Will Smith would have been fine. I think Elba would have been perfect though. Tyler Perry? What a joke. He reminds me of Alex Cross about as much as Justin Bieber does. Casting Bieber as Cross would have shocked me only slightly more than casting Tyler Perry. I mean why not just bring Morgan Freeman back if you're gonna go that route?

First Tyler Perry becomes a judge on American Idol and now this ...



This is actually a sigh of relief ... when I saw the headline on Yahoo I was afraid Tyler Perry was replacing Morgan Freeman in the next Batman movie.

The bizarre quote that makes me wonder if the film is actually intended as a homage to 80's action films rather than a taught psychological thriller aside, Perry is actually a good actor when given proper direction. I just don't know if Cohen can provide that.

so basically, they wanted to bring in a significant black audience. that can be the only reason they switched.

Idris Elba is too white?

That's just a full body birthmark. Clearly he's Biritish.

Nah, there are no black British.

Hence why I say what we're seeing is a full body birthmark. Or, he's emulating this fine thespian:

I've read all of Patterson's Cross novels, and was looking forward to this with Elba, but not anymore. Can't stand Perry, and since Patterson basically farms his books out now to co-writers, I'm done with him as well.

If I'm not mistaken, Patterson only writes the Cross books. All others, like you said, are farmed out.

i'd be willing to bet if you go to any urban part of any big city and the majority couldn't tell you who Idris Elba is, but could tell you who Tyler Perry is.

I would bet that you're correct. I guess my point was just that Idris Elba certainly doesn't strike me as a "white" black guy, but I agree that more than likely a much larger percentage of the black poplulation knows who Tyler Perry is vs Idris Elba. Actually I'd bet that a much larger percentage of the total population, regardless of race, knows Tyler Perry compared to Idris Elba, so it's probably a good financial choice. I won't be going to see it, but I'm just one guy so who cares.

There are 2 significant audiences that they can now draw from: Perry's fanbase the the book fanbase.

I think your wrong. More would probably know Perry's name becasue he puts his name on everything and has turned himself into a brand. Certainly more than 50% would know Elba though. He probably has that from The Wire alone. Plus hes actually starred in a Tyler Perry movie and a bunch of other "urban" titles.

Either way this movie is going to be 7 different kinds of awful. Perry is a horrible actor when he isn't dressing up like old women.

Let's be fair - He's pretty fucking awful at that, too.

Touche'

Matthew Fox and Ed Burns added to the cast: http://www.darkhorizons.com/news/198...-i-alex-cross-

Got me a little more interested in seeing it...

How the hell do you go from Idris Elba to Tyler Perry? Pass.

Some people are born to play a role and much like Fillion and Uncharted, I've always thought Henry Simmons was born to play Cross. It didn't hurt that he already played a detective on NYPD: Blue.