I recently re-read Stephen King’s “The Langoliers,” and, every time I do so, I keep having horrible flashbacks to the miniseries, which I always felt was miscast. So, throwing budget constraints out the window (and whether the actors are currently dead), who would YOU cast in this movie?
-I’ve always thought that Harrison Ford was the perfect Capt. Brian Engle.
-Everytime I read about Craig Toomey, something about him reminds me of Judd Nelson.
-Laurel Stevenson would be played by Lauren Holly. I think it’s the name that does it for me.
-Drew Barrymore would, I think, be the perfect Bethany Simms.
-Nick Hopewell? Cary Elwes.
-Robert Jenkins…not to begrudge Dean Stockwell, but I always pictured Bob as looking like a real-life Kent Brockman, until I realized that Tony Curtis looks like a real-life Kent Brockman. I think William H. Macy as Jenkins would work nicely.
-JT Walsh seems ideal for Don Gaffney.
-Albert “Ace” Knausser…the only person that comes to mind is the kid that used to play the Schumacher’s child on “The Garry Shandling Show.” Scott Nemes. He was also in St Elmo’s Fire. His big line is “Grampa! Grampa! Billy’s on the roof!”
-Dinah Bellman, I think, could be played by any annoying little kid. Or she could be CGI. Kinda like Scooby-Doo.
-Rudy Warwick. He’s so minor a character that I don’t think it would really matter, but, if I must, how about Don Cheadle, one of my favorite character actors ever?
Your turn! Feel free to totally critique my casting, too.
Although I rolled my eyes when I heard that Bronson Pinchot was cast as Toomey - he did a hell of a job playing a seriously disturbed character. I’d vote for keeping him too.
And I’ll vote for keeping Mark Lindsay Chapman as Nick. Okay, he played a little broad (but he was nothing compared to the scenery-chewers that were Jenkins and Dinah) but I thought he did a great job with the character.
I might be a little biased, though, as he’s been a longtime favorite of mine ever since he played Anton Arcane on the old cheesy-bad-fun “Swamp Thing” TV series.
As for Pierce Brosnan–I don’t like him as Bond and I wouldn’t like him as Nick. (I did like him as Remington Steele, though.)
That was one the dumbest, slowest, most boringest mini-serieses ever!
I realize that comment is a little off-topic, but GEEZ! If one more character had said “I’ve got an idea that might explain what’s happening, but I can’t explain it now; we’ll have to waste five minutes running around before I can give you a lame demonstration,” I woulda barfed!
Well, maybe not. I gave up on it and tuned in to the last ten mintes to find out what was really going on. I shouldn’t have bothered.
I “read” the book on tape (I used to have a job where we listened to walkmans all day, so I listened to a lot of books). Willem Dafoe read the story. He was awesome. He especially did a good job of Nick’s voice. He sounded just like Mark Lindsay Chapman. So, I vote to keep Mark Lindsay Chapman. He was one of my favorites. And while we’re at it, keep Bronson Pinchot, and well, I like Dean Stockwell, but he wasn’t really a good fit for that part.
I haven’t read the story in so long, but I am very fond of the story, and the series. I know it was rather dull, but I loved it anyway.
Yeah! I always think that they could have EASILY been done as a 2-hour tv movie, rather than the bloated 4-hour monstrosity that it is.
As far as casting–well, I wouldn’t use any washed-up actors from '80s TV series! And I thought Bronson Pinchot overdid it. But they all overdid it, didn’t they?
