I was just reading an article about the second series of Strike Back, which will air on HBO with a new lead.
Sullivan Stapleton lands lead role in HBO drama Strike Back
ANIMAL Kingdom star Sullivan Stapleton has cracked the US, landing the lead role in HBO’s mega-series, Strike Back.
The Underbelly: Infiltration actor landed the plum job in the SAS-themed action drama last year and has committed to at least two series.
Stapleton will fly to South Africa within weeks to start filming, before completing the shoot in Hungary and the UK.
Strike Back, co-produced with Sky in Britain, is based on the action novel by former soldier Chris Ryan.
The first series, which starred Brit Richard Armitage, was received well by critics and fans, but Armitage had to drop out to accept the role of Thorin in The Hobbit.
Stapleton said the role was a “dream come true” after years “plugging away” in homegrown dramas.
“Apparently they wanted an American, and they’ve ended up with me,” he said with a laugh.
“To land a series in the States, well, I just couldn’t ask for anything more, and to run around with guns and play soldiers, surely it’s every boy’s dream.”
Stapleton said he hoped the role would springboard him into other Hollywood roles.
Didn’t several of us want an HBO series for Richard Armitage? Not that Strike Back was the best vehicle, but I feel RA missed out on something. Then again, he will be in one of the biggest budget movies ever made, so I shouldn’t get too upset. It still smarts a bit. I mean who is this Sullivan Stapleton? The upstart! I’ve definitely gone into Armitage Protection Mode (APM). Imagine me as one of those emoticons with the quivering lip. LOL!
I have a bad feeling about John Porter.
So I have a serious request of the producers/writers of this show:
To Whom It May Concern:
Could you please not kill John Porter? My constitution cannot handle three character deaths in two years.
My spate of fake fan letters to Richard Armitage a while back inflamed my control freak and exacerbated my need to give an opinion on matters whether I know jack about them or not. Frankly, it’s been hell to keep that urge tamped down, but today, I couldn’t hold it back any longer.
January 13, 2011
Dear Mr. Jackson,
I put myself on the receiving end of #thehobbit via my Twitter account, and I’ve learned all kinds of interesting things. Phew, man, I thought I was passionate about Richard Armitage! I have nothing on those “guys” at TheOneRing site. My zeal for RA is a school girl crush beside their passionate love affair with Tolkien and with you. I guess I can respect them for that, and I wasn’t so much surprised by their ardor as I was at how much credence they are given by the press.
That knowledge compelled me to read their “about” page where I discovered their close relationship with you, and this has me wondering how much you are affected by what is said there as well as effect what is said. I’m envious of the relationship you seem to have worked out with this bunch of fanatics. Richard has a sort of arrangement with his fanatics too, but it doesn’t appear to be as comfortable as yours. Maybe you can give him some pointers? ;-)
By the way, it had been a while since I’d seen a picture of you, so imagine my surprise when I started reading up on ‘The Hobbit,’ and found this:
Wow!
If you ever read this blog or almost any of the other blogs on Richard Armitage, you would know that we do a bit of fangirling at times. Well, we try not to do it so much we look like bimbos, but then bimbo is a relative term. However, when we do fangirl, there is usually a PHWOAR! heard from someone. So in honor of your recent fitness, I give you a decided PHWOAR! Seriously, you look pretty sexy in this picture, and I already thought your mind was sexy. Phew! Can I get an amen from anyone? By the way, I adore your hair. Truly. I love it! And maybe that is a hairstyle you’re just partial to anyway? I know I am. A certain warrior and lieutenant are coming to mind.
Have a wonderful day, and I hope your wife is aware that she may have to beat the women off with a stick.
The question of whether or not Richard Armitage would make a good James Bond has come up countless times in the fandom, and it happened again the other day with DEZMOND’S poll. I didn’t vote because I’m conflicted, but I want to go on record as saying that he would make a marvelous James Bond. I’ve never doubted it. The question for me is whether or not he should indeed play Bond. I know I would love whatever he chooses, but from the first time I heard the suggestion of him being Bond, I’ve had my reservations.
The character is fairly one-dimensional. At least he is in all the Bond movies I’ve seen, which is all of them except Daniel Craig’s Bond (need to rectify that in the near future). Maybe Craig has changed things up? Somehow I doubt it, and that’s no aspersion on him. It would take a mega star to change up the Broccoli Machine, and then maybe even that wouldn’t happen because the Broccolis are not going to hire anyone who is going to mess with their cash cow. I’m sure their thinking is “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
That’s a good rule of thumb if it’s only about money. If it’s about art, then there’s no such thing. Well, money is still involved, but hopefully it doesn’t dictate everything. Last time I checked, and again, I haven’t seen Craig’s portrayal, Bond was not about art, and certainly not about any real thought. About as deep as Bond usually gets is sexual innuendo via the liberal use of double entendre. I can watch Sean Connery for that ’cause he does it so well, and really, I don’t want to see RA being a Sean Connery retread although I’m sure he could pull off some great stuff.
But let’s say RA did play Bond. What would that mean for his career? I’m inclined to think it would not bode well. All of the actors who have played Bond including Connery have not done much of note. One reason is most of the actors chosen for the part are not the best actors or even close, and I would bet it’s almost an admission that an actor is second tier to be chosen. I could be wrong about that, but my common sense says this is not considered a plum role if someone thinks of himself as a serious actor. I would hate to see RA in that group.
Another reason for my hesitance is Bond is such a larger than life character (bigger than any actor’s portrayal) that the typecasting which comes with it makes accepting the part maybe a bit daunting later, and especially if the actor plays the part really well as Connery did. Is there any doubt RA would play this well? Ohmygosh, just thinking about him being Bond, well, I need to keep this blog safe for work. Suffice to say that PHWOAR! would probably roll off my tongue so often it would be sore.
All of that aside, the only thing that really gets me excited about RA being this character is imagining how he would deal with the back story, and yes, of course some gratuitous shots for objectification edification. Speaking of which, here is a shot that in my opinion screams James Bond:
And just for comparison purposes:
Oh, heck a few more.
When I saw this…
I quite naturally thought of this…
And when I think of this…
It’s easy to think of this…
Definitely need a cool drink, and maybe I need to speak to Hunkess. I could do with a little celebration of masculinity of this historic Hunkie.
That Sean Connery has got to be one of the sexiest ever! The dude is even sexy as a graying, balding man. Phew!
What woman could resist someone that manly looking and with that beautiful, deep burr? Oh yeah, Connery has ‘it’, and obviously, so does RA. I think I’ve just convinced myself that Richard should NEVER play Bond. He is the only one I’ve ever thought could eclipse Connery. RA doesn’t need that baggage!
Side note: I think it’s a hoot that Ian Fleming based the “sophisticated persona” of Bond on Hoagy Carmichael. I love Hoagy! Love to play Hoagy, and yeah, his music is sophisticated. But his persona? I’m not seeing it. LOL!
Then again, Wikipedia could just be having us on. I’m not a Bond aficionado so I wouldn’t really know, and I don’t have time nor inclination to become one. I’m doing well to write this blog. Better stop now since I feel a strong urge to go on a tangent about Hoagy.
Oh, what the hell!
One of the all-time great songs, and a real pleasure to play as well as hear:
Another one I love to play:
And by the way, I love 7notemode. He is a helluva player, but then this is my kind of music. If you ever think of me playing anything, this would be it! And maybe a little Brubeck and Duke Ellington as well. :D
Oh, and as much as I love 7notemode, I wanted to post Oscar Peterson playing Skylark but couldn’t find it. Oscar is fantastic. If you’ve never heard him, you’re missing out!
[Note: For those new to this blog, my tangents usually have little or nothing to do with Richard Armitage. For the fans: I do like to post pictures of RA as often as I can, so maybe there will be one at the end. And for all of you: be sure to read the post script at the very end if your stamina holds out.]
I have this quirk in my nature which always wants to buck the system when I have even the slightest sense the system is all about form and not really about any meaningful function. The first time this obstinance manifested was in the first grade. One Friday the teacher asked me to go to the blackboard to write something so I could learn along with the others, and I said, “I don’t have to go to the blackboard.” She arched a brow and looked over her glasses at me, and said, “What do you mean?” I replied, “It’s Friday, and my mother says I don’t have to go to the blackboard on Fridays.” I was quickly reprimanded and taken to the hallway where she grabbed my chin and with her other hand, dug her fingernail into the top of my head while she told me how much trouble I was in. The following week she requested a conference with my parents (I still hate that word conference), and I got my backside blistered by dad when he got home from that meeting. I also got a lecture about how it was wrong to co-opt the idea from our Catholic neighbors who didn’t eat meat on Fridays. All I knew is there was no need for me to go to the board. I already knew what the teacher was talking about.
None of this is to say that I’m generally obstinate. I just don’t like doing things expected of me which don’t appear to have any benefit, to anyone. Yeah, it sounds arrogant and selfish, but how many of us hate doing things that are a waste but we do them anyway? C’mon, I know some of you do things like this, but you do them only because someone, somewhere expects it. And you hate it. We’ve all done it. But as I get older, I find I’m going back to my six year old self. I don’t want to squander time on things that really don’t count no matter how good they might make me look. So where am I going with this? Well, I felt a little bit of a pull to do the requisite New Year’s write-up/recap thang on the blog, and I was not excited about that at all. So I didn’t do one. I’m simply enjoying the wonderful pieces done by others.
But you’re not getting off the hook before I wax on about my objection to New Year’s resolutions, and yes, I know I’m not the first one to say this nor will I be the last. But people like me need to keep saying it until a few of you get it. New Year’s resolutions for most of us are a waste of time. I mean who keeps those things — if you even remember them after a couple of months? I don’t think I’ve ever known anyone who kept a New Year’s resolution. No, that’s not true. I have known one person who did, and she talked about it incessantly, which was the result of being shocked that she kept it. But most and probably darn near all people don’t keep them. Or maybe I just run with a slothful crowd.
Obviously, I think my crowd is in the majority, which compels me to talk to you about something that is so unnecessary and usually just leads to guilt. Yep, it’s a setup for failure. I don’t know about any of you, but I don’t need any help with feeling like a failure, and several years ago I resolved to stop making resolutions because of that feeling. There are so many deadlines to meet in life, and I don’t need to create another one for myself especially when it only facilitates self-flagellation. Of course there is that minority who keeps resolutions, and if you are one of those people, and it makes you feel good, I’m sincerely happy for you. My lazy self will continue to refrain.
Yet I completely understand the need to make New Year’s resolutions, the need to wipe the slate clean and start over, the need to have another chance at making something right or attaining something we long for. That need is so great among us, that when a year comes to an end and a new ones starts, and we’re quite naturally taking stock of our lives, it seems fitting to cobble together something that sounds important for us to do, something that sounds like a great destiny. But I submit to you that you don’t have to start on January 1, and that may be the worst date to do it for some of us. So make up your own day for starting over, and hey, it really can be every morning. Frankly, if I didn’t start over at least once a week and sometimes daily, I would never want to talk to anyone or leave my house, and I’ve been there before. Not fun. So it’s Monday after the holiday, and the day didn’t get started all that well. I may need to start the year over on the 4th.
End of sermonette.
A picture of Richard Armitage as sort of promised. (Scroll beyond it for Post Script).
Yeah, I know you understand what I’m sayin’, Rich.
Screencap courtesy of my stash.
Post script: My mother just reminded me the first time my obstinate nature clashed with a teacher was actually in kindergarten. The class was learning to print their names. My name ends in an ‘A’, and I’ve always hated the look of a lower case ‘a’, and when it was on the end of my name, it didn’t look finished. So when I printed my name, I ended it with a small sized capital ‘A’, and I still print it that way today. (Yes, I know it’s harder to write.). When the teacher came by to check my work, she said, “No, honey, you must write it like this — ‘a’.” I just nodded and kept writing it with a capital ‘A’. The teacher got so flustered she screamed at me and ripped my paper into several pieces. Then she gave me another paper, but I still proceeded to write with an ‘A’ on the end of my name. She finally called my mother, who met with her that afternoon. The teacher told her I was developmentally delayed (or whatever pc language teachers used back then to say a kid was slow mentally). Mother was devastated and went home in tears. When my dad came home from work, he quizzed her about her upset, and she told him what the teacher had said and how she wasn’t sure what to think. To which good ol’ dad said, “Oh, that’s horseshit. The kid can write in cursive for cryin’ out loud.”
Have you ever met someone whom you liked instantly? You didn’t know much about them, but you had a sense they were good people? Isn’t that a wonderful feeling! Well, I’ve now met a few of those people in the RA Universe, and one in particular is just a sweetheart of a person. Actually, all of them are sweethearts, but one in particular is the focus of this piece. She is so pleasant and such a pleasure to talk with (even if it’s just in cyber space), that I can see why she has so much success getting into and out of places other people just dream about and with people loving her all the while.
There’s only one drawback. She’s not yet a RAbid fan of Richard Armitage like the rest of us. No, she hasn’t wised up on this yet, but with this post, I’m putting her on notice again, that we are going to infect her eventually, and there is nothing to fear. It’s a wonderful addiction, Simone! But today, I think you may be closer than I thought. A website to discuss RA’s work?! Yeah, I think I’m seeing some symptoms. :D I love that you named us the #adorables, but honestly, the name fits you most of all, and if I sound like I’m gushing, I am, but my gut dictates it. I trust it more and more everyday, and I’m so glad, and hey, maybe one day we really will see one of Simon Russell Beale’s plays together.
Oh, and I love the membership cards bccmee made for us even if I lost mine and had to get another one. LOL!
And a big thank you to Twitter for making this possible.
edit: so the website fizzled, but hey, if people don’t try things, they’re not having nearly so much fun. That goes for Twitter as well. If you’re reading this and have never tried Twitter because you’ve read some horror stories about it, or you briefly looked at it and it made no sense, please think again. Almost every form of social media has some horror stories. Goes with the territory, and while I will admit that Twitter can be intimidating in its native mode, i.e., doing Twitter from your Twitter account page, there are some wonderful tools to help with that and which make it more fun. There are also lots of people who are helpful. I like to think some RA fans and I are among those. So what are you waiting for now?
I’ve likened the words of Richard Armitage to pebbles going into a pond where we all ripple appropriately, and I’ve said more than once how much fun it is being a ripple in the RA universe. Hope the erudite among you will forgive me the mixing of those metaphors. With the recent hand wringing over RA’s grammatical homicide of the apostrophe (I won’t even go into his faux pas with double negatives), I feel compelled to ask for that concession.
Where was I?
Yeah, feeling the pond.
Being a ripple is never so keenly felt as when I float around on Twitter. Earlier, Sinjoor tweeted a link to a YouTube video, and I will admit I don’t always go over to look, but I did today. So glad I did, because I got to “meet” Allison, who I predict is going to make quite a splash among us fans. She has some guts, and hey, if RA sees her singing, who knows? He might call her. ;-) I adore your initiative Allison, and the song is a hoot!
Note: I wrote this piece earlier today and was going to post it on New Year’s, New Years’, New Years Eve, NYE (take your pick), but I wanted to speak to Allison first. So I sent her a note, and then I went off to do other things. It finally dawned on me a little while later that she put the video up to get a reaction, and there was no need to ask her permission to use it. Yes, sometimes I’m very, very slow on the uptake. So Allison, here I am reacting. :D
Oh, I just noticed right before I posted this that Skully already had it up. Aren’t we good little ripples? LOL!
You are proving that I am indeed terribly jaded and need to realize this more. It was my belief that you would not give a Christmas message, that you had moved on beyond the place where you started, and didn’t have time for that anymore. I realize in some respects that you have to move on, but to send a Christmas message this year when you are so busy and one that is still so honest, is amazing to me.
I have fought this idea that you really are a nice guy and have kept wanting to think it was all a sham, but you didn’t have to send that message. And you even admitted you did it in a moment of panic about how you may be perceived. Wow. I commend you for that kind of transparency.
Thanks again for all the delightful entertainment you give us, and I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and fantastic 2011, and ditto on the yikes!!
Sincerely,
One of your crazy fans who’s a little softer as of this moment.
I hesitate to call this a fake fan letter.
For those of you who haven’t seen Richard’s Christmas Message of today, go to RichardArmitageOnline. It’s on the first page, but you might have to scroll down a bit to see it.
Saw an announcement today that Cate Blanchett will reprise her LOTR role in ‘The Hobbit,’ and I chuckled. Then I thought maybe my memory wasn’t so good concerning the book. It has been at least a couple of years since I read ‘The Hobbit.’ I think I was 15 and dare not say how many years ago that actually was. Enough to make me unsure of the character list but not enough to forget it was male dominated.
For those who may not know, this casting is probably a treat for Richard Armitage. Cate Blanchett is one of his favorite actresses.
‘The Hobbit’: Cate Blanchett joins the cast as Galadriel
by Josh Rottenberg Cate Blanchett had better start brushing up on her Elvish. The Australian actress has signed on to the cast of director Peter Jackson’s adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy epic The Hobbit, reprising the role of the ethereal elf Galadriel that she played in Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. The announcement of Blanchett’s casting comes as something of a surprise, since the character of Galadriel doesn’t actually appear in Tolkien’s novel. Then again, there are virtually no female characters in the book whatsoever, so Jackson is clearly looking to balance out the two-part film somewhat in terms of gender.
I don’t know what you’re doing today or where you’re going, but hopefully, you can reflect sometime this Christmas season on what it is that really counts. No matter your politics or your religion or what you’ve done right or wrong, can we all agree that we want to love and be loved?
The festive mood of this season has been slow to take root in me, but I really appreciate this community for encouraging me. In particular, bccmee has been great. She’s so upbeat and has such a sense of fun that it’s hard to stay down when you encounter her or her videos. She just sent me one that gave me such a warm feeling:
I may just have love in all of my titles until the end of the year. ;-)
edit: The song is ‘Everybody’ by Ingrid Michaelson
And I forgot to mention that bccmee is having a contest! Here’s how it works:
Try to spot as many special effects as you can. By special effect, I mean something that is different than the original video. Don’t overlook the obvious ones! Whoever sends me (bccmee on YouTube) a direct message with the most special effects listed will be able to choose their favorite Richard Armitage character for a future fanvideo!
One of these days I may start writing a music blog. That’s my first love and will be the one that sees me out of this life. I can never close my mind to any kind of music and never get tired of listening to everything that comes down the pike. Yes, even rap music. Some of it is really good. The little SOs who are not slouches when it comes to knowledge of music (loving everything from Bach to Nat King Cole to Gershwin to Lou Reed to Muse) are always laughing at my music choices and then putting them on their iPods. :D
Lately I’ve been preparing another post about Lucas North, and the process of it has me listening to someone who became one of my favorites several years ago. He is a precious little jewel to me and apparently only to a few other people as he’s vastly underrated by the general public and unfairly swabbed with a song that was run in the ground awhile back. That debacle would ruin a lesser musician, but he’s too talented for that to keep him down. Oh, I’ll get to who it is, but I had to say that first. Whoever this guy really is, he’s a thinker, and he’s just damn fine at playing too.
The album this song below is from should go down as one of the all-time greats, but that will probably be dictated by his next few albums. Whatever his place in music history, I look forward to whatever he’s got. Before you look at this video, just know it’s a slideshow of someone’s wedding in Russia (?). Interesting song choice, but then perhaps the Russians are a bit pensive about everything even including a wedding event? Maybe Cresmix will weigh in and help us understand. Not that I expect her to speak for all Russians, but it does seem they are very emotional and sometimes heavy hearted even about something that should be joyous.
And I would embed something else, but this was the only thing I could find, and I really wanted you to hear this song if you’ve never heard it. I figured almost everyone had heard this song, but I’m finding out that’s not true — at least here in America, and that’s even with the album making it to Number 7 on the charts in the U.S.
RAFrenzy 
