X3 good/bad

Well, moviehole.net is essentially little more than a movie-centric rumor mill, but some of there stuff turns out to be legit, and they post when they're wrong. There's an article here that Joss Whedon (Buffy) isn't going to be directing XMen 3, which is a big sigh of relief from me. Don't get me wrong...Whedon does a great job with teen soap operas like Buffy, but, in my opinion, the man can't direct action, and there's not much I hate more, cinematically, than heroes/heroines succeeding because of some damn lucky thing that is not only impractical, but out of character. Something like a bullet ricocheting off of a coffe mug, off of a toaster, off the tray of a waiter walking by, and finally lodging in the back of the villain's skull. Whedon's style doesn't match the two previous movies, but I've yet to find any word on why he's even being considered for it. Did Brian Singer back out? Anyone?

The bad news, and we've seen this rumor applied to various other characters we all love before, is that casting for X3 wants Keanu Reeves to play Gambit. WTF? First of all, I've never seen him do any accent other than rubber stamped Keanu Reeves. I mean, every line from Point Break sounds exactly like "I know Kung Fu." How's the man gonna sound cajun? And that only scratches the surface of dichotomy between Gambit and "Ted" Theodore Logan. But, like I said, I've seen rumor after rumor of Keanu Reeves playing such and such, and I really think that somewhere, there's a secret society bent on ruining Keanu Reeves' career by slipping online rumors of his casting into roles that already have a passionate following for the character, but that he doesn't match. Just wait, when Harry Potter finally faces down He Who Shall Not Be Named on screen, Keanu Reeves will be rumored to be HWSNBN. I'm surprised he's not Hagrid. Or Harry.

Gotta love those rumors.