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Great movie characters we would like to see again

The Americans have made a fine art out of franchise filmmaking, with several current blockbusters flogging their sixth and seventh installments this year, and many likely to be rebooted enough times to ensure dozens of movies.

And while characters like Indiana Jones and Batman are around -- and The Terminator and Superman are being resurrected -- here's a fanboy list of characters it would be pretty cool to see back on the big-screen. (And yeah, I do think the Governator's return is a good idea!)

Terminator 5

James Cameron shrewdly made The Terminator a set of physically identical cyborgs, so that Arnold Schwarzenneger could play T-850, T-101 or T-800 as either good or bad guys with full plot immunity. A robotic assassin with the power to be a pretty darned good mimic, Terminators are durable, nearly indestructible and serious tough guys. No wonder the Governator's coming back.

Max Rockatansky

This one's never going to happen -- largely because Mel Gibson debilitatingly kicked his A-list career in the shins -- but what's the point of a fanboy wishlist if it's going to stick to being realistic?

Max is a driver beyond compare, a tight-lipped hero with style and blindingly fast reflexes. And then there's the way he uses a sawed-off shotgun. No sir, this is a hero for the ages.

Marty Mcfly

Another impossibility, because of Michael J Fox's unfortunate medical condition: the actor has Parkinson's disease, something that has severely restricted his on-screen potential.

Having said that, his Marty McFly from the Back To The Future movies is a true classic, a plucky, skateboard-loving kid with smarts enough to improvise but not enough to walk away from being called 'chicken.'

Beatrix Kiddo

Her name wasn't used much in Quentin Tarantino's phenomenal pastiche of cinematic references poured into a revenge saga, but everyone knew and loved The Bride, serving up ice-cold vengeance with razor-sharp awesomeness.

Uma Thurman co-created the character with Tarantino in the Kill Bill movies, and their masterpiece wore bright yellow. It'd be absolutely epic to see more of her, in whatever form.

Austin Powers

Sure, the films completely lost their sheen by the time the third outing came around, but as spoofed characters go, Austin was the grooviest, baby.

With bad teeth, a wig on his chest to rival Sean Connery's notorious rug, and enough mojo to handle Elizabeth Hurley, Heather Graham and Beyonce Knowles, Austin wouldn't be out of place in the real world, maybe taking a leaf out of Borat's book and mixing with the locals.

Hit-Girl

Sure, Matthew Vaughn's Kick-Ass came to theatres just a year ago, but I'm dying to see its incandescent pint-sized foulmouth back in action.

Played by Chloe Moretz, the adorable Mindy Macready pulls on a purple wig to fight crime with R-rated glee. She's a character unlike any other, disturbing and beautiful and funny and fatal all at bloody once. Heck, she'd take Wolverine's head off -- and then make a wisecrack about it.

Sean Archer

John Woo's coolest film Face/Off saw Nicolas Cage and John Travolta trade bodies as they played a fatally twisted cat-and-mouse game.

Travolta was ace cop Sean Archer, while Cage played the evil Castor Troy -- before they flipped things around, that is. The film ended with Travolta getting back into Archer's body after having killed Troy, but having briefly lived as Castor, will he be tempted to dip into his dark side? And what of other villains waiting to mix it up for Troy's revenge?

Edward Scissorhands

An uncommonly gentle man, as the poster said. Tim Burton's jawdroppingly original protagonist is a character like no other, a flawed Pinocchio left with scissors for hands when his inventor dies while making 'real hands' for him.

A lovely and misunderstood youth who never ages -- (hello, franchise!) -- Edward is a Gothic fairytale reject of staggering, heartbreaking beauty, and despite what the neighbours believed, didn't die at the climax of that magical film.

Truman Burbank

Peter Weir's haunting film Truman Show about a man reared in a fictional world in order to provide a 24-hour-reality show was a prescient nightmare which ended with its hero Truman, played by Carrey, finally breaking out of the bubble and walking out of the hoax and into real life.

What could be interesting what happens to Truman after living a lie for so long: how he copes with reality, television and the paranoia which helped him escape the idiot box in the first place.

Jimmy Conway

Goodfellas was Martin Scorsese's best film, and Robert De Niro's Jimmy Conway was based on real-life gangster Jimmy Burke.

Burke was sentenced to 20 years in prison -- ostensibly for fixing basketball games -- but died from lung cancer while serving his sentence. Conway, on the other hand, could get parole and be back out in the Big Apple, wondering how to find and get even with Henry Hill. Oo-er.