People are celebrating the release of glam metal musical "Rock of Ages" this weekend in a number of ways: booking their opening night tickets, throwing Stacee Jaxx-themed parties, or sealing themselves in an underground bunker until it passes like Michael Shannon in "Take Shelter." Michael Fassbender, who's currently the toast of the town thanks to his excellent performance in "Prometheus," is celebrating in a different way.
Well, that's not quite true. We suspect the Irish-German actor is indifferent about Adam Shankman's film. But our pals at Pajiba dug up a compilation video put together by a fan, of various moments during press tours, talk show appearances, and on set, where Mr. Fassbender has decided to show off his singing voice. And it's one of the most charming things you'll see on the Internet today, with Fassbender again displaying why he has the potential to become a genuine megastar.
But perhaps more seriously, it suggests that someone should cast him in a musical, and do it fast. While films like "Rock of Ages" cast up with actors who, if they're lucky, can just about hold a tune (or not all), right here is someone who can sing, but also do so across a variety of genres — we hear him do snippets of rock 'n' roll, jazz standards, folk songs and more, and he acquits himself nicely in all of them. We suspect that the actor would shy away from something like "Rock of Ages," given the care with which he makes his choices, but if someone was gearing up to make "Guys 'n' Dolls?" Or "Carousel?" Or "Company?" We think we might have found your lead.
And then another thought occurred, as he takes on Frank Sinatra's "Summer Wind" — wasn't Martin Scorsese meant to be doing a Sinatra biopic at some point? He's long been working on the project, and last year super-producer Scott Rudin came on, with Marty saying only a couple of months ago that he was meeting with new writers to tackle the script previously penned by Phil Alden Robinson ("Field Of Dreams"). And while it's long been thought that he was intending to cast Leonardo DiCaprio as the legendary singer, the director said at the time that he hadn't made any decisions, and might even go with an unknown.
But it's hard to watch Fassbender sing "Summer Wind" (especially at the 1:34 mark) and suggest that he doesn't have the voice down (although Scorsese has suggested he'd use the singer's voice dubbed onto the actor for the vocal performance), and we sort of feel he'd be perfect for the part. They're not immediately identical, looks wise — he's a few inches taller, and a little more angular, than Frank was. But there's certainly something there, not least those ol' blue eyes…
Scorsese's not going to be making his Sinatra movie for a little while, with "Wolf Of Wall Street" up next, and a handful of possibilties to go next including the forever-gestating "Silence" and "The Snowman." But he has had discussions with Fassbender about something, according to The Hollywood Reporter, and we think Sinatra could certainly be a possibility, should the script ever come together. But what do you think? Are you in the Fassbender For Frank camp? Would you rather see Leo take on the role? Or someone else entirely? Weigh in below.