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Recasting Book-Films.
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Recasting Book-Films.
Recasting Book-Films.
My greatest pet peeve (yes, even greater than loud snoring and know-it-alls) is when a perfectly good book is turned sour in a film due to infernally bad casting. Now, if the book was bad to begin with, there's usually nothing anyone can do about that, but if the book was good, and the film is good in terms of action/direction/plot/etc, and the casting was bad, I can't stand it.
So this thread is going to be entirely dedicated to us disgruntled viewers who think movies could have been so much better if someone only decided to recast a part.
For instance:
The Three Musketeers (2011)--I couldn't stand Logan Lerman as D'Artangnan. I liked him as Percy Jackson, but he completely lacked the maturity the character of D'Artangnan required. Besides, he was entirely too cocky. I would think Jeremy Irvine could have done better. After all, nearly the entire rest of the cast was British. Why not D'Artangnan, then?
Jane Eyre (1943)--Orsen Welles, who is supposed to be this great actor, played Rochester. Now, as many of you Jane Eyre lovers know (and indeed, this is the only reason why I liked the book) Rochester is supposed to be a brooding, dark, Byronic hero. There was nothing romantic about the way Welles played the part. He's trained for Shakespeare and no doubt did Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth and the like, so why did he fail as Edward Rochester? Laurence Olivier (who played Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights and Maxim de Winter in Rebecca) would have been a much better choice.
Who do you think could have been better in what?
submitted by Everinne, age 14, Theatre
(November 23, 2013 - 9:58 pm)
(November 23, 2013 - 9:58 pm)
First post! Well, I can't say about your examples, Everrine, but I hated the casting in the PJO movie. I saw the first one, haven't seen the second one. It was all messed up all over! They were all too old, wrong hair, wrong body shape, and they weren't very good actors! (I hear Logan Lerman is actually a very good actor, so I don't know. Maybe he was bothered by the green screen and that impeded a good performance.)
Who would have been better? Hmm... well, she wasn't old enough in 2010, but now, I'd believe Chloe Grace Mortez as Annabeth. I'm not sure about Percy.
(November 24, 2013 - 7:12 pm)
@ Joe the Stickfiddler:
Logan Lerman is NOT A GOOD ACTOR! Anyone who thinks he is blind. I've seen him in two movies already and everything he does points to bad acting. Besides, he looks like the singer Phillip Phillips—this has no relevance to his acting, but it annoys me.
Chloe Grace Mortez was in Hugo, wasn't she? I liked her quite a bit in that.
Also, an aside: I can't really stand the actress Hailee Stienfield. Mostly because they call her a "Shakespearean" actress simply because she was in Romeo and Juliet—a bad Romeo and Juliet at that, and not even with the play's actual dialogue. This might be arrogant, but I think I could have done that part just as well as she did.
(November 24, 2013 - 8:31 pm)
Additional thoughts:
I somehow think that Peter Jackson could have cast someone else as Frodo than Elijah Wood. Now, I don't think he's a bad actor. In Fellowship, I thought he was quite good. But something about his faux accent and lack of general expression ended up irking me. Especially in Return of the King when he sees Gandalf alive and well and starts laughing. Loudly. As if he hadn't gone through this harrowing experience. I really wouldn't have an idea who else could have done it, but preferably someone British/Scottish like Merry and Pippin.
I didn't see The Golden Compass, so I might not know what I'm saying here, but I imagined Lord Asriel so much differently than how Daniel Craig looks. I don't know how he played the character; he might have nailed it, but he doesn't look like how Phillip Pullman describes.
(November 24, 2013 - 8:47 pm)
The Meaning Life with Jeremy Fink
HORRIBLE. Jeremy doesn't sound curious like the book, he's all whiny. And Lizzy has blonde hair instead of red hair. Don't watch it. My Dad did and said it was plain HORRIBLE. Why did Wendy Mass have to sign off her rights for the movie?!
(November 24, 2013 - 9:22 pm)
Re: Logan Lerman: I wouldn't say he's a horrible actor, although that's your own opinion. I admit, I'm not a big fan and I was pretty unhappy when he was cast in The Perks of Being a Wallflower but he was fantastic in the role. He really was just like how I imagined Charlie. So, if you don't hate him that much, I would take your time to watch The Perks. It might change your mind about him, a little.
And if I were recasting a movie, I would certainly change the Percy Jackson cast. All of them, except maybe Grover. And I would have someone else play Four/Tobias in Divergent.
(November 25, 2013 - 10:15 am)
I don't watch that many movies, and I certainly don't pay attention the actors all that well, but here are a few things I've noticed.
The Book Thief: I was able to watch about thirty seconds of the trailer before turning off the computer in disgust. I detest the girl who plays Liesel. She just seems very, very off to me. Does she have a British accent? I think she does, but I can't go looking it up without the iPad erasing everything I've already typed. Ugh! I want to slap her! Hans seems just all wrong, wrong, wrong, Rosa is... ehh... pretty ehh. I don't even know what horrors they've do e for casting Rudy and Max.
The Golden Compass: My sister kept on complaining about Mrs. Coulter, but it actually liked how she turned out in the movie. She seems very in Mrs. Coulter' character.
(November 25, 2013 - 6:49 pm)
@ Elizabeth M:
I totally agree with you Re: Divergent. Theo James is somehow not right for Tobias, though I can't exactly pinpoint why.
(November 25, 2013 - 8:54 pm)
In "Ramona and Beezus" Selena Gomez should not have played Beezus!
(December 8, 2013 - 8:58 pm)