Ben Schwartz says it wouldn’t be a stretch for him to play Plastic Man after it was learned studio Warner Bros. is developing a movie starring the elastic DC Comics superhero.
I’ll start stretching now just in case. //t.co/F6GvPhmTxT
— Ben Schwartz (@rejectedjokes) December 7, 2018
“I’ll start stretching now just in case,” the Parks and Recreation and House of Lies star tweeted Friday.
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Schwartz first expressed his spontaneous interest in portraying the rubber-like Plastic Man in April, tweeting, “Is there like an application process or do I just dress up like him and make fun of Stretch Armstrong?”
Warner Bros. has tapped up-and-coming screenwriter Amanda Idoko (Breaking News in Yuba County) for the project, being shepherded by executive producer Robert Shaye (the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, The Lord of the Rings trilogy).
Plastic Man aims to be a “comedic action-adventure” with a silly and light-hearted tone in the spirit of the comic book character, first published during the Golden Age in Quality Comics’ Police Comics #1 in 1941.
Schwartz would play Patrick ‘Eel’ O’Brian, a former two-bit criminal endowed with superhuman malleability after he falls into a vat of transformative chemicals.
Plastic Man emerged as a costumed superhero and a member of the Justice League whose true power level is respected by even Batman. He has since become a member of the dimension-hopping The Terrifics, a team comprised of odd-ball superheroes Phantom Girl, Metamorpho, and Mister Terrific.
Veep and Venom star Reid Scott told ComicBook.com Plastic Man is his dream comic book role “because it’s just so silly and out there.”
“And because he was a thief, he was a pickpocket, he’s got this checkered past, and stuff like that. I tend to like characters that go through some sort of accident,” Scott said.
“I’ve always been sort of fascinated by that — I used to love Swamp Thing, and Toxic Avenger, and stuff like that — but Plastic Man was just so frickin’ weird, man. He was cool.”
As new solo projects centered around Justice Leaguers Superman (Henry Cavill) and Flash (Ezra Miller) linger in limbo following a reported loss of momentum at Warner Bros., the studio has mostly turned its eye towards lighter fare more on par with the output of prime competitor Disney-owned Marvel Studios, embracing less self-serious projects in James Wan’s Aquaman and David Sandberg’s Shazam!
Also in the works from its DC Films branch are Wonder Woman sequel Wonder Woman 1984, Ava DuVernay’s New Gods the Margot Robbie-led Suicide Squad spinoff Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), as well as the likely Ben Affleck-less The Batman and projects to star DC Comics superheroes Batgirl, Supergirl, Blue Beetle and Zatanna.
Schwartz next lends his voice to the titular blue hedgehog in the half-live-action, half-CG-animated Sonic the Hedgehog movie, due out from Paramount Pictures in November 2019.
