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Sep. 14th, 2008 01:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
avevale_intelligencerI've been rotating in my mind the idea of a film of The Man Who Was Thursday. (Yes, I have been on even more of a Chesterton kick than usual these past weeks. Sorry to those who haven't read him, or don't like him, or just can't see what I see in him.) There was a stage adaptation, done by his sister-in-law and a gentleman, as they used to say, but to my mind it's fairly dire, and the greater scope of film would iron out a lot of the problems that the play has to go to great lengths to solve.
One of the problems it does partially solve, which a new adaptation would have to address, is that the cast is almost completely male. There's one significant female role, but she only comes in at the beginning and the end. This could be obviated now, as it couldn't be while GKC was alive, by making one or more of the central characters female.
I'd love to try and write it, and may do so when I've either finished or given up on the Uru screenplay I'm still gestating. In the meantime...
I think Paul Bettany would be ideal for the lead role of Gabriel Syme. His colouring's perfect, his voice and tone likewise, and I can already see him in Edwardian costume with the cloak and the swordstick on the poster. (Debating whether to use the full title or just call it "THURSDAY," in--of course--that font that they always use for movie trailers and posters, whose name escapes me.) Likewise, Joss Ackland would be perfect in face and voice for the demanding role of Sunday, if he's still alive and fit enough to do it. (He was when he did Ridcully, as far as I could tell.) I've always seen Ian Holm as Doctor Bull (Saturday), the little man with the round black spectacles, and while he is getting on, I think he could still do it. Ideal casting for Professor de Worms (Friday) would be perhaps McKellen, perhaps O'Toole. Not Michael Gambon, good as he is. He would do for Colonel Ducroix, though.
And that's as far as I've got. On the off-chance there's anyone out there who knows what I'm on about, any ideas?
One of the problems it does partially solve, which a new adaptation would have to address, is that the cast is almost completely male. There's one significant female role, but she only comes in at the beginning and the end. This could be obviated now, as it couldn't be while GKC was alive, by making one or more of the central characters female.
I'd love to try and write it, and may do so when I've either finished or given up on the Uru screenplay I'm still gestating. In the meantime...
I think Paul Bettany would be ideal for the lead role of Gabriel Syme. His colouring's perfect, his voice and tone likewise, and I can already see him in Edwardian costume with the cloak and the swordstick on the poster. (Debating whether to use the full title or just call it "THURSDAY," in--of course--that font that they always use for movie trailers and posters, whose name escapes me.) Likewise, Joss Ackland would be perfect in face and voice for the demanding role of Sunday, if he's still alive and fit enough to do it. (He was when he did Ridcully, as far as I could tell.) I've always seen Ian Holm as Doctor Bull (Saturday), the little man with the round black spectacles, and while he is getting on, I think he could still do it. Ideal casting for Professor de Worms (Friday) would be perhaps McKellen, perhaps O'Toole. Not Michael Gambon, good as he is. He would do for Colonel Ducroix, though.
And that's as far as I've got. On the off-chance there's anyone out there who knows what I'm on about, any ideas?
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Date: 2008-09-14 04:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-14 06:40 pm (UTC)Who do you think could do Bull as a woman? Or any of them, come to that?
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Date: 2008-09-15 12:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-15 11:04 am (UTC)