Casting the Movie Continued

[Tysha]

As far as Tim Curry... don't typecast the man because a single role he played back in *1975*!!! The man's filmography is almost 200 items long! Granted, his frame is a bit big for the slender King Beyond the Wall... so I'd understand not playing him as Mance. But don't you dare write him off as Dr. Furter!

However... Spacey is closer in build for Mance... and having him question Jon Snow about his motivations for breaking his Night's Watch vows would be mighty tense... Thoughts?

Don't worry, I have seen Tim Curry play many other roles, Frank is just the one that lingers in the mind! The fact that he's been incredibly camp in everything else I've seen him in probably doesn't help...

Anyway, I thought Mance had been hashed out and Christian Bale agreed on? Personally I think he's a bit young so if the debate is being re-opened I vote for Anthony Stewart Head again.

What do you think of Romola Garai for Gilly? I posted a couple of pics of her looking dirty in Mary Bryant in an above post.

[Maester Yobjascz]

No... I'm not re-opening Mance Rayder... at least, not yet. We ought to let that one cool down for a bit as well.

As for Gilly... I thought she was supposed to be a little... rounder? My understanding was that she was a bit on the heavier side. Granted, that's hard to find in a young Hollywood actress, but that's my only problem with Ms. Garai.

That said... can the kid currently playing Marillion sing?

Also, Benrubi is a good choice for the Greatjon... but does he match up the other Umber's we've got casted?

Also... for the Frey's that've been added... the text suggests that one of their defining features is a 'weak chin'... Robin Sachs doesn't really have that. (And Ser Stevron is supposed to be in his 60's). That's my only comment on them... otherwise, casting looks good.

[Tysha]

As for Gilly... I thought she was supposed to be a little... rounder? My understanding was that she was a bit on the heavier side. Granted, that's hard to find in a young Hollywood actress, but that's my only problem with Ms. Garai.

Well, she was pregnant when we first met her, if that's what you mean! But other than that, no, I'm pretty sure Gilly was fairly slim.

That said... can the kid currently playing Marillion sing?

Yes. Yes, he can. Ben has a tenor voice.

[Maester Yobjascz]

Tysha -

You're right... Tower of the Hand describes Gilly as slender with big, brown eyes...

[Redtusk]

I agree that Sam Elliot is a terrible actor, and both he and Sean Connery are too old to play the role. How about going completely off the reservation and casting Billy Bob Thornton as the Blackfish? He doesn't speak a whole lot, and all he has to do is look menacing.

[Tchaikovsky]

Might I suggest Tyler Hilton for Marillion? He's young, good looking, he's an okay actor, and has a nice voice.

[Lightsnake]

I don't think Billy Bob fits....too country, there. Rickman or Irons would be best.

As for the Daynes....the Daynes are white. They're fair, the picture of Arthur is a white guy with long, black hair. We'll find others for them, but Smits has to go

[Lann_Boys'Girl]

HAHA no way.

I don't know whom he could play, but Michael Emerson is AMAZING at being really, really, REALLY creepy/disturbing/scary. I could almost see him as a Roose Bolton or something.

[frost_byte101]

I've been thinking about something for a while.

You know, by the time someone actually gets around to adapting these books, the tricks they're going to be able to do with digital effects are going to be astounding—as in how real things are going to look. I also kind of doubt GRRM is going to let his baby out into the wild without some gaurantee it's going to be well taken care of. So I think we have some gaurantee that this series is going to look, to a degree, fairly good on screen. Taking into account that it will take some time to get this on to any kind of screen, the effects we are going to see will be really very good by the time the film-makers get around to post-production. Also, if I remember correctly, digital FX are getting much cheaper, so a lot of the techniques the film-makers are going to be employing aren't going to cost as much money.

What I'm getting at is this: why not have the same actor play a few different roles, with different digital facial overlay? This would eliminate the arduous task of searching for an actor that actually looks like the person they might be portraying, and instead just look for someone with a facial structure that is generally the same and can act. Also, I would imagine that by the time this series going into production, flawlessly realistic digital human characters would be a reality, and that would defintely allow the makers to make the world look more ralistically populated (and have more, different extras, just in case people started to notice the same ones popping up—which is unlikely, but I'd want to hedge my bets). This would also allow many (cheaper) voice actors lend their voices, to many different characters—like John Di Maggio (to see what he's done: http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0224007/), and a bunch of others.

I'm thinking we probably won't see any real talks about adapting this series for another 5-10 years—this of course isn't based on anything, but I think it's fairly realistic. I wonder if this would just cost too much to hold very high realistic probability.

[Shadow Cat]

Pardon the intrusion into the middle of your discussion, but I must agree the Daynes do not have typically hispanic coloring. I don't even think any of them have dark hair (at least I don't recall such a description).

These are the descriptions I do recall:

Ashara Dayne had purple eyes.

Edric Dayne, Arthur and Ashara's nephew:

She had always heard that Dornishmen were small and swarthy, with black hair and small black eyes, but Ned had big blue eyes, so dark that they looked almost purple. And his hair was a pale blond, more ash than honey.

Gerold Dayne, more distant branch of the family:

He is highborn enough to make a worthy consort, she thought. Father would question my good sense, but our children would be beautiful as dragonlords. If there was a handsomer man in Dorne, she did not know him. Ser Gerold Dayne had an aquiline nose, high cheekbones, a strong jaw. He kept his face clean-shaven, but his thick hair fell to his collar like a silver glacier, divided by a streak of midnight black. He has a cruel mouth, though, and a crueler tongue. His eyes seemed black as he sat outlined against the dying sun, sharpening his steel, but she had looked at them from a closer vantage and she knew that they were purple. Dark purple. Dark and angry.

I don't recall any direct description of Arthur; however, I believe he was another really big and muscular man as he is on Jaime's select list of men who are/were stronger than he along with Robert, the White Bull, the Greatjon, Strongboar, Sandor, and Gregor. Those are some very tall, muscular men, so Arthur was likely significantly larger than Jaime.

Really good choice for Sansa BTW.

[Lightsnake]

Shadow Cat: Amoka did a picture of The Tower of Joy, portraying the three KG. In it, arthur is smaller than Gerold, with white skin and long black hair

hmm...on ideas for Ashara, I keep pulling up Nastassja Kinski and Asia Argento for some reason...

[Lyanna Stark-Targaryen]

Also... for the Frey's that've been added... the text suggests that one of their defining features is a 'weak chin'... Robin Sachs doesn't really have that. (And Ser Stevron is supposed to be in his 60's). That's my only comment on them... otherwise, casting looks good.

Well, Sachs is almost 60 so the age isn't wrong. Does Stevron have a weak chin or is it just a feature of the house?

[Tysha]

frost_byte101 -

That assumes that anyone, ever, will adapt these books for the screen! I don't think anyone on this thread actually, seriously believes we're casting for a real screen adaptation that's due to go into production next year!

I can only speak for myself, but personally the fun of this thread is just imagining it all. I love books, I love movies, and when the two meet and it's good I get happy. And I like imagining the whole thing - so, how it would actually be adapted (i.e. what would be changed, what would be left out, whether there would be flashbacks). When it comes to the actors, I like casting someone who can act as well as look the part - even though they're not really, seriously going to play it - because I like imagining the whole actor - not just their face, but their voice and the way they move. I don't want to imagine someone being completely wooden even if their face does fit.

However, while it's all very well imagining this, it's quite another thing to really prepare and plan for an adaptation.

I also don't think that assuming all this will be digital is fun at all! If we start doubling actors up it takes the enjoyment out of choosing actors for those roles. It also assumes that digital will overtake live action, which would just be horrible! No matter how good technology gets, digital will never be a substitute for a real human face.

[Maester Joergensen]

If we find someone better for Qyburn, i think Pete Postlethwaite would make a great Septon Utt.

i would like to cast all the mummers.

Shagwell is hounting my mind.

And the scene where jaime looses his hand is going to be monumental, but we can´t cast Zollo before we find a consensus on the dothraki race issue.

And i think Vargo Hoat is wrong. I know i am not helping when i just criticise without suggesting someone else, but he is supposed to be very tall, and stickthin, with a long drawn out face. And he has to be older than Giovanni Ribisi as he has travelled to all the lands where he has collected those coins in his necklace. And he has risen to commnader if the brave companions.

[Steel General]

How about Kathy Bates as Mirri Maaz Duur (sp?)?

[Lyanna Stark-Targaryen]

How about Kathy Bates as Mirri Maaz Duur (sp?)?

She looks the part, can she be evil?

[Q T Pie]

Lollys Stokeworth = Selma Blair, that girl can play crazy like no one's business!

[Krafus]

What is Ashara Dayne doing as a hispanic woman? Given her nephew Edric's description, I always had her pictured as a fair-skinned, purple-eyed blonde.

Oh, and about Val (a wildling woman), GRRM himself has said that looked like a "Darryl Hannah type" (although the read Darryl Hannah might be too old for the role). The woman you selected might fit, but I just thought you might like to know.

[Lightsnake]

We got a good Val, Darryl Hannah is way too old now.

And Kathy Bates can be pure evil...ever see Misery?

[Maester Yobjascz]

Grrr...

Lyanna - Could you please include this link to "http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php?s=&showtopic=12234&view=findpost&p=567950" on your website between the Dayne's heraldry and photos? If and when other actors are chosen for those roles, we can remove the link... but this would hopefully explain the reasoning behind the choices so that we don't have to revisit the topic every time someone new views the site.

I'm happy to discuss the roles and the actors, but I'd rather not have to start from square one each time...

As for Ser Stevron Frey, while I am sure that the weak chins are a feature of House Frey, I am not 100% certain that Ser Stevron is mentioned in the text as having one... though I'm fairly certain (~ 75%).

As for Val, I think both Sorvino and Suvari are fairly close to what Daryl Hannah looked like when she was younger... I think they're good choices for those roles.

As for Lollys Stokeworth... she's not crazy... she's described as dimwitted. Think of her as having Down Syndrome. She suffers from mental retardation... not psychoses. The problem is finding an actress, who's a little bit pudgy, and who has big, innocent eyes, and a soft expression. Now, Juliette Lewis played this *very* well in 'The Other Sister'... but I don't think she's quite right for Lollys (moreover, this really is a bit part right now...). But someone similar would do nicely.