The Great Gatsby
is an interesting Fantasy Cast for me to be putting together for a combination of reasons. One, it's been done before. I've done a couple remakes before, so that in and of itself isn't the complication. Two, it has been done multiple times; once moderately well and once really poorly. But, alas I have conquered stories that have been put to screen multiple times also.But, combine those two facts with the third: The Great Gatsby is slated for a remake in 2012! So, to all my readers who said the '70s version just wasn't their cup of tea (and I don't blame you!) you are in luck.
So anyway, here is my fantasy cast for The Great Gatsby.
For Jay Gatsby, you need a man that looks like he fits in with the nouveaux riche on Long Island during prohibition times. But, underneath his savvy exterior, there needs to lurk... something. Something that hints at a darker past, a mysterious set of personal secrets. Intelligent, but definitely brooding. And so desperately in love with a woman he can never have. I think Ioan Gruffudd is the man for the job. You may not know his name, but how can you not remember this face:
I'm sorry, what was I talking about again?
Ahem. Moving on.
Daisy Fay-Buchanan is the beautiful, somewhat vacuous object of Mr. Gatsby's affections. She's old money and married, making her forever out of reach for our protagonist. Also, not a great driver. Women of this era were more dependent on their feminine wiles than we are today, and you need a young-ish actress that can pull of the dainty feeling that a lady of standing in that era would have about her. I like someone like Amanda Seyfried.
Tom Buchanan is Daisy's husband. He's old money and he likes polo. He's a Yale man and kind of a racist. So, all around regular guy... yeaaaahhhhh, right. I don't know why, but Aaron Eckhart is the guy I picture in this part. Come on, look, isn't he all swagger:
OK, Jordan Baker is Daisy's friend. She is a professional golfer and a bit of a, um, well, she's shady. Let's put it that way. Someone like Missy Peregrym, with the athleticism and provocativeness to pull this off.
Lastly, for our narrator, Nick Carraway, the neighbor of Gatsby and, incidentally, Daisy's cousin. We need somebody in their late twenties, believable as a moneyed Yale man from the prohibition era and capable of handling a big, bulky voice-over job. A good voice that fits that bill is hard to come by. I pick Chris Evans. Seriously, not a lot of guys his age have the voice credits he does. Also, he did all the voice-overs in Push (love or hate the movie, he is able to monologue and tell a story without it sounding trite). And he's not a bad looking fella.
* I had poked around at Little Blue Chairs prior to making this cast. I had not, however, realized that Laurie is an avid F. Scott Fitzgerald fan. I now feel strangely self-conscious of my choices...
Agree? Disagree? Post your thoughts in the comments?
Images: Google Images
