• Fox may frustrate fanboys once again. Though not as sharp a jab as the studio’s Watchmen lawsuit, an option Fox holds on Emily Blunt could potentially keep her from playing Black Widow in Marvel/Paramount’s Iron Man 2 (a role she’s perfect for). Instead, she’ll have to settle on starring opposite Jack Black in Fox’s reimagined adaptation of Gulliver’s Travels.
• And speaking of disappointing fanboys: as if Scott Derrickson hasn’t already done enough damage to science fiction with his recent remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still, he has just been tapped to direct a single movie combining two of Dan Simmons’ Hyperion novels.
• 2009 Oscar nominee John Stevenson (Kung Fu Panda) will direct the new He-Man movie, Masters of the Universe. Worse than that, however, is Variety’s reminder that another 2009 nominee, Frank Langella, costarred as Skeletor in the godawful 1987 Masters of the Universe.
• 2009 Oscar nominee Mickey Rourke (who is also slated for Iron Man 2) will star in a kind of anti-Slumdog Millionaire, an American gangster flick titled Broken Horses, that will be scripted, directed and co-produced by Indian filmmakers. It will be the first Hollywood film from Reliance Entertainment since the company funded the DreamWorks exit from Paramount last year.
• “Breaking a longstanding taboo, Fox is releasing male-driven pic Taken on Super Bowl weekend,” begins the weekend box office preview from Variety. While I may believe that Taken could indeed be a guy movie, it certainly hasn’t been marketed as such. Anyway, I never understood the concept of a Sunday event keeping men from going to the movies on the Friday and Saturday before. So, if the film does take the top spot this weekend, I for one won’t be too shocked.

Is multi-medal-winning Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps the next action movie star? Or will he merely become a reality TV staple with the occasional cameo appearance in sports-related films? A recent Hollywood Reporter article weighed Phelps’ future celebrity options, and in response Entertainment Weekly asked its readers if Phelps could possibly be the next Brad Pitt (the magazine also looked at a couple Olympian-turned-actors in a recent slide show). However, while one comment recommended the swimmer for the role of Captain America (wouldn’t Namor or Aquaman make more sense?), it otherwise appears moviegoers are skeptical about Phelps’ chances in Hollywood.

Here at Spout, of course, we’re looking more forward to the Nastia Liukin-Shawn Johnson reform school flick (also discussed on this week’s podcast), but we certainly have room to anticipate the terrible low-budget action pics that Phelps is inevitably going to star in. It’s highly unlikely that he’d gain the stature of Pitt or the greatest athlete-turned-action hero, Arnold Schwarzenegger. So the question is, instead: does Phelps have what it takes to break through onto the list of worst athlete-turned-action heroes of all time? And will his worst fight scene look anything as bad as the following ten examples?

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