Film Fantasy Friday: We Have Always Lived in the Castle

It's Halloween weekend! That means I kinda have to do something in the horror realm for a would-be film today...and I've always been obsessed with Shirley Jackson, and We Have Always Lived in the Castle is my favorite of her novels, and so it goes. This story doesn't have a particularly large core cast, but it's one I would love to see made into a chilling, weird indie film.

Mary Katherine "Merricat" Blackwood: played by Mia Wasikowska, Merricat is the narrator of the story and a strange young woman, lover of deathcap mushrooms, her sister, her cat, and not much else. Since the death of her parents, she has made occasional forays into the village for grocery trips, but prefers to stay on the rambling family estate (which she protects via superstitions and sympathetic magic).

Constance Blackwood: played by Rosamund Pike, Constance is Merricat's older sister. She was tried for and acquitted of the murder of their parents many years previously. Her ostracism from the nearby village has left her with a penetrating agoraphobia.

Uncle Julian Blackwood: played by Christopher Plummer, Uncle Julian was also a victim of the Blackwood family poisoning years before, though he survived. He is demented, obsessively writing notes for his memoirs and talking about the murder with anyone who will listen.

Cousin Charles: played by Edward Norton, Charles comes to the Blackwood estate in search of his legacy, an event which touches off a fiery confrontation between him and the suspicious Merricat.

Have a wonderful Halloween, everyone. Pictures of my notably awesome Robin costume will be forthcoming.

Film Fantasy Friday: The Once and Future King

I'm finally doing it: a cast for my favorite book of all time. I am not going to divulge how much time this took; let's just jump in. In case you aren't familiar with the book (or its musical, Camelot), the run-down is thus: the boy Arthur has a mostly-idyllic childhood, becomes king, tries to be a good king and general decent person, is punished in a myriad cruel ways for his troubles, dies. A rather huge book, The Once and Future King has a large cast, and only the most essential are cast here. You may not that only adult actors are used here--I decided to skip the first portion of the book, "The Sword in the Stone." In all seriousness, this book would require a TV miniseries to do completely properly, as it covers a span of fifty years or so.

Arthur: played by Sean Bean, King Arthur is the forward-thinking lord of Britain who attempts to keep Might from ruling by instituting a code of knightly chivalry. Like all good men, he is mostly punished for his attempts.

Merlin: played by Donald Sutherland, Merlin is a bumbling yet wise wizard who happens to be living backward.

Guenever: played by Kristin Scott Thomas, Guenever is Arthur's queen and Lancelot's lover. She is frustrated by her lack of children and torn between the two men she loves.

Lancelot: played by Mads Mikkelsen, Lancelot is considered Arthur's greatest knight, yet his self-loathing is what really drives him.

Gawain: played by Kevin McKidd, Gawain is the oldest of the Orkney sons and struggles between his family loyalty and his devotion to Arthur.

Gareth: played by Tony Curran, Gareth is the second-youngest of the Orkney sons. His belief in Arthur's code defines his life.

Mordred: played by Domhnall Gleeson, Mordred is the youngest of the Orkneys...and Arthur's bastard son. Twisted by his isolated upbringing and his hatred for his father, Mordred is the doom of the kingdom.

Morgause: played by Kate Winslet, Morgause is Arthur's half-sister and the mother of his only son. She is nuckin' futs.

Galahad: played by Jeremy Sumpter, Galahad is Lancelot's son, an even better knight than his father, and as perfect a human being as ever was. Predictably everyone hates him.

Elaine: played by Gina McKee, Elaine is Galahad's mother. She loves Lancelot and tries to bring him into her life in various mostly-sad ways.

Film Fantasy Friday: Tunes Edition

This Friday, I feel like doing something a little different. What can I say? I'm a maverick. Anyway, instead of choosing a book and creating a film out of it, I'm going to choose a couple of songs and see how they'd do as movies.

"Prescilla" (Bat for Lashes, Gold and Fur): Karen (Rashida Jones) lives a life of motion, continuously on the road with her zany New Age preacher boyfriend (Michael Pitt). Though the adventure of travel is exciting, she longs to settle down and have a few kids--a dream that seems suddenly possible when she discovers that she's pregnant, then meets down-to-earth fortune-teller Prescilla (Ellen Burstyn) in Missoula who strengthens her courage.

"Summer of '69" (Bryan Adams, Reckless): It's the Summer of Love, and Bryan (Andrew Garfield)'s got a beat-up guitar and a band of hopefuls...and there's a new girl in town! Beautiful free spirit Lani (Nina Dobrev) blitzes through small-town Frontenac County, leaving a wake of broken hearts behind her, including those of Jimmy (Jay Baruchel) and Jody (Logan Lerman), Brian's band-members. Can the group survive with a force of nature like Lani around?

"Genius Next Door" (Regina Spektor, Far): There's an enchanted lake somewhere around here, but you didn't hear it from John (Jesse Eisenberg). The neighbors won't talk about it, the local kids pretend it's always been this way, and each night John goes for a swim in that water, until one evening when it's too cold for bathing, he doesn't come up at all. A hardened reporter (Michael Michele) and someone who could have been his friend (Harry Shum, Jr.) try to understand why.

Film Fantasy Friday: White Tiger

That's right, I'm finally taking it all back to the book that got me into comics: the White Tiger miniseries from 2006. I picked up this mini because it was written by my favorite YA author, Tamora Pierce, and I've sworn to read anything she writes, so...anyway it was the beginning of a magical, frustrating relationship. And I still love Angela. And Tammy. Write more comics, Tammy! maybe some for DC they neeeed you This film is based around the mini with a bit of Daredevil: Shadowland plot thrown in, and involves a lot of characters we already know and love. PS: Happy birthday to Barbara Gordon, one of my favorite superladies!

Angela del Toro/White Tiger: played by Rosario Dawson, Angela is a former FBI agent who inherits a strange set of amulets from her uncle Hector--objects which transform her into the White Tiger.

"Daredevil"/Iron Fist/Danny Rand: played by Cam Gigandet, Danny is currently masquerading as Daredevil while Matt Murdock is in jail, to keep the true DD's cover.

Luke Cage: played by Terry Crews, Luke is an old friend of Angela's uncle Hector's and someone with whom she occasionally works out and teams up.

King Cobra: played by Mathieu Amalric, Piet Voorhees is a mercenary involved with an international cartel called Chaeyi. He also has some unnerving physical abilities due to a mutagenic serum developed by his uncle.

Lady Bullseye: played by Maggie Q, Maki Matsumoto is in the employment of the Hand, an infamous ninja order, with plans of her own where Daredevil and the White Tiger are concerned.

Black Widow: played by Rebecca Romijn, Natasha Romanoff acts as Angela's guide into the world of superheroing.

Film Fantasy Friday's Triumphant Return (redux)

YES IT'S TRUE...my teaching gig being over, thank all Elder Gods, we now return to our regularly scheduled Friday programming of completely impossible movie casts. I decided today I'd have to go big, because I can't go home yet, and so we're doing...Dune. Yep, Dune. Yes, I know there are two existing adaptations, but they both suck, so deal with it. For those who somehow don't know, Dune is about the desert planet Arrakis, the Atreides ducal family, a fat bastard of a Baron, and general arid-land shenanigans. This book has a sprawl of a cast, so don't expect to see everyone and their mom on the list here.

Paul Atreides: played by Max Irons, Paul is the son and heir of Duke Leto. Trained from birth by his mother and Thufir Hawat in subtle techniques, his exposure to spice on Arrakis awakens something in him that none of his teachers could have expected.

Lady Jessica Atreides: played by Rene Russo, the Lady Jessica is a trained Bene Gesserit and the ducal consort of Leto. Against the commands of her order, she bore Leto a son on the slim chance that he could be the prophesied Kwisatz Haderach.

Duke Leto Atreides: played by Danny Huston, the Duke Leto is given control of Arrakis by the Emperor, though he knows it is a trap laid by his ancestral enemies, the Harkonnens.

Baron Vladimir Harkonnen: played by Ray Winstone, Baron Harkonnen is a twisted man who hates the Atreides house more than anything and plots its downfall with Arrakis as the field of war.

Chani: played by Freida Pinto, Chani is a Fremen woman who Paul falls in love with. Though Jessica does not approve, Paul remains adamant that she is his wife and the mother of Atreides heirs.

Stilgar: played by Alexander Siddig, Stilgar is the leader of Sietch Tabr, the Fremen bolthole where Paul and Jessica find themselves. A sharp man, he understands that he is integral to the survival of the Fremen on Arrakis despite the changes Paul brings.

Gurney Halleck: played by Mickey Rourke, Gurney is one of Duke Leto's men, skilled in music and war. Believing Paul and Jessica dead with their lord, he joins a group of Dune smugglers and works against the Harkonnens in his own way.

Thufir Hawat: played by Jordi Molla, Hawat is the Duke's Mentat, a human computer. He believes Jessica to be the instrument of Leto's destruction and surrenders to the Harkonnens upon the apparent deaths of Leto and Paul.

Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen: played by Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Feyd-Rautha is the Baron's nephew and his heir. Though skilled in gladiatorial combat, Feyd is no match, mentally or physically, for Paul.

Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam: played by Tilda Swinton, the Reverend Mother is the Emperor's Truthsayer. She tests Paul to see if he is the person the Bene Gesserit have been waiting for.

Film Fantasy Friday: Farthing

It's Friday, hopefully Friday Fun Day for you fine folks, but for me it isn't anywhere near the end of the week yet. That's right, I'm teaching again on Friday nights. Woot, etc., not really. Anyway...have a cast. Much as I'd love to cast one of Jo Walton's Sulien books, there will never be a human actress badass enough to play either Sulien or Emer, so I'm going for the next best thing: Farthing. Being a British-country-house book with many characters, the cast selected here is cut down quite a bit, but the notables are present.

Lucy Kahn: played by Rooney Mara, Lucy is the wayward Eversley daughter--wayward in that she married a Jewish man. When a powerful political leader and member of the "Farthing Set" is murdered at her parents' country home, she begins to believe that she and her husband were invited to the house for the weekend in order to frame him as a radical Jew.

David Kahn: played by Julian Morris, David is Lucy's husband. He has a small banking operation which gives loans to entrepreneurs and small business owners, mainly Jewish people and women. He has a radical friend in France with whom he corresponds, which casts doubt on his character.

Lady Eversley: played by Emma Thompson, Lady Eversley is Lucy's horrifying mother. Do her aloof demeanor and impeccable manners mask a murderer?

Lord Eversley: played by Geoffrey Rush, Lord Eversley is Lucy's somewhat less horrifying father. While he and Lucy are riding at Farthing, he is apparently targeted by a Bolshevik with a rifle. Is he too on the list of intended fatalities?

Lady Angela Thirkie/Mrs. Daphne Normanby: played by Rachael Stirling, Angela and Daphne are sisters. Daphne's doomed affair with the man who would become Angela's husband and the murder victim haunts the women's relationships with their husbands and each other.

Mark Normanby: played by Clive Owen, Mark is a vicious politician on the rise and Daphne's husband.

Inspector Carmichael: played by Christian Bale, Carmichael is the Scotland Yard inspector assigned to tackle the Thirkie murder case.

Film Fantasy Friday: Secret Six

Now, now, before you give me that side-eye, let me explain. Not only did Secret Six end this week, but it's also MOTHERFUCKING SHARK WEEK. How could I do anything else but cast a film with a humanoid shark character? Seriously. So this film would be sort of a Danse Macabre telling, but with all my favorite Six members because I'm greedy that way (so more accurately it would be called, like, Secret Eight. HUSH YOU), and a slew of other characters who aren't cast here because hey, space limitations, etc.

Scandal Savage: played by Morena Baccarin, Scandal is Vandal Savage's daughter and a deadly hand-to-hand fighter. She may or may not be immortal; either way she can regrow a kidney if she needs to.

King Shark: voiced by Jason Scott Lee, King Shark is a humanoid great white shark. He's way more jolly than he should be.

Catman: played by Daniel Craig, Catman's pesky heroic qualities sometimes get in the way of the mission. His boner for a certain former Mob princess doesn't help either.

Bane: played by Tom Hardy, Bane is the inventor of a super-steroid called Venom. This drug, along with his natural physique, makes him into a terrifying combatant. He currently leads the Six.

Knockout: played by Lauren Ambrose, Knockout is a former Fury from Apokolips and Scandal's girlfriend. Ask her about the efficacy of the Get Out of Hell Free card!

Deadshot: played by Timothy Olyphant, Deadshot is a mercenary and expert marksman. Don't even suggest that he and Catman are buddies. They're not.

Rag Doll: played by Ben Whishaw, Rag Doll is a castrated infinitely-jointed bizarro wonderment. If Manhunter were to call him up and suggest they get together for some flogging, he probably wouldn't say no.

Jeannette: played by Liina Brunelle, Jeanette is a French Revolution-era society lady whose husband did a shoddy job of murdering her with an axe. Now she commands the power of the banshee, having at her disposal an ear-rending cry and the ability to sense when a person is about to die (usually because one of her teammates is killing them).

Amanda Waller: played by Loretta Devine, Waller employs the Six to break a certain prisoner out of Belle Reve prison. Being herself, of course there's an ulterior motive or twelve.

Film Fantasy Friday: Trickster's Choice

So I was knocking around in this Hairpin thread because lord knows I can't resist a conversation about Margaret Atwood, and somehow I ended up linking the blogge due to a side-convo about Tamora Pierce fandom, and then I realized that I needed to do another Pierce book for FFF. So today you get the first volume in the Daughter of the Lioness duology, Trickster's Choice. This book has a pretty hefty cast and I've cut it down rather drastically, so, apologies if I left out one of your favorites (chances are I did. Sorry Fesgao! I love you, really I do!).

Alianne of Pirate's Swoop: played by Saorise Ronan, Aly is the smart-but-shiftless daughter of Alanna the Lioness and George Cooper. After not quite running away from home, she was captured by pirates and sold into slavery in the Copper Isles. But a divine being has other plans for her.

Kyprioth: played by Hrithik Roshan, Kyprioth is the dethroned patron god of the Copper Isles and is known as the Trickster in Tortall. George Cooper's patron deity, he's had his eye on Aly for awhile.

Nawat Crow: played by Robert Sheehan, Nawat is a crow who takes the shape of a man in order to aid Aly in her role in the Balitang household.

Saraiyu Balitang: played by Saira Choudhry, Sarai is the oldest Balitang daughter, a headstrong, beautiful girl whom the raka believe is the "twice-royal" of an ancient prophecy.

Dovasary Balitang: played by Tanvi Ganesh Lonkar, Dove is Sarai's younger sister. She is quieter and more scholarly (and totally badass).

Ulasim Dodeka: played by Naveen Andrews, Ulasim is the Balitangs' footman, a free raka and the "general" of the raka conspiracy within the Balitang household and elsewhere.

Chenaol: played by Shabana Azmi, Chenaol is the Balitang cook and serves as armorer for the revolutionaries.

Prince Bronau Jimajen: played by Peter Mooney, Bronau is a luarin (white) prince, the younger son of the Jimajen house and Rubinyan's brother. Ambitious and untrustworthy, he courts Sarai as part of an attempted power-grab.

Prince Rubinyan Jimajen: played by Joaquin Phoenix, Rubinyan is married to Imajane and with her serves as regent while the Rittevon heir, Dunevon, grows up.

Princess Imajane Rittevon: played by Nicole Kidman, Imajane is the only surviving adult child of the previous Rittevon king; however, as a woman she cannot inherit the throne proper. As you may imagine, this makes her...bitter.