Now, this is interesting . . .
Related to the conversation a couple of posts back about the Department of Veteran's Affairs, it appears we have some Actual Numbers, courtesy of the Rand Corporation and the Congressional Budget Office.
Not that I've waded through all these; I'm just sharing the links so that those who are interested in Actual Numbers know where to find some.
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19 comments:
This is unrelated to your post, but did you (or any followers here) happen to see the preview for Gamer? It shares a mechanism with CBK, which I found annoying cause Gamer kind of looks lame. My problem is that I have a hope of one day seeing the Acts of Caine on the big screen, and I don't want some of the most original ideas used up for crap. My wife and I have even played the casting game between ourselves for who should play Caine, etc. You guys ever cast it? And if anyone says Kal Penn you're just wrong...
Hah. I like Kal Penn . . . but seeing him as a hard-ass killer would take a lot of persuading. In a perfect world, I'd try to get Robert Downey Jr, because as far as I'm concerned he's the best actor of his generation. That sonofabitch can do ANYTHING.
Yes: GAMER shares a premise with CBK. In the Somehow Make A Caine Movie sweepstakes, this is not actually a bad thing. Hollywood HATES original shit. Hell, when HEROES DIE was written, my publisher didn't have fucking clue how to market it . . . because they didn't have any other books like it.
So I'm not too upset about GAMER. The only problem is that early reviews say the movie sucks.
I saw a preview of Gamer. I think it's an interesting idea, but it seems to me the whole premise would sort of fall apart if you gave it any thought at all. I mean it's one thing to watch someone else play a life-or-death game (Running Man, Death Race, etc.), but I think the idea of someone having control of you would be too cerebral to really make a good movie.
I'm torn. I think Caine would actually suck on the big screen. There is just way too much there in the novels to condense into 120 minutes. But I also think actually seeing the worlds and the characters in them, and the action, would totally kick ass.
I think the remade Battlestar Galactica shows you can have movie-quality production in a television series. If they could turn the Acts of Caine into a series of that caliber, I think we would all win.
If they could turn Keanu Cant'act into a martial artist, they sure as hell could do it with Robert Downey Jr. He already has the facial hair from Iron Man pretty much. He's about the right age. Someone call his agent!
Has Dr. Krog mentioned that every game of movie casting we play somehow features Caspar Van Dien and Michael Ironside?
Hey, Matt, this is Mahesh. In regard to more data points on the healthcare debate, check out this illuminating interview with Wendell Potter, who quit as Vice President of Corporate Communications with huge health insurance firm Cigna, and now works for the Center for Media and Democracy (he is very much in favor of the public option):
http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/spin-doctor/Content?oid=1623040
And here's a link to call/write your senators: http://bit.ly/bPYB6
How could you cast Ma'elkoth? Buff Viggo Mortensen up, add some CGI?
Could anyone play the elf (I am so bad at remembering her name. Kierendel?) better than Angelina Jolie? Or maybe I just think she already looks like an elf.
I can't find my copy of either Heroes Die or BoT. Fuck! >.<
@ M.R.M. I counter Wendell Potter with the AMA, who reports Medicare as denying the most claims over commercial insurance companies, and that the highest denial percentage was 6.9%.
http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/3643-amas-report-card-targets-health-plans-performance
Also the Canadian Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, which makes some interesting points about the downsides of public healthcare.
http://www.aims.ca/library/MPPI_pharma-revised_.pdf
I vote Brendan Gleeson for Kollberg.
Maybe Colin Farrell as Lamorak. There's something about him that makes me think he could really pull off the line: "Sometimes the only way to get a woman to shut her mouth is to stick your dick in it."
I would say Katee Sackhoff as Shanna Leighton (nee Michaelson).
Angeline Jolie as Kierendal? Oi vey. Are you trying to keep me out of the theater!? I don't know who I'd cast, but I'd probably tend toward someone a little smaller and more exotic looking. Along the lines of Anna Walton or Dichen Lachman, maybe enhanced (reduced?) with some makeup and CGI work. Maybe even Lisa Marie, the woman who used to be in the Tim Burton movies, who played, for instance, the beehive alien in Mars Attacks!. Don't know how she looks anymore, but she could do amazingly inhuman things with body language and movement. . .
Dichen Lachman has the exotic look but not the acting chops. I'd say the same thing about Angelina though, honestly.
Starbuck as Pallas? Kind of the opposite problem; I just can't picture it at all. I see her looking more like Jessica Biel, but a bit older. And again, probably suffering from the same problem I mentioned originally.
Jessica Biel and Robert Downey Jr star in this summer's most anticipated romantic comedy...Heroes Die.
That's about the only way I'd see that one working out with her.
Guy:
The Commonwealth Fund 2007 Health Insurance Survey with 61% of Medicare recipients very satisfied with their level of care, among other illuminating bits of information:
http://bit.ly/1dQU11
Somehow I'm not surprised by the AIMS report, since they're an economically conservative think tank with Merck and Pfizer as their sponsors. So, here's the liberal response ... a report from Families USA, stating that, "Most pharmaceutical companies make considerably more in net income than they spend on R&D." And: "the major pharmaceutical companies spend considerably more on marketing, advertising, and administration than they spend on R&D." As well as on compensation for their top executives.
http://www.familiesusa.org/assets/pdfs/offthecharts6475.pdf
And Angelina Jolie in a Caine movie? ... H-O-T.
With Philip Seymour Hoffman as Kollberg.
Naveen Anrdews for Hari
Clearly, the best massive, charismatic, handsome actor in Hollywood to play Ma'elKoth is Dwayne Johnson.
Brad Dourif would be an interesting Toa Sytell.
Arnold Vosloo for Ma'elKoth. I always see him in the role when I read the books for some reason.
In the HBO series, of course cuz a movie wouldn't do it justice.
I might have to change my mind about Gamer. That crazy serial killer from Dexter is in it...and he has a dance number!
Aaron Eckhart as Berne?
Chris Evans as Berne! He even has the blonde brushcut.
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