Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Casting Call!!

Do you have a secret desire to be a casting director?
Ever spent hours around a café table, at your favorite pub, or even online debating the merits of the choices directors and producers have made for your favorite books or films?

Would you have cast Robert Redford as Jay Gatsby, George Clooney as Batman, Keira Knightly as Elizabeth Bennett, Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow, William Shatner as Alyosha? If you answered yes (or even no!) to any of these questions, then you are more than eligible to join The Mount’s Cast Your Own contest.

In conjunction with our 2010 exhibit Dramatic License: Wharton on Stage & Screen, we not only will entertain suggestions on the “perfect” Madame Olenska or Ethan Frome, but more perhaps the more challenging prospect of casting an imaginary “biopic” of Edith Wharton’s life here at The Mount. There have been several attempts at this already, but we at The Mount feel that the time is ripe for another! For the next few weeks we will post a brief biographical sketch of each of our main characters.






















A few excellent suggestions have been made already: Julianne Moore as Edith Wharton, Tom Cruise as Teddy, the possibilities are endless! For example, your blogger cannot help but notice the very strong resemblance between Walter Van Rensselaer Berry and Squidward of Spongebob Squarepants fame!

We encourage all Whartonians and film buffs out there to post their own casting ideas in the comments section of the blog. We will take the most popular names posted over the next few months and make a shortlist for the competition. Rules and regulations will follow. Post early and Post often!

9 comments:

  1. Stephen Fry as Henry James? Helen Mirren as Minnie Jones?

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  2. Stephen Fry is perfect! He also is responsible for one of my favourite lines ever (unfortunately I can't remember what he was referring to, but whatever it was, he really didn't approve): "Sometimes there's not enough vomit in the world!"

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  3. Stanley Tucci has to play in this film!

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  4. What about Ewan McGregor as the butler Alfred White?

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  5. Interesting idea, but perhaps Ewan would be a better fit for Teddy, sweet and sympathetic but maybe a bit unstable. Tom Wilkinson or Ian McShane somewhat spivvy but very very cool.

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  6. More possibilities that occur to one and ones' colleagues: Johnny Depp as Teddy, Leslie Howard as Walter, Liam Neeson as Charles Cook the chauffeur; Sigourney Weaver as our Edith ...

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  7. How about Helen Mirren as the old EW "looking back" and Patricia Clarkson as the young Edith at The Mount?

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  8. I still think Helen Mirren should play Minnie.

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  9. Tom Selleck as Morton Fullerton.

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