In this day and age of insta-celebrity, and do nothing and be famous for it world, we often forget that it takes talent and skill to get where we are. American Idol shells out the "Next Big Thing" annually, while the public forgets what the other big thing was the year previous. In the world of big budget superhero movies, fan-boys can get overly crazy at the prospect of an "unknown" talent being the "Next Big Thing".

Way back when in 2004, Bryan Singer was hard at work in the pre-production stage of Superman Returns, and fans were going nuts as to who would don the Red Cape. During this time a "fan made" trailer was released featuring two body builders as Superman and Batman respectively, and well the fan boys went nuts. Since Batman Begins was already underway, fans loved the idea of Michael O'Hearn (Superman) playing Superman in the upcoming epic. Just one tiny problem: the guy is a stick in the mud.



What you've just witnessed is a "fan film". These little enterprises are exercises of hardcore fan fulfillment in regards to an ultra-faithful adaptation of comic books. While literal translation of the text sounds good in theory, the problem you run into is believibility. Superman as big lumbering doofus Clark Kent seems too far fetched, which is why the Hulk blockbusters favored CGI over a body builder in green paint. Regardless the hardcore fans rallied around O'Hearn, and nearly got their wish when he stated that he was granted an audition for Superman Returns.
Lucky for us it never happened.

While as dopey as this incident may have been, at least Michael O'Hearn made an effort to be an actor. According to imdb.com he has two direct-to-video action adventures and has made an appearance on Days of Our Lives. Now Mr. O'Hearn plays Titan on NBC's revival of American Gladiators. However with this mediocre list of accomplishments O'Hearn makes this other subject look like a wannabe high school drama club nerd. In fact he just might be exactly that.

Our next individual is a young man with a speacial message of love, and hope. This man made a video for his long lost love, and somehow or another has a fanbase of crazies who think that this guy has already been cast as Captain America without a solid script or preproduction. His name is Ben Ryan, and this is his story: It sarts in the summer of last year, when Ben Ryan posted a preview of what his speacial video was going to be. At the same time fans (such as myself) were ecstatic over the two new Marvel movies, Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk, because of the fan-heavy goodies they gave out. One goodie was a quick shot of Captain America's Sheild in Iron Man, and rumors swirled that Cap was invovled in Hulk, after his name appears in text in the two minute opening of that film. Then a crazy fan found this:






After this video found it's way to the fan-boy masses it was on like Donkey Kong. Rumors ran rampant, ranging from the not likely: This video was a leak, and is in fact early test footage of Captain America. To the moronic: This video was leaked however it's a CGI character since Marvel can't cast anyone who looks like Captain America. Turns out neither of these scenarios was correct (shocker), but that didn't stop the nuttiest of the fan-boy bunch. A blogger on imdb.com made a claim that she, the blogger, saw Ben Ryan at some acting covention in New York and now this guy is some real legit actor. Here is a link to the Marvel.com message boards that chronicle the insanity http://marvel.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=134803&highlight. Disturbing to say the least. As I conclude my first blog to you my adoring public, I will be providing another link to Ben Ryan's masterpiece here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iIYRZWBd9Y&feature=related let's see if you guys think Mr. Ryan is a master thespian.

Well all in all I'm for lesser known talents getting a shot at stardom, but you have to have talent. Furthermore if hardcore comic book fans ever had a shot at making these movies, some would reconsider the orginal Captain America movie a masterpiece.