ultimately, the Doctor and Grace overcome the evil that is Eric Roberts, but not without Grace being killed by the Master and then revived by the TARDIS. (Oh, the TARDIS is the Doctor’s ship. It’s shaped like a blue police box. Yes, THAT’S what all the blue phone booths on the t-shirts are all about.) In the end, Dr. Holloway chooses not to join the Doctor in his further adventures in the TARDIS, which in Whovian fandom is the equivalent of declining to get into Robert Downey Jr.’s limo to go to a party at David Bowie’s house. (Yeah, I know.)
Grace never appears on screen again, but her comic book version begins researching some of the cosmic ooze left behind by the Master and works with MI6 on developing a human/Time Lord hybrid. This puts her at odds with the Doctor, but the two reconcile and Dr. Grace Holloway was last seen pursuing advancements in surgical techniques. Putting the comic book stories aside, Grace Holloway (Daphne Ashbrook) had only one, 89-minute movie in which to win us over as a companion of the Doctor. This is probably why she doesn’t hold as high a place as Rose (Billie Piper), Sarah Jane (Elisabeth Sladen), or either of the Romanas (Mary Tamm & Lalla Ward) on most lists of favorite companions. It could also be that she is unfairly lumped in with opinions of the movie that are soured
by certain unfortunate elements: the Doctor’s “confession” that he is half human, for example . . . and Eric Roberts.

Um. Yeah. I'm not touching this one.

"Whatever, Alien Boy. We're all Doctors on this ride."

However, I think Grace Holloway deserves a second look. She’s a doctor just like Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman), witty and sarcastic like Donna Noble (Catherine Tate), plucky as Amy Pond (Karen Gillan), and rivals even Romana I (Mary Tamm) and Peri (Nicola Bryant) in pulchritude. She was also the first companion to ever full-on snog the Doctor. It is unlikely that anyone will ever rival Rose or Sarah Jane in my heart as favorite companions, but I have always liked Dr. Grace Holloway, and I hope that the new series will bring the Doctor back into her world at some point, just as it revisited our beloved Sarah Jane.
Now, having had a chance to visit at-length with Daphne Ashbrook this past weekend, I can easily place her among the nicest and most charming actors who have been Doctor Who companions. Chatting with her was the highlight of my Denver Comic-Con - in a 3-way tie with meeting Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) and the 6th Doctor (Colin Baker). In fairness, though, the latter two are weighted somewhat for having been my heroes at ages 3 and 10, respectively, so, it would probably be most accurate to say that meeting and talking with Daphne Ashbrook really was far-and-away the highlight of my weekend. You can find out much more about Daphne Ashbrook: actor, singer, writer, blogger, proud mom, and more on her website: www.daphneashbrook.com.

Addendum: Apparently, I have been writing this entry completely unaware that today has been declared the first annual "Sassy-As-Hell Grace Holloway Awareness Day" currently being celebrated with Tumblr gifs and cake. (There might not be cake, I'm still looking for my invitation.)

Hit the Ground Running

Okay, here - as promised (if you follow me on Twitter) - is my blog on a potential Flash movie.
Where to begin? Let's first talk about a couple of the earlier incarnations of the character.

"Okay, boys: let's sell some action figures."

Right on the heels of the first Tim Burton Batman movie, there was a resurgence of live-action superhero projects hoping to capitalize on the noir aspects of that film. Most of these attempts didn't understand that "noir" wasn't what made that film successful - it was just one of the successful elements. One of these attempts was the live-action tv series,The Flash. There were many good elements in this series: John Wesley Shipp as Barry Allen was charismatic and believable. Okay, by "many," I guess I meant "one." And that was it. The speed effects were cheesy: the Flash always looked like he was shuffling at high speed rather than running. The editing on either end of the speed effect scenes made the scenes look all the more stagey. The series tried too hard to look and feel like Burton's Batman - including use of 40s costuming and sets (albeit inconsistently) and a theme by Danny Elfman, which, frankly, seemed inappropriate for a character who moves at high speed. Most of the action took place at night, too, which may have helped with the special effects, but just made it feel all the more like a Batman clone.  Amanda Pays's facial over-acting made her scenes painful to watch. (Maybe she thought she was making a silent-film serial?) The scripts were often hackneyed at best - the pilot film creating a revenge-driven origin for Barry Allen, which just really isn't right for the Flash. Several iconic villains (Captain Cold, Mirror Master) were re-written to the point of being unrecognizable, and Mark Hamill's over-the-top Trickster felt like he had stepped out of the 1960s Batman TV series. The series never really settled on a tone for itself, vacillating between campy and dark - violently dark.

"I'm acting as hard as I can!!"

"E equals M. . . C . . .
Hey, look at my pecs."

As I said, I liked John Wesley Shipp as Barry Allen, and I liked him very much. He was perhaps a bit muscular for a police scientist, and he was a brunette rather than blond, but Shipp captured the essence of Barry Allen. He is a good man who gets superpowers, so he does good things with those superpowers. He's also a scientist, so he's going to think about scientific applications of those powers. If a Flash movie is made, this is, in my opinion, a necessary element. Barry Allen is a nice guy, pure and simple. He shouldn't be a vigilante. He isn't from another planet. He's just a good guy who can run very, very fast.

I know that everyone is a big fan of the wise-cracking Flash in the animated Justice League and Justice League Unlimited TV series - I am, too. However, that's Wally West - the Flash's former teen

"Then the waitress says, 'Oh yeah?
You should see him make donuts!'"

sidekick who takes up the mantle of the Flash after Barry Allen sacrifices his life to save the earth (multiple earths, actually.) That series also never really delves into why the Flash is who he is. Let's face it, the Flash's personality in that series mostly serves as a foil to the more serious members of the team. It's effective, but - for a stand-alone film - we need to dig a little deeper.

I think that a Flash movie must, must, must be a Barry Allen story, and, though I have said before that not all superhero movies need to be origin movies, I believe that this one does.
My first pick for Barry Allen is Ben Foster. Though he often plays darker characters, I have seen him in roles that suggest to me that he could play the quietly methodical and genuinely good guy, Barry Allen. He's not a particularly beefy or imposing man, and I think that's a good thing.

"No, I'm not the 'hey, girl' guy."

"My name is Shia. I will be
your busboy this evening.
Graci."

Barry Allen is a guy who takes his time. He's a scientist, so he's methodical. He's accurate, which is why he's an asset to the police department, but he takes a bit of ribbing from his co-workers for being so slow. When he's working late one night in the lab and lightning strikes him through a rack of chemicals, he is granted the gift of speed. This a release for Barry, the guy who takes his time, because time now becomes less of a restraint when you can move at hyper speed.
When he puts on the costume, he is free. This can manifest itself his new alter ego, along with the anonymity of wearing a mask, so those who want a wise-cracking Flash can still have one without fundamentally changing who Barry Allen is.
As for a villain, I think it would be wise to stay away from any super-powered baddies. The perfect foil to a genuinely good guy would be a sociopath. Perhaps a less cartoony version of James Jesse (aka The Trickster) could give the Scarlet Speedster a run for his money by devising a set of diabolical obstacles that would test the limits of both the Flash's speed and Barry Allen's resolve to do the right thing. Could  it be time to give Shia LaBeouf a shot at playing the bad guy?
The Flash doesn't have as many supporting characters as Batman and Superman, but there is his girlfriend and eventual wife, Iris West, who - in the comics - was originally a Lois Lane rip-off: a reporter for the local newspaper. Why not write her as a young Maureen Dowd-esque character and give the role to one of my favorite actresses: Olivia Thirlby?

"Yo Yo Yiggidy Yo."

I think that the key to making a good Flash movie is not to attach too much gravitas to it up front. Let it be just be fun and then allow it to build toward a very dire situation so that we - as the audience - are right there with Barry just as he realizes things are getting out of hand. Let us move to the edge of our seats for the climax. Don't try to make us sit there the whole time.
As one who anticipates many live-action adaptations of comic books with a mix of hopefulness and worry (Man of Steel), I think I could get very excited about a live-action Flash movie - if it is done with care.

And as long as we're talking about the Flash, I'm going to take this opportunity to share with you once again "The Ballad of Barry Allen" by Jim's Big Ego (available on iTunes, freeloaders).

The Dogs of War

The handsome creature above is called a Belgian Malinois. These are very smart, very trainable dogs that have taken the place of German Shepherds in many police and military forces. While the identities and specific details of the American military force that raided Osama Bin Laden's compound are classified, it is very likely that one of these dogs was part of the team that brought down the greatest real-life villain of the 21st century. Here's a little more about this breed:

"Right this way. Our copy of MegaForce on DVD just
arrived from Amazon."

The dog that joined Seal Team Six might also have been a German Shepherd as they are still very much in use in the U.S. Military. Kathryn Bigelow owns German Shepherds, so the dog in her film version of the story, Zero Dark Thirty, was, of course, of the Rin Tin Tin variety. The genesis of Zero Dark Thirty was actually a screenplay about the failure of the greatest manhunt of this century, but then Bin Laden was found. This warranted a hasty re-write. The film has received some criticism from both the current U.S. Government and many of the Hollywood elite for possibly overplaying the role of torture in obtaining vital information about Bin Laden's whereabouts. That is the question: how far is too far for justice? "By any mean necessary" sounds awesome in action movies and speeches, but that is a very scary proposition in practice. Me? I just don't know enough to say one way or the other. Perhaps we will get another film soon that explores this moral dilemma.

"Wait. What is this? I thought we were going to watch
MegaForce."

However, it won't be Seal Team Six: The Raid on Osama Bin Laden, a very slick alternative account of the raid. This version is much more "MTV" in its approach, including having the characters talking directly to the camera in short interview segments a la The Real World. Director John Stockwell incorporated a good deal of real footage, including the 9/11 attacks and so many voice-overs and televised speeches of Barack Obama that he probably should have given the President top billing. This is a far more frenetic film that Zero Dark Thirty, and, as such, is not quite as compelling, but it is still worth a look for the curious. Bear in mind that this was a top-secret operation, so all of the colorful characters of Seal Team Six - whether Chris Pratt's in Zero Dark Thirty or Anson Mount's in Seal Team Six - are completely fictional. 

Ace Hunter of MegaForce, by contrast, is completely real. 

Damn, I love this movie!

Let the Wookie Win

"Pew! Pew! Pew!"

Everyone's very excited about the new Disney Star Wars movies that have been rumored to include three sequels and standalone Han Solo and Boba Fett movies. The most recent rumor is that Harrison Ford will reprise his role as everyone's favorite Corellian-smuggler-turned-rebel-hero: Han Solo.
I am, well, not quite as excited about all of this as everyone else, I'm afraid. The reason for this is that I -that we - have been disappointed before by our unbounded enthusiasm for additional chapters in our beloved Star Wars universe. I will, at this point, turn things over to Patton Oswalt for elaboration (NSFW):

Thank you, Patton.
Now, I can already hear you saying, "But Lucas won't be able to mess with the stories! Disney bought him out! And these are sequels, so it's not messing with the histories!"
Okay, fine, but let's take a look at our beloved Han Solo's story in the expanded universe (as in books, comics, and more that do not appear on film):
(Hereafter, there be spoilers aplenty.)

Okay, this is cute. Now we've seen it. Let's move on.

After the events of Return of the Jedi, Solo resigns his commission, marries Leia, and they have three kids. It is a wonderful happy ending for our hero, but it isn't the most riveting of stuff, cinematically. Even if it were, that was shortly after the ROTJ. Harrison Ford is 40 years older now, so - even allowing for the "arrested Hollywood aging" (I just made that phrase up) - Ford will not be  playing Han changing the diapers of his Jedi children. So what, then? Well, things get pretty tragic: Chewbacca gets killed, one of Han's sons is killed, and the other son turns to the Dark Side. Han spends a good portion of the rest of his life being awfully depressed. I really hope that's not what they're aiming for with the Han Solo movie, because that sounds boring. . . and depressing. . . and very much not the Star Wars that I love. Maybe Harrison Ford will be showing up in the sequels as Han Solo - which one supposes will be focused more on Jacen Solo (the bad seed) and Luke Skywalker and his son, Ben, as they attempt to save the universe from Han's bad son - now calling himself Darth Caedus.
However, some of the folks at Disney have said that the sequels will not be following the expanded universe.
Really? So, 40 years of storytelling meant to fill the void left among fans wondering about the fates of their favorite characters is just going to be cast aside? Nice.

Okay, so maybe the Han Solo standalone film will take place earlier and have another actor playing Han. Do we really want that? Really? Someone else playing Han Solo? Okay, they re-cast Star Trek with younger actors, and we eventually got used to that idea, but - I'm sorry - I just can't get excited about that idea with Han Solo.

Boba Fett, whom we've only seen unmasked as a little kid, is a different story. No offense to Jeremy Bulloch, the actor who primarily portrayed the adult Boba Fett, but if your distinction in the role is that you were the one in the costume most of the time, that leaves replacement casting pretty wide open. The difficulty here is that what most people love about Boba Fett is the costume. Fett is an enigma - or he was until Lucas turned him into a morose eight-year-old. He is cool because he mostly says nothing. Bulloch says he based the portrayal on Eastwood's "Man with no name" from A Fistful of Dollars. So, what is the Boba Fett movie going to be? Yojimbo in space? Okay, that actually sounds kind of cool, but something tells me that's not what we're going to get.

I love Star Wars. It is the very first movie I remember seeing. My parents took me to see it at the drive-in. I was pretty young, so I didn't understand everything that was happening, but I remember being upset when Ben Kenobi died. I remember liking Han Solo and Chewbacca. I made myself hoarse the next day imitating Chewbacca's yell. I was very upset after the Empire Strikes Back. What would happen to Han Solo? Vader is Luke's father? How is Luke going to save everybody now that he only has one hand? Then came Return of the Jedi, which - to me - was perfect. Ewoks and all.
I wondered what would happen to the characters, and I read some of the novels and comic books that detailed their further adventures, but then I stopped. I realized that I was happy with the story as it had ended. The galaxy was saved. Han got the princess. It was good.
I, too got a little excited about the prequels, but I was also very concerned that they might recast Luke, Leia, and Han. Fortunately, they were far enough before the other stories that it wasn't necessary. Unfortunately, they were, well, the prequels.
So, this is why I am not really all that excited about more Star Wars movies. Yes, Disney, you paid big bucks to buy these characters, so, legally, they are yours, and - if you want to have Chewbacca arm wrestle Sully from Monsters, Inc. - that's your prerogative. Just remember that these characters also absolutely belong to a bunch of wide-eyed kids who met them sitting at a drive-in movie in a way that has no calculable dollar value.
My Han Solo. My Boba Fett. My Chewbacca. Please be careful with them. Please.

Strange Magic, Part 2

"Witness how I control the elements! The
wind blows wild, and yet my junk remains
unexposed."

Okay, yesterday I looked at three different cinematic adaptations (or pseudo-adaptations) of Marvel's Doctor Strange: the 1978 made-for-TV pilot Dr. Strange, Full Moon's Doctor Mordrid in 1992, and the 2007 animated Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme from Lionsgate and Marvel Animated Features. Each version has its strengths and weaknesses. Yes, even the dreck that is Doctor Mordrid has a couple of saving graces: Jeffrey Combs would have made a terrific Stephen Strange in a better script, as would Brian Thompson have been a great Mordo. Also, Yvette Nipar's character, a research consultant for the police, provides a useful plot device that I will talk about more later.  (Just as an aside: I think that Nipar is among the most underrated and under-utilized actors of my generation. Google her.)
Now, I'm going to reference yesterday's post quite a bit today, so - if you haven't read it yet - you probably should do that now.

"What a piece of work is
Stan Lee?"

Today, I'm going to throw out a few suggestions that I think will make a Doctor Strange film worth watching for both fanboys/fangirls and the general movie-going public alike.
The first question that gets posed in when we talk about a comic book adaptation is generally about casting. Who will play Doctor Strange? Mordo? Clea? Wong? To me, that's putting the cart a bit before the horse, but, okay, I'll play.
There are some fan photoshops floating around the internet that have Liam Neeson wearing the Sorcerer Supreme's robes. I like Liam Neeson as much as the next guy, but I feel that the window for Neeson to play Doctor Strange has passed. Patrick Dempsey wants the role, but, as I said yesterday, I think he lacks the vocal quality necessary to make the reciting of incantations not seem too hokey. The first actor who comes to mind for me is Joseph Fiennes. He has the look, the voice, and the Shakespearean acting chops necessary to bring Stephen Strange to life.

"Play another evil wizard?
Oh, joy. Do I at least get
a nose this time?"

"Is this a sonic screwdriver I see
before me?"

My first choice for Mordo has - in a way- already played the role. Disney's The Sorcerer's Apprentice was, in my opinion, a great big rip-off the Doctor Strange comic books. Nicolas Cage's Balthazar was obviously inspired by Doc Strange and Alfred Molina's Horvath is pretty much a Mordo clone. So, Molina would be one choice, but another fun possibility might be to have Mordo played by Joseph Fiennes's big brother Ralph.

"How many more times
does he have to mention
me on his blog before I get
to file the restraining order?"

Clea is an interesting creature, literally. She's not human. She's spent most of her life living in a dark dimension. She should be - in my opinion - simultaneously tough-as-nails and very naive. My choice for Clea is also one of my favorite actresses: Ari Graynor.
Wong is tricky. He is basically the Alfred to Strange's Bruce Wayne, so some effort should be made to distinguish Wong from Alfred. I think the way to do this is to remove the surrogate father element and cast Wong much closer in age to Stephen Strange. To that end, I suggest Star Trek: Voyager's Garrett Wang.

"Whatever, Ari. I'm just glad
he didn't call me 'Harry Kim.'"

Do I have any thoughts about directors? Sure, but I'm taking the easy route here: Alfonso Cuarón (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban), David Yates (the last four Harry Potter movies), and Jon Turteltaub (The Sorcerer's Apprentice).

"I kick ass.
What more do you need to know?"

Now, as for the story, I think that we should learn the lesson taught to us by the 2007 animated feature and not get too hung up on detailing every aspect of the origin story. Do you remember The Shadow with Alec Baldwin? It took that movie way too long to really get rolling. Tim Burton's first Batman movie didn't bother with an origin story at all for its hero, allowing only one flashback to tell us of Bruce Wayne's motivation. We didn't see anything to fill in the gap between his parents being murdered  and him becoming the Batman. Look at The Avengers: two of the six heroes were given no on-screen origin story at all. We don't need it. Not every superhero movie has to explicitly portray the character's origin to be interesting. Let me just say that one more time in case Hollywood didn't hear me the first time: Not every superhero movie has to explicitly portray the character's origin to be interesting.

Admittedly, this would have been cool.
(Found at fanpop.com)

I would like to see a less conventional approach to telling Doctor Strange's story.
Doctor Mordrid actually had an intriguing concept before they totally blew it: a series of bizarre murder/suicides are occurring related to the theft of alchemy materials. Police are baffled. This is about as far as Full Moon got before dropping the ball. What they should have done but didn't was to have the police researcher connecting the dots leading her both to the evil sorcerer and the good sorcerer. This, in a Doctor Strange movie, would allow the audience to learn about Doctor Strange's origins as the researcher does: a brilliant neurosurgeon is in a car accident and is unable to perform surgery because of injury to his hands. He spends millions of dollars on alternative cures and then just drops off the map. The researcher talks to people who worked with Strange at the hospital and even meets a few people within Strange's inner circle. She may even be warned off at one point by Clea. Ultimately, the researcher ends up being useful to Doctor Strange, so she (and we) are brought into his bizarre, mystical world. Instead of knowing every single thing that makes Stephen Strange tick, he is an enigma, gradually revealed to us through the first part of the movie by another character.

"Boom. Shadow junk."

Seriously, Yvette, your agent isn't doing
you any favors.

Now, this character could instead be a journalist. Possibly Ben Urich if that character is available having been used ten years ago in the Fox Daredevil movie. Norah Winters may be available if she hasn't been used in any of Sony's Spider-Man films. The character could also be a cop. We haven't seen Jean DeWolff on the big screen yet, have we? What a great role for Yvette Nipar!
Instead of spending an hour sloshing through everything Stephen Strange goes through to become the Sorcerer Supreme, we get a mystery that needs to be solved, and Doctor Strange gets to remain something of a sphinx, which is as it should be.
It's possible that we might not actually see a Doctor Strange movie come to fruition. Marvel has quite a few other definite and rumored films in the queue before getting to Strange: Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, a Nick Fury prequel, a Black Widow prequel or sequel, a Hawkeye movie, Avengers 2, Ant-Man... If any one of these movies tanks at the box office, Marvel might pull the plug on the whole thing.
I do think it's time that Doctor Strange made it to the big screen, though, as he is easily one of the most interesting characters in the Marvel universe.

Strange Magic, Part 1

"Go, Longhorns!"

Even before Marvel President Kevin Feige recently teased us with news of a possible Doctor Strange movie, I have long been imagining what a cinematic version of the Sorcerer Supreme might look like. I have a few ideas, but let's talk first about some of the previous incarnations of Doctor Strange.

For those unfamiliar with the good doctor, here's a brief history of the character:

"Jailbait? I'm Hellbait."

Created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko in 1963, Stephen Strange is a brilliant, but arrogant and selfish neurosurgeon who damages his hands in a car accident. After traveling the world to try many different and unsuccessful remedies to repair his hands, Strange finally arrives in the Himalayas before a mystical hermit called only the Ancient One. While there, he thwarts an attempt on the Ancient One's life by his disciple Mordo. Seeing goodness in Strange, the Ancient One decides to teach him the mystic arts, and a superhero is born. With his manservant/assistant/sidekick Wong, Strange battles the vengeful Mordo, the otherworldly Nightmare, and the demon Dormammu, in some of the more fantastically-drawn adventures of Marvel Comics. During one of his visits to Dormammu's dark dimension, he is aided by a human-looking girl who turns out to be Dormammu's niece. Later, we discover that she is named Clea, and she becomes a disciple and lover of Doctor Strange (So inappropriate.) Okay, that should have us all up to speed.

"Listen to the ground. There is movement all around.
There is something going down, and I can feel it."

In the late 70s and early eighties, a slew of science fiction and superhero TV shows emerged, likely to capitalize upon the success of movies like Star Wars and Superman. Among these was a made-for-TV-movie/pilot of Dr. Strange (1978) starring Peter Hooten, Sir John Mills, and Jessica Walter. This version is quite a departure from the comics. Dr. Stephen Strange (Hooten) is a psychiatrist, not a neurosurgeon. He's charming and really quite a nice guy, and there's nothing wrong with his hands. Thomas Lindner (Mills) is the current Sorceror Supreme, aided by his disciple Wong (Clyde Kusatsu). Morgan LeFey (Walter) has returned from, well, somewhere, to assassinate Lindner and take over the world for her master, the Nameless One - not to be confused with He-Who-Shall-Not-Be Named.

Doctor Strange's real
nemesis.

In this version, Clea (Anne-Marie Martin billed as Eddie Benton) is a human woman temporarily possessed by Morgan in an attempt on Lindner's life. Emotionally distraught by her ordeal, she ends up in the care of Stephen Strange, who Lindner discovers is the Chosen One (there's a lot of "ones" in this) who is to become the next Sorcerer Supreme. Abracadabra, presto-change-o: the good guys win, the bad guys lose, CBS aired it opposite a re-showing of Roots, and nobody saw it. Mostly. Stan Lee consulted on the adaptation and had only good things to say about it. (He was not so generous about the TV adaptations of Spider-Man and Captain America.) 

"Are you sure you're not John Holmes?"

I can be pretty generous about this movie myself. Yes, the effects are cheesy, and, yes, it doesn't follow the comic books very well, but it was a way around the origin story that didn't consume the entirety of the movie, and it didn't start off with a lead character who is largely unlikeable for a possible series pilot. 

Peter Hooten is good, and he has that great, deep voice. That's one thing that you have to remember about the Sorcerer Supreme: he has to sound convincing reciting those incantations. Patrick Dempsey has lobbied Hollywood to play Doctor Strange in a new movie, but, I'm sorry: he just doesn't have the right voice for it, in my opinion. 

"Mork calling Orson. Come in, Orson."

Moving on to the early 90s, Full Moon Features has acquired an option on a Doctor Strange movie but lets the option expire before going into production, so the script is re-tooled to remove any references to the Marvel character, and f-bombs and nudity are added. What we get instead is Doctor Mordrid (1992), which is about a centuries-old sorcerer (Jeffrey Combs) from another dimension who is living on Earth to protect it from a demon invasion led by rival sorcerer Kabal (Brian Thompson). Throughout, there are hints at what a Doctor Strange movie from Full Moon Productions might have been, and, frankly, we're all very lucky that it never happened. Full Moon makes schlock films, and that's what this is. The special effects are okay for a low budget, but the script is a mess, and the final "battle" sequence is boring. Watch it as a novelty only or if you're a Jeffrey Combs fan. (Which I am.)

About 15 years later, Marvel Animated Features gave us the direct-to-DVD Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme. 

Sidebar: I just want to say that I like that Marvel employs career voice-over actors for their features. DC does more "stunt-casting" with their animated features, using well-known celebrities to voice their leads. First, I don't think the fact that Eliza Dushku (good as she was) voiced Catwoman in Batman: Year One had any impact on people choosing to watch or not watch that feature, and, second, her casting took the job from someone who is a voice-over actor by profession. Okay, stepping off the soapbox now.

"There can be only one... Wait. What?"

Now, DS:SS does follow the comic book origin story a little more closely, but, frankly, I still don't think that the pre-accident Stephen Strange comes across as enough of a jerk. Another problem with the origin story is that - in a feature that's only 75 minutes long, it eats up 80% of the story. Now, one change is that the Ancient One starts out with small army of sorcerer disciples - including Wong and Mordo - so we do get to see plenty of magic battling going on even before Doctor Strange becomes the "Sorcerer Supreme" of the title. There's just not much from Strange himself. It's entertaining but way too short as far as I'm concerned. Is this to appeal to a younger audience? Given the body count by the film's end, I certainly hope not.

Here ends part one. Part two will have some of my thoughts about what a live-action 21st-century Doctor Strange movie could look like. 

In the meantime, here's the trailer for Doctor Mordrid as further evidence that you don't really need to see it: