Recast Casablanca!

In My Humble Opinion
1

My lovely roommate, the film student, has a class assignment where she has to pretend that she is the producer of a remake of Casablanca.

Uke, grab Eve’s smelling salts. Eve, it’s okay, they are not ACTUALLY remaking it, it’s just an exercise for class.

She gets to plan out budgets, catering, schedules, etc. - all that fun stuff. But she also has to recast all of the roles with current actors and actresses (ie: not dead).

So help her out, and have some fun! Who would you cast for these roles?

Rick Blaine
Ilsa Lund
Captain Renault
Victor Laszlo
Sam the Piano Man
Ferrari
Major Strasser
Jan Brandel
Annina Brandel
Ugarte

2

This has already been done once, although a bit more tongue in cheek than might meet your roommate’s needs.

Cast the evil-twin CASABLANCA!

I don’t think anyone really took a serious shot at the question.

3

I cannot think of a good Rick. As Ken Begg from Jabootu says, popular stars today are so *boyish. * It’s hard to think of one, especially an American, who could bring that care-worn, hard-bitten air to the role that Bogart did.

Anyway, some possible choices for the roles:

Rick - Robert Downey, Jr. or Ed Harris (toldja I couldn’t think of a good one).
Ilsa - Embeth Davidtz or Connie Nielsen
Renault - Kevin Spacey
Laszlo - Gabriel Byrne
Sam - Clarence Williams III
Ferrari - John Rhys-Davies or Marlon Brando
Strasser - Jurgen Prochnow or David Warner
Jan Brandel - Rufus Sewell
Annina Brandel - Milla Jovovich
Ugarte - Vince Schiavelli

4

Rick Blaine . . . George Burns
Ilsa Lund . . . Gracie Allen
Captain Renault . . . W.C. Fields
Victor Laszlo . . . Groucho Marx
Sam the Piano Man . . . Chico Marx
Ferrari . . . “Cuddles” Sakall
Major Strasser . . . Franklin Pangborn
Jan Brandel . . . Edward Everett Horton
Annina Brandel . . . Una Merkel
Ugarte . . . Harpo Marx

Now, THAT’S a version I would pay good money to see!

5

I like Eve’s idea!

Face it, if they did Casablanca today it would star Julia Roberts, Will Smith, Bruce Willis, Keanu Reeves, Helen Hunt, and Jack Nicholson.

6

Rick Blaine…Adam Sandler
Ilsa Lund…Nikki Cox
Captain Renault…David Spade (unstunned)
Victor Laszlo…Fabio
Sam the Piano Man…Elton John in a dress
Ferrari…Drew Carey
Major Strasser…Daniel Stern
Jan Brandel…Danny de Vito
Annina Brandel…Rhea Perlman
Ugarte…Francis the Talking Mule

Okay…the first shot of Rick, instead of sitting over a cigarette and chessboard, he’s playing Twister by himself and drooling…

7

Hmm…Ronald Reagan as Rick, Ann Sheridan as Ilsa, …
No, wait, they already tried that, but had to settle for Bogart and Bergman. Never mind.

8

Rick Blaine…Kevin Spacey or Andre Braugher

9

Recast Casablanca?

Why?

10

I don’t know about the rest of the cast (too tired to think of them all), but why not cast Bergman’s daughter, Isabella Rosselini (?sp) as Ilsa.

11

The whole notion is sacrilege, but what the heck:

Rick Blaine=======Harrison Ford
Ilsa Lund=========Catherine Deneuve
Capt. Renault=====Alan Rickman
Victor Lazlo======Sean Connery(must have some reason for Ilsa to leave Rick for him)
Sam the Piano Man=Billy Joel(OK,bad joke. Still…)
Ferrara===========Robert DeNiro
Major Strasser====Ian McKellan
Ugarte============Kevin Spacey

12

Ok, I skipped reading everyone else’s replies because I didn’t want it to color my own reply

Rick - Kevin Spacey
Ilsa - Julianna Moore
Captain Renault - Tim Curry, perhaps (this one’s tough)
Victor Laszlo - Ralph Fiennes
Major Strasser - Patrick Stewart
Sam the Piano Man - Morgan Freeman
Ferrari - John Rhys Davies
Ugarte - Tony Shalhoub
Jan Brandel - Wes Bentley
Annina Brandel - Natalie Portman

13

Personally, I was sort of disappointed to note the absence of Jim Carrey from all of the submitted lists.

14

I thought about her. My objection is that Ingrid Bergman was 27 when she played Ilsa. Isabella Rosellini is 48 now. She would have been ideal in her prime, but I think it’s a little too late for her to play the role now. For the same reason I rejected Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Isabelle Adjani. All are still beautiful, but would lack that touch of youthful innocence and naivete that Bergman brought to the role. (My suggestions were Embeth Davidtz or Connie Nielsen, BTW).

15

Interesting that we all want Spacey in it, but none of us agree on what role he should play.

Tony Shalhoub is a good choice for Ugarte, would definitely be my first call after Schiavelli. Fiennes would be an excellent Laszlo too, maybe better than Byrne. And I picked the exact same guy for Ferrari.

  • Not * Freeman for Sam! That massive dignity, that grave voice, are completely wrong for someone as light-hearted as Sam.
16

Having just seen him on Leno - how about Russel Crowe as Rick? He’s a bit flavor-of-the-month, I know, but he just seems right.

I also nominate Liam Neeson in Full Saint Mode as Laszlo.

17

This is great, thanks guys!

18

Captain Renault and Sam were the two hardest parts to cast. Renault because I can’t imagine anyone other than Claude Rains in the part and Sam because his modern-day filmmakers would likely update the Rick/Sam relationship. I thought about Don Cheadle for a while, but felt he was too young. Ving Rhames has a playful streak, but I’m not sure if people would buy him as a meek piano singer. I only picked Freeman because I didn’t want to leave it blank.