Dream Casting the Alpha Flight Movie

 Alpha Flight was the creation of John Byrne during his X-Men years. Wolverine got a lot of love during those years because Byrne was Canadian just like the character. He even took it step further though and created an entire superhero team for the country to work with.

Now they have a new miniseries coming out in hopes to revive the team's popularity back to what it was in the 80's.

While there is absolutely zero possibility we will ever see an Alpha Flight movie, I thought it might be cool to think about who would be best for the parts if it ever came to be. I think this film would be huge in Canada!

Guardian - Christian Kane

Kane does an awesome job on Leverage playing this tough guy ready to beat the tar out of anyone at any time. Give him a haircut, and I think we'd be looking at a halfway decent James Hudson. He's a little young to fit the part, but he seems tough enough to put on the suit when duty calls.

When you take a comedic actor like Ryan Reynolds and turn him into a very-convincing Green Lantern, there's no reason not to give other actors the chance to stretch a bit as well. Kane might just surprise a lot of folks out there with his acting range.

Shaman - Vik Sahay

An actual Canadian for the team, Vik might surprise you.

Vik's role on Chuck doesn't give him much room for serious moments, but you can see sometimes where he might be able to pull off that "man of mystery" thing. True, he's a little young for the role from the way the comics portray him (I think he's supposed to be in his 40's in the comics), but it's a small difference we can work around.

It works.

Puck - Peter Dinklage

Dinklage is an incredible actor. He plays a wide range of characters, but always brings this cool factor to each one. It's almost as if you should feel privileged to watch him act! I'm not saying he's conceited or anything, I'm just saying he's always this simmering tough guy just waiting for the chance to attack (hey, remember his fight scene in Elf?).

Puck would be the character to allow that. Remember, according to the mythos he is actually harboring a magical creature inside that fights to get out (and consequently forces him to his small stature). That means the character would fight but would also have to show obvious pain and toughness. I believe Peter could do the job.

Northstar - Ian Somerhalder

This character is supposed to be a conceited, arrogant guy. He's a world-class athlete (Olympic skier) who is a superhero only to protect his schizophrenic sister, Aurora. That means we need someone who will be the unhappy hero constantly looking for a reason to snap off on everybody. Oh, and they need to be able to have a French accent. Easy enough, right?

Well, I don't know about the French accent, but Ian did a great job of portraying the overprotective brother on Lost, so I say give him a try. He's got the same thin build you'd expect from a mutant speedster, and he can be pretty intense in his acting from time to time. It might be necessary to drop the accent to keep the role.

Aurora - Kristin Kreuk

For Northstar's sister, you'd need someone who at least looks related to the guy. Kristin's turn as Lana Lang on Smallville went on for too many seasons. There's no way to deny the fact that she was basically killing time on the show her last three seasons there, but she has this otherworldly look about her that could allow for interesting stuff.

Aurora is supposed to have a split personality (at least in the beginning of the comic series), so she needs to be able to go from shy to fireball in a moment. Kristin did some decent fight scenes in Smallville and her mega-successful Street Fighter film (cue sarcasm music here), so I think she could bring the fire to the role as needed. Plus, any chance to make us forget Street Fighter could only work in her favor.


Sasquatch - The Big Show

Let's just admit it: CGI characters are a little over-rated. While I appreciate the need for it from time to time, I really like it when actors are allowed to actually act in a part. With the character of Sasquatch we have the rare opportunity to have a person in costume who actually wouldn't need any CGI work involved if we used The Big Show.

At 7 feet tall, he's already got the height covered. His voice is deep enough to make it happen. Need a roar during a battle scene? He's got that covered as well. Add to it the fact that he's actually a pretty good actor (have you seen Knucklehead?) and I think you have a no-brainer for the part. The only problem would be making sure he didn't look like Chewbacca.

Who would play Walter Langowski when he wasn't being all furry?  How about Mark Pellegrino? He has the studious look and makes you believe he could be a scientist with a fun personality in there somewhere.

Heather Hudson - Amanda Righetti

Amanda has the fire in her acting on The Mentalist that makes you believe at some point she could throw on the spandex and go into battle.  Plus, she has the "smart girl" vibe going on that makes you believe she could be a scientist on her own.

While I wouldn't envision the movie to portray Guardian's death scene from issue #12, you could still work in a reason for her to put on her version of the Guardian costume. I don't think it would work for the first film though. Perhaps in the sequel (as if).

Snowbird - Yvonne Strahovski

This ageless spirit seems a good fit for our Chuck super-spy. Snowbird transforms from time to time into other animals and birds, while always fighting to keep her human side dominant. Though she keeps a relationship with a regular guy, she doesn't quite understand how to keep it working because she wasn't raised as a normal person. I think Yvonne's done an admirable job of portraying that type of character for the last four seasons of her show.

This one would be heavy on CGI for obvious reasons, but I think Yvonne would be able to play the "not of this world" part needed to make this a credible character.

Marina - Summer Glau

Marina is supposed to be a character who doesn't quite fit in and who eventually explodes into a fit of violent rage and almost disembowels Puck when her wild nature comes out. Summer has pretty much made her career out of playing those roles. In Firefly she was a crazy girl who eventually turns out to be a super-assassin when needed. In the Sarah Connor Chronicles she's the newest terminator robot. It's hard not to see the obvious possibilities here.

The only hitch is the ending. In Marvel continuity, Marina was eventually killed by Prince Namor in a mercy killing because she'd lost her mind. I honestly don't believe there's any way Namor could kill Summer. I believe we'd end up with a much different finale here.