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!

Severus Snape

I've talked once before about how Alan Rickman was brilliantly cast as Severus Snape. According to JK Rowling's timelines, Snape should be about 20 years younger than Rickman, but honestly who could possibly play Snape better than Rickman?

Snape is, in case you don't know, one of the most complex and satisfying characters ever put to paper. By this time, even if you have not read the books, I will be assuming that you have at least seen through the sixth movie- since it came out almost a year and a half ago. Snape starts off the story as a mean, mean man. He's a teacher who obviously favors his own students, and hates Harry in particular.


By the middle of the story, we realize the reasons for his hatred; Harry's father tormented Snape when they were in school together. Lupin, Sirius Black and Harry's father were also part of a plan that likely would have killed Snape had Harry's dad not had a change of mind. We learn that while he is not a nice guy, he at least has a reason for his mistreatment of Harry.



By the end of the fourth and fifth books, we know that Snape was a Death Eater and something happened to cause him to become a spy for Dumbledore. Dumbledore simply says, over and over, "I Trust Severus Snape." By this time, fans are entirely divided. How could a Death Eater really reform? If you're not a super HP nerd, and are still reading by this time, you should know that Rowling's Death Eaters are loosely based on the Nazis; how many high-ranking Nazis really defected? How many lived to tell the tale? Especially if they were playing both sides equally... that's how duplicitous Snape is: he's either fooling Adolf Hiter or Winston Churchill... or something to that effect, either way, it's dangerous and impressive.



But, now, here we are at the end of Half Blood Prince. Snape has not only professed himself to be the Half Blood Prince, and therefor revealing himself as violent and angry and capable of creating horrifically gruesome spells and curses, but has also murdered Dumbledore. After killing the embodiment of the anti-Voldemort movement, he fights his way through a crowd of students and flees the school with Malfoy (who had been trying to kill Dumbledore for more than a year) and Bellatrix Lestrange (who killed Sirius Black and tortured several other innocent people) and other loyal Death Eaters.


How could a man in this position still have loyal followers? After publication of this book, a website was started for fans to show their unswerving loyalty to Severus Snape. The fact that this man could kill the second most important protagonist in the story and still have a chance of being "good" in the eyes of the readers speaks to the skill and mastery behind his character profile. Rowling laid down an immensely complex character, with foreshadowing so light and almost imperceptible throughout the story.


Rickman's interpretation of the character undoubtedly adds to the core mystery of Severus Snape.

Here's to the most perfectly cast literary character of all time!