Who Would You Cast?

[dgan]

While reading Paradise War, is anyone else reminded of Pitt and Norton Jr. in Fight Club? Their relationship always reminds me of that....just thought I'd throw that out there.

[chrystalized]

hmmm, I could see gerard butler in it but i'm not sure as who. mabye the king?

[chrystalized]

and just thinking, even though he is not british I think Cillian murphy would make a great simon, he is really good at those seemingly nice, evil in reality characters

[Maidryn]

Loved all the answers to my post about "who would you cast"? Llew is definately a hard one to do. Remember, when the series starts he's not very old (probably very early 20's-considering how long he's been in university) . So any actor you pick has to be able to play young and kind of out of shape and then be able to be a big, strong warrior and "King-material" when the series ends.
So much time happens and the main characters change so much that it would be a very hard movie to make. I think that's why no film-maker has tackled making a film of a SRL book.

[Maidryn]

I love the suggestion of Gerard Butler but I may be biased because I'd like to see Gerard Butler in every movie ever made.

[jerkfaktory]

I got these books when i was veyr young, probally 11 or so, and read them over twice. They became my favorite novels of all time.

I recently re-read them again at 24, and they were even better this time around.

Ive always wanted to write a screenplay and make a movie out of this. I have given it a lot of thought. At first i thought the only way to do it justice would be to make 3 movies. True to the story. But reading it over a few times i realized that Lawhead's style wouldnt transfer to film well. His books are long and drawn out with great detail, witch what makes them such good reads and suck you in so bad.

Then after going through it again, with careful editing these could be made into one movie and still stay true to the storyline.

The overall goal of the film for me would be to transfer Lawhead's highly emotional adventure and to humanize the Celtic people of an ancient world. Most people, espcially in the states, Think a celt is a Boston Basketball team or a leprechaun.

To really create a world and show people that YES people lived like this before the Roman Empire and before civilization as we know it for generations and were really quite bright and full of life and veyr brilliant peoples. And not in a Lord of the Rings kind of way, the sets and costumes would be based on real research and educated theroys on how they acted and talked.

Im not intersted in changing the story at all, but merely making it work in the medium of film. And consolidation of certain events to make the story flow without dragging.

heres an example of my first idea:

The movie opens silent. Fades into the greenest beautiful scene of blue skys and feilds on the edge of the wilderness. It has to be breath taking. The first noise you hear is slight foot steps and crunching of leaves. The camera focuses on a frail scared young man coming to the edge of the woods. Messy hair, ruffed up shirt, and maybe crooked glasses for effect. (this is Lewis when he first crosses over)

He looks around, feels the grass, trys to figure out exactally whats going on. He whsipers to himself "it cant be......the other world"

A slight rumble in the distance. It gets louders. lewis looks twords a hill to see what it is.

Suddenly a celtic army pours over the hill in full charge. Lewis gasps, stumbles, then begins running for his life. Running twords another hill, diagonlly back twords the forrest.

Just as he gets close to the forrest and 2nd hill, Meldryn's army is making a charge twrods the other army, lewis is caught in the middle and runs for the forest.

But its too late, he is caught in mid battle. the battle is feirce and wild. Lewis is ducking a running and bodies and blood and heads are flying. He gets pushed donw by a horse, crawls almost top safety when a warrior strikes him down, lewis covers hsi head and yells "Nooo" as the warrior rasies to strike. And the screen goes black suddenyl as a voiceover chimes in

Voiceover of Lewis: Not yet, lets start at the begining, it all began with the Aurochs...

And the screen comes back from black on a coffee table with a "Weekly World News" tabloid slapped in front on the table by coffee and toast witha picture of a blurred dead calf.

Lewis: a what Simon?

from there it goes to the opening scene from the book, and eventually leads back to the warrior about to strike Lewis when the now Celtic Simon jumps in and beheads the warrior.

The whole movie will have a journal like Narrative from lewis. And i opened with the battle scene to really hit the viewer in the face with the movie right away.

If i made this movie id make it under 3 hours, without sacrificing the stories integrity.

I love the books, and woudl always reccomend the books over film, and this would just be the film interpitation of a great story.


For Lewis, is would probally cast the kid who plays young Ocatvian in the HBO series ROME and for Simon probally J. Phenoix.

I actually have a lot more ideas for this to transfer to film, but i wouldnt half butt it, thsi would be a big money project.

[Delvyr]

I really like this Albion Movie idea! However for me to really get into it, it would have to be made well, really well. NO shortening the story, NO ruining the atmosphere and most importantly, NO destroying the characters with crappy cast picks and badly written parts. I think the only way to write a screenplay for this movie/movies would be to have, Stephen Lawhead, actively taking part of the writing procedure. You would then have to get a really good director who understands Christianity and is willing to go 100% for the project. Casting would be difficult, you wouldn't really want actors that are well known because of the type of movie. I feel this production would be great with actors that aren't in the day to day gossip magazines of Hollywood. You would also need a great film crew for all the shots of the "other world" and some good special effects guys. Finding a place to film this movies would also be very important... and as some of you have mentioned IT HAS TO BE HISTORICAL AND TRUE TO THE BOOKS!!!!! Thats the most important of all. So basically, to make this movie perfectly you're going to need a lot of money. I mean, I would rather read the book over and over then make a bad movie, but a good movie... MAN THAT WOULD ROCK! I'm sorry I don't have quite the time to give you my ideal cast but I'll get back to you guys on that. Nice thread by the way, raises some really cool questions.

[bear]

Hey I am brand new and its been a while since this thread has had a reply, but I just finished up the books a few weeks ago. I question to casting and making a movie I would love it. Gerard Butler sounds great for some part and I just saw 300 so I'm all for him. He could be a good Bran or someone of that sort. The fact that it is a Celtic movie Sean Connery needs to be there somewhere. I know there isn't a big enough role for him unless he could be Calbha (sorry if thats misspelled I don't have my books handy as I lent them to a friend) or if he would show up for a small cameo spot it would be cool to see him as the Phantarch. I am sure if a casting call were to be sent out in Europe there would be great response. I think most of the cast should be Scottish or Irish. Thinking bout how its filmed I really liked the way 300 was filmed and I think that could make a good film. Ok I have probably rambled longer than I should for my first post. L8R

[Merlin]

morgan freeman because he has to be in every movie

[kg00ds]

Thanks for your reply. I feel it was well thought out. Hopefully somedsy a movie will be made.

[CynanMachae]

What about Scatha? Judi Dench, or is she too old?

[Child of Immanuel]

I don't really know who you're talking about, but Scatha was fairly old. She was the mother of three grown daughters.

[Daae]

I love Judi Dench, but I can't really see her as Scatha. I really need to re-read these books.

Anyway, what about Milo Ventimiglia as either Llew (he plays Peter on Heroes)? He can do both the kinda awkward, but sweet guy and the dark, brooding hero type. Granted, he isn't exactly "paunchy", but we've all seen what they can do with make-up these days. Oh, and I agree with what other people have said. If someone actually turned the Song of Albion into a movie(s), I would love to see Gerald Butler in it. Reign of Fire aside, he's one of my favorite actors (I still have to see 300).

[Child of Immanuel]

This board uses phbb codes, Daae, so use these: [ ] instead of these: < >, at least for the italic code.

[Daae]

Whoops, my bad. I had just been posting on deviantART, which uses HTML, and had a brain fart. Fixed it now though.