Yeah, it was a surprisingly good mystery; I couldn't believe I didn't figure it out.

Plus, I'll be casting that one next.

 

I finished TBEO the other day. Fantastic stuff. While serving as a commentary on detective novels, does very well on its own as one. The characters are loads of fun, and interesting too.

Really, the book has very little to do with the proto-novel in WoLP. Which makes sense since the book was still being formed at that time.

I'd recommend it to anyone who likes good books, and doesn't mind giggling insanely.

 

Sean Bean as Spike Stoker

[image=http://filmacteursb.punt.nl/upload/bean_sean/bean_north_country.gif]

Orpheus would have paid the ferryman, but you know, that's just a scam. You can easily do it yourself; those inflatable boats from Wal-Mart work a treat.

Ricky Gervais as Jack Schitt

[image=http://www.jawbonepodcast.com/blogpics/gervais.jpg]

We kidnapped you, tried to kill you, and then had you on our shoot on sight list for over a year. You may be in line for a generous cash settlement.

Kate Winslet as Lola Vavoom

[image=http://www.eog.com/uploadedImages/images/WOMEN/Kate-Winslet-41.jpg]

No lines. Seen on calender.

John Rhys Davies as John Henry Goliath V

[image=http://www.sashaproductions.com/images/john_rhys_davies.jpg]

Humans are molded by evolution to be short-termists, Miss Next.

Andy Serkis as Bartholomew Stiggins

[image=http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41102000/jpg/_41102700_serkis_getty.jpg]

Where have you been, Miss Next? In prison?

Why does everyone think I've been in prison.

Because you were heading towards either death or prison when we last met - and you are not dead.

 

I Sean Bean. Good choice

I think you should cast the Jack Spratt books as well

 

And one final post to wrap up Something Rotten

Jason Statham as Aubrey Jambe

[image=http://photobucket.com/albums/y133/giambi34/Myspace/th_JasonStatham.jpg]

So, what do we need to win?

If all the players on the Reading team were to die overnight and be replaced by unfit nine-year-olds, then we might be in with a chance.

Ralph Fiennes as Landen Parke-Laine

[image=http://www.fiennesforum.com/ralphencounters/brandencounters/photos/Culture%20hi-resolution.JPG]

It's Thursday.

I know who it is. You've got a bloody nerve, haven't you?

Alec Guinness (computer generated) as George Formby

[image=http://www.crazy4cinema.com/Actor/imgs/guinness.jpg]

Now can we go?

I'm not leaving until I get a refund.

Alan Rickman as The Cheshire Cat

[image=http://webpages.acs.ttu.edu/wfryer/harrypotter/images/rickman.jpg]

Good Lord, no, quite the reverse.

Jeremy Northam as Miles Hawke

[image=http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/38357000/jpg/_38357311_northam150.jpg]

So how much are the revealments worth?

One hundred and twenty-eight billion pounds.


I should take the opportunity, now that the series is over, to mention the reason I cast Winslet as Lola Vavoom way back when.

It's for the scene here where Branagh as Hamlet stands opposite Winslet as Thursday and asks if Winslet as Vavoom has ever played Ophelia; of course, she has . . . opposite Branagh himself in his 1997 version of Hamlet. That's the kind of intertextuality I think fits very well with Fforde's twisted series.

This has been fun and I'll be moving on to the Jack Spratt books next!

Thanks for your patience.

 

Very nice way to wrap it up I'm looking forward to the Jack Spratt books

 

THE BIG OVER EASY

CAST (IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE)

Kate Winslet as Mary Mary

[image=http://adorocinema.cidadeinternet.com.br/personalidades/atores/kate-winslet/kate-winslet01.jpg]

I'll be honest, Mary -

You should call me by my first name, sir.

Sorry. I'll be honest, Mary -

That's better.

Sam Neill as Superintendent Briggs

[image=http://www.perfectstrangersthemovie.com/enhanced_images/sam_neill_med.jpg]

Including pigs?

Especially pigs. You so much as look at a bacon roll and I'll have you suspended.

Jason Isaacs as Friendland Chymes

[image=http://www.nndb.com/people/235/000051082/jason-isaacs.jpg]

The sock suspender was made in France, 'custard' in French is creme anglaise - and an anagram of Celia Mangerse - which not only correctly identified the killer but also told me the Colonel died before he was able to finish the anagram.

Peter Wingfield as Jack Spratt

[image=http://www.thequeenofswords.net/pics/wallpaper_08.jpg]

Where are you off too?

Clubbing.

Those poor seals.

Sharon Small as Madeline Spratt

[image=http://www.girlguidingscotland.org.uk/information/images/sharon_small.jpg]

What's the big deal? Maybe she prefers older men.

Four thousand years older?

If you could hear yourself! He barely looks over thirty, and he's really nice - and think how it will improve her Greek.

 

I like Especally the guy for Jack -- he's cute

Is Madeline his mother, sister, or wife?

 

I really like this first round of casting. I found Sam Neill to be an especially good choice, probably because he's the actor I know the best of these. But Jack and Friedland look just as they should... even though there's not much description of them, it's just how they seemed to me. *shrug*

 

Madeline is his wife. The reason for casting a rather obscure (if brilliant) Sharon Small will become clear shortly.

Chymes is described in the book as blonde, but I couldn't come up with a blonde that felt right. I finally started thinking about other hair colors and the great Jason Isaacs (see Peter Pan IMMEDIATELY; he's the best Hook of all time and the best Mr. Darling) just fell right into place.

 

Wasn't he Lucius Malfoy in Harry Potter as well?

 

He was, and he was awesome. He was blond in HP, too.

 

That's what I thought. He's awesome

 

Peter O'Toole as Randolph Spongg

[image=http://www.nrk.no/img/371946.jpeg]

So it's time for you and I to bid each other goodbye.

Why don't we just call it au revoir?

No, let's call it goodbye.

Kate Winslet as Lola Vavoom

[image=http://www.filmweb.no/bilder/multimedia/archive/00098/Kate_Winslet_i_Roman_98724o.jpg]

You used to be big in movies.

I will treat that feed line with the contempt it deserves.

Billy Boyd as Otto Tibbit

[image=http://images.scotsman.com/2004/10/27/TS_billyboydb.jpg]

Father liked word games. He was fourteen times world Scrabble Champion. When he died we buried him at Queenzieburn to make use of the triple word score. He spent the greater part of his life campaigning to have respelt those words that looks as though they are being spelt wrongly . . .

Such as?

Oh, skiing, vacuum, freest, eczema, gnu, diarrhea, that sort of thing. He also thought that 'abbreviation' was too long for its meaning, that 'monosyllabic' should have one syllable, 'dyslexic' should be renamed 'O' and 'unspeakable' should be respelt 'unsfzpxkable.'

Aishwarya Rai as Gladys Singh

[image=http://www.sulekha.com/movies/wallpapers/Aishwarya%20Rai/1024-768/AishwaryaRai01_1024-768.jpg]

People who are depressed can get murdered, you know.

Nathaniel Parker as Prometheus

[image=http://www.wtci-tv45.com/programming/58966_61.jpg]

The Fire-Giver! I like your style, man.

You are man. I am Prometheus.

It is worth mentioning at this point, a particularly nice bit of casting; Sharon Small and Nathaniel Parker have previously worked together (well over two dozen times) as DI Thomas Lynley and DS Barbara Havers in the Inspector Lynley mysteries, some of the best new mysteries being written and certainly the best since Poirot and Jeremy Brett's Holmes retired to be shown on PBS' Mystery; think Agatha Christie, but a bit more realistic. Think Inspector Alleyn, only more cynical. Think Adam Dalgliesh, only they make sense.

So, to see those two under the same roof again in this series would be just too wonderful; this novel is, after all, a spoof of mystery novels; allow me to throw in a few references to mystery cinema.

 

OKay, now we're going to play the 'where Nat has seen these people' game

Peter O'Toole was King Priam in Troy, and Billy Boyd was Merry in the LOTR movies


I can't say I've actually ever heard of either those two, but I'll take your word that they go well together

 

Dominic Monaghan as Charlie Baker

[image=http://www.filmogs.com/images/profiles/DominicMonaghan1.jpg]

If I don't make it, tell Susie I love her.

Jane Leeves as Deborah Quatt

[image=http://www.nndb.com/people/573/000044441/leeves.jpg]

You always insisted on being the pencil monitor - a policeman at heart, clearly.

And you were expelled for sewing the school cat to the janitor.

The joyuous experimentation of children. What fun that was!

David Suchet as Hercule Poirot

[image=http://www.southx.biz/dannecker/pictures/DavidSuchet.gif]

No lines. Cameo at Guild.

Paul Bettany as Ashley

[image=http://img-www.theonering.net/staff/xoanon/TDC/paul_bettany1.jpg]

I did a printout of his record - but on ACETATE so you could still look at your desk while reading it!

Rachel Weisz as Greta Kandlestyck-Maeker

[image=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/Rachel_Weisz.jpg]

I like your overalls!

 

And Pippin too

I like the choice of Rachel

 

Merry and Pippin! Delightful.

Wasn't Nathaneal (sp?) Parker your pic for Prometheus in one of the Thursday Next books? He looks right for the part.

 

Sean Connery as Solomon Grundy

[image=http://www.medyaline.com/resimupload/files/Sean%20Connery.jpg]

I've weathered four stock-market crashes and suffered monetary losses that exceed the GNP of East and West Woppistania combined. I survived all that and I'll certainly survive you.

Orlando Bloom as Josh Hatchett

[image=http://www.oceleb.com/img/orlando-bloom/orlando-bloom-1.jpg]

And what was the significance of the custard on the Colonel's sock suspender?

Marlon Brando (computer generated) as Giorgio Porgia

[image=http://images.art.com/images/products/large/10101000/10101578.jpg]

We used to encase people alive in motorway supports. I'm amazed that the elevated sections of Junction 10 even stay up. They tell me I'm just a sad old romantic. The kids today have no respect for tradition. No dash, no style, no elegance.

Liam Neeson as Brown-Horrocks

[image=http://www.chicodeluigi.it/portraits/LIAM%20NEESON.jpg]

Is that tea all right?

It's undrinkable.

Excellent!

Anthony Hopkins as The Jellyman

[image=http://www.boolsite.net/images/previews/Celebrites/AnthonyHopkins/_prev/AnthonyHopkins02.jpg]

Officer Baines, you are excused.

 

Whenever I think of Solomon Grundy, I think of the DC Comics version ("Solomon Grundy want pants too!"). When I read it, I often pictured that huge pale brute stuffed into a business suit and speaking oddly formally. It was a funny image, but I will never vote against having Sean Connery in a cast.

This is a really talented cast in general, but particularly this post.

 

I'm very much loving all of those choices (especally Brando and Orlando Bloom ).

 

Just finished 'Something Rotten' and wondered if there is a book number five because when I finished I though:

What about Aornis? Did I miss the bit where that gets resolved?

I can't stand loose ends like that.

 

I don't believe there is.

 

Yes, I remember being rather disturbed that the Aornis bit never got resolved. A shame; I thought he'd magically pull it off at the very end or something, but no.

 

I was thinking of this thread earlier this week; we were atching Wuthering Heights in class and I couldn't figure out wherethe hell I'd seen Ralph Fiennes until I remembered this thread