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Your Dream Cast/ Directors For An Adaptation of TBK

posted 14 years ago by calyxlove-91-735602
5 replies | jump to latest

C'mon, all ye fans of The Brothers Karamazov. Lets think of who (past or present, alive or dead) should/should have directed and starred in the movie.

Heres mine... with a few different opinions...

DIRECTOR: Whoever would adapt this film would need balls of steel.

Stanley Kubrick: He's the man! The ultimate director in my opinion. He could handle any genre. If anyone could, he could adapt one of the ultimate novels. (Watch Barry Lyndon)

Akira Kurosawa: My only fear with him is that he can be so overly didactic with things. He can over explain the subtleties of a moment. Still, there's no denying he could make this an epic unforgettable film. (Watch Ran)

SMERDYAKOV: I started with him because I have some great ideas

Klaus Kinski: Think about it! Is there anyone else who could give such a melancholy, yet crazy and passionate performance!? Kinski was best when he could be onscreen for small intervals, but command it. Isn't that so powerful for the Smerdyakov character? (Watch Agguire, The Wrtah Of God)

Tommy Wiseau: Jokes... but who knows!!

DMITRI: We need a gruff, self absorbed, and slightly absurd touch for him.

A Young Jack Nicholson: Ok, so not now. But in the past, I think so! I mean, Isn't Jack just a master at playing a rambling, crazy *beep* Isn't that what the oldest brother is like? (Watch One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest)

A Young James Cagney: Okay, Okay. I know!! But Cagney is really a brilliant actor! A stocky, raving figher, I could see him playing the kind of guy who would kill his own father. (Watch Anything by him or with him)

IVAN: This ones very tricky! How do you even adaptm,n ot to mention prtray one of the most complex characters in fiction!

Ralph Fiennes: He's intense, has that underlying darkness. He can do understated evil (Shcindler's List) as well as bombastic, hammy evil (Harry Potter). He is also a damn engaging actor. Imagine the sparks in the room as him and Klaus Kinski act like dancing fiddles!

Daniel Day Lewis: I actually don't know much about hhis work, but he seems very intense, completly commited and almost fitting to the depths of intellectualism.

ALEXI: Forget Ivan, this is the real difficulty. Alexi has to be utterly engaing without ever being obtrusive. He is our throughpoint that thats us through all the crazy social, religous, philosphical and ethical enigmas of the story. He is therefore the most important character.

Unknown: If you think about it, in this 196? movie, they did cast someone who was unknown at the time. (Shatner) They really could do that a gain, just to bring a freshness and impartial view of the chratcter to the audience.

Jeremy Davies: I don't know. If he didn't do the usual 'Confused scientist whose socially incompetant and speaks in a low tone of voice' thing, he'd be prewtty good for this, I think. (watch The Laramie Project)

[–] MONA0825 14 years ago

You have started a very interesting thread. Brothers Karamazov is one of my favorite books (maybe THE favorite book) and I've given a thought or two about what my dream team for a definitive Brothers Karamazov movie would be.

Director: Kurosawa sounds good. I'm not a fan of Kubrick. I would probably go for John Huston. Just look what he did with Moby Dick. He was able to capture the esence of the book even if the script deviated in very important points from the book.

Smerdiakov. Klaus Kinki? Wow! I hadn't considered it before, but that is a piece of genius dreaming casting! I'm with you on this one.

Dimitri. I would say Marlon Brando. We need an atractive guy here that can play a kind of brutal sensual common man. Like Brando in "Streetcar named desire".

Ivan. Over here, I think the casting director for the 1958 movie got it all right. When I first watched this movie I completely rejected the idea of "that guy" doing Ivan, mainly because in the movie he looks each an every day of his tempestous 43 years. But in the subsequent years I watched a lot of movies with a younger Richard Basehart (that´s the actor´s name) and he became Ivan in my mind. Mr. Basehart was a great actor and he was perfect capturing characters who are burning in the inside with deep thoughts while keeping a smooth, nice looking decent guy image. Coward or traitor soldiers, sociopathic killers, crazy dictators (Robespierre and Hitler nonetheless), suicide young man, to brand a few of his roles, he did them with a quite subtleness. The problem with the 1958 movie is that he was 15 years older than its due and he was given very little to do. A young Richard Basehart would be mi ideal Ivan. Even when I re read the book, I picture him perfectly. And he had a great voice and superb diction so I could imagine him perfectly narrating The Grand Inquisitor.

Alexei. I would cast a new comer like Logan Lehrman here. Past his angelical good looks, he is a very promising actor. Or maybe young Anton Yeleskin (sp?) the kid on the new Star Trek movie and the last Terminator installment.

Father Karamazov. Here I would also keep with the 1958 movie. Lee J. Cobbs was marvelous and appropiately hammy in this and I think that's how the role has to be done.

Any thoughts about the females?

[–] calyxlove-91-735602 13 years ago

Hey, Thanks for replying! I'm glad you liked the casting ideas I'd thought about...

Director: Unfotunately, I'm not too famniliar with John Huston as I'd like to be. I'll deffinitely try to find Moby Dick, as I wasn't aware he was an "epic" kind of director like that.

Yasujiru Ozu: Have you seen any of his films? To me, he's equally as good as Kurosawa, yet in a sense his direct opposite. While Kurosawa was always a fast, viseral filmmaker, Ozu's films have a balanced, zen-like quality. They are quiet and slow moving. Perhaps this would be a better choice then?

Smerdyakov: Thanks! I've bacome a fan of Kinski recently & think he's really good for certain things.

Dmitri: OF COURSE!!! Marlon Brando never even occured to me! I don't know why! But I'm totally on with you for this one. He's perfect in every way for Dmitri.

Ivan: Once again, I don't know enough about Richard Baseheart to tell you what I think. But I very much agree with you on the point that you could cast any amazing actor in that part, but the 1958 film verson of the charater still sucks. He was given really nothing to do in the couse of the film & all of his profundly complex ideaologies are simplified or watered down.

Alexi: I wasn't much a fan of the new Star Trek movie & Anton Yeleskin didn't leave much of an impression on me.

Father Karamazov: I totally agree with you here, so much to the point that when he's killed it's kind of a pity, because he's the most interesting thing in the movie.

Now onto the females...

Katerena: (She needs to be a more down to earth woman with amore down to earth look)

Frances McDiarmid (Spelling): I've always liked her as an actress & she always seems to be rooted in a certain homly realizm. (With the right parts)

Meryl Streep: It's come to a point where when you think of "Good female actress" she immediatly comes to mind. Nevertheless, there's a reason for that.

Grushenka: She needs to contrast Katerena, have a more glamorous look and be a more daring actress.

Cate Blanchette: To me, she's always willing to take tremndous risks and really loose her identity in a character. It took me a suprisingly long time to realize that Gladriel (From Lord Of The Rings) is the same person as Jude Quinn (From I'm Not There)

Setsuko Hara: (If this happened to be a Kurosawa/Ozu film). This very talented and popular Japanese star manages to both appeal in a "glamorous" & "intellectual" way. Yasujiru Ozu's films are not light viewing, yet she brings this strange "celebrity/star" quality to such heady films.

Anyway, just some of my thoughts,

Cheers.

[–] MONA0825 13 years ago

I'm very familiar with Kurosawa's body of work, but I had never set my eyes on Yasujiru Ozu; you have renewed my interest on him. Is there any particular movie you would recommend for starters?
Kinski was such an amazing actor; I particularly loved him in Fitzcarraldo (one of my favorite movies of all time) and in "Aguirre, the wrath of God", but he is good even on movies where he just have a few seconds on screen (Doctor Zhivago or Decision before dawn for instance)
Richard Basehart to me is like Kinski's saner older brother (lol). If you are in the mood for some old, not very known movies, I would recommend you to see "Time limit" (1957), "He walked by night" (1948) or the magnificent "La Strada" from Fellini (1955); all of them are in Youtube and offer a glimpse of what Mr. Basehart was able to accomplish as an actor.
Thanks for this very interesting thread.

[–] calyxlove-91-735602 13 years ago

If you want to start with Ozu, start with Tokyo Story, not only is it probably his best film, but also his most accessible in a sense. For me, his films are just the most subtle movies made of all time. It's funny because I had started with Kurosawa & was really impressed with films like Rashomon and Seven Samurai, but (in my opinion) Ozu's Tokyo Story actually transcends both of those films in artistic merit. So yeah, deffinitley give Ozu a chance, you certainly won't be let down, as long as you let yourself get into the meticulosly slow pace.

I really love Kinski, even though he as a person is freaking nuts, I love the guy as an actor. It's sad that only one director (Werner Herzog) could get a film's worth of performance out of him. As he said, David Lean & Brecht had to BEG him to perform. Now THAT's an accomplishment.

As I've said (I think in the course of these message boards) I'm really not familiar with Richard Baseheart as an actor, but the more I've heard about him, the more I want to see him! It's a shame the writers who adapted TBK did such an awful job developing his character! I'd heard about the Fellini film La Strada and had no idea he was in that movie! It gives me another reason to see it!

Thanks for reading! I'm glad you enjoyeed the thread!!

[–] borodinrodin 12 years ago

Well with no era restrictions these actors come to mind (for what it's worth):
As I recall Lee J Cobb in retrospect seemed apt as father.

Director: Terrence Malick
Father: Lee J Cobb
Dmitri: Kirk Douglas / Marlon Brando
Smerdyakov: Anthony Hopkins / Eli Wallach
Ivan: Ralph Fiennes / Jude Law
Alexi: Jim Cavaziel
Mikhail - Alexi's seminary 'friend' - John Cusack
Nicolai (the boy) - Joseph Gordon Levitt as youth
Female ideas
Grushenka: Natalie Portman / Rachel Weisz
Katerina: Meryl Streep / Faye Dunaway / Kate Blanchett