Poll Results: Nicole Kidman

Usually I don't like to be drawn into discussions on the imdb message boards - it seems most of the contributors are more concerned with trolling for arguments than having a lively discussion. Although it can be strangely entertaining reading through post after post of abuse and ethnic slurs!

However, I was reading up on the announcement that Park Chan-wook is chalked in to direct his first English-language movie. I was a bit concerned, as Park is one of my favorite directors, and things often don't end well when Asian directors try to operate within the confines of the Hollywood studio system.

Interestingly however, the film, called Stoker, is linked to Scott Free Productions which was formed by Ridley Scott (Alien, Bladerunner etc) and his brother Tony (True Romance). The studio behind it is Fox Searchlight - who specialise in independent and British cinema, and are currently promoting Terrence Malick's "Tree of Life" ... a film I'm looking forward to seeing this weekend. What's more, apparently the script is quite a hot property.

However, I quickly noticed the lead is Nicole Kidman. And I thought, oh no ....

I'm sure she's a fine actress and all ... but not exactly possessing of qualities I'd associate with the edgy side of world cinema. To me she spells boring and mainstream, while Park's movies I find exciting and edgy.

So yeah, that's my opinion anyway ... and I was pretty surprised to read a whole load of waffle on the imdb boards about how great it was that Kidman had been cast for this movie. Admittedly, some confessed to never having seen a Park Chan-wook movie, but wasn't it just great anyway!

So ... when I contributed my doubts on this casting, I was floored to receive a reply claiming that Nicole Kidman is the go-to actress for edgy cinema. Well, I couldn't disagree more really... so I created a poll and put it to the vote right here on the blog.

The results were:

1) Mainstream (57%)
2) Edgy (0%)
3) Sexy (28%)
4) Boring (14%)

Thanks to all that voted! The results speak for themselves, albeit from a decidedly limited sample population, and definitely from a skewed viewpoint ... being the readers of this twisted little blog! Anyway, glad to know I'm not alone.

But I'm still hoping that Kidman and Park can pull it off.