Imaginary Casting

Imaginary Casting

Mar 25

Sifting through some old interviews and such, I came across a little piece I did on Warren Ellis circa his Counter-X Plotmaster days, wherein he briefly touched on the rumored Transmetropolitan flick. Nothing was really cookin’ at the time — there had been, he noted, a dinner with Patrick Stewart, but that was about it. The comment made me wonder if anything had transpired since then, or if anything was, in fact, transpiring RIGHT AT THIS VERY MOMENT.

According to good ol’ occasionally unreliable Wikipedia and interviews linked therein, the Stewart version never came to fruition, but Ellis and Darick Robertson do like the idea of Tim Roth in the role. I must say, Roth certainly has the snarl down pat, and look! He’s even wearing little Spider Jerusalem-esque shades in his IMDb profile picture. That said, I can’t help but cling to the idea of Stewart playing the part, even though he’s aged out of it. Is it the unmatchable baldness? The amazing head shape? The fact that something in me just wants to see Picard get fucking nasty?

Well, whatever. Here are a few other imaginary castings that have gotten stuck in my brain lately.

Kevin McKidd as…Captain Britain

My love of Journeyman is well-documented. My love of Brian Braddock hasn’t been discussed quite as obsessively, but it’s there. McKidd has the charm, the presence, the…burliness. And he does good accents. Plus, it looks like they’re not gonna cast him as Thor any time soon, and Kevin McKidd must be in the Marvel U somehow. Of this, I am convinced.

Yvonne Strahovski as…Meggan

I think Janelle suggested this one and I just fell in love with it. Every time Chuck‘s Sarah Walker flashes that ethereal grin, I fall in love with it even more. On the complete opposite side of the comics stratosphere, I kind of also think she’d make a good Jenny Sparks. (Incidentally, in that same interview, I asked Ellis who would win in a fight between Spider and Jenny. His answer: “Jenny Sparks subtracts the electricity from Spider Jerusalem’s brain. Spider fails to notice and shoots her.”)

Blake Lively (avec red dye job) as…Young Jean Grey

Ohhhhh, a lot of you hate this, I can already tell. Hatey rays of McHate in my direction! Let me please make the case and then we can agree to disagree. This came up for two reasons. 1) The announcement that Josh Schwartz is writing an X-Men: First Class script happened and 2) me and my husband then did what any normal person would do and tried to come up with X-Men counterparts for all of the Gossip Girl characters. Serena is Jean. I initially dismissed taking this thought any further, but the more I considered it, the more I really liked it. Look: I’m not sure if I can properly explain, but Blake has A Quality. It’s alluded to both on GG and in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. There is that It Girliness, yes, but there’s also an inherent warmth, a sweetness that’s not saccharine. And yet I totally believe her when she gets tough — Serena’s brief return to Queen Bee-ness earlier this season, complete with dramatic slo-mo stride through the halls of Constance, had Dark Phoenix written all over it. And, as evidenced by the character’s up-and-down relationship with Cyclo–er, Dan, Blake knows how to do the angst. You knock her down and she just keeps getting up. Sound familiar? Finally, there’s something that works for me physically — so many of our starlets these days are little bitty slips of things, and she’s tall and fit and has amazing superheroian hair that only needs a bit of henna. (All that said, I would just like to note that I am surprisingly open on the subject of young Jean Grey casting. I think it could be a lot of people, depending on what the movie is.)

Michelle Monaghan as…Jessica Jones

Inspired by our comments thread the other week. As mentioned, an Alias movie is a tricky proposition, but if it were to ever happen…I would like this a whole lot. Michelle has fantastic range — she can do wrenching heartbreak (Gone Baby Gone), she can do non-cutesy exasperation (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang), she can do sunny sweetness (Made of Honor). She can also be interesting when the movie around her is not (Eagle Eye). She’s a stahhhhhr waiting to happen and I think she could more than handle the depth and trickiness bringing Jessica Jones to life would entail.

Kerry Butler as…Dazzler

How do our favorite dazzling Dazzler fans feel about this, I wonder? They should feel awesome because Kerry Butler is adorable and can belt out a tune and is very much at home making glorious cheese authentically endearing (she played the lead in the Broadway version of Xanadu and really did Olivia Newton-John’s flowing ribbon hair barrettes proud). If ever a gal was born to play Alison Blair, it’s her.

James Marsden as…Pete Wisdom

There are so many reasons why this will never happen and so many reasons why it probably shouldn’t work and yes this is just me going to crazy insano imaginary fanfic casting land and…and…I REALLY want to see this. EYE PATCH.