links of the day and imaginary film casting

[anotheranon]

Fencing comes out of the dark: Chess with Knives interviews my coach (Ray Finkleman) and other local fencers/coaches. Nice to see the sport get some coverage. (Yeah, yeah, it's from the Times - there's supposed to be something in the Post as well but I can't find it).

From Slashdot - Hitchhiker's Guide movie starts filming in April. My own personal pick would have been Jack Davenport as Arthur Dent (Steve from Coupling, the British sea captian from POTC), but as I've never heard of any of the actors listed, I'll withold judgment (Interestingly, Zaphod Beeblebrox isn't cast yet, and /. isn't the only place I've seen mention Eddie Izzard for the role).

More movie geekiness attn. semmie17 and hadesgirl: Johnny Depp won't be playing Crowley in "Good Omens", which is a real pity, IMHO - I think he would have been really good as a demon racing around London in a Bentley, but who should have been Aziraphale? And I did always see Christina Ricci as Anathema Device...

Comments

Not exactly a "No"

[semmie17.livejournal.com]

Dear Neil,
Is Johnny Depp going to be in Good Omens?
Or is that just too good to be true?
Hope you are feeling much better.
-Lauralynn

He was going to be playing Crowley, when Terry Gilliam was going to be directing it. These days Terry's gone on to things that he was able to get the finances for, although he has left behind a script, and I doubt that any of the casting he did for Good Omens will come into play. Unless he comes back to it one day, of course.

But... that's not exactly a "No, Johnny won't be in it." Is it? Unless the movie is already in pre-production. I don't know if it is.
Do you know? I'm intensely curious, since I finished reading the book last weekend. ;p

Re: Not exactly a "No"

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

All I know is what is in Neil Gaiman's LJ feed. When Terry Gilliam was set to do the movie, he was going to cast Johnny Depp. Now Gilliam has given up or can't get funding, or otherwise isn't directing "Good Omens", so the script is available to go to another director who may choose to recast it.

Re: Not exactly a "No"

[semmie17.livejournal.com]

And with Johnny's Oscar nomination, they'd be nuts to choose anyone else to play Crowley, In My Ever So Humble Opinion. Heck, even in the book, Crowley's description matches Johnny's face. "Crowley had dark hair, and good cheekbones...and he could do really weird things with his tongue."

Re: Not exactly a "No"

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

I'm sure his Oscar nomination would weigh heavily in his favor! And I agree with you - it's difficult for me to envision anyone else in the role, especially after reading your writing with Nicky - the two characters seem similar to me :)

Re: Not exactly a "No"

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

You've finished it!!!! What didja think? Wanna adopt a Hound of Hell?

Re: Not exactly a "No"

[semmie17.livejournal.com]

Loved it! Hound of Hell, no... but I'll adopt Crowley if he needs a home. ::grin::

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

And Terry Gilliam's no longer directing????!!!!! The film is falling apart!!!!!!

Proposed Aziraphale: well, if we had a time machine available, I'd vote for the late, great John Le Mesurier (portrait here) ... probably best known to our generation as Passelewe, the king's advisor, in Terry Gilliam's "Jabberwocky." He's always been the voice of Aziraphale in my head when I'm reading the novel.

However, since moviemakers, for some STRANGE reason, insist on living actors ... well, I'll have to ponder that one a while ...

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

I'll need to watch Jabberwocky, because I can find no pix of this guy on that page!

I should probably also re-read Good Omens...

Re:

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

No, there's no portrait on the Le Mesurier bio page (and damned few of them anywhere in elecronic-land), but if you click on the word "here" in the parenthesized "(portrait here)" of my post, you should be able to see one (unless it's vanished since last night ... which is entirely possible on the Net :P)

Do rent/watch "Jabberwocky" though ... Passelewe IS Aziraphale in many ways!

[ragdoll.livejournal.com]

Mos Def is African American which means Arthur Dent is going to be black. Which is fine, I guess, although it'll be hard for me to wrap my head around anyone but David Dixon as Ford Prefect.

Weirdly, I only know who Zooey DeChanel is because until recently someone was using her as an icon avatar for Ginny Weasel in our Harry Potter RPG.

I wish Good Omens hadn't fallen through. *sobs* Neil mentioned it again recently in his journal as being dead in the water. At least until further notice.