It’s always fun to catch an old movie on cable and catch a now-famous actor in some bit part you didn’t even remember. For instance, a couple days ago I noticed Isiah Whitlock, Jr., aka Senator Clay “SHEEEEIT” Davis, playing the doctor in Goodfellas who wanted to put Ray Liotta in the hospital when he showed up strung out on coke to pick up his wheelchair-bound brother. Similarly, while Michael Shannon is today rightly acclaimed for having apocalyptic visions in Take Shelter and playing “drown the Jew” (not to mention “hatef*ck the starlet“) on Boardwalk Empire, in 1993 he was just a dude who was stoked about Bill Murray buying him Wrestlemania tickets. I don’t like to brag, but I could tell he was destined for greatness the minute he said “Thank you, Mr. Connors, you’re a real pal.”

Meanwhile, I’m told the groundhog who played Punxatawny Phil went on to start a successful bark-gnawing business with Gary Busey.
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If you liked Michael Shannon as a Jew-drowning secret masturbator on Boardwalk Empire (AND WHO DIDN’T!), you’ll LOVE him as a possibly-schizophrenic family man with visions of apocalyptic storms in Take Shelter.  Writer/Director Jeff Nichols’ second feature played to rave reviews at Sundance and Cannes, and come this October, it’ll be available even to the non-fart-huffing trust-fund-hipster public at large (provided they live near a Landmark theater, I’m guessing).  Co-starring fellow Boardwalk actor Shea Whighum (is it weird to point out that the guy who played the police chief on Boardwalk Empire is named “Whighum”? Like Chief Whighum?) and that chick with the big jugs from Eastbound & Down (Katy Mixon, if you want to get all PC about it), the plot concerns Shannon’s all-consuming plans to build a tornado shelter in his basement, and the trailer release seems perfectly timed to capitalize on deadly tornado season. Pret-tay, pret-tay clever.

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Ending months of furious speculation, Warner Bros yesterday sent out an official press release announcing that Michael Shannon has been cast as General Zod in Zack Snyder’s Superman reboot.  He’ll star opposite Henry Cavill as Superman, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, and Kevin Costner and Diane Lane as the Kents.  Shannon is an American actor perhaps best known for his role in the Boardwalk Empire episode “The Drowning of the Jew.”

“Zod is not only one of Superman’s most formidable enemies, but one of the most significant because he has insights into Superman that others don’t. Michael is a powerful actor who can project both the intelligence and the malice of the character, making him perfect for the role,” Snyder said.

Zod, like Superman, is from Krypton, where he commanded its armed forces. The character appeared in both 1978’s Superman and its 1980 sequel Superman II, where he was played by actor Terence Stamp. [THR]

Shannon also has the ability to still look scary even while he’s masturbating, a feat managed only by brilliant character actors and great white sharks, so he’s a great choice for the villain.  Zod was always a bad ass character because he has all the same powers as Superman, but instead of a cape and knee-high, red F-me boots with his underwear on the outside of his leotard, Zod has a ponytail and wears a grandmotherly robe lined with vinyl.  Man, and we say the Japanese are weird.  Anyway, Superman and Zod are always fighting each other, which is silly, because they’re both basically invincible, and the only thing they seem to accomplish is breaking lots of stuff.  Gosh, I wonder if any of it will be filmed in slow motion.

Directed by Werner Herzog and produced by David Lynch, My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done [I liked it better when it had a shorter title] just released its first trailer (above).  According to signonsandiego:

The project is based on the case of former University of San Diego student and Old Globe actor Mark Yavorsky, who in the late ’70s killed his mother with an antique sword in Pacific Beach, apparently acting out a role from a Greek tragedy.

That’s not a spoiler, by the way.  The movie starts with the murder and then goes into creepy flashbacks.  It’s Lynch and Herzog; would you expect anything else?  Michael Shannon plays an actor playing Orestes in a play [Confused yet?].  Orestes, as we all know, killed his mother Clytemnestra to avenge the death of his father Agamemnon. *closes wikipedia page*  After returning from a trip to Peru (interlaced with plenty of Herzog’s standard man-amongst-or-against-nature scenes), the actor experiences strange delusions that culminate in AWESOME SWORD RAMPAGE!  OO WHA AA AA A!

Also, Michael Shannon’s creepiness manages to overshadow Willem Dafoe.  Kudos, my good man.  Here, let me put that lotion in the basket for you.

~ robopanda [Thanks to theplaylist for the tip.]