Kevin's Watch

Good pics of Oldman, Ninquelote. I agree, he could make a perfect Covenant. Oldman is capable of the kind of volatile intensity and pathos that could bring out the real "hellfire and bloody damnation" in Thomas Covenant.

But could he play a young father with his first book barely out? Not too old for the role? For the second chronicles, maybe.

about Oldman's age, he's too old for the first trilogy, I agree...but still, if they could make Anthony Hopkins in Red Dragon look almost younger than he looks in Silence of the Lambs, maybe it's not that impossible?

I wonder which director would make the best film. One thing for sure, i don't want this movie to be destroyed by an abundance of special effects. Therefore, i don't want George Lucas to direct the movie.

Mel Gibson's a damm good director--but what part would he play?

Hi guys, sorry I've been away so long, been hellish busy designing a website for a school and other stuff... finally got some time to come back here!

Has anyone considered Tom Hanks for the role of TC? He might not look the part natively, but prosthetics, makeup and CGI can fix that. If you've seen him act in <i>Road To Perdition</i>, you'd see the makings of a brilliant TC in him. Remember, looks can be created in movies, but acting talent can't. And Tom Hanks, I think, has the personality and the dynamism to be able to carry it off.

I'd consider Jet Li to be the choice for Bannor (I've always imagined the Haruchai as having an Oriental look to them - their race name sounds Japanese!), and Guy Pearce, in my view, would be better cast as Mhoram (who was still quite young in LFB). Jurgen Prochnow as Foamfollower (fake beard and CGI scaling) since I picture Foamfollower as having that Teutonic/Scandinavian accent.

I watched <i>Firestarter 2</i> the other day and found a Lena - Marguerite Moreau, the girl who plays Charlie McGee, the Firestarter. She'd be perfect in that role. Whether she'd personally want to play a rape victim though is open to question!

Sigourney Weaver as Atiaran. Considering her performance as Ripley in <i>Alien</i>, she'd portray the long-suffering and self-deprecating Atiaran well.

I heard James Earl Jones had died. Maybe I'm mistaken, but in any case the voice of Lord Foul in my view could be played by none other than Anthony Hopkins. The man who played Hannibal Lecter is the man to play Lord Foul!

Assuming the movie of LFB would run 3 hours like the LOTR movies, I'd picture the following setup: Opening credits start with blood cells flowing over the screen, with leprosy bacteria floating between and attacking them (Symbolic intro emphasises leprosy). An intro text can describe how many people had leprosy in that time, and its outcasting effects. Zoom out from tiny blood vessel in eyeball, the eye is that of TC as he walks down the street. From this point, Chapters 1 & 2 take about 20 minutes, mostly as flashbacks as TC recalls his marriage, life in the leprosarium, and divorce. Then the phone bill scene, the beggar scene, and the accident. The location would be a studio Midwestern town set. He arrives in the land about 20 minutes into the movie.

Chapters 3 - 7 would take another 30 minutes, culminating in Lena's rape. (How this scene would be done to avoid the movie getting an R rating would be interesting! I'd picture it as: You see TC hit Lena, she falls over, you see him straddle her and reach for his belt buckle, then the camera pans up to the moon (eerily passing through clouds) while Lena's scream echoes terrifyingly from the speakers, then fade to black. Hans Zimmer or Klaus Badelt for the music here, by the way!) So the rape occurs about 50 minutes in, and the filming location could be somewhere like the Alps or Andes.

Chapters 8 - 10, culminating in the destruction of the Wraiths, would take about 20 minutes of screen time, with some good opportunities for some sweeping landscape pan shots and ennobling music. The Soaring Woodhelven scene - you could use the set from Lothlorien in LOTR for that! When I watched that scene, my mind kept straying to TCTC more than LOTR. The desecration of the Wraiths thus occurs about 1 hour 10 minutes in.

Chapters 11 - 15, the Revelstone scenes, would run for about 30 minutes, and this would be CGI-intensive, to recreate the city of Revelstone. Pulling from LOTR again, the city of Minas Tirith would be a good starting point for the design of this. So we have the start of the Quest for the Staff beginning about 1 hour 40 minutes in.

Chapters 16 - 20, covering the journey through Morinmoss, and the Plains of Ra scenes, would fill close to 40 minutes of screen time, of which probably 30 would be in Manhome and 10 would be the battle with the Cavewights and the Morinmoss scene. This could be shot in the Sequoia National park, and Ra would be somewhere like Kansas or Arizona. (Actually the Barossa Valley near where I live would be good for this!) The final leg to Mount Thunder begins about 2 hours 20 minutes in.

Chapter 21, the Mount Thunder outside scene, would be only about 10 minutes of footage, and I know <i>exactly</i> where to film it - Wilpena Pound and the Flinders Ranges, about 300 miles north of where I live. There's a high, long range called the ABC Range that's steep only on one side and about 3000 feet high - it looks just like Landsdrop. Ediowie Gorge at the northern end of Wilpena Pound, right below St. Mary's Peak, is the perfect place to film Treacher's Gorge - there's even a nasty steep stone stairway leading down into it!

Pictures:
1. ABC Range, Flinders Ranges, Australia (fourth pic down). This is a good Landsdrop shot.

2. Wilpena (4th pic), Ediowie Gorge (7th pic), St Mary's Peak (3rd and 5th pics)

Finally, Chapters 22 - 25 would take the last 40 minutes, and would be mostly CGI for the Warrenbridge, Catacombs and Kiril Threndor scenes. The last 5 minutes would be the return home (and Hans Zimmer's Covenant leitmotif played poignantly on a piano as the movie closes to credits!)

Looking at it this way, many of the characters are only bit parts - Lord Foul, for example, only appears for 5 minutes near the start of the movie, and Atiaran has about 50 minutes screen time; Lena would barely have 20. So having well-known actors in bit parts like that would reduce the cost and increase the marketability of the film.

The only thing that scares me is all the cross-promotion and merchandising that would inevitably follow - what happened to art for art's sake!

Great post, Mystikan. James Earl Jones is still alive, by the way.

Personally, I wouldn't want A-list actors on the bill. I'd prefer a cast of relative unknowns. Feels too generic to me, otherwise. Having an obvious, recognizable star play TC is just not exciting, to me. I liked the casting in Lord of the Rings. The average person hardly recognized any of the actors, save for Elrond.

Secondly, I never think of martial arts when I think of Haruchai in combat. I don't picture Haruchai as Oriental, either, because I always got the impression that they were very tall with huge, imposing frames and these hard, emotionally flat faces.

I dunno about James Earl Jones, either, heh. "Hey mom, why does Foul sound like Vader?"

I had an enjoyable reading, Mystikan. Great manuscript! I think you would do a great job as director .

I agree about Jet Li as Bannor. I never thought the Haruchai having the asian look, but when I look at Li now I believe he would be great as Bannor.

When it's about Marguerite Moreau, I don't agree...because of the age. I can't see a 16-year-old girl in her.

"Ripley" could play Atiaran, good choice! I think she would be one of those I consider most proper for the part...but I also think Madeleine Stowe (Twelve Monkeys) would do great as Atiaran...she gives me the impression of power within, can't explain ...and Weaver is just too thin

Just wanted to add that Hanks actually is older than Oldman...and I consider Oldman as a better, reliable actor, compared to Hanks. (But that's just me).

James Earl Jones isn't dead, it was something about a mix-up in 1998. We never forget him as Vader . And yeah, Hopkins in most scary
the score: hans zimmer or howard shore.

Soon art will not exist (okej, not really)...therefore I don't want a prequel. Talk about destroying your own imagination. But, if it happens, it happens...guess I just have to accept that.

Lord Foul: I agree, Elrond is, and will always be Agent Smith, gah. In the bottom of it, I don't want any famous person in the cast, me neither. But, if there will be a movie, there must be well known actors, or there will only be us, readers, who will go and see the movie.

Nonono. The music should be done by James Horner(Aliens) or John Williams(no need to name movies here).

Horner does an excellant job of maiking haunting music, which I feel is nessascary. Atiaran and Covenant both are very haunted.

Actually, I agree with you guys about having unknowns in the cast. I refer to A-list actors because everyone knows them and thus can get a picture of what I'm portraying. I'd still want Anthony Hopkins in a cameo as Lord Foul, and you'd probably have to have a name actor in a major role (say Foamfollower or Mhoram if not TC) if the movie was to be marketed, but all the others could easily be unknowns. My 16-year old niece would make a good Lena, too! I've just gotten her to read the Chronicles and she's hooked! She has a cute, innocent looking face and a pert manner that would do Lena proud... but you'd have to overlook her Aussie accent! When I see her next, I'll point her to these forums!

Byrn wrote:Nonono. The music should be done by James Horner(Aliens) or John Williams(no need to name movies here).

Horner does an excellant job of maiking haunting music, which I feel is nessascary. Atiaran and Covenant both are very haunted.

Byrn, 15 years ago I'd have agreed about Horner. His soundtrack to <i>Krull</i> is among my favourite pieces of music, and he was my favourite composer for a long time. But after <i>Willow</i>, he seemed to lose it - badly. Now he just rehashes old cues and much of his modern stuff is repetitive and bland - listen to his soundtrack to <i>Troy</i>, it's an <i>abortion</i>! He seems to have run out of steam, and unless he gets a life-changing flash of inspiration, I wouldn't want him to do the soundtrack for TC.

Williams is a good composer, but his music in TC would probably smack too much of <i>Star Wars</i>. He also doesn't seem to make much use of vocals, which I feel would be an essential element in music to TC. Also, he's getting a little weird and "experimental" lately...

I prefer Hans Zimmer or Klaus Badelt because these composers tend to write dramatic, heroic music - Zimmer did the soundtracks to <i>The Rock</i> and <i>Gladiator</i>, and Klaus Badelt did the soundtrack to <i>The Time Machine</i>. I like the dark, moody atmosphere they create in their music, and Klaus Badelt's "I Don't Belong Here" track in <i>Time Machine</i> is pure Land panorama!

Lord Foul wrote:Secondly, I never think of martial arts when I think of Haruchai in combat. I don't picture Haruchai as Oriental, either, because I always got the impression that they were very tall with huge, imposing frames and these hard, emotionally flat faces.

IIRC, the Bloodguard are described in LFB as being of similar stature to the Stowndownors, ie short and squat. Trell was the only tall Stowndownor.

Aha, here we go:

Most of the people were shorter than he was - and considerably shorter than Trell ... They were a stocky, broad-shouldered breed

On the Bloodguard:

They were like Stonedownors in size and build

Ninquelote wrote:Elrond is, and will always be Agent Smith,

Hugo Weaving had a highly respected (and awarded) career in Australian film before The Matrix. Matrix and LOTR don't allow him to show his acting skills. To allow those two films to typecast him would be like refusing to cast Bruce Willis again after Moonlighting -- throwing out an impressive resume in the process.

Well said. Though I've never seen any of Weaving's previous work, I understand he is quite respected; though he did well with Smith, it wasn't a role that required much depth or range, and Elrond didn't (IMO) give him much to work with at all. As for casting him as Covenant - I'd have to see more of his performances to comment.

Gary Oldman...yes, perhaps. He certainly has the talent, and he seems to be almost chameleonic in appearance, so I expect he could look the part. This all assuming the screenplay and direction would do justice to the TC we know and love. If given poor material, even an actor of Oldman's calibre might struggle to salvage it - witness the slightly flat Sirius Black in Prizoner of Azkaban; Oldman made a valiant effort with what he was given, but the lack of depth written into the screen version of the character let him down. Anyway, TC would certainly give him plenty to get his teeth into. Yes...I think, on balance, I'm in favour of Mr Oldman.

Aftar the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon for me Chow Yun Fat is the perfect Bannor.

amanibhavam wrote:Aftar the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon for me Chow Yun Fat is the perfect Bannor.

I agree with that. He could do any of the Haruchai who require depth of acting, and Bannor is probably the deepest.

<gets out Crouching Tiger DVD>

Dragonlily wrote:

amanibhavam wrote:Aftar the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon for me Chow Yun Fat is the perfect Bannor.

I agree with that. He could do any of the Haruchai who require depth of acting, and Bannor is probably the deepest.

Ahh, some others who see the Asiatic aspect of the Haruchai! As I mentioned before, their race-name sounds Japanese. I might add another aspect that led me to perceive them as looking Asian - SRD's description of them and their home immediately made me think of the Sherpas of Nepal and Tibet. In fact, it'd probably be a good idea, if they did make the movie, to cast real Sherpas as the Bloodguard - being native to the Himalayas, they are capable of the most astounding feats of climbing and gymnastics and could do all their own stunts!

Mystikan wrote:

Dragonlily wrote:

amanibhavam wrote:Aftar the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon for me Chow Yun Fat is the perfect Bannor.

I agree with that. He could do any of the Haruchai who require depth of acting, and Bannor is probably the deepest.

In fact, it'd probably be a good idea, if they did make the movie, to cast real Sherpas as the Bloodguard - being native to the Himalayas, they are capable of the most astounding feats of climbing and gymnastics and could do all their own stunts!

Yeah but can they ACT? Can they learn enough engrish to play the parts?
Hollywood can basically make up anyone to look like anything now-a-days.

Hey Wesley Snipes as Hile Troy??? heh heh heh

I LOVE Chow Yun Fat as an actor...anyone seen "Anna and the King"? Now, you go from that to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and he just oozes versatility and depth. And Gary Oldman...excellent actor! Seen Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban yet? The gaunt thing would work on him!

As for someone to play Lena...I don't know that there are many young actresses out there that could do the part...just so long as no one gets the hairbrained idea to desecrate the movie by bringing the Olsen twins in for the part. *grin*

If Sean Bean got really skinny i think he could do a great TC =-)

Iryssa wrote:just so long as no one gets the hairbrained idea to desecrate the movie by bringing the Olsen twins in for the part. *grin*

I know! Hillary Duff!