OTHER DESERT CITIES Film Casting
OTHER DESERT CITIES Film Casting
#1OTHER DESERT CITIES Film Casting
Posted: 2/8/12 at 7:12pm
With all the fun that was had dream casting the AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY film on this board, a recent post on ATC makes me curious as to who everyone here would like to see cast in the forthcoming OTHER DESERT CITIES film adaptation.
If, for the sake of discussion, we exclude the actors in the stage version (some of whom could very well end up in the movie,) I'd love to see:
Jessica Lange as Polly
Gene Hackman as Lyman
Laura Linney as Brooke
Diane Keaton as Silda
Mark Ruffalo as Tripp
I'm sure the role of the unseen brother in the stage version will be expanded into a principal character for the film for flashback sequences.
Is Meryl Streep as Polly inevitable? Not in terms of appropriateness, of course, but in terms of the push from the studio. Between DOUBT, AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY, and ANGELS IN AMERICA, it seems like she's snatched up every plum role for a woman of a certain stage in every prestigious stage-to-film adaptation of the last few years. MAMMA MIA! could even go on that list just for sheer magnitude of the role alone. This role doesn't seem right for her, but neither does Violet Weston and look how that turned out.
Tonya Pinkins: Then we had a "Lot's Wife" last June that was my personal favorite. I'm still trying to get them to let me sing it at some performance where we get to sing an excerpt that's gone.
Tony Kushner: You can sing it at my funeral.
Updated On: 2/25/12 at 07:12 PM
Tony Kushner: You can sing it at my funeral.
#2OTHER DESERT CITIES Film Casting
Posted: 2/8/12 at 7:22pmSadly, Gene Hackman has left the business. I could see Dustin Hoffman in that role. He needs something big and dramatic like that.
#2OTHER DESERT CITIES Film Casting
Posted: 2/8/12 at 7:25pm
In a recent interview at the end of last year, Hackman alluded to the slight possibility of him coming out of retirement if the right project presented itself. It seemed like a "never say never" situation. Considering his final movie (as of now) was WELCOME TO MOOSEPORT with Ray Romano, I'm thinking we may see him go in front of the camera one last time before he's truly through.
That being said, Dustin Hoffman would also make for an interesting Lyman, though I don't think you can find anyone who fits it as perfectly as Hackman does.
Tonya Pinkins: Then we had a "Lot's Wife" last June that was my personal favorite. I'm still trying to get them to let me sing it at some performance where we get to sing an excerpt that's gone.
Tony Kushner: You can sing it at my funeral.
Updated On: 2/8/12 at 07:25 PM
Tony Kushner: You can sing it at my funeral.
#3OTHER DESERT CITIES Film Casting
Posted: 2/8/12 at 7:32pm
Maybe I'm crazy, but Allison Janney comes to mind for Polly...She has that droll attitude that defines Polly for most of the show. Also Kathleen Turner...
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americanboy99
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/27/06
#4OTHER DESERT CITIES Film Casting
Posted: 2/8/12 at 8:41pm
Streep, for me, lacks some of the sass of Polly. Though she's perfect in practically everything, I'd say she's far from the most obvious choice for a film of ODC.
(On another note, I'd hate to see ODC put on film anyway. They'd need to do some real stretching to make that paper-thin plot and Lifetime movie script work on the big screen.)
vodkastinger
Stand-by Joined: 8/3/09
#5OTHER DESERT CITIES Film Casting
Posted: 2/8/12 at 10:42pmLove the idea of Diane Keaton for Silda, perfect role for her right now. Let's round it out with Sigourney Weaver, Tommy Lee Jones, Scarlet Johansson, and Jake Gyllenhaal. I would see that.
#6OTHER DESERT CITIES Film Casting
Posted: 2/8/12 at 10:46pm
^ I like that cast.
Janey would play the role well, but she seems a little young to have three adult children.
Tilda Swinton could be an interesting Brooke. I found the character very unlikable, but Swinton does a good job of taking those hard to like roles and turning out splendid performances.
"If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don't want to do it." -Stephen Colbert
#7OTHER DESERT CITIES Film Casting
Posted: 2/8/12 at 11:21pmI think Tilda is waaaay too old for that role. Paltrow would be good, though.
henrikegerman
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/29/05
#9OTHER DESERT CITIES Film Casting
Posted: 2/25/12 at 1:07am
I'd be very happy with the Broadway cast, but here goes:
Tommy Lee Jones as Lyman, Ann-Margret as Polly, Charlize Theron as Brooke, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Trip, Judy Davis as Silda
henrikegerman
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/29/05
#10OTHER DESERT CITIES Film Casting
Posted: 2/25/12 at 1:07am
I'd be very happy with the Broadway cast, but here goes:
Tommy Lee Jones as Lyman, Ann-Margret as Polly, Charlize Theron as Brooke, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Trip, Judy Davis as Silda
#11OTHER DESERT CITIES Film Casting
Posted: 2/25/12 at 1:22amI saw the show again last night and thought how Sandra Bullock would make a great Brooke.
henrikegerman
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/29/05
#12OTHER DESERT CITIES Film Casting
Posted: 2/25/12 at 1:48am^I agree that she'd be very good. But, Jordan, Sandra is only four years younger than Tilda Swinton. I also think Catherine Keener would be excellent. Although she's a year older than Tilda.
#13OTHER DESERT CITIES Film Casting
Posted: 2/25/12 at 8:15am
Assuming that none of the Broadway/Off-Broadway cast would be reprising their roles:
Polly Wyeth: Jessica Lange
Lyman Wyeth: Tom Wilkinson
Brooke Wyeth: Vera Farmiga
Tripp Wyeth: Andrew Garfield
Silda Grauman: Brenda Blethyn
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
henrikegerman
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/29/05
#16OTHER DESERT CITIES Film Casting
Posted: 2/25/12 at 10:42am
I think Andrew Garfield plays too young for Tripp, especially if he's Jessica Lange's (who by the way is amazing casting) son.
But
Polly Wyeth: Elizabeth McGovern
Lyman Wyeth: Hugh Bonneville
Brooke Wyeth: Michelle Dockery
Tripp Wyeth: Dan Stevens
Silda Grauman: Penelope Wilton
#17OTHER DESERT CITIES Film Casting
Posted: 2/25/12 at 10:51amMaggie Smith can have a cameo as Nancy Reagan.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#19OTHER DESERT CITIES Film Casting
Posted: 2/25/12 at 10:59amI'm picturing how Penelope Wilton would deliver the line about Helen Bloom getting run over by a Fed Ex truck on Bob Hope Drive.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
henrikegerman
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/29/05
#21OTHER DESERT CITIES Film Casting
Posted: 2/25/12 at 11:05am
Elizabeth McGovern? Elizabeth McGovern is 50.
In 2004, when the play is set, Elizabeth McGovern was 42 (I guess that doesn't really matter all that much, I'm getting a little dyslexic figuring this all out...)
But no matter how you slice it, during the Viet Nam war Elizabeth McGovern was a child, or in no sense old enough to be a Bel Air matron married to a veteran movie star with three children - one of them old enough to be a revolutionary - who had once been a screenwriter at MGM and certainly not half of a Republican power couple who counts Nancy Reagan as one of her dearest friends.
The part should go to an actress born in her 40s - Ann-Margret, Stockard Channing, Jessica Lange.
Channing should really get the movie role. No one could really do it better.
And I love the idea of Blethyn as Silda.
Updated On: 2/25/12 at 11:05 AM
#22OTHER DESERT CITIES Film Casting
Posted: 2/25/12 at 11:08amHenrik, you obviously don't watch DOWNTON ABBEY.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
henrikegerman
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/29/05
#23OTHER DESERT CITIES Film Casting
Posted: 2/25/12 at 11:15am
hehe! She is playing Cora's age quite well, indeed, AC.
But I also think the few roles for much older actresses should actually go to much older actresses.
Not to mention that almost eighteen years have gone by since the first episode of Downtown Abbey (the sinking of the Titanic, April, 1912) and the last episode of the second season (Christmas 1919). And the show has very good age makeup (which is not always the case in American movies lately - exhibit A: Armie Hammer in J. Edgar)
Updated On: 2/25/12 at 11:15 AM
#24OTHER DESERT CITIES Film Casting
Posted: 2/25/12 at 11:16am
I suggested Jessica Lange at the onset of this thread. She'd be phenomenal.
Love your idea of Vera Farmiga, AC.
Tonya Pinkins: Then we had a "Lot's Wife" last June that was my personal favorite. I'm still trying to get them to let me sing it at some performance where we get to sing an excerpt that's gone.
Tony Kushner: You can sing it at my funeral.
Tony Kushner: You can sing it at my funeral.
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