Amph I Fell Into the Well of Lost Plots- Jasper Fforde Ffans

Egads, John Cleese would be perfect.

"Name's Bradshaw. And this is m'wife, Melanie . . ."

That's a pick of genius.

Blanchett I'm not so sure about; haven't seen her act enough to make a proper judgement. She looks like Aornis would, though, so a tentative approval there

Also, from the previous post: Michael Caine and Alan Rickman instantly elevate the awesomeness of anything they're in. Sir Michael as the Bellman would be incredible; the quote you've provided is just the perfect one for that accent. And Rickman would probably do remarkably well as the Cat. He's great at voice work, for all he tends to get landed with the villainous roles.

Which he is great at, though.

"Cancel the food scraps for lepers and orphans. No more merciful beheadings. And - and - call off Christmas!" *slam*

 

I agree with all the Kate Winslets running around for the reasons you stated. Besides, Marianne Dashwood and the "real" (by which I mean fictional... actually, double-fictional) Mary aren?t in there very long anyway.

Hugh Grant, I wondered about at first. Then I remembered this was someone from a bad romance novel. Not much of a stretch for Mr. Romantic Comedy. He usually kind of grates, but it works here.

Every movie and miniseries needs Michael Caine. And John Cleese. Cate Blanchett as Aornis is a good call.

Excellent casting, Rogue; I look forward to The Well of Lost Plots. At least you don?t have so many real world characters to deal with.

Say, can?t book characters be any nationality? Just thought about that, but it really applies more to WoLP.

 

I would think that book characters would be their own nationality. For example, Miss Havisham, if I recall correctly, is from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, and lives in England. Thus, she would be English.

Very nice casting choices

 

Exactly. I just meant that Rogue had been casting all English, in accordance with the setting, but, for example, with the Emperor (forget his name ) he'd be free to cast from somewhere else.

...My clarification post just made less sense that what I was trying to clear up. *brain fries*

 

Yes, Aornis Hades was by far the toughest decision; I needed someone with a slightly otherworldly look, someone with the chops to be physically dominant and someone a little bit sexy. I was going, rather unhappily, Carrie Anne-Moss, who would have to fake the accent.

Then suddenly Blanchett just leapt into my head, literally about four days before I posted that pick. She's Australian, not English, but I think she's perfect.

And, yes, I get what you're saying; I have a pick for Zhark (that's the name) already. And it's a little wacky, but, oh, well.

This has been a blast for me, really. Thanks for all the comments.

 

The Well of Lost Plots:

Kate Winslet as Thursday Next

[image=http://www.lip.pt/~nuno/fotos/britanicas/Kate%20Winslet%201.jpg]

Thursday. That would make chapter seven only a page long!

Better than nothing.

It won't work.

Vonnegut does it all the time.

Kate Winslet as Mary Jones

[image=http://www.copywriting-center.info/blog/images/stars/kate-winslet-001.gif]

Jack might seem gruff to begin with, but he has a heart of gold. He takes his coffee black and the love interest between myself and DC Baker is strictly unrequited, is that clear?

Sam Neill as DCI Briggs

[image=http://www.plus.es/media/PAGINADIGITALPLUS/Entretenimiento/el_triangulo/galeria/Sam-Neill-THE-TRIANGLE.jpg]

Do you think I need to develop more as a character? . . .

Well -

I knew it! It's the hair, isn't it? Do you think it should be shorter? Longer? What about having a bizarre character trait? I've been learning the trombone!

Peter Wingfield as Jack Spratt

[image=http://www.screencaptures.net/w/wingfield07.jpg]

What's the use? No one is reading this. It doesn't matter!

Kate Winslet as Gran Next

[image=http://www.vh1.com/shared/media/images/movies/people/w/winslet_kate/150x223.jpg]

Well, I was God Emperor of the universe once and being a man for twenty-four hours was pretty weird.

 

Jack and Mary are in the Thursday Next books? I know they've got they're own series, but I'm still between the first and second Thursday books.

 

They were created first for the Thursday series. The Spratt books are a spin-off.

Good choices again, Rogue, although I'm begining to think that this thread is just an opportunity for you to post pictures of Winslet.

Neill is a good pick.

 

Good ones. Peter Wingfield in particular looks just how I'd pictured the character.

 

As I understand it, the Jack Spratt series was written first, but no one would publish it; after Thursday Next took off, Fforde took the opportunity to weave Jack and Mary into Thursday's universe, thus practically necessitating the publication of the Spratt series. Very clever fellow.

As for Wingfield, I first saw the guy on a fabulous episode of The Dead Zone, playing the pilot of a plane on which Johnny and Purdy are flying when Johnny receives a vision of the plane crashing in forty minutes. It was a masterful performance; he was likable, menacing, intense, terrified, psychotic, all in the space of about forty-five minutes. And he's Welsh, so he fits!

 

Actually, you are completely right. I'd forgotten about that.

 

Ray Fiennes as Landen Parke-Laine

[image=http://static.flickr.com/20/73256565_e2bacb0bca_m.jpg]

Have I missed much? It's not nice being forgotten by the one you love.

Denholm Elliot as Akrid Snell

[image=http://www.zetaminor.com/images/dvd_review_images/ripping_yarns/ripping_elliot.jpg]

Three hundred!? I could buy a dozen head-in-a-bag plot devices for that and still have change for a missing Nazi gold consignment.

Jeremy Irons as Harris Tweed

[image=http://www.vh1.com/sitewide/flipbooks/img/movies/people/i/irons_jeremy/50988676_10.jpg]

You don't understand, Next. In the Outland, murder is morally reprehensible, but in here it is a narrative necessity - without it and the jeopardy it generates, we'd have lost a million readers long ago!

Alan Rickman as Emperor Zhark

[image=http://www.boxofficeprophets.com/bigpicture/images/alanrickman.jpg]

It's like one huge conspiracy. Just when I think I have the galaxy at my mercy, some hopelessly outnumbered young hothead destroys my most insidious death machine using some hitherto-undiscovered weakness.

Maggie Smith as Mrs. Havisham

[image=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/09/M_Smith.jpg/250px-M_Smith.jpg]

The formulaic is our one true enemy.

 

Hmm, I don't know about Rickman for Zhark. He makes a perfect Cat, but Zhark needs to be a little more idiotic/bombastic/cliched, and less of Rickman's usual snarky/ironic/sarcastic stuff. I'd go with someone more along the lines of ... gosh, I don't know. If you wanted to take the full comedic angle, I think Rowan Atkinson would actually be pretty good.

 

I Alan Rickman. Good choice, regardless of the fact that I don't know the character

 

Actually I think Rickman could make something awesome from Zhark; if he went for the completely panto angle and did it as The Sheriff Of Nottingham - In Space! it'd be fantastic. Fantastic, I say!

Denholm Elliott, Maggie Smith, and Jeremy Irons are all pitch-perfect. And I think you mean Ralph Fiennes It's pronounced 'Rafe' for inexplicable reasons though

He'd be good.

 

I call him Ray because he and I are such good friends!

 

Alan Rickman as The Cheshire Cat

[image=http://mydivx.lihoman.ru/order/actor/rickman/alan%20rickman%20-%20video.lihoman.ru.jpg]

It's a laugh, isn't it?

What is?

That noise you make at the back of your throat when you hear something funny. Let me know if you need anything. Bye.

Hugh Fraser as Perkins

[image=http://www.vividinfinity.com/poirot/affairatstyles06.jpg]

I can understand children writing about them, but adults should know better. Every unicorn in every demolished story ends up here. I had this idea for a bumper sticker: 'A unicorn isn't for page twenty-seven, it's for eternity.'

How about taking the horn off and seeking placement in pony books?

I'll pretend I didn't hear that.

John Cleese as Trafford Bradshaw

[image=http://www.cinemacafri.com/img/foto/pequeno/John-Cleese-1.jpg]

Well, I couldn't help noticing that she was . . .

Yes?

A gorilla.

Hmm, our little subterfuge didn't fool you, then? Melanie! Please come and join us.

Michael Caine as The Bellman

[image=http://www.filmfocus.com/images/plaatjes/3269.jpg]

Okay, let me get this straight: David Copperfield, unlike Pilgrim's Progress, had had had, had had had had. Had had had had TGC's approval? . . . . Right, that's it for the moment . . .

Kate Winslet as Mariane Dashwood

[image=http://www.movieactors.com/freezeframes5/senseandsense128.jpeg]

What can I do to repay you?

Don't let Lola Vavoom play you in a movie.

Out of my hands.

 

When I do get around to these books, I won't be able to get your frackin casting choices out of my head, Rogue.

 

Cleese's understated ridiculousness would be absolutely priceless for the Melanie scenes. I would pay the price of admission for that alone. The line: "Hmm, our little subterfuge didn't fool you, then?" would be perfect. Subterfuge?!? SHE'S A GORILLA!!!!

 

Yes, yes, it was that line in particular that made me finally settle on Cleese; I hadn't really cast Bradshaw while reading Lost in a Good Book, but that scene just settled it.

Also a shame that Hugh Fraser, a truly gifted and often forgotten comic actor gets what amounts to only an extended cameo as Perkins, but he would be perfect (as you'll recall if you've seen him as Hastings on Poirot) and maybe I can bring him back in a more substantial role when I get around to casting the Jack Spratt books!

Lot of repetition in these posts, but I'm having fun dragging out what are, I think, the quotes that are really definitive in my casting choices . . . like the Cleese/gorilla bit.

 

John Cleese is just generally great. The sheer surreality of the whole "She's a gorilla" bit could have come straight out of a Pythons sketch in any case. Gotta love British humour.

I'm waiting for Something Rotten . . . I want to see who Rogue picks to play Hamlet.

I suspect that it would suit our dear casting director's taste for multiplicity to put one of the actors actually mentioned (Gielgud, Jacobi, Olivier et al) in the role. I'm guessing Branagh, but am open to left-field choices.

Anyone except Mel Gibson, basically

Also, on about my fifth reread of SR (it's the only Thursday Next book I actually own as opposed to having borrowed) I'm becoming more and more impressed with the choice of Sean Bean as Spike Stoker from way back whenever. That was a pick of genius, Rogue

 

I too am guessing Branagh.

 

For the most part, I like the rest of the casting too (and the stuff I'm not sure about is because I don't know the actor well enough to judge), but John Cleese as Trafford Bradshaw is inspired. You're right, that "little subterfuge" scene clinches it. I can see it perfectly.

 

Tom Courtenay (computer generated) as Billy Liar

[image=http://www.britmovie.co.uk/actors/c/images/012a.jpg]

And that's not all. The Bellman has gassed himself!

Really? But we were just talking to him!

Oh, I meant Perkins had gassed himself.

Hugh Grant as Vernham Deane

[image=http://www.waposdecine.com/hughgrant/hg022g.jpg]

All the punctuation has been stolen from the final chapter of Ulysses. Probably about five hundred assorted full stops, commas, apostrophes and colons . . .

To take so much punctuation in one hit initially sounds audacious, but perhaps the thief thought no one would notice . . . you will recall the theft of chapter sixty-two from Moby Dick? Well this theft was noted, but initial reports show that readers are regarding the lack of punctuation as not a cataclysmic error but the mark of a great genius. So we've got some breathing space.

Johnny Depp as Ichabod Crane

[image=http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/11.18.99/gifs/sleepyhollow-9946.jpg]

Cameo appearance. No dialogue.

Emma Thompson as Beatrice - Kenneth Branagh as Benedict

[image=http://cinedestin.privatedns.com/films/b/be/beaucoupdebruitpourrien.jpg]

Would that the fountain of your mind clear again, that I might water an ass at it.

Look, he's winding up the watch of his wit; by and by it will strike.

 

Yay for Kenneth and Emma!!! Those two did a really good job in the Much Ado About Nothing movie.