A few of mine:
Gore Vidal’s Burr- as a TV miniseries. I’d cast William Daniels (1776, Boy Meets World) as the old Burr with handsome unknowns as the young Burr & Hamilton and a Baldwin as the middle-aged Hamilton. Kelsey Grammer would reprise the role of George Washington from his performance in the Benedict Arnold movie, Tim Robbins as Thomas Jefferson, Katherine Helmond as Mme. Jumel (Burr’s extremely wealthy last wife) and special guest appearance by Angelina Jolie as Theodosia Burr.
Anne Tyler’s Searching for Caleb- Sissy Spacek as the Fortune-teller, Eddie Albert (if he’s still mobile at 96) as her grandfather [as an old man], David Hyde Pierce as her husband-cousin, and Karl Malden as old Caleb. (Younger actors for the same characters in flashback scenes.)
Joseph Heller’s God Knows- In an homage to the age of epics, I’d cast Charlton Heston & Elizabeth Taylor as the old David & Bathsheba with Johnny Depp and Charlize Theron as the young twosome. Christopher Lloyd as the prophet Samuel, Christopher Meloni as King Saul and Jude Law as Absalom.
Pratchett & Gaiman’s Good Omens- Stephen Frye as Azirophale, Rowan Atkinson as Crowley, Billy Connelly as the Witchfinder Shadwell, and cameos from Monty Python as various other characters.
I’ve tried to think of possible ways to update Sunset Blvd., but I cannot think of anyway to update Norma Desmond (a filthy rich totally faded middle-aged superstar of a genre that no longer exists). This is for several reasons:
*50 year old stars today look 30 due to plastic surgery and personal trainers
*With television and direct to video movies, the chances of being as unemployable as Norma would seem to be less
*I cannot think of anything that even remotely compares to silent film as a worldwide supherhuge genre that vanished almost completely within 5 years
If you were to update Norma, what would you do with her? My takes:
*A prequel (perfect for Eve to write if she has a few spare minutes) that examines Norma & Max in their heydey, from the time she’s a psychotic 15 year old new face and he’s a sexually strange wunderkind genius- great way to splice some of the great anecdotes of the silent era into a roman’a’clef
*A 1970s disco diva who refuses to change her sound and is a joke to most young people
I’ve tried to think of possible ways to update Sunset Blvd., but I cannot think of anyway to update Norma Desmond (a filthy rich totally faded middle-aged superstar of a genre that no longer exists). This is for several reasons:
*50 year old stars today look 30 due to plastic surgery and personal trainers
*With television and direct to video movies, the chances of being as unemployable as Norma would seem to be less
*I cannot think of anything that even remotely compares to silent film as a worldwide supherhuge genre that vanished almost completely within 5 years
If you were to update Norma, what would you do with her? My takes:
*A prequel (perfect for Eve to write if she has a few spare minutes) that examines Norma & Max in their heydey, from the time she’s a psychotic 15 year old new face and he’s a sexually strange wunderkind genius- great way to splice some of the great anecdotes of the silent era into a roman’a’clef
*A 1970s disco diva who refuses to change her sound and is a joke to most young people
You may get your wish… Terry Gilliam has mentioned that this adaptation is on his radar.
The one I’d like to see is Things my Girlfriend and I Have Argued About. I’m not as familiar with the breadth of English actors as I would need to be to cast this one properly, but working from the limited scope I have, I would have to say Tim Roth and Minnie Driver* as Pel and Ursula.
This is a constant topic of discussion in Haus GMRyujin regarding the Dark Tower books, which I think would be an awesome movie.
We’ve cast Adrian Paul as Young Roland because 1. He gets shitty roles and I want to see him in a good one, 2. He looks good in a hat, 3. He does a lot of accents in Highlander and pulls them off reasonably well (this is an issue because I expect him having to babble High Speech and not sound like a jackass.
For Old Roland, I like Eastwood, though he’s probably too old and would grimace his way through the role. Harrison Ford’s name has come up, but it’s met with “Eh”, even though we’re both fans.
We like Johnny Depp to play Eddie and haven’t decided on Susannah or Jake.
Walter should be played by Christopher Lee or Christopher Walken. I like Christopher Lee, but he may be too old, so Walken’s my second choice.
The “That Guy Would Be Perfect For DarK Tower” Gameis a game we play a lot.
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. Alex Kingston as Claire, don’t know yet who can play Jamie. He’d have to be tall, with deep red hair, and a Scottish accent. I would be more than happy to help, uh—screen test— the applicants.
First Man of Rome by Colleen McCullough. There’s so many meaty parts you can get any number of good actors, but I would love to see Christopher Walken play Sulla.
And as a television series:
The Dark Tower by Stephen King. There’s no WAY they can cram those books into a movie or a mini-series. And I could see Timothy Dalton as Roland.
A few years ago (or, maybe 10 years ago…time flies) there were rumours floating around that they were making Donna Tartt’s The Secret History into a movie! I was really excited about that (and still am) but the project must have died somewhere.
Can’t say who I’d cast though - it’s been a while since I read the book.
Fredric Brown’s Arena – it’s a short story, but done properly, you could turn it into a good full-length movie. I’ve filmed it in my head. With CGI, you could do a creditable job --without voice-overs or any of the other ceap tricks of cinema. And you could film it straight for once, instead of compromising the sytory, as all the rip-offs over the years (and the Star Trek TOS episode nominaly baed upon it) have done. I don’t have a choice for casting, though.
Frederick Forsyth’s The Devil’s Alternative, as a mini-series. It’s set in the Cold War, so I’d do it as a period piece, without trying to update it or anything. Sort o an “alternative history”.
I’m a fan of historical fiction, so put me down for the following:
Wilbur Smith - Courtney Series - Birds of Prey, Monsoon, Blue Horizon
Wilbur Smith - Egyptian Series - River God, Seventh Scroll, Warlock
Bernard Cornwell - Civil War Series - Rebel, Copperhead, Battle Flag, The Bloody Ground
Dewey Lambdin - Alan Lewrie Series Killer Angels - top notch tale of Gettysburg
As for the casting:
Nathaniel Starbuck (Cornwell Civil War) - Timothy Olyphant
Alan Lewrie - Clancy Brown
Lostris - (Smith Egyptian) - Halle Berry
‘Hal’ Courteney - Tim DeKay
I read that at the time he died, Frank Herbert was negotiating the film rights to The Santaroga Barrier. It probably never will be made. sigh
(It could be worse, I suppose. With my luck, “they” would give it to Paul Verhoeven.)
I don’t go to many movies, so I’m not terribly familiar with the current crop of actors/actresses. The elder Ottlet suggested Johnny Depp as Gil Dasein (hero worship, I’m thinking) and Christina Ricci as Jenny Sorge, but I have trouble visualizing either one. The one I can visualize (or, more accurately, “audialize”) is Morgan Freeman as Win Burdeaux. I realize that he may be too old, but his is the voice I hear when I see Win’s dialogue.
PeterWiggen has the right idea - Johnny Mnemonic was never made into a movie! Like CalMeacham, I’ve filmed it in my head. We see JM loading the sawed-off shotgun, taping it to hais hand, and putting it in the gym bag as we hear a voice-over of the ‘technical boy’ speech. We take everything straight from the story, In the LoTek settlement up under the dome we have that wonderful formal fight between the razorgirl and the cloned ninja, exactly as in the story. In fact, everything is exactly as in the story.
Damn, it could have been good!
I’m not really up on current actors, so I’ll leave the casting to others.
