First:
Heroes Die is the Book of the Month over at Joseph Mallozzi's very popular blog. He's providing a forum for reader Q&A, as well as providing a darn nice write-up of his reactions to the story. This came about through the good offices of John Scalzi, so any of you rabid Caine fans can blow kisses in his Hugocentric direction for helping to Keep the Dream Alive. But no biting.
And no jumping up and down on the heads of people who didn't like the book. I mean it.
Second:
Yeah, I play the casting game too. Though if this were to ever become a film or a TV series, I strongly suspect that it will be cast with people
1.) I've never heard of, or
2) I can't stand, or
3) both.
And I've never come up with strong picks for the three female characters.
This is the weblog of bestselling author Matthew Woodring Stover. WARNING: use of this product may result in intestinal upset, mental disturbance, sudden mood swings, dental caries and occasional anal leakage. Management denies responsibility for any and all injury.
If you're gonna play Poke the Bear, you better keep in mind the bear doesn't give a shit it's just a game.
About Me
- MWS
- firmly believes that if you don't already know who he is, you're wasting your time hanging around here. Go buy a book or something.
24 comments:
Yeah, it's hard to think of really stand out actresses in Hollywood. Not to say that there aren't any, but it does seem like the parameters to get into Hollywood are a bit more well defined and specific, which kind of makes a lot of them blend into each other.
have you ever seen shooter? i think the woman who stitches up wahlberg would be a pretty darn decent talann.
Ok deal. We can direct some of them further though.
Yeah, that's the one, Chris.
For some reason every time I think of Talann I think of that CGI chick from Mirror's Edge. No idea why, but that's kind of what I had pictured even before Mirror's Edge came out.
Though the more I think about it, the more I think Matt's right, and that any even remote hope of this movie getting made would probably rely on it being animated. Unless for some reason Peter Jackson can convince New Line to give him another three hundred million.
I just found this review of 1984 by Isaac Asimov. It's interesting to compare what he thought Orwell did wrong (apparently everything) to what you did differently.
http://www.newworker.org/ncptrory/1984.htm
Shane,
If it could be as visually excellent as Beowulf was, I think it might actually be better than a live-action movie. First, because there's just no way in hell you're getting anything remotely Ma'elKoth-like in real life (even the world bodybuilding champion Ronnie Coleman still weighed less than the guy). Second, it would be cool to view a video game world through the medium that video games use.
You could always go the Harry Potter/Lord of the Rings route and take a normal guy and through camera tricks and CGI make them appear much huger and otherwise more impressive than they already are.
But yeah, I mostly agree with you.
That made me picture a midget dressed like Caine. Thank you for that bit of awesome to brighten my day.
This makes it the third damn time I've bought Heroes Die and BoT. I'd probably find my other copies if I bothered to unpack my boxes of books, but I'm too lazy. This e-book thing kind of rocks though; you haven't really read Caine until you do it in purple Comic Sans.
How the hell do these intricacies in character and plot get outlined? Is it some sort of crazy Lovecraftian Venn Diagram that takes on a life of its own?
You've discovered a secret Man Was Not Meant to Know . . . I fear for your sanity, my friend . . .
I wish I was graphic-savvy enough to produce Lovecraftian Venn diagrams. Because that would be really friggin' cool. And would probably make a great t-shirt.
As long-time posters here have heard me say before, BLADE pretty much broke my brain. Which is why I haven't attempted anything on that scale since. And I probably won't in the future. I'm not as smart as I used to be, and it was all too much for me even then.
Sanity's for peasants. :P
I've only ever heard of novel outlines in passing in any interview I've ever read. It must be like an Insider Secret; I can't find actual examples from anyone who's actually published a book. The closest I've come is seeing a few scanned pages of single-sentence character notes from Stephen King.
What can I say? I'm the guy that buys the special-edition DVDs because the 10 extra hours of behind-the-scenes stuff fascinates me.
Or the $35 I just spent for the blueprints of the Serenity ship from Firefly. Don't judge me, the artwork's pretty!
Guy, the map of the 'Verse is only $27 and worth every penny.
Son of a crap. Well, there's $27 my account's never going to see again. :D
Speaking of maps, any chance a map of the Overworld continent finding its way into existence? I mean, hell, a scan of a napkin with just where Ankhana, Lipke, and some of the other places are in relation to each other would be immensely satisfying.
Casting Heroes Die, if anyone was available:
Caine: Eric Bana
Kris: Owen Wilson (yes, really!)
Pallas: Scarlett Johansen, with dyed hair
I realize this would make Pallas a lot younger, but that's the movie business.
Eric Bana?
I'd go with Christian Bale.
Casting time!
I think Christian Bale makes a better Berne. He's got both the physical requirements, and the ability to showcase Berne's amoral attitude.
I tend to picture Russell Crowe as Caine, back when he did Gladiator. Nowadays, he's probably a little too old to play Caine circa Heroes Die. Wish I could come up with a good alternative, but I like the fact that Caine is short, swarthy and wiry. That alone knocks out most of Hollywood.
For Kris, you need someone a little more effeminate than Owen Wilson. Casting Orlando Bloom as an elf might be too obvious, but it has to be a waifish pretty-boy , especially once Kris has his post-op mask removed. Elijah Wood is another good example.
I can chat about this forever...
Johnny Depp for Kris? He's almost old enough.
Liam Neeson for Toa-Sytell?
ok i know its almost a coincidence but Christian Kane as Caine.
he is the "hitter" on leverage.
I know its all scripted, but watching him take apart people on the show is the only reason I watch.. and he is short wirey and swarthy..
and he seems to have that attitude that i always pictured Caine as having. look at me cross eyed and ill rip you windpipe out.. just my 2c.
Best scene ever on tv. he is standing in front of a security guard and says "you go what 250-260?" the guard grunts shrugs his shoulders and while the guard is shrugging he explodes forward chops him the throat and then punches him the balls.... it was pure poetry in motion...
After watching Dollhouse's "Epitaph," I'd like to see what Felicia Day could do with Pallas.
Love the idea of Eliza Dushku as Talann... and not meaning to cast completely from Dollhouse, but perhaps Dichen Lachman for Kier?
You know I wasnt sure where to post this. I just wanted to say that I loved Heroes Die. I read it during the winter of 1999. I was in the military and deployed in the gulf on the USS Monterey for the dreaded Y2K end of the world event. My ship had this kind of do it yourself ship's library. A bunch of us brought in books to share, and I picked this one up one night after a 12 hour watch. Between standing watch, eating, and running drills I generally only had 4 hours of sleep a night, but I managed to read it for at least 2 of that each night until I finished it. One of the few books ever that I kept saying "just one more page." I dont know what made me think of it today but I googled for "Scifi/fantasy book where actors play fantasy characters." I had to go through about 3 pages of BS until I finally found the book. I'm extremely excited that there were actually 2 more books, I had no idea. I'm going to get the first one again from amazon since it's been 10 years and read all three. I guess I didnt really have a point, just wanted to say thanks for giving me an escape back then.
That is about as high a compliment as I have ever gotten.
Thanks.
Hope you like it just as much now.
Thanks for the great Q&A on Joe Mallozzi's Blog. It really helped fill in some things for me about Caine and Heroes Die in general. Also, I just recently became aware of Aleister Crowley. I was researching info on Kenneth Anger's films and read that he was into Thelema. This, of course, led me to Crowley. Haven't read any of his writings yet but I will attempt it. There is a film about him (fictionalized) that was released recently which I did watch.
I'll be picking up the sequels to Heroes Die and perhaps more of your writings.
Cheers
For some reason, I've always pictured Arturo Kollberg as Roy Brocksmith (Copy/paste link below into your browser to see his pic)
http://www.filmdope.com/Gallery/ActorsB/2108.gif
Pallas = Rachel Weisz!
Toa majest: Iain Glen
Toa sytell: Stellan Skarsgård
Bairne: Iwan Rheon, maybe a bit young but Bairne he fits
The voice of mael koth: Timothy Dalton, some effects for resonance
Tommy: Sam Rockwell
Kyrendal: part of me likes Helena Bonham carter for this but I think I really wanna see Natalie Portman
Tapasi: Zoë Wanamaker
Pallas: Lori Loughlin or like Helen Hunt
Dellan: Casey Affleck
Raithe: Gustaf Skarsgård
Last but not least hari/ caine: Mads Mikkelsen
Any self-respecting movie goer would also love Micheal Pena and Gary Oldman shoved in here somewhere... don't know where though. Gary Oldman would be an awesome Duncan... psycopathy induced mood swings, violent outbursts, hugging your son with shit on your hands and delivering inspiring life lessons... yeah, he can do that.
Post a Comment