Doomsday

OK, Fantasy Casters, the day has come. I knew it would, I just didn't know it would come so soon.

I have run out of books to cast.

Temporarily, anyway. I have been reading like crazy- I always am- but apparently everything I have read since April 15th of this year (I checked my reading list on GoodReads.com just to be sure) has either a) been made into a movie already b) I have already created my fantasy cast for it or c) is not movie material. And by "not movie material," I mean these are political rants or parenting books. I promise... they are NOT movie material.

So, here we are. And now we're going to play a little game. I want to know two things from you, my dearest of dear readers:

1) What character casting do you feel was spot on, totally perfect, impossible to improve upon? The book was wonderful, the movie was awesome, and this one character was what made it all come together for you.

2) The opposite: What character casting do you feel was the definition of wrong? So terrible, it was like nails on a chalkboard to you?

I've blogged about my favorite (several times, because I'm cool like that): Severus Snape played by Alan Rickman. Seriously, Rickman is the man. Can we start a petition to get the man an Oscar already? The shifty eyes, the duplicity, the unnerving habit of convincing you that he is truly evil. Awesome. 

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For my pick as the worst screen adaptation of a book character, I'm going to have to go with: Robert Redford as Jay Gatsby. He's supposed to be in his 20s, Redford is closer to 40. And this isn't one of those situations where I think older actors bring something to the table that a younger actor can't, this is one of those situations where a respectable man looked a fool because he was playing such a youthful, shallow character. No bueno.

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So tell me: your picks for best and worst. I'll even post some of your ideas (giving you credit and a link, natch) next week. Because I seriously doubt my book situation will improve significantly during the next three days.

And on that note, I'm now looking for guest bloggers. Be willing to write about books, movies or books and movies. Leave a comment, or email me at BlogManager at Live dot Com.

Please post your ideas in the comments- whether you agree with me or not!

The Great Gatsby

Today's fantasy cast is actually a request from not one, but two readers! Jess, from It is a big deal, it is to me! and Laurie of Little Blue Chairs and Fitzgerald Musings*.

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