Skip to main content

Dream Star Cast


Being nearly as interested in movies as I am in books, I tend to allocate actors to certain characters in my head. With Harry Potter and his universe, I was naturally in a fix, because I didn't really know that many kids on screen at that time. But I guess the movie franchise's biggest victory lies in its perfect casting, right down from Albus Dumbledore to Dudley Dursley. 

While browsing through my bookshelf, I glance at each title and visualise the key characters and/or incidents. The cinematic nature of this activity (cinematic only in my head; nothing cinematic about me gaping at my books) is entertainment enough. I figured I may actually be making life that much easier for future movie productions, if I shared my insights into this aspect... 

Holden Caulfield: Johnny Depp. Hands down. If not him, then Matthew McConaughey. I'm thinking of soft, observant eyes and a drawling voice in the head.

Alistair MacLean's men: Daniel Craig fits the bill perfectly as suave yet wary gentlemen with razor-sharp tongues. They look good, fight better and leave the girls swooning. George Clooney would also do very nicely indeed, having the same qualities, plus an added magnetic charm.

 Alistair MacLean's women: You need them to be neat, trim and pretty. They can't be outright gorgeous, except on certain occasions when they dress up nicely. And they are spirited. Amanda Abbington comes first on my mind (its the Sherlock hangover I guess). On further thought, Ellen Page can do justice, as can Natalie Portman.

Cassandra Mortmain: She was difficult to place. Apparently a 2003-production starring Romola Garai as Cassandra, Bill Nighy as James Mortmain and Henry Cavill as Stepehen Colley won good reviews. I can totally see Nighy as James; for Cassandra - towards whom I felt a sisterly affection - I wouldn't mind Lupita Nyong'o or Keira Knightley. 

Bartimaeus: Aha ! The delight in imagining Robert Downey Jr. as an imbecile demon ! I had initially though of Jim Carrey, but then he might just overdo the part.

Anthony, Lucy, George: The screen adaptation of the trio's adventures cannot be far behind. While I'm hopeful that a three-season series would do justice to the cliffhanger nature of Jonathan Stroud's stories, I am rather partial to the opulence of a full-scale movie adaption. James McAvoy could be Anthony, George could be played by Rico Rodriguez and I guess Emma Watson could do Lucy.

Captain Nemo: Captain of a submarine ? Submarines always remind me of Matthew McConaughey from U 571.

Cormoran Strike: Josh Brolin. No one broods better. Matt Dillon might also do fine. Oh, incidentally, I think Brolin would make a fine Jack Reacher too. 

Rebecca: Alfred Hitchcock did wonders with Joan Fontaine as Rebecca and Laurence Olivier as Maximillian deWinter. But that was back in 1940. I wasn't even born then. Closer home, Dakota Johnson seems like a safe choice for the Mrs. Mouse, while Max could be played by Ralph Fiennes. James McAvoy would be a fine Frank. Ooh, an Charlize Theron would nail Mrs. Danvers !

Kafka Tamura: We need a well-mannered, polite and shy young man. Freddie Highmore maybe ? Or maybe Eddie Redmayne ?  

A shorter way out would be to enlist Tom Hanks to play any of these above characters; he will be an assured hit.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Man-Eaters of Kumaon - Jim Corbett

Genre: Non-fiction Rating: 5/5 This one is decidedly a classic, so there is little point in reviewing this book. It is a beautiful one, without doubt.  Personally, I avoid any form of entertainment (books, movies, plays, anything) which features cruelty - either directly or tacitly - towards animals (I have not yet seen any of the Planet of the Apes movies, Ant Man  was uncomfortable too). So deciding to read this book took a certain degree of convincing.  Much credit goes to the beautiful cover of the book. This one is an Aleph Classics  (co-founded by David Davidar of The House of Blue Mangoes fame, and Rupa Publication) edition. In terms of sheer elegance, the cover design is unmatched. The palette concept of jungle green coupled with the late afternoon sun creates an ambiance even before you delve into the pages. I picked out the book from a thin pile on a shelf in the little HigginBothams book-store near Charing Cross in Ooty, one biting winter evening (more
Post a Comment
Read more

Side Reads - A Book of English Essays - Edited by W.E. Williams

Remember our school days? Remember those dreary passages we had to read and read again - between the lines and over and under them? Remember wondering how could the study of language be so dry? Well, it turns out, what we were served was high in protein, but pretty much devoid of spice and juice. Let me set the record straight. Essays are fun. Read A Book of English Essays to see if I'm right.  As the name says, it is a collection of small essays on a multitude of topics by the who's-who of English literature - Francis Bacon, Joseph Addison, Charles Lamb, Leigh Hunt, A.A. Milne, R.L. Stevenson - honestly the list is quite scary. But once you pull your head out of the table of contents, it's a treasure mine. Most essays are short, possibly the length of a newspaper article (which is how they must have been originally published I think). What is interesting though, is the topics they are on. So there are absolutely gorgeous ones like 'Getting Up on Cold Morni
Post a Comment
Read more

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

I follow Neil Gaiman on Twitter, though I had read only one book of his ( Coraline ) that my best friend had gifted me on my last birthday. I am quite ashamed to say that my first acquaintance with his work was through an episode of Doctor Who - The Doctor's Wife , that he had scripted, and to this day , it remains one of my most favourite, poignant episodes of the show. All I knew from the veritable literature and almost frenetic online admiration, was that this was a writer with some fairly impactful body of work to follow. Last weekend, I was at the bookstore, and despite the bulky backlog of books and work on hand, I ended up buying The Ocean at the End of the Lane .  Having finished it a couple of days back, I am the wiser to have given in to my impulse then. Like Coraline , The Ocean at the End of the Lane  was difficult for me to categorise. This was fantasy, but the writing did not suggest it. Not even remotely. The story is narrated through the eyes of a sev
Post a Comment
Read more