A few weeks ago I had
mentioned how much I had enjoyed the Jack Reacher film.
Immediately
fans of the series of books by Lee Child dived forth to air their
disappointment in the lead role being taken by Tom Cruise as
physically he has virtually nothing in common with the anti-hero of
the books apart from them both being male and American.
As
someone who has never read a Jack Reacher novel the original source
material hadn't cast a shadow over my enjoyment of the film, but I
can understand why others had an issue with the casting.
We have
all watched an adaptation of a much loved book or graphic novel and
winced at the choices made by the studios in who have cast in the
roles
This got
me thinking. What is the worst example of this?
Sylvester
Stallone as Judge Dredd was a humdinger of a choice.
We all
know that ol' Dredd was Clint Eastwood, but by the time the film came
to be made he wouldn't have been suitable for it at all.
A shame
really as that would have been interesting.
A friend
recently threw in Nick Nolte for the role, and I could have seen that
working, but only if they had stripped away the gloss as well.
Nolte
could carry that pent up violence and when he uttered 'I am the law'
I'm sure that no one would have been in any doubt he meant judge,
jury and say hello to your maker lawbreaker.
The more
recent outing had Karl Urban reprising the role, and while I have no
major issues with him playing the part I did slightly question the
physicality of him as Dredd.
I would
have rather seen someone bigger.
Not some
behemoth who spends hours every day in the gym building himself up to
Hulk sized proportions, but just a bit beefier than Urban was.
Tom Hardy
springs to mind.
He could
excel at playing that brooding humourless character trait of Dredd,
and match it with the solid intimidating muscle that the role would
require.
Sticking
to the comic books how about Halle Berry as Catwoman?
I
sincerely hope that the people responsible for that choice are now
disallowed by law to make any decisions small or large.
They
better not be allowed to to change channels on the television without
prior permission from someone more responsible.
Another
one that was mentioned to me was Tom Hanks in The DaVinci Code, and
similar to the Jack Reacher movie I probably wouldn't have had a
problem with him as the lead character if I hadn't read the books,
but I had so I did.
Back to
Tom Cruise now.
The
Vampire Lestat?
Please.
Okay. We
all know Anne Rice had a problem with the casting.
Then
capitulated and said that she loved him in it, but no.
Read the
books and it is so glaringly obvious that Cruise was arrogantly shoe
horned into the role.
There is
no common ground between the actor and the character there at all.
His
playing Lestat is akin to casting Adam Sandler in the lead role of a
biopic about Martin Luther King.
That the
film was a success is irrelevant.
So who
else stand out as missing the mark by a large margin, and also who
nailed it?
Let's
here you.
