Subject: (urth) Casting Call

From: Alice Turner <al at interport.net>
Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 21:00:10 +0000

Okay, we've got lots of serious subjects cooking. How about a frivolous one?
Surely all of us have an an occasional fantasy of a dream production of
these books. Who would you cast? Because we're all of different ages (I
presume), let's say that the actor doesn't have to be his or her current
age--usually, that would mean that s/he would be a younger version. I'd
start with:

Severian: Daniel Day-Lewis
Dorcas: Sissy Spacek. Claire Danes might do as a younger version.
Dr. Talos: Dustin Hoffman
Baldanders: that guy who's in the Billy Crystal movie, though it could be a
computer-enhanced Arnold, I guess.
The Autarch: Alec Guinness. If you want to go younger, Kevin Spacey (who
could also do Talos).
Vodalus: Willem DaFoe
Thecla: Most of you are probably too young to have seen Vanessa Redgrave as
drop-dead in -Morgan- or -Blow-Up-, but she would have been divine.
Sigourney would have been pretty terrific too.
Jolenta: Well, Marilyn, but can we think of someone still alive?
Agia: I draw a blank, but it should be somebody pretty vibrant.

Okay, that's a start. Please disagree, and add. This would also be fun with
the whorl list.

-alga-

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

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From: William H. Ansley <wansley at warwick.net>
Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 00:46:17 +0000

>age--usually, that would mean that s/he would be a younger version. I'd

This sounds like fun, but I think guessing who Hollywood might actually
cast, but who would be totally wrong for the part, is more fun. The problem
is there are so many to choose from! <g> (Please note, I don't think most
of the people on my list are bad actors, I just think that they would be
very wrong for the role I have given them.)

My Worst Case Scenerio BotNS Cast

Severian: Keanu Reeves
Dorcas: Kate Winslet
Dr. Talos: Wallace Shawn
Baldanders: Computer animation or guy in costume with voice of James Earl Jones
The Autarch: David Bowie
Vodalus: Billy Zane
Thecla: Geena Davis
Jolenta: Dolly Parton
Agia: Demi Moore
Thea: Uma Thurman

William Ansley

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From: Robert King <bobking at gate.net>
Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 01:21:28 +0000

Oh, and I could see Karen Allen (circa Raiders of the Lost Ark) as Agia.

Bob, writing for I swear the last time today

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From: Robert King <bobking at gate.net>
Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 01:17:50 +0000

And in honor of the all the Last Episode hooplah, we could have the
Seinfeld version, with Jerry as Severian, of course. The others could be:

Jonas: George
Dorcas: Elaine
Dr. Talos: Kramer
Baldanders: Newman
Vodalus: The Soup Nazi
Thecla: "Mulva"
The Autarch: J. Peterman
Father Inire: The Maestro
Abdiesus: George Steinbrenner

I think I'll stop there.

Only slightly more seriously, I've been inspired by this list to reread
TBOTNS in its entirety for the first time in 15 years (a truly unsettling
experience I'll go into more on later), and the only thing close to any
Hollywood casting is that I hear Richard Dreyfus' voice whenever Dr. Talos
speaks. Don't ask me why.

Bob

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From: Robert King <bobking at gate.net>
Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 01:20:42 +0000

What? No theme song by Celine Dion?

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From: Peter Stephenson <pws at ifh.de>
Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 08:45:59 +0000

> Agia: I draw a blank, but it should be somebody pretty vibrant.

I can imagine Miranda Richardson (`Dance with a Stranger', `That Film
about the First Mrs Eliot' (not the real title), Queen Elizabeth in
`Blackadder II') getting the pent up evil and Machiavellian qualities.
I can also imagine a hundred villainesses from second rate television
programmes hamming it up horribly.

pws

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From: Alice Turner <al at interport.net>
Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 08:07:02 +0000

LOL (more than once) on Worst Case and Kramer casting. I like Miranda
Richardson better than Karen Allen as Agia. Please don't stop!

-alga-

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From: Dan Parmenter <dan at lec.com>
Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 07:39:05 +0000

>Dorcas: Sissy Spacek. Claire Danes might do as a younger version.

Agreed, though maybe Mia Farrow would work too.

>computer-enhanced Arnold, I guess.

Nah, how about Arnold as Piaton and the head of Yul Brynner for Typhon?

>Jolenta: Well, Marilyn, but can we think of someone still alive?

The Marilyn fit is awfully good, and given that you've allowed us to
walk the corridors of time in search of the right cast at the right
time in their lives, why not her?  The Marilyn thing runs deep in our
culture.  Just last week I came across a copy of the classic PLAYBOY
Marilyn nude that I had totally forgotten about tucked away in amongst
some other posters and prints.  It was like finding buried treasure!

>From: "William H. Ansley" <wansley at warwick.net>

>My Worst Case Scenerio BotNS Cast

Well actually that wouldn't be bad at all.

From: Robert King <bobking at gate.net>

>Oh, and I could see Karen Allen (circa Raiders of the Lost Ark) as Agia.

Bingo!

Okay, so these are the ones I agree with from other people.  

God, if Charlton Heston were a little taller.  I mean let's face it,
this movie would have to be pretty much an epic on the scale of
BEN-HUR.  And about 12 hours long!  If I were to play devil's
advocate, I'd call it unfilmable, just for its length, but I've heard
that some brave soul is putting together a new production of LORD OF
THE RINGS in New Zealand, so one never knows these days.  Back when
there seemed to be a less-than-remote chance that WATCHMEN might be
made into a film I vehemently argued against, arguing that it was far
too tied into the comic book form and that indeed, its plot was almost
secondary to the subtle mechanics of its manipulation of the syntax of
comics.  This is one of the reasons that I think BOTNS is unfilmable:
it's too tied into the literary form itself and indeed, seems to
almost comment on it.  In a sense, Gene Wolfe has given us the perfect
SF story: time travel, spaceships, robots, giant bugs (Hethor's),
scantily-clad girls, the works, but to simply present these elements
in the usual Hollywood way might leave the less imaginative members of
the auidence scratching their heads.

I wouldn't mind seeing an animated version of it.

D

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From: Kieran Cleary <kierannwn at tinet.ie>
Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 14:38:55 +0000

lol  @ bad casting. Of course, you'd need an absurdly deep-throated and
portentous trailer intro:

"In the Far Far Future, The Sun is Dying...The Fate of Humanity lies with
the Destiny of One Man. To Protect Our Future, He Must Destroy Our World!"

btw Charlotte Rampling would make a good Thecla (in a serious version).

kieran

North West Labs
Finisklin Industrial Estate
Sligo
Republic of Ireland

Tel. +353 71 69441
Fax. +353 71 69451
email: kierannwn at tinet.ie

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From: Mark Andersen <manderse at nmsu.edu>
Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 09:59:07 +0000

> Jolenta: Well, Marilyn, but can we think of someone still alive?
How about Cindy Crawford, or even better, Anna Nicole Smith? Limited
acting ability would not be a handcap for the part of Jolenta.

> Agia: I draw a blank, but it should be somebody pretty vibrant.

How about Phoebe Cates? (Although she'd make a good Valeria too,
I think).

Some additions:

Hildegrin: Brian Dennehy
Master Palaemon: John Gielgud

--
Dr. Mark C. Andersen, Department of Fishery and Wildlife Sciences
New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM 88003-0003
voice:(505) 646-8034   FAX:  (505) 646-1281
manderse at nmsu.edu, http://leopold.nmsu.edu/manderse/markhome.htm

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From: Paul C Duggan <pduggan at world.std.com>
Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 13:26:02 +0000

Some of you beat me to these, but...

Terry Gilliam should direct

Severian		Antonio Banderas
Dorcas:			Wynona Ryder
Baldanders:		Andre The Giant
Dr. Talos:		Gilbert Gottfried
Jolenta			Anna Nicole Smith
Agia:			Signourney Weaver
Hethor:			Jack Nicholson
Gunnie:			Claudia Christianson

Patera Silk:	Nicholas Cage

"I am an impure thinker. I am hurt, swayed, shaken, |  paul           + | +
elated, disillusioned, shocked, comforted, and I    |                 --|--
have to transmit my mental experiences lest I die." |                 + | +
                     --  Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy    |  pduggan at world.std.com

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From: sph1635 <sph1635 at utsph.sph.uth.tmc.edu>
Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 12:46:03 +0000

In participation to this enjoyable fancy, I visualize the Old Autarch as a
Woody Allen type of person. Other than that though, I am at a loss.
														Xury

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From: Robert Borski <rborski at coredcs.com>
Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 14:22:53 +0000

Haven't been to a movie in years and don't own a television (I'm
hearing-impaired and loathe close-captioning), so I'm a little out of touch
when it comes to current actors and actresses, but I still bear an enormous
fondness for the BBC production of "I, Claudius."

Indeed, if anyone could break down the Book of the New Sun into manageable
episodes, I believe it would be the late Jack Pulman, screenwriter for the
I,C series.

I also believe that most of the I,C cast would be appropriate in one way or
another for roles in any cinematic version of New Sun. To wit:

Severian  -- Patrick Stewart
Baldanders or Typhon  --  Brian Blessed
Agia  --  Sian Phillips
Appian, the old autarch  --  Sir Derek Jacobi
Dr. Talos  --  John Hurt
Jolenta  --  Sheila White

Of course, given the influence of Robert Graves on New Sun, perhaps it's
only natural to find correspondences between the paired works, fictive and
cinematic, even if one half of the latter will likely never be.

Then again, after an earlier production of I, Claudius starring Charles
Laughton and Merle Oberon failed, Robert Graves himself, citing the
possibly hostile spirit of the original Claudius, opined his work might not
be filmable--so who knows?

Robert Borski

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From: William H. Ansley <wansley at warwick.net>
Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 22:32:57 +0000

>>From Dan Parmenter:

Yeah, I hesitated over him quite a bit as not being inappropriate enough.
Oh wait. I've got it!!!!!

Dr. Talos: Paul Williams

Yes!!! Really bad, and he'd picked because he's short and he was in that
sci-fi planet of the apes movie (attempt at Hollywood thought process).

William Ansley

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From: William H. Ansley <wansley at warwick.net>
Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 23:31:33 +0000

>acting ability would not be a handcap for the part of Jolenta.

Wait! I want Anna Nicole for my WCS cast! Please!

William Ansley

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From: Robert King <bobking at gate.net>
Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 23:46:47 +0000

How about Kim Basinger?

On Wed, 13 May 1998, William H. Ansley wrote:

> >From: Mark Andersen

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From: J. Schultz <jschultz at wcnet.org>
Date: Mon, 18 May 1998 16:06:07 +0000

Hello everyone,
    Back from vacation.  Catching up and biting my toungue untill the end so
I don't repeat everyone else. But...
Have to respond to this one, I was going to ask it a while back but held
off... didn't want to seem silly.  But now that its been broached...

Obviously any adaptation, Even a 5 part miniseries done by those "Merlin"
people : )  would be an absolute disaster.

Baldanders would have to be played by Andre the Giant from the "Princess
Bride"  Everytime B. enters the story I can only picture all 400 lbs of the
late pro wrestling star.  As a matter of fact, everyone should go out and
rent "Princess Bride"   I believe the whole cast for Urth can be found
there.  While the movie may be considered 'cute' it has always been one of
my favorites.  Takes a satirical look at traditional fantasy, nicely done.

Dr. Talos:  I see a Willy Wonka as played by Gene Wilder.  Showmanship with
a hint of the maniacal.

Charleton Heston will surely play Jonas to Inire's Dr Zaeis

Or for those of you with TV leanings
Severian:  Ritchie Cunningham
Roche:  Ralph Malph
Drotte:  Pottsie
Eata:  Chachi
M. Palaemon:  Al (the oriental one, more wisdom)
M. Gureloes:  Al (the later, 'white' Al, ...  He's a replacement and a fake)
Agia:  Pinky Tuskedero (you had to be a serious fan to know about her)
Baldanders:  Mr. C (hey, he was nice but could get REAL angry)
Matachin Tower:  Al's diner
Strange Machines on top Floor of Tower:  Jukebox
Voudalus:  The Fonz, (had a gang and was bad until
Ritchie turned him to good.)
Voudalus' Ziggurat:  Fonzie's Bathroom
Dorcas:  Joanie "Cupcake" Cunningham (young, innocent, AND related!)
Thecla:  Mary Beth (Ritchie's girl, later wife)
Tonite on "Happy Days:"
    The Fonz tries to find Ritchie to beat him up but ends up having his
bike unknowlingly stolen by Ritchie who has gotten a letter in class from
Mary Beth telling him to meet her at Makeout Point.  Ritchie finds out that
Pinky has set him up and forged the letter.  Richie and Pinky learn a
valuable lesson about forgivness.
OR:
    Ritchie, Potsy, Ralph and Chachi stay out way too late and end up
getting locked out.  Later that day Ritchie stops a fight that The Fonz is
about to get into.  They learn a valuable lesson about friendship.
OR:
    Ritchie finds out he's been sleeping with his sister.  Eats his dead
girlfriend.  Is fired by Al for not killing the customers.  Gets in a fist
fight with Mr. C.  Kills the Fonz... Ok, maybe it doesn't fit everything.

Good to be back, and Thanks for all the reading suggestions,
FunkMonkey