Casting Coup Tuesday: The Mirror Crack'd

It's Casting Coup Tuesday, where we dream-cast an imaginary adaptation of a beloved work. All month long, we're celebrating the Queen of Crime as she and her works appeared on screen, in anticipation of the November 10th release of Murder on the Orient Express. Last week, we imagined a second Poirot. This week, may we suggest a Miss Marple?

Published in 1962, the majority of The Mirror Crack'd is an observation of the changing landscape of England, especially its countryside, 15 years after The War. Since then, St. Mary Mead has been incorporated, a new suburban row of homes - dubbed the Development - has been built behind the vicarage, Miss Marple has found need for a daily companion, Dr. Haydock is retired, and Mrs. Bantry is now a widow who has sold her home to a Hollywood star.

It's the Hollywood angle that made this an obvious choice for le cinema, as we discussed earlier today. Besides the 1980 flick, the Joan Hickson television series made this the series finale...and while the Geraldine McEwan-Julia McKenzie series kind of buried it, it did cast Lindsay Duncan.

I think the main issue - not with the Hickson version, that was perfect - but the main issue has been the pressure to do the Hollywood thing, but not taking advantage of the book's most interesting aspects. They do Hollywood catfights, but not Hollywood's prescription drug problem; they explore the pressure of older actresses to seem younger (which the book does not), but ignore the multiple adopted children of Hollywood starlets. What in the world!

Which makes it ripe for a remake.

The cast after the jump. All italicized descriptions come from the Cast of Characters on page xi of the large print edition published by G.K. Hall & Co. in 1992.

Casting Coup Month: Barry Lyndon

NOMINATIONS

Best Picture

Best Director - Stanley Kubrick

Best Adapted Screenplay - Stanley Kubrick

Best Cinematography - John Alcott (WON)

Best Art Direction-Set Decoration - Ken Adam/Roy Walker/Vernon Dixon (WON)

Best Costume Design - Ulla-Britt Soderlund/Milena Canonero (WON)

Best Music, Adaptation and/or Song Score - Leonard Rosenman (WON)

My last Retrospective was a direct result of Barry Lyndon. Last May, my place of employment -- the ArcLight Hollywood, home to the world-famous Cinerama Dome -- was snubbed for the releases of The Avengers and Dark Shadows. With this two-week drought, we brought out the big guns: classic films screening in our biggest theater: Doctor Zhivago (missed it), 2001: A Space Odyssey (missed it), Gone with the Wind, The Shining, a lot of others...and this. I caught Barry Lyndon with a friend after we screened Gone with the Wind, which was really quite risky considering one's three hours and the other four. But it mattered not: while I already was firmly in the Gone with the Wind, I found another great love in Barry Lyndon.

Casting Coup Tuesdays: Dracula

Let's flashback all the way to my childhood -- say, third grade, probably second. I had FINALLY discovered cinema proper, thanks to my local library and the Universal Studios MONSTERS Classic Collection. (Remember those ads? "Classic monster titles...with a haunting new look...at a price...TO DIE FOR!") I put this movie on...and a sense of deja vu came over me. I seemed to have a vague memory of posters at my grandmother's house...a book with photographs...my parents watching a movie in the middle of the night.... Although I hadn't realized it when I first got the film, the 1931 Dracula was as permanent a part of my life as my surname. Yes, Nana did have reversible posters of the Universal Monsters. And yes, our only copy of the novel was illustrated with photos from the film (including deleted scenes!). I still know that it was Aunt Barbara who bought me the VHS for my 10th birthday. I have memories of being Bela Lugosi for Halloween when I was eight -- not Dracula, but Lugosi. There's even a copy of the shooting script at my house!

Suffice to say, Dracula impacted me in a significant way. It was the first film I really fell in love with, making it pretty much responsible for my film degree, blog, and L.A. residence. I've never read the novel -- I find it difficult to get into those journal entries. Curiously, too, I haven't seen a great many other Dracula films. Not Coppola's, not Hammer's, not Warhol's. It's a curious blind spot, though perhaps I just have trouble picturing anyone but Lugosi in the role.

Still, that doesn't mean I'm unwilling to try. Indeed, Dracula is also the movie I most wanted to remake when I was younger, because admired so much the original. This is a reason I've never had a problem with remakes: I understand that it's not always an attempt to make a better movie, but to be a part of your favorite movie. It doesn't always succeed, but God love whoever tries.

In other words, God love me. Let's give it a whirl:

MARTIN

Who is He: A cockney attendant of the sanatorium. Frequently loses track of both Renfield and common sense.

Originally played by:

Charles Gerrard (Journey's End, A Political Party)

My Choice:

Nick Frost (Hot Fuzz, Attack the Block)

LUCY WESTON

Who is She: A friend of Mina's, she finds herself beguiled by the Count when she meets him at the opera. She later dies mysteriously, only to be seen throughout the city luring away children.

Originally played by:

Frances Dade (The Constant Nymph, Daughter of the Dragon)

My Choice: Academy Award/Golden Globe/SAG Award/Hollmann Award Nominee/BAFTA Award Winner for Best Actress [Drama], SAG Award Nominee for Best Ensemble (An Education)

Carey Mulligan (Never Let Me Go, Drive)
Yes, Mulligan, if only to get her back to that engaging flirtiness she brought to Pride & Prejudice. Besides, you wouldn't expect someone like Mulligan to buy it so early on, would you?

DR. SEWARD

Who is Head: Runs Seward Sanatorium, property that neighbors Carfax Abbey. Becomes concerned when his daughter Mina starts exhibiting the same symptoms as Lucy. Eventually, he calls upon his old friend and colleague Van Helsing.

Originally played by:

Herbert Bunston (The Lady of Scandal, The Richest Girl in the World)

My Choice:

Ciaran Hinds (The Rite, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy)

RENFIELD

Who is He: A real estate agent who visits Transylvania to close the Carfax Abbey deal with Dracula. And then he is turned into a crazed, bug-eating servant of the count. He winds up in Seward Sanatorium, where he tries to warn the others of the evil powers of the vampire.

Originally played by:

Dwight Frye (Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein)

My Choice: BAFTA Award Nominee for Best Supporting Actor (The Queen), SAG Award Nominee for Best Ensemble (Frost/Nixon)

Michael Sheen (The Twilight Saga: New Moon, Midnight in Paris)
Sheen's amazing versatility fits here, where he can play both straight-laced and utter bonkers.

JONATHAN HARKER

Who is He: Fiance of Mina. Doesn't believe in all this vampire hokum, just thinks everyone's acting weirder than usual.

Originally played by:

David Manners (The Mummy, The Black Cat)

My Choice:

Ben Whishaw (I'm Not There, Bright Star)

MINA SEWARD

Who is She: Seward's beautiful daughter, engaged to Harker. After Lucy's death, Mina, too, starts to fall under the spell of Dracula. Her nightmares and trances begin to worry her, though, and she soon entrusts herself to the care of Van Helsing.

Originally played by:

Helen Chandler (The Last Flight, Christopher Strong)

My Choice:

Emma Watson (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, My Week with Marilyn)
She's getting better with each film. Like Mina, she has a lovely innocence about her...but surely that snog in the penultimate Harry Potter film shows she possesses an untapped carnality, as well. Perhaps she can go there when Mina's under the spell...

VAN HELSING

Who is He: Austrian colleague of Seward's who believes in vampires. The hero of the story, Dracula's only real equal in mental strength.

Originally played by:

Edward Van Sloan (Frankenstein, The Mummy)

My Choice: Academy Award Nominee for Best Documentary (Encounters at the End of the World)

Werner Herzog (The Grand, Cave of Forgotten Dreams)

DRACULA

Who is He: The King of the Vampires!

Originally played by:

Bela Lugosi (Son of Frankenstein, Plan 9 from Outer Space)

My Choice:

Alexander Skarsgard (Straw Dogs, Melancholia)

With that foreign accent and those ivory good looks, doesn't he look like an undead count already? Not to pigeonhole him with the whole "True Blood" thing, but there's a reason. There is a reason.

Pretty and Dumb

When I think of TRON: Legacy, I can't help but be reminded of one or two girls I knew in high school. Beautiful girls, popular girls, girls who actually managed to maintain a high GPA so as to be in the top ten percent of our graduating class. One in particular was in all the AP and Honors classes, was popular with people, absolutely lovely to look at (and got prettier all the time), threw fun parties, the works. But despite those classes and everything, whenever she opened her mouth, she sounded like an idiot. This isn't one of those, "That's bizarre, maybe she's thinking on another level" kind of things. This is a "Does...does she understand any of what she just said?" kind of thing. Conversation confused her. She would stare at whatever room she entered like it just appeared in her path. She was kind of an idiot.

That's like TRON: Legacy. The movie sure is pretty, with the most realistic-looking VFX of the year...well, except for the mo-cap Jeff Bridges. When Bridges is supposed to be the villainous CLU, it works, since CLU is a computer program. When Bridges is supposed to be young Bridges, it looks like a CGI monster, like a Ken doll with deader eyes. Creepy. But the world of TRON: Legacy -- that is, the computer universe that our hero (Garret Hedlund) and real-life Bridges find themselves trapped in -- that's just astonishing. The monochromatic palette surely helps the illusion, but great is great, and these effects are almost Avatar-level. If it wasn't for the mo-cap horror...

Anyway, the VFX are stellar. You know what else is grand? The Daft Punk score. It's epic in it's compositions, broad and big, with violins and synth and 8-bit sounds. I actually got intense goosebumps more than once from the integration of score and VFX. It's enough of an 80s-era throwback while still remaining contemporary. Then there's beautiful Olivia Wilde, stunning as a program sympathetic to Bridges and Hedlund, who actually pulls off the hybrid with believability and craft. Garrett Hedlund is a fine leading man, Michael Sheen steals most of it with his one-scene, Bowie-esque role.

But it's just so dumb. Like, everything is just stupid. There's little consistency between everything that happens. Bridges doesn't want any of the programs to escape because they don't belong in the world, but he wants Wilde's Quorra to escape because of what she'll bring to the world? Or something? CLU wants to use the portal to escape and dominate; why didn't he do this during his coup against Flynn when the portal was initially open? In fact, if the portal opened when Hedlund entered, why didn't he do it then? Why does he need Flynn's disc to do anything? Couldn't he use the portal and destroy TRON so that he can remain in the Real World with an army?

If any of these questions were answered, I missed it. I was totally into the film until the protagonist was reunited with his father in the TRON world (hardly a spoiler, it's in the trailer). Then I zoned out for a bit, because every dialogue scene is B-O-R-I-N-G. And it doesn't matter if you zone out, because they'll repeat everything in every scene throughout the film, and also have flashbacks that repeat what you heard. None of it is interesting, or even pseudo-intelligent. There are plot and logic holes that you could steer a cruise ship through. And Bridges' performance is dull, mechanical, unpleasant to watch. Hedlund is fine, Wilde and Sheen and Bruce Boxleitner are great, but Bridges...eh. And I'm a fan, making it all the more depressing.

If you just want some eye candy, whether it be VFX or the film's stars (Wilde is va-va-voom), you won't be disappointed. If you want an actual story, you're better off with The Fighter and Black Swan.

Casting Coup: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

It's incredible to think that Hag Horror actually had a place of respectability within the film community. It isn't always that an Oscar Winner can also claim Cult Status, but it happens. So before Who Slew Auntie Roo?, Strait Jacket, Night Watch and Berserk!, Hag Horror began with a bang, as well as a question: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

I recently wrote about my own relationship with this film. Suffice to say, it's one of my favorites, right up there with Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in the genre of Ponderous B&W Films Starring Wrinkled Women Made in The Sixties. And since I've recently watched it, it's a natural candidate for a Casting Coup.

What can be said about this film that hasn't been said before? By me? For one, Jack L. Warner was completely against the idea of making a movie starring two actresses past their prime. This is especially interesting because, as much as we can bellyache about ageism and sexism in today's Hollywood, at the time of the film's release, Bette Davis and Joan Crawford were, respectively....54 AND 57 YEARS OLD. By those standards, the following actresses are ripe for hag horror: Joan Allen, Kim Basinger, Geena Davis, Whoopi Goldberg, Amy Irving, Mary Steenburgen, Mary McDonnell, Oprah Winfrey and Kathleen Turner.

Actually, I guess Irving, Basinger, Davis and Turner really don't have the careers they had in their youth. BUT STILL.

Baby Jane was nominated for two BAFTA Awards, two Golden Globes, and the DGA Award. AFI named Baby Jane Hudson the 44th Greatest Movie Villain in 2003. The film was featured, very effectively, in House of Wax, and even referenced on an episode of "Seinfeld". It also led to a successful follow-up, Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte, which went on to be nominated for seven Oscars. In 1991, the Redgrave sisters starred in a made-for-TV remake, with Vanessa as Blanche and Lynn as Baby Jane.

Before all that, though, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? was nominated for five Academy Awards. Joseph D. Kelly, the head of the Seven Arts-Warner Bros. sound department, was nominated for Best Sound, losing to John Cox's work at Shepperton for Lawrence of Arabia. Ernest Haller's eerie Cinematography lost to Jean Bourgoin and Walter Wottitz double-teaming for The Longest Day in the Black-and-White category. I've not seen The Longest Day, but it better have some impressive camera work! Victor Buono, a newcomer to film, would later become known as the villainous King Tut on "Batman" starring Adam West; that night, however, he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, which went to Ed Begley for Sweet Bird of Youth. Bette Davis should have won for Best Actress, but the award went to Anne Bancroft's admittedly strong work in The Miracle Worker. Joan Crawford, furious at her being snubbed, offered to accept on Bancroft's behalf if she didn't show. Well, Joan got her chance, and reportedly snapped to Bette, "Out of my way!" as she made her way to the stage.

But it won! Yes, Baby Jane, the grand guignol of hag horror, the movie where parakeets are murdered, maids are hammered, and a heavily made-up Bette Davis dances around a beach, Baby Jane won an Academy Award! In the category of Costume Design - Black-and-White, Norma Koch reigned supreme. She even beat out seven-time champion Edith Head's designs for The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance! And when you see Bette Davis in outfits like this:

...you can see the appeal.

Besides, it's a subject that's still relevant. In the movie, Jane is a great child star, but no one respects her as a legitimate actress when she grows up. She takes to drinking, then tries to stage a comeback after forty years...a comeback which involves her wearing the wigs and costumes of her childhood. It's the cautionary Child Star Tale that we all know. Look at its effects on people like Brad Renfro or Lindsay Lohan. Look at the dangers of parents managing their careers, like the Culkins, Gary Coleman's family, or Dina Lohan. It's a subject we know all too well.

But how on Earth does one go about recasting this gem? Really, it all stems from the idea that older actresses should be BEGGING to take these roles. My God, they're the juiciest fun an actress could ever have! The only ones disqualified would be Judi Dench, because she did Notes on a Scandal, and Maggie Smith, because of Keeping Mum. But holy hell, older actresses playing older actresses trying to recapture their youth? YES, PLEASE!

That said, things are being done a little differently for this Coup. Read on...

RAY HUDSON
Who is He: The girls' father. Finding that his younger daughter, Jane, had golden hair and an ability for song-and-dance, he trotted her out to make money as a STAR. He was a promoter and manager first, a father fourth or fifth. Any frustration he took out on Blanche.

Originally played by:

Dave Willock (Revenge of the Creature, Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte)

My Choice: Indie Spirit Nominee for Best Actor (Happiness)

Dylan Baker (Thirteen Days, Trick 'r Treat)
Skeezy schemer with a shit-eating grin. That's a face that belongs in a straw boater and pinstripes.


DEHLIA FLAGG
Who is She: The mother of Edwin. This English expatriate taught her son how to play music. She does not mind that he still lives at home, she's just glad to have her precious little boy around her.

Originally played by:

Marjorie Bennett (Man of a Thousand Faces, One Hundred and One Dalmatians)

My Choice:

Julia McKenzie (Shirley Valentine, Bright Young Things)
She's played slightly daffy women before. Besides that, though, she humanizes even the smallest of roles. Remember her brief but memorable turn as Dame Judi's sister in Notes on a Scandal?


MRS. BATES
Who is She: Neighbor to the Hudson sisters. Mrs. Bates is a big fan of Blanche's movies, and often sends her flowers and fan letters. Though put off by Baby Jane's bitter rudeness, Mrs. Bates is always trying to be neighborly.

Originally played by:

Anna Lee (The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, In Like Flint)

My Choice: Indie Spirit Nominee for Best Supporting Actress (Woman Thou Art Loosed)

Loretta Devine (I Am Sam, My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done)


ELVIRA STITT
Who is She: Maid to the Hudson sisters. She is great friends with Blanche, but fears that Jane is slowly losing her mind. Elvira and Blanche plan on selling the house, getting Jane help, and moving to a smaller place. She only comes once a week, so she is shocked to discover the torture that has been building since her last visit.

Originally played by:

Maidie Norman (Written on the Wind, Airport '77)

My Choice: Indie Spirit Winner for Best Supporting Actress (Lone Star)

Elizabeth Pena (Transamerica, D-War)


EDWIN FLAGG
Who is He: Dehlia's son. Edwin answers an ad in the paper looking for a pianist; it is Jane, seeking an accompanist for her comeback. But Edwin is not at all the charming young Englishman he makes himself out to be. He, too, is a drunk; worse, he's a scoundrel, exploiting older women's tenderness to make money off of them. He is not interested in Jane's comeback or friendship. He just wants her money. This is something flirtatious, sad Jane never realizes.

Originally played by: Academy Award/Golden Globe Nominee for Best Supporting Actor (What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?)

Victor Buono (Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte, Beneath the Planet of the Apes)

My Choice: BAFTA Award Nominee for Best Supporting Actor (The Queen), SAG Award Nominee for Best Ensemble (Frost/Nixon)

Michael Sheen (The Damned United, The Twilight Saga: New Moon)
"As for that silly Mr. Blair with his Cheshire Cat grin..." He does have a disarming charm to him, doesn't he? One that could hide his ulterior motives. I give him the role of Edwin because he has played schemers and charmers before, and he could have a ball with it.

BABY JANE & BLANCHE HUDSON
Who are They: The Hudson Sisters grew up in each other's shadow. As children, Baby Jane was a vaudeville star, with Blanche has the plain ol' brunette. As they grew older and went into film, Blanche's beauty and talent guaranteed her success in Hollywood; Jane couldn't act her way through an Ed Wood film, but Blanche always saw to it that Jane made a movie a year. The switch hurt Jane, and she took to drunken bitterness. Forty years later, after a car accident at the front gate of their home, Blanche is paralyzed, bound to a wheelchair, while Jane walks about in full makeup, caking more on every day. "Sister, sister, oh so fair; Why is there blood all over your hair?"

Originally played by: Academy Award Winner for Best Actress (Dangerous, Jezebel), BAFTA Award Nominee for Best Foreign Actress (What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?), Golden Globe Nominee for Best Actress in a Drama (All About Eve, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?) and

ALSO: Best Actress in a Musical/Comedy (Pocketful of Miracles)
Academy Award Winner for Best Actress (Mildred Pierce), BAFTA Award Nominee for Best Foreign Actress (What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?), Golden Globe Nominee for Best Actress in a Drama (Sudden Fear)

Bette Davis (Now, Voyager, Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte) as Baby Jane Hudson
Joan Crawford (The Unknown, Grand Hotel) as Blanche Hudson

My Choice:
Now, here's where things get a little different. I always like to post my definite performers, the ones I would hire first. But I have to admit, that when it comes to Baby Jane, I would hold final auditions. Provided these women would audition, of course. So, there's still the Two Hollywood Stars as Jane and Blanche, but I have two choices for each.

The Nominee Sisters:
Academy Award Nominee for Best Actress (Peggy Sue Got Married), Golden Globe Winner for Best Actress in a Musical/Comedy (Romancing the Stone, Prizzi's Honor)
ALSO: Academy Award/Golden Globe/Indie Spirit/SAG Award Nominee for Best Actress [in a Drama] (The Contender), SAG Award Nominee for Best Actress and Best Ensemble/Academy Award/BAFTA Award Nominee for Best Supporting Actress (Nixon), Academy Award/Golden Globe Nominee for Best Supporting Actress (The Crucible)

Kathleen Turner (Body Heat, Marley & Me) as Baby Jane Hudson
Joan Allen (The Notebook, The Upside of Anger) as Blanche Hudson
Turner is an actress who, though still respected, was better known in the 1980s. Her sole Oscar nomination came in 1986. Even on stage, her successful, lauded work in The Graduate was ignored by the Tony committee, while she went home a bridesmaid the night she was nominated for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. Meanwhile, Allen is always finding new areas of success. The last of her three Oscar noms was in 2001, she won a Tony in 1988, and she has that new TV Movie Georgia O'Keeffe which garnered some awards recognition. Seeing these two play off each other would be a dream come true.

OR

The Winner Sisters:
Academy Award/Golden Globe Winner for Best Actress [in a Drama] (Sophie's Choice) and Best Supporting Actress (Kramer vs. Kramer), BAFTA Award/Golden Globe Winner for Best Actress [in a Musical/Comedy] (The French Lieutenant's Woman), Golden Globe Winner for Best Actress in a Musical/Comedy (The Devil Wears Prada, Julie & Julia) and Best Supporting Actress (Adaptation), SAG Award Winner for Best Actress (Doubt), Hollmann Award Winner for Best Supporting Actress (A Prairie Home Companion)
ALSO: Academy Award/SAG Award Winner for Best Actress (Dead Man Walking), BAFTA Award Winner for Best Actress (The Client), Golden Globe Nominee for Best Actress in a Drama and Musical/Comedy (Bull Durham, White Palace, Thelma & Louise, Lorenzo's Oil, Dead Man Walking, Stepmom) and Best Supporting Actress (Igby Goes Down), Hollmann Award Nominee for Best Supporting Actress (In the Valley of Elah, Speed Racer)

Meryl Streep (Marvin's Room, Prime) as Baby Jane Hudson
Susan Sarandon (Atlantic City, The Lovely Bones) as Blanche Hudson
Streep loves chewing the scenery while still giving dimension to her characters, so Baby Jane would be excellent for her. Sarandon is better in quieter roles, and that sex kitten voice would be purr-fect for the more soothing Blanche. I know Meryl has a smooth voice, too, but she also loes doing new voices.

Which of these pairings would you like to see? Or do you have some ideas of your own? Gimme the feedback below!

What is This?

I...I don't quite know what to make of New Moon.

It's a more formalistic style of filmmaking than its predecessor, Twilight. Chris Weitz just does not possess the stylized WTF talent of Catherine Hardwicke. And I say thank God for that, because I could actually concentrate on the storyline, the acting and the dialogue. Also, God damn him for that, because I could actually concentrate on the storyline, the acting and the dialogue.

If the right director takes Taylor Lautner under his/her wing, this kid's got a bright career ahead of him. He has more personality than the majority of this ensemble and has a better chemistry with Kristen Stewart. The kid's charming. He's got presence. He's not a bad actor, either; he just needs someone to make sure he doesn't develop a bag of tricks. Stewart was a promising actress, too, but she's got a bag of tricks that she leans on too easily. The girl's beginning to deliver all of her "dramatic" dialogue like a third-rate Shatner impersonator. It's embarrassing.

I hope Robert Pattinson goes away.

Michael Sheen really does steal the show. He seems to be the only one -- well, besides Anna Kendrick and Billy Burke -- who is fully aware of the movie he's in. So what if he plays it as a tribute to Joel Grey's Cabaret Emcee? It's a brilliant choice, and it works.

The best thing about these movie's is still the soundtrack. Alexandre Desplat's score is better than it should be, and the songs are pretty cool. I'd buy the soundtrack. Totally.

I don't understand anybody who is on Team Edward. I swear. It's like wanting to be Sid and Nancy.

This is a very terrible movie. So very, very terrible. Yet it haunts me, and I find myself unable to sleep. Like a screaming teenager going through undead boyfriend withdrawal.