The New Breed

Variety is reporting that Universal Pictures will turn the life of Joe Namath into a feature film, with Jake Gyllenhaal playing the Hall of Fame quarterback. Admittedly, I'm not a Gyllenhaal fan (brother or sister), but that aside, this seems like truly strange casting. Almost as weird and improbable as:

Ryan Phillippe, along with Sean Bean and Abbie Cornish, will be starring in a Viking epic called Last Battle Dreamer (source: Film Drunk). Phillippe's role is a seventh-century Viking warrior named Thorfinn who, along with his older brother, the battle-scarred Hakon (Sean Bean), invades Britain. Now I do like Ryan Phillippe (well, except for that whole cheating episode) and I think he's cute as a button. But a Viking warrior? I don't think so. To quote the Film Drunk reporter: "Vikings are supposed to be like ZZ Top killing priests with axes, not androgynous, pouty-lipped pretty boys." Sean Bean, however, works completely for me.

Both of these, uh, interesting castings bring me to an old NY Times article (Hollywood's He-Men Are Bumped by Sensitive Guys) about the trend in left-brain sensibility in the new breed of movie heroes. You can read the article for yourself here, but I've culled what I thought were some of the more interesting quotes.

According to producer Peter Guber: ''The access of women at the very top of the food chain at the studios -- Amy Pascal at Sony, Nina Jacobson at Disney, Stacey Snider at Universal, Sherry Lansing at Paramount -- has to mean a leavening of the testosterone effect. Their impact is felt. It's not by design, not as a cabal; it just references their taste."

Gone (for the most part) are the American leading men of square jaw, flinty gaze and imposing physique. The new generation of Hollywood heroes are "soft of cheek, with limpid stares and wiry frames." In other words, the Bruce Willis and Harrison Ford-types are out and the new "in" guys are (according to the article) the thoughtful vegetarian Tobey Maguire; the aforementioned Jake Gyllenhaal; the slim, British and very pretty Orlando Bloom; the baby-faced Leonardo DiCaprio and the brooding Ryan Gosling.

But according to casting director Debra Zane, it may not be just a matter of shifting tastes, but the failure of supply to meet demand. ''There's always the desire for the sort of Russell Crowe types, which is to say a man's man. They're always in demand. And in short supply. And why is that? I don't know why.''

Robert Newman, a leading agent at International Creative Management, offers this explanation: ''We have a lot of pretty guys running around with six-pack abs, but they lack authenticity and credibility. In the 1950's a lot of men had been in the war; some of them became actors. They lived hard lives. There was a weight that came out of it. When Steve McQueen took his shirt off, he's thin, he's not ripped. There's a hardness and danger about him because of who he was.''

With the ongoing Iraq war, the trend could shift again. Robert Sklar, a professor of cinema studies at New York University, has an interesting take. His quote from the article: ''It's certainly possible that the second gulf war is going to turn the cultural definition of masculinity in new ways. We're seeing a kind of sacrifice and heroism by young people that we haven't seen in a long time in this country. That's going to impact on the kinds of stories screenwriters write, and the kind of actors we need to play them."

Perhaps that explains the popularity of someone like Clive Owen, who seems to combine left-brain sensibility with right-brain toughness (or did I get those mixed up?) And the rave reviews Daniel Craig received for his badass, yet emotional portrayal of James Bond. Some say he is a 007 for the dangerous times we live in now, a guy who does more than just pose and toss off one-liners. He's a rugged, rough-around-the-edges spy/assassin who actually looks like he can take care of business.