Friday, September 19, 2008

Bizarre Casting

Guy Ritchie is making a Sherlock Holmes film.

He has cast Robert Downey Jr as Sherlock Holmes. Ok, a bit young, but a bit eccentric too and not too awful a bit of casting. He has proven his accent credentials already on Chaplin so no worries on that score (Downey's involvement worries me nowhere near as much as Guy Ritchie's, for example).

My beef is with today's rumour/news that he has cast JUDE LAW as Watson. That's right - Alfie.

Look, if you want to save your career, Mrs Madonna, I would suggest that casting turkey bait like Jude Law is about the worst thing you can do. I mean, the comedy version with Will Ferrell will be certainly dreadful, but seriously, can it be any stranger than casting the star of The Holiday as a divorced Doctor down on his luck? Maybe Guy got confused because Law was in Sleuth? Or perhaps he was the person who enjoyed Sky Captain and The World Of Tomorrow (2/10) (the only film I have turned off halfway through for TEN YEARS)

Plus, how young are you casting here? If I recall my Holmes, they meet when both already middle aged, if not later - are you trying to "sex up" Sherlock? Next thing we'll have Jason Statham as "Moriar'y" and see him "'aving a giraffe" on the Reichenbach Falls. All you then need to do is add a buxom blonde love interest for Holmes and I will have to shoot you. Actually, I bet Jennifer Ellison is free.

I am starting to think Ritchie can do no right.

Or maybe it's just that for me Jeremy Brett IS Holmes. I can't read any of the books without recalling his portrayal - or that of grey haired, mustachioed Dr Watson (sorry, can't remember the actor's name). Johnny Depp.... now wouldn't that be interesting... if only I had Tim Burton's number and a couple of hundred million dollars.

So, what is the strangest casting you guys can remember?

Bad casting that comes to mind (or maybe just odd casting) is for me (and Mrs Algo) the decision to have King Henry VIII played by both Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Eric Bana, two actors who bear very little resemblance to the "big hairy king". Sure, he is reputed to have been quite a hottie in his youth, but by the time these films are set he was verging on portly and more like Mike Ashley than Michael Douglas. Plus, and lets face it, Henry VIII was a ginge. Now, good ginger actors are indeed thin on the ground but you could at least throw a bone to Damien Lewis?

Never mind all the other historical inaccuracies that populate these shows - this casting is just weird.

Hey, I am not the man to judge their attractiveness, and they may be really good in the role (I have seen neither the Tudors or The Other Boleyn Girl) but this just seemed odd.

Over to you, occasional and single-digit numbered readers - comments and opinions below as usual.

A

7 comments:

  1. Guy Ritchie. Downey Jr. Judith Motherfucking Law... and Sherlock Holmes.

    Sherlock Holmes, the Gentlemanly Badass. The stilted sexpot. The Great Detective, raped, raped, pinned down and raped to death by talentless charlatans.

    If you'll excuse me, I'm just off to go on a short killing spree. I'd say to send The Great Detective out to stop me, but he's to busy being bollocks in a postmodern mockney way.

    Sometimes I just want to shoot the 21st Century in the face for being so fucking shit.

    (I'm not happy about this... does it show?)

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  2. errr.. as someone who is currently holding 4 days to appear in this movie, I have to disagree.

    Downey Jr - played Chaplin (excellently), as well as the black character in Tropic Thunder.

    Jude Law - Played Eroll Flynn in The Aviator, Inman in Cold Mountain and the badass assailant in Road to Perdition as well as Ted Pikul in eXistenZ

    Guy Ritchie - Lock, Stock..., Snatch, RocknRolla - all London based and all dealing with the seedier side of life, the criminal element.

    Now Jason Statham as Moriarty is probably a step too far, I agree, but so far I've seen nothing here that gives me the jitters.

    (now if they turn around and tell me I'm not cast in the movie I might change my mind......)

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  3. Don't know what annoys me more; your rubbing your 4 solid days of work in my face, or the fact you aren't horrified.

    Dear oh dear.

    A

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  4. Jude Law... Inman in Cold Mountain Exactly. All the charisma of a damp flannel beneath a pile of washing up. God, Cold Mountain was dull.

    as for Guy Ritchie, I managed about half an hour of Snatch when it got sent to us for the Baftas and it was simply dreadful. It was like watching something a student with access to a snazzy editing suite had put together with his Italian-Job-Quoting Rugby Mates.

    Sorry, but I love Sherlock Holmes, and loathe Guy Ritchie with fairly equal amounts of passion. I also think Robert Downey Jr is massively overrated and have liked Judith Law in precisely Zero films. It's like an Agatha Christie fan finding out Paul Verhoeven's going to make a Miss Marple movie with Katie Holmes as the Lady Sleuth.

    Don't get me wrong, I'm definitely up for a new Holmes movie, he's very much in touch with the seedier elements of late 19th/early 20th Century England already and he could stand to be updated, but I just don't trust Ritchie to make a good movie of it (or of anything, for that matter).

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  5. Actually Algo - it's not 4 solid days of work it's 'Are you available on these four days? Let us know'

    You know how Maddog are....

    I'm looking forward to Guy's version of this. I don't care whether you both think it will fail or not, I rate Ritchie as a film-maker and letting him update this character is no worse than letting the man who did Edward Scissorhands/Willy Wonka/ Sweeny Todd revamp Batman. That seemed to work alright....

    :-)

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  6. Ah yes, Gary, and then you won't hear anything ever again. And I don't think being a little reticent about the project will affect your hiring either way.

    But hey! You're right about Downey, but I've never seen a Jude Law performance that couldn't have been improved by his character's immediate death.

    But hell, you don't care if we disagree and that's a good thing.

    Miss Scribsy, I'm feeling you're not keen on this project, right? Perhaps you shouldn't put ideas into Verhoeven's head. You KNOW he does internet searches for himself, and your pitch sounds right up his alley!

    A

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  7. Perhaps you shouldn't put ideas into Verhoeven's head. You KNOW he does internet searches for himself, and your pitch sounds right up his alley!

    Damn! Hoist by my own pet toad!

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