Any time
I mention Djimon Hounsou, I have to fight the urge to do two things. One is making
any sort of joke that involves Digimon (thanks, Nick!) or Moon
Knight. Two, which is just barely more important, is to not immediately
mentally replay his death scene from Deep Rising in a loop. You see,
despite his involvement is some pretty high falutin’ films like Amistad
and The Blood Diamond, I’ve never really been able to enjoy the guy
in anything except for his lower-rent, pay-the-bills movies where the guy
actually gets to show a smidgen of personality. In the former, he always seems
to play a mild variation on the noble, soft-spoken sufferer. But you get the
guy a gun (Deep Rising) or a badass bike (Biker Boyz) or even a
morphing dog helmet (Stargate), and he just seems to
become more interesting and watchable. He’s certainly a good actor, but because
black actors are already often roped into variations on that stoic, upstanding
type of fella (often as “the magical Negro), Hounsou just comes off as generic
when he’s playing these roles. Fortunately, today’s announcement sees him as
far away from that as possible.
Djimon’s
just signed up for an action drama called Get Some. In this The
Karate Kid-meets-Fight Club flick, Djimon would play
a mixed martial arts mentor to a Midwestern teen. The kid moves to glitzy
restless youth wait for Disney properties to close for the night so that they
can assemble for no-holds-barred underground fights. Thus far, Djimon is the
only real name associated with the indie flick, as the rest of the cast has
been filled out by alumni from The O.C. and the like. But if there’s
any justice, they’ll cast a Martin Kove-type to round out the challengers from
the “evil” side of the street fighting equation. Maybe Matt Schulze or Karl
Urban’s available.
Wait a
minute….”maybe”? The only question is which guy would get the signed contract
faxed back first.