Dream Cast for 'This is the Way the World Ends' by James Morrow
When I saw that picspammy's current challenge was a second chance for doing a casting picspam, I thought 'Hooray! I can do that!'. For a while I pondered what I wanted to cast before settling on one of my favourite novels: This is the Way the World Ends by James Morrow, a darkly comedic satire about the total devastation of the world via a nuclear war. (I love a good apocalypse.)
Three days later I realized that I had picked a book with a vast ensemble cast and would probably never finish editing the pictures. However, I somehow managed to, so here is a picspam of a hypothetical cast for a movie that will never get made of a book that no one has read. Please look at it anyways, if only for the pretty pictures. It would make my insanity feel very validated.
The Plot
From the back of the book: "In 1995, George Paxton is an ordinary American living an ordinary life in an ordinary town. Content as a tombstone carver and family man, George lacks only one thing: a fashionable 'scopas' survival suit - complete with sanitary facilities and a Colt .45 - to protect his daughter in the event of nuclear war. Then, through a twist of fate, George secures the coveted suit, a deluxe golden model, for the price of a mere signature. Unfortunately, what he signs proves to be a diabolical pact affirming his complicity in the escalating nuclear arms race, and as the war that could never happen happens, George is whisked into the past and the future to face the consequences of his actions."
Essentially, this is an Alice in Wonderland-like tale about the world after nuclear war. George, along with five other survivors from various professions, is taken to Antarctica after the end of the world and put on trial for crimes against humanity, peace, and the future. There's an interesting device that gives a voice to the extinguished future generations of humanity, and the whole thing is simultaneously bleak and entertaining. It does a wonderful job of exposing the absurdity of the military-industrial complex, while remaining inventive and readable. Occasionally it gets a little anvil-heavy with its message, but overall it's a wonderful book, that you should definitely read.
It would be difficult to turn into a movie, due to its huge scope, but could probably be done with a good writing team and director. And a good effects team, naturally.
The Paxtons
Not everyone would have found fulfillment in putting words on cemetery monuments. For George, however, inscribing monuments was a calling, not simply a job. He was in the tomb profession. He kept a scrapbook of the great ones: the sarcophagus of Alexander, the shrine to Mausolus at Halicarnassus, the Medici tomb at San Lorenzo, the Pyramid of Cheops. Don't you get depressed being around gravestones all day? people asked him. No, he replied. Gravestones, he knew, were educational media, teaching that life has limits: don't set your sights too high.
While this is perhaps a bit of a weird choice, I think he would be able to carry off both the dramatic and comedic aspects of the character (a man who goes through the despair of losing everything and everyone he holds dear in a horrific nuclear war, but also spends much of the book composing epitaphs for everything in his head, and conversing with his sperm). In some ways the character he played in Nathan Barley is rather similar, with the mix of depression and humour, so, yes, I think it could work well.
More than anything else, George's wife wanted to act. She was no dreamer, though: no visions of Hollywood danced in her head. Her sober and plausible ambition was to be the clown who gave out balloons at children's parties, the radio voice that told you where to purchase a new sofa, or the pretty lady at the local cable television station who explained why you should patronize the Wildgrove Hardware Store or Sandy's Sandwich Shop.
Feisty and gorgeous is something Kate Hewlett can do with no trouble at all. Justine also has some very funny moments in the pet shop where she works, and Kate Hewlett also has great comedic timing.
If George could have one wish, he would remake the world as Holly saw it. This utopia would consist largely of cuddly ducks, happy ponies, and sea gulls who spared live clams.
She's too old now to play a four-year-old, but she'd be perfect to play the precocious and adorable daughter who George sacrifices everything in the hopes of saving.
The Survivors
"Ah, another one of those," said Wegnernook with mock distress. "Here I am in the goddamn D-O-D, and everybody thinks of me as the guy who does the scopas suit commericals. For my hobby, I'm the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs."
Poor Peter Capaldi, playing harried diplomat after harried diplomat. Still, he is wonderful at it, and would doubtless do very well as this particular harried diplomat.
George had never taken so immediate a liking to anyone before. Brat Tarmac was the sort of handsome, athletic soldier ten-year-old boys wanted for fathers, a fantasy to which George, at age thirty-five, was not entirely immune.
As the main military man in the group of survivors, responsible for some of the failed nuclear deterrence plans, Tarmac is both very brash, arrogant, and self-assured, and yet strangely sympathetic and likable. If his performance as Doakes on Dexter is any indication, Erik King can straddle that line perfectly.
"Ever see King of Kings?" said Sparrow. "It's wonderful the way Orson Welles pronounces the T in 'apostles.'" He placed George's shoulder in a warm grip. "I'm still praying for you."
Michael C. Hall is absolutely perfect to play this devastatingly earnest and utterly smarmy televangelist, no doubt about it.
"Meet Dr. William Randstable," said Brat. "The whiz kid of Sugar Brook Lab and, it is rumored, a certifiable genius."
"I'm not really a whiz kid any more," said Randstable. His suit was several sizes too large. "More of a whiz middle-aged man."
It's an odd choice of the author to have the man responsible for creating many of the nuclear weapons that destroyed the world to be the socially awkward comic relief who copes through playing chess with himself. However, Stephen Merchant with all his lanky hilarity could probably pull it off quite well.
The oil lamps sprinkled flecks of bronze onto his snowy beard as he narrated his life's story - the Foreign Service, the Diplomatic Corps, the State Department, and, finally, the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. To George, Overwhite still seemed like a windbag, but he was obviously a resourceful and intelligent one, a windbag woven of the finest material.
As soon as he was described as looking like Santa Claus, my mind jumped to Richard Attenborough and just wouldn't let get go of the image.
The Lawyers
He devoured more lemon meringue pie. "And if all else fails, I've got a rabbit or two in my hat. I believe we should go for aquittals, count by count."
He's so young, George thought. They sent a child to defend us.
He would definitely bring a vitality to the role of the chief defense attorney for the survivors.
His ally throughout these interrogations was Dennie Howe, an agonizingly attractive young darkblood with sharp turquoise eyes and a double-decker smile. As soon as George entered the hut, she identified herself as Bonenfant's chief assistant and explained that she would be using her several degrees in international law to keep George's inquisitors at bay. My client does not have to answer that question. My client is not obliged to initial that extradition paper. My client is entitled to a cup of...
This is hard to explain, but basically, I think she'd make a good hotshot young lawyer.
When Alexander Aquinas stood up, George saw that the forces arrayed against them were formidable indeed. The chief prosecutor was well over six feet tall. His head looked like a sculpture of itself - rough-hewn, bleak, larger than life. His shaggy gray hair and thick neck suggested that he owned lion genes, Slowly he walked to the bench, turned, and stared toward the gallery with the intensity of a man having a private audience with an angel. He smiled.
The chief prosecutor of the survivors has to have gravitas in gigantic amounts, something that Morgan Freeman certainly possesses.
The president of the court, Shawna Queen Jefferson, was a spry little black woman who, as the Mount Christchurch news sculptors had recently revealed, would have become 'The Most Controversial Supreme Court Justice In History'.
Calm and measured, intelligent and sympathetic, but also no-nonsense with an edge of sarcasm. She would definitely do well in the role of the Chief Justice of the court trying the survivors.
The Other Players
Evening pressed softly on the Crippen Monument Works. The woman uncrooked her back, hobbled forward. "I have a task for you," she said. A spry voice inhabited her antique body. "You'll learn of it soon."
"Have we met?" he asked.
"I have always been with you," she said, smiling, "waiting to get in," and then she vanished into the dusk.
A kindly but mysterious grandmother figure who acts as a guide to George in many ways. That far left picture is exactly how the character looks in my mind.
"I lived a block from my little sister - a Methodist minister and in her own way a better therapist than I. We called Linda the white sheep of the family. All I want is to be able to bury her." Leonardo was right: Morning could smile. This was not the joyful smile of the mother in the portrait, however, but the brave, taut smile of someone fighting tears.
This is the casting that I dithered over the most. While Morning is supposed to be a freckled redhead, that could be done with dye and makeup, and Maggie Gyllenhaal's unusual beauty corresponds to how Morning is described. She is also an amazing actress who could portray the subtleties of the character very well. From the closed-off and clinical therapist to the sympathetic witness to the passionate and tragic love interest, she could bring such life to a difficult role that it would be wonderful to watch.
"I can tell you why a vulture is like a raven, but the answer is distasteful, involving carrion and bad table manners. [...] The human body is an egg. 'Humpty-Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty-Dumpty had a great fall. All the King's horses and-' Now why in the world would anybody expect horses to be able to put an egg back together? People were naive in those days."
While he's all wrong for the physical description of the character (small, red hair, middle-aged), I can't help but feel that he would pull off the manic energy and complicated dialogue incredibly well. It's a role a bit like the Doctor in some ways (he's also a bit of a lone adventurer who travels in time), and the speech patterns are very similar as well.
Confused sea gulls soared through the skies above the harbor. They were on fire. He closed his right eye and opened his left, which was made of gutta-percha. There, that was better, no burning gulls. Each evening Sverre would remove his rubber eye, soak it in gin, and replace it, whereupon the alcohol would seep into his brain, giving him a unique and copacetic high. In these troubled times, it was the only way he could get to sleep.
That face just screams 'grizzled but kindly sailor', does it not?
A narrow-eyed young woman guarded him with a Remington twelve-gauge shotgun. Her nameplate said GILA GUIZOT, and her scopas suit displayed the Bleeding Hand insignia of the Antarctic Police Force. On meeting George, the first thing Gila Guizot had done was kick him in his resuscitated gonads.
I think the contrast between her beautiful and waif-like appearance and the character's tough attitude would work very well.
Mother Mary Catherine turned to the bench, winked impishly, and said, "Be sure to convict that chucklehead. He thinks a country's Christianity is measured by the size of its thermonuclear arsenal."
Yes, 'Mother' in the Catholic sense. It's a bit part, but an important and captivating one. A Catholic priest and Vice President of the United States, Mother Mary Catherine is outspoken, cheeky, and extremely dedicated in her convictions. I think Margaret Cho would bring a fire and attitude to the role that would perfectly embody the character's spirit.
The Epitaph
1) The picture on the poster mock-up is of the first thermonuclear experiment, which led to the development of thermonuclear devices (or hydrogen bombs). The detonation took place on Mujinkarikku Islet on May 9th, 1951, and was a part of Operation Greenhouse. The device's name was George. I love this photo because in contrast to the violence of what it represents, it looks like a peaceful watercolour.
2) If you're interested in other media about nuclear weaponry and the military-industrial complex in general, here are some recommendations.
For an uncompromising look at the effects of nuclear weaponry on people: White Light/ Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Told from the point of view of survivors (as well as those involved in delivering the bomb), it's horrifying and describes both the immediate destruction, as well as the lingering physical and emotional effects.
For an overview of how and why the military is the way it is: Why We Fight. A good introduction to the concept of the military-industrial complex and some of its absurdities.
For a history of warfare, both its technology and its causes: War, by Gwynne Dyer. Does what it says on the tin. A great book.
For another fictionalized account of the world after nuclear war: A Canticle For Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller. It's a little difficult to get into, but it's the type of book that will change your outlook on life if you give it a chance.
For a look at a variety of footage from the atomic age: The Atomic Cafe (you can watch it online free!). Lots of footage of tests, propaganda, newsreels, etc. Fascinating, and at times both hilarious and horrifying in retrospect.
3) Thank you boxseat, for all your suggestions and support with this. :D
If you made it all the way through this post, I thank and congratulate you.
Three days later I realized that I had picked a book with a vast ensemble cast and would probably never finish editing the pictures. However, I somehow managed to, so here is a picspam of a hypothetical cast for a movie that will never get made of a book that no one has read. Please look at it anyways, if only for the pretty pictures. It would make my insanity feel very validated.
The Plot
From the back of the book: "In 1995, George Paxton is an ordinary American living an ordinary life in an ordinary town. Content as a tombstone carver and family man, George lacks only one thing: a fashionable 'scopas' survival suit - complete with sanitary facilities and a Colt .45 - to protect his daughter in the event of nuclear war. Then, through a twist of fate, George secures the coveted suit, a deluxe golden model, for the price of a mere signature. Unfortunately, what he signs proves to be a diabolical pact affirming his complicity in the escalating nuclear arms race, and as the war that could never happen happens, George is whisked into the past and the future to face the consequences of his actions."
Essentially, this is an Alice in Wonderland-like tale about the world after nuclear war. George, along with five other survivors from various professions, is taken to Antarctica after the end of the world and put on trial for crimes against humanity, peace, and the future. There's an interesting device that gives a voice to the extinguished future generations of humanity, and the whole thing is simultaneously bleak and entertaining. It does a wonderful job of exposing the absurdity of the military-industrial complex, while remaining inventive and readable. Occasionally it gets a little anvil-heavy with its message, but overall it's a wonderful book, that you should definitely read.
It would be difficult to turn into a movie, due to its huge scope, but could probably be done with a good writing team and director. And a good effects team, naturally.
The Paxtons
Not everyone would have found fulfillment in putting words on cemetery monuments. For George, however, inscribing monuments was a calling, not simply a job. He was in the tomb profession. He kept a scrapbook of the great ones: the sarcophagus of Alexander, the shrine to Mausolus at Halicarnassus, the Medici tomb at San Lorenzo, the Pyramid of Cheops. Don't you get depressed being around gravestones all day? people asked him. No, he replied. Gravestones, he knew, were educational media, teaching that life has limits: don't set your sights too high.
While this is perhaps a bit of a weird choice, I think he would be able to carry off both the dramatic and comedic aspects of the character (a man who goes through the despair of losing everything and everyone he holds dear in a horrific nuclear war, but also spends much of the book composing epitaphs for everything in his head, and conversing with his sperm). In some ways the character he played in Nathan Barley is rather similar, with the mix of depression and humour, so, yes, I think it could work well.
More than anything else, George's wife wanted to act. She was no dreamer, though: no visions of Hollywood danced in her head. Her sober and plausible ambition was to be the clown who gave out balloons at children's parties, the radio voice that told you where to purchase a new sofa, or the pretty lady at the local cable television station who explained why you should patronize the Wildgrove Hardware Store or Sandy's Sandwich Shop.
Feisty and gorgeous is something Kate Hewlett can do with no trouble at all. Justine also has some very funny moments in the pet shop where she works, and Kate Hewlett also has great comedic timing.
If George could have one wish, he would remake the world as Holly saw it. This utopia would consist largely of cuddly ducks, happy ponies, and sea gulls who spared live clams.
She's too old now to play a four-year-old, but she'd be perfect to play the precocious and adorable daughter who George sacrifices everything in the hopes of saving.
The Survivors
"Ah, another one of those," said Wegnernook with mock distress. "Here I am in the goddamn D-O-D, and everybody thinks of me as the guy who does the scopas suit commericals. For my hobby, I'm the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs."
Poor Peter Capaldi, playing harried diplomat after harried diplomat. Still, he is wonderful at it, and would doubtless do very well as this particular harried diplomat.
George had never taken so immediate a liking to anyone before. Brat Tarmac was the sort of handsome, athletic soldier ten-year-old boys wanted for fathers, a fantasy to which George, at age thirty-five, was not entirely immune.
As the main military man in the group of survivors, responsible for some of the failed nuclear deterrence plans, Tarmac is both very brash, arrogant, and self-assured, and yet strangely sympathetic and likable. If his performance as Doakes on Dexter is any indication, Erik King can straddle that line perfectly.
"Ever see King of Kings?" said Sparrow. "It's wonderful the way Orson Welles pronounces the T in 'apostles.'" He placed George's shoulder in a warm grip. "I'm still praying for you."
Michael C. Hall is absolutely perfect to play this devastatingly earnest and utterly smarmy televangelist, no doubt about it.
"Meet Dr. William Randstable," said Brat. "The whiz kid of Sugar Brook Lab and, it is rumored, a certifiable genius."
"I'm not really a whiz kid any more," said Randstable. His suit was several sizes too large. "More of a whiz middle-aged man."
It's an odd choice of the author to have the man responsible for creating many of the nuclear weapons that destroyed the world to be the socially awkward comic relief who copes through playing chess with himself. However, Stephen Merchant with all his lanky hilarity could probably pull it off quite well.
The oil lamps sprinkled flecks of bronze onto his snowy beard as he narrated his life's story - the Foreign Service, the Diplomatic Corps, the State Department, and, finally, the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. To George, Overwhite still seemed like a windbag, but he was obviously a resourceful and intelligent one, a windbag woven of the finest material.
As soon as he was described as looking like Santa Claus, my mind jumped to Richard Attenborough and just wouldn't let get go of the image.
The Lawyers
He devoured more lemon meringue pie. "And if all else fails, I've got a rabbit or two in my hat. I believe we should go for aquittals, count by count."
He's so young, George thought. They sent a child to defend us.
He would definitely bring a vitality to the role of the chief defense attorney for the survivors.
His ally throughout these interrogations was Dennie Howe, an agonizingly attractive young darkblood with sharp turquoise eyes and a double-decker smile. As soon as George entered the hut, she identified herself as Bonenfant's chief assistant and explained that she would be using her several degrees in international law to keep George's inquisitors at bay. My client does not have to answer that question. My client is not obliged to initial that extradition paper. My client is entitled to a cup of...
This is hard to explain, but basically, I think she'd make a good hotshot young lawyer.
When Alexander Aquinas stood up, George saw that the forces arrayed against them were formidable indeed. The chief prosecutor was well over six feet tall. His head looked like a sculpture of itself - rough-hewn, bleak, larger than life. His shaggy gray hair and thick neck suggested that he owned lion genes, Slowly he walked to the bench, turned, and stared toward the gallery with the intensity of a man having a private audience with an angel. He smiled.
The chief prosecutor of the survivors has to have gravitas in gigantic amounts, something that Morgan Freeman certainly possesses.
The president of the court, Shawna Queen Jefferson, was a spry little black woman who, as the Mount Christchurch news sculptors had recently revealed, would have become 'The Most Controversial Supreme Court Justice In History'.
Calm and measured, intelligent and sympathetic, but also no-nonsense with an edge of sarcasm. She would definitely do well in the role of the Chief Justice of the court trying the survivors.
The Other Players
Evening pressed softly on the Crippen Monument Works. The woman uncrooked her back, hobbled forward. "I have a task for you," she said. A spry voice inhabited her antique body. "You'll learn of it soon."
"Have we met?" he asked.
"I have always been with you," she said, smiling, "waiting to get in," and then she vanished into the dusk.
A kindly but mysterious grandmother figure who acts as a guide to George in many ways. That far left picture is exactly how the character looks in my mind.
"I lived a block from my little sister - a Methodist minister and in her own way a better therapist than I. We called Linda the white sheep of the family. All I want is to be able to bury her." Leonardo was right: Morning could smile. This was not the joyful smile of the mother in the portrait, however, but the brave, taut smile of someone fighting tears.
This is the casting that I dithered over the most. While Morning is supposed to be a freckled redhead, that could be done with dye and makeup, and Maggie Gyllenhaal's unusual beauty corresponds to how Morning is described. She is also an amazing actress who could portray the subtleties of the character very well. From the closed-off and clinical therapist to the sympathetic witness to the passionate and tragic love interest, she could bring such life to a difficult role that it would be wonderful to watch.
"I can tell you why a vulture is like a raven, but the answer is distasteful, involving carrion and bad table manners. [...] The human body is an egg. 'Humpty-Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty-Dumpty had a great fall. All the King's horses and-' Now why in the world would anybody expect horses to be able to put an egg back together? People were naive in those days."
While he's all wrong for the physical description of the character (small, red hair, middle-aged), I can't help but feel that he would pull off the manic energy and complicated dialogue incredibly well. It's a role a bit like the Doctor in some ways (he's also a bit of a lone adventurer who travels in time), and the speech patterns are very similar as well.
Confused sea gulls soared through the skies above the harbor. They were on fire. He closed his right eye and opened his left, which was made of gutta-percha. There, that was better, no burning gulls. Each evening Sverre would remove his rubber eye, soak it in gin, and replace it, whereupon the alcohol would seep into his brain, giving him a unique and copacetic high. In these troubled times, it was the only way he could get to sleep.
That face just screams 'grizzled but kindly sailor', does it not?
A narrow-eyed young woman guarded him with a Remington twelve-gauge shotgun. Her nameplate said GILA GUIZOT, and her scopas suit displayed the Bleeding Hand insignia of the Antarctic Police Force. On meeting George, the first thing Gila Guizot had done was kick him in his resuscitated gonads.
I think the contrast between her beautiful and waif-like appearance and the character's tough attitude would work very well.
Mother Mary Catherine turned to the bench, winked impishly, and said, "Be sure to convict that chucklehead. He thinks a country's Christianity is measured by the size of its thermonuclear arsenal."
Yes, 'Mother' in the Catholic sense. It's a bit part, but an important and captivating one. A Catholic priest and Vice President of the United States, Mother Mary Catherine is outspoken, cheeky, and extremely dedicated in her convictions. I think Margaret Cho would bring a fire and attitude to the role that would perfectly embody the character's spirit.
The Epitaph
1) The picture on the poster mock-up is of the first thermonuclear experiment, which led to the development of thermonuclear devices (or hydrogen bombs). The detonation took place on Mujinkarikku Islet on May 9th, 1951, and was a part of Operation Greenhouse. The device's name was George. I love this photo because in contrast to the violence of what it represents, it looks like a peaceful watercolour.
2) If you're interested in other media about nuclear weaponry and the military-industrial complex in general, here are some recommendations.
For an uncompromising look at the effects of nuclear weaponry on people: White Light/ Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Told from the point of view of survivors (as well as those involved in delivering the bomb), it's horrifying and describes both the immediate destruction, as well as the lingering physical and emotional effects.
For an overview of how and why the military is the way it is: Why We Fight. A good introduction to the concept of the military-industrial complex and some of its absurdities.
For a history of warfare, both its technology and its causes: War, by Gwynne Dyer. Does what it says on the tin. A great book.
For another fictionalized account of the world after nuclear war: A Canticle For Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller. It's a little difficult to get into, but it's the type of book that will change your outlook on life if you give it a chance.
For a look at a variety of footage from the atomic age: The Atomic Cafe (you can watch it online free!). Lots of footage of tests, propaganda, newsreels, etc. Fascinating, and at times both hilarious and horrifying in retrospect.
3) Thank you boxseat, for all your suggestions and support with this. :D
If you made it all the way through this post, I thank and congratulate you.