C'est la guerre.
Things I've done lately:
-met up with itsagoddamnriot in San Francisco
-experienced a bit of an allergic reaction on my eyelids
-watched a lot of Lost (I'm up to 2x18)
-almost left Kimberly's Christmas gift behind in a J.Crew dressing room (not my proudest moment)
-finally put together my Sharp Teeth casting post!
Sharp Teeth
by Toby Barlow
Summary: A guy with little going on takes a job as a dogcatcher in modern day Los Angeles. He soon crosses paths with an enigmatic woman who unbeknownst to him is a werewolf, sent to the city pound by the leader of her pack to befriend the dogcatcher for reasons initially unclear. It turns out that there are rival packs, and though they all have different strategies and follow different philosophies, in the end it's whichever pack that has the hungriest members that rules the territory. And then there's a lone detective, trying to figure out why there are so many dogs in the area and why they're always around whenever anything goes down... (If this sounds familiar, it's because I totally copied the summary from my earlier fanmix.)
Notes: If you've been following my journal at all this past year, you know that I loved this book, so much so that as soon as I finished it, I immediately wanted to read it again. It's pretty audacious in its ambition (epic free verse supernatural poem that's just about equal parts romance/mystery/thriller/noir, not to mention the fact that it's a blatant love letter to canines), and while it's not perfect, it's still an incredible read. It alternates between beautiful, brutal, sexy, and funny, and it's fairly addictive. Toby Barlow himself said that the book reads like a graphic novel without the pictures, and I couldn't agree more. It wastes no time diving into the story and the multiple plotlines, and it moves at a brisk pace, giving you just enough information so that you get a feel for what's going on before quickly moving on to a completely different scene with different characters in the book's complex and convoluted universe. It's little surprise that the story is being adapted for film, and since no one has been cast yet, and because I've gotten a small handful of people on my flist to read the book, I figured now's a good time to share my casting choices. (Aside: How awesome would it be if Danny Boyle directed the movie? The answer is Very Awesome.)
Anthony Silvo (Joseph Gordon-Levitt)
A dogcatcher in love
Anthony in love is unlikely
in its grace,
like a drunk with a magic trick.
There’s no reason it should work,
but it does.
Sitting at the kennel, driving in his truck, handling the dogs,
he’s a man in a musical.
He steps light on the balls of his feet, moving
to a melody that oils his joints, loosens his stride.
Just watch him open a door or turn a key, it’s that evident.
Joe was practically born to play Anthony, a soft-spoken, benevolent guy who knows judo and wears his heart on his sleeve. He's like an amalgamation of nearly every part Joe has played in the past, so this was pretty much a no-brainer.
"She" (Zooey Deschanel)
Southern California native in a transitional phase of her life, lycanthrope
Dog or wolf? More like the one than the other
but neither exactly. Standing on four legs in her fur,
she is her own brand of beast.
I admit it, casting Zooey opposite Joe is rather deliberate on my part since the two of them make up my current dream celebrity coupling. But the more I read, the more I found Zooey's characteristics to be fitting for the role. "She" (the character's name is never mentioned) has dark hair and big blue eyes, and is very enigmatic. She's also incredibly wounded and has a world of anger and rage pent up inside of her, and is more than willing to unleash her wrath upon anyone unlucky enough get in the way of her dreams of happiness and normalcy. I'd love to see Zooey take on a role like this, one that has bite (heh) but at the same time fragility, and less of the self-assured Manic Pixie Dream Girl or the dry-witted best friend tendencies she's dangerously close to being typecast for.
Lark Tenant (Matthew Goode)
Successful lawyer, pack leader, lycanthrope
Lark keeps thinking. Even if they’re both real,
nobody but him is playing the white collar,
nobody but him is touching real money,
nobody else has anything in the north part of town,
and nothing comes close to
Lark’s plan for what’s next.
Fact: Lark is my favorite character in the book.
Fact: When I first saw the magazine spread containing the second picture, I got really hot and bothered.
Fact: When I found out that Lark was a lawyer, I immediately thought of that photo and said, “He’s my Lark!”
Fact: I stole this whole “fact” device from a chapter in the book.
Lark is focused, even cold and calculating at times, and he’s very big on rules, but it is all done for the good of the pack because the pack is the single most important thing in his existence. He's also got an agenda, with his eyes on a prize so big you can't even imagine. So when you fuck with his pack and his plans, he plots and he waits until the time comes when he can fuck you back in ways you could have never imagined. Matthew is totally someone who I can see playing a character who functions as a human with a cool ease, but also with a smirk on his face because he has a secret that you'll never find out unless he wants you to. And he is capable of being very, very dark when the situation calls for it.
Baron (Kevin Alejandro)
Lark's number two, lycanthrope
Lark's been exploring the San Pedro pack for a month now.
He has his dog in there now. Baron slowly earned the trust.
Parks are tough to crack, once you share your blood
they think you're theirs.
Baron's been playing it straight, in deep.
Baron has been getting phenomenal tattoos.
He's been tossing in the lots with the other dogs.
He's been studying their family, their moves, their lines of business.
It's a gray market on a good day, black on the rest.
Baron is smart and cunning, as you would expect Lark's number two to be. He also proves to be chameleon-like in his ability to pull off being a hot-shot lawyer in Lark's pack as well as, at Lark's behest, becoming a member of a rival pack that's involved with decidedly seedier business. Kevin Alejandro can definitely pull off these two personas: For lawyer Baron, see photo at left. For San Pedro Baron, see here. It's as if he's a completely different person!
Bone (Theo Rossi)
Baron's brother, lycanthrope
Some of us have problems.
They still talk about Bone and what the grease does to him.
He can’t go into fried chicken places
the smell, the scent, turns his blood right away.
They say he took out a Popeye’s once.
It made the news, unsolved.
It took him an hour.
He walked in, just to pick up a bucket.
The smell hit, the change happened,
and the whole place had to go.
Chicken, customers, biscuits, and gravy.
You get the feeling that Bone doesn't have the highest standing on the totem pole within the pack, but he seems okay with it; he's not hoping to become alpha dog. He's a scrappy guy who's content with following, and he goes wherever the tide takes him. I picked Theo because he's like the definition of scrappy to me thanks to his turns on Veronica Mars and Sons of Anarchy. I can't help but think that there's something cute and puppyish about him, but I wouldn't want to piss him off because he'd kick my ass and he wouldn't have any problems with fighting dirty, either.
Cutter (Colin Farrell) and Blue (Chris Evans)
Members of Lark's pack, lycanthropes
They have been doing well, rising slowly in the various local tournaments.
And when the claustrophobia gets too bad
they drive out to the desert and run,
hunting for the occasional feral cat.
They like to think of it as a community service,
after all, house cats that escape into the wild
survive on local birds, threatening the blue jays and warblers.
So hunting the felines down does protect the biodiversity,
but actually, they only do it
because dogs hate cats.
Lark sends Cutter and Blue to do some investigating for him at bridge tournament, so a lot of their scenes involve the two of them either playing cards or killing time in their hotel room in between matches. They are always seen together, so there's a slick, tag-team vibe to them, but they come off as frat boys at times, too. What I like most about them, though, is the way in which their dog sides come out in their human personalities: they rely on their senses and their instincts to suss out their situations, and they are unconditionally loyal. I picked both Chris and Colin because they can pull off being playful and goofy guys one minute, and then become rougher, more wild beings the next. Cutter and Blue are also inseparable, and something tells me that Chris and Colin would have great chemistry together.
Ray (Mark Pellegrino) and Sasha (Sienna Miller)
Leader of Long Beach pack, lycanthrope; lover of Ray, etc., lycanthrope
Ray has made this bed, he wants Sasha to keep the pack in line
but he wants her too. As his own.
She calls bullshit on his attitude every few days.
Things get physical. Both of them kick
and scream and bite.
She’s not afraid to put her fist into his face,
though she pays for it.
The back-and-forth goes on.
Blood spills on the floor.
I'll be honest: I've only seen Mark in Dexter as Paul, Rita's abusive ex-husband, but that was enough to leave an impression on me. Both Ray and Paul have a violent streak in them, and there's a smugness to them, like they believe that everyone else is there to do their bidding. Mark doesn't exactly fit Ray's physical description, which has him as short and stocky, but I'm just going to let that slide. Meanwhile, Sasha, as the lone female of the pack, has every guy wrapped around her finger, which, to be frank, sounds a lot like Sienna's personal love life. The character also has dark hair and is kind of trashy, and these promo pics from G.I. Joe are just so perfect for what Sasha should look like.
Annie (Amanda Seyfried)
Survivor, recruiter, lycanthrope
Annie nods, grins sweet, almost like she's
being patient with him.
Being patient with the whole world too
while she's at it.
"Okay," she says. "'Cause if you're going to wait
I could get you a sandwich."
He chuckles at the funny, awkward path
this case is taking.
"No thanks." He smiles. "Anyway, how did you
know I was here?"
"Oh, we smelled you," Annie says,
then walks away.
Annie reminds me of characters like Laura Palmer from Twin Peaks or Lilly Kane from Veronica Mars; a pretty, bright exterior with a hint of darkness that doesn't even begin to reveal the secrets hidden inside, secrets that people cannot even begin to fathom. When it came time to cast Annie, I thought, why not go with Lilly herself?
Maria (Rosario Dawson)
Lycanthrope
Maria was different from the last girl.
That girl was hurt and wide open
when he found her
hiding behind her tears on Abbott Kinney.
But Maria was more guarded.
He could sense her quietly looking
for the tender spot,
the place where she could reach in
and tear the heart
out of the world.
Rosario is one of those actors who has a strong presence, one where you can't help but sit up and take notice when she says or does something. I also find that there's something rather steely about her; she doesn't seem like the kind of gal who puts up with bullshit. All of these qualities befits Maria, who's been hurt bad in the past but now calls the shots in her pack and whom the rest would do anything for in order to capture her attentions.
Peabody (Josh Brolin)
L.A.P.D. detective conducting an ongoing investigation
The cop, remember the cop, eats toast with
too much butter on it
and double-checks paperwork.
His phone rings, he picks up to find
an odd voice
a man's voice,
"Mr. Peabody, Detective Peabody?"
Instinct makes Peabody look at the picture of his kid
and his wife on the desk.
As his old partner used to say, sometimes you can feel it coming
before it even begins.
Working for the L.A.P.D. means that he's strapped for resources (the department couldn't even afford to get him a new partner after the first was taken off-duty), but he's still tenacious and not quite as cynical as you might expect him to be. At the same time, he's not naive enough not realize that he might be in over his head with his investigation. Josh has a contemplative strength and slight gruffness to him that fits well with how I pictured Peabody in my head.
Mr. Venable (Jason Watkins)
A mysterious man with a variety of interests
Cutter sizes up Mr. Venable.
The man looks sharp and cagey,
he smells like bay rum and lavender.
Blue looks at them too.
He notices the way Venable’s eyes
don’t match his smile, eyes warm,
smile cold, eyes alive, smile dead.
Venable, a man whom Cutter and Blue meet at the bridge tournament, is described as short and similar to Truman Capote in appearance. Jason does look a bit Capotesque, but what really sold me on him was his portrayal of Herrick in Being Human. There's a potent combination of friendly yet creepy and self-serving there that's so Venable.
Goyo Castillo (Dwayne Johnson)
Mr. Venable's confidant
Cutter can tell that Goyo is the machine.
Venable lets him lead them, Blue can almost smell
the numbers burning in Goyo’s mind.
Goyo is a big, silent guy with a head for cards. In my mind, Dwayne not only embodies Goyo physically, but he'd also be good at being impassive like Goyo (let's face it, he's not the most expressive actor).
Calley (Peter Sarsgaard)
Dogcatcher
Calley pauses, draws on a smoke
the red in his eyes almost matches the
blood vessels spidering across his face
It's a foggy, milky, bloodshot stare,
but it still holds a mean light.
He rasps, "You like dogs?"
"Yeah, sure."
"Mmmn," he nods. "You won't."
Even though I love Peter, the fact that I was still able to cast him in the role of this gross, sad sack of a man who drinks the days away, is a testament to his talent and versatility. Ultimately, though, I think it was all of the hair in this picture that sealed the deal for me. (It's funny because Calley is so unlike Newt, the character Peter played in Year of the Dog, who was a super straight-laced dog enthusiast.)
Bonnie (Amy Adams)
A lonely, neurotic single woman, and a friend to lost strays
The days unfold, repeat and rerun.
Bonnie laughs at the TV. Lark gets playful,
jumps around the room
makes her laugh some more.
She brings home scraps for him from her office lunch.
She rubs his high haunches.
She picks up his shit.
Who knew
life could be this good.
I love Bonnie’s relationship with Lark so hard. It’s not what you would expect, yet it’s adorable and sweet, and not without a touch of sadness. The way that they supported each other in their own way had me rooting for these two immediately after Bonnie made her first appearance in the book. Amy is mostly known for playing lovable, perky characters, but there's always this underlying vulnerability in her performances, a quality that is key for playing Bonnie. And pardon my shallowness, but how pretty is this pairing?
So, for all of you whom I've pressured convinced to read the book, what do you think? Yay, nay? I'd love to hear who you pictured for the characters as well!
Also, let me take this opportunity to plug recastaway, a great but sorely little-known/used comm that encourages you to play casting director for your favorite books, movies, and shows. My gal underhand_glory runs it, and I know she'd love to get new members and have the comm become more active, so come and join the fun!
-met up with itsagoddamnriot in San Francisco
-experienced a bit of an allergic reaction on my eyelids
-watched a lot of Lost (I'm up to 2x18)
-almost left Kimberly's Christmas gift behind in a J.Crew dressing room (not my proudest moment)
-finally put together my Sharp Teeth casting post!
Sharp Teeth
by Toby Barlow
Summary: A guy with little going on takes a job as a dogcatcher in modern day Los Angeles. He soon crosses paths with an enigmatic woman who unbeknownst to him is a werewolf, sent to the city pound by the leader of her pack to befriend the dogcatcher for reasons initially unclear. It turns out that there are rival packs, and though they all have different strategies and follow different philosophies, in the end it's whichever pack that has the hungriest members that rules the territory. And then there's a lone detective, trying to figure out why there are so many dogs in the area and why they're always around whenever anything goes down... (If this sounds familiar, it's because I totally copied the summary from my earlier fanmix.)
Notes: If you've been following my journal at all this past year, you know that I loved this book, so much so that as soon as I finished it, I immediately wanted to read it again. It's pretty audacious in its ambition (epic free verse supernatural poem that's just about equal parts romance/mystery/thriller/noir, not to mention the fact that it's a blatant love letter to canines), and while it's not perfect, it's still an incredible read. It alternates between beautiful, brutal, sexy, and funny, and it's fairly addictive. Toby Barlow himself said that the book reads like a graphic novel without the pictures, and I couldn't agree more. It wastes no time diving into the story and the multiple plotlines, and it moves at a brisk pace, giving you just enough information so that you get a feel for what's going on before quickly moving on to a completely different scene with different characters in the book's complex and convoluted universe. It's little surprise that the story is being adapted for film, and since no one has been cast yet, and because I've gotten a small handful of people on my flist to read the book, I figured now's a good time to share my casting choices. (Aside: How awesome would it be if Danny Boyle directed the movie? The answer is Very Awesome.)
Anthony Silvo (Joseph Gordon-Levitt)
A dogcatcher in love
Anthony in love is unlikely
in its grace,
like a drunk with a magic trick.
There’s no reason it should work,
but it does.
Sitting at the kennel, driving in his truck, handling the dogs,
he’s a man in a musical.
He steps light on the balls of his feet, moving
to a melody that oils his joints, loosens his stride.
Just watch him open a door or turn a key, it’s that evident.
Joe was practically born to play Anthony, a soft-spoken, benevolent guy who knows judo and wears his heart on his sleeve. He's like an amalgamation of nearly every part Joe has played in the past, so this was pretty much a no-brainer.
"She" (Zooey Deschanel)
Southern California native in a transitional phase of her life, lycanthrope
Dog or wolf? More like the one than the other
but neither exactly. Standing on four legs in her fur,
she is her own brand of beast.
I admit it, casting Zooey opposite Joe is rather deliberate on my part since the two of them make up my current dream celebrity coupling. But the more I read, the more I found Zooey's characteristics to be fitting for the role. "She" (the character's name is never mentioned) has dark hair and big blue eyes, and is very enigmatic. She's also incredibly wounded and has a world of anger and rage pent up inside of her, and is more than willing to unleash her wrath upon anyone unlucky enough get in the way of her dreams of happiness and normalcy. I'd love to see Zooey take on a role like this, one that has bite (heh) but at the same time fragility, and less of the self-assured Manic Pixie Dream Girl or the dry-witted best friend tendencies she's dangerously close to being typecast for.
Lark Tenant (Matthew Goode)
Successful lawyer, pack leader, lycanthrope
Lark keeps thinking. Even if they’re both real,
nobody but him is playing the white collar,
nobody but him is touching real money,
nobody else has anything in the north part of town,
and nothing comes close to
Lark’s plan for what’s next.
Fact: Lark is my favorite character in the book.
Fact: When I first saw the magazine spread containing the second picture, I got really hot and bothered.
Fact: When I found out that Lark was a lawyer, I immediately thought of that photo and said, “He’s my Lark!”
Fact: I stole this whole “fact” device from a chapter in the book.
Lark is focused, even cold and calculating at times, and he’s very big on rules, but it is all done for the good of the pack because the pack is the single most important thing in his existence. He's also got an agenda, with his eyes on a prize so big you can't even imagine. So when you fuck with his pack and his plans, he plots and he waits until the time comes when he can fuck you back in ways you could have never imagined. Matthew is totally someone who I can see playing a character who functions as a human with a cool ease, but also with a smirk on his face because he has a secret that you'll never find out unless he wants you to. And he is capable of being very, very dark when the situation calls for it.
Baron (Kevin Alejandro)
Lark's number two, lycanthrope
Lark's been exploring the San Pedro pack for a month now.
He has his dog in there now. Baron slowly earned the trust.
Parks are tough to crack, once you share your blood
they think you're theirs.
Baron's been playing it straight, in deep.
Baron has been getting phenomenal tattoos.
He's been tossing in the lots with the other dogs.
He's been studying their family, their moves, their lines of business.
It's a gray market on a good day, black on the rest.
Baron is smart and cunning, as you would expect Lark's number two to be. He also proves to be chameleon-like in his ability to pull off being a hot-shot lawyer in Lark's pack as well as, at Lark's behest, becoming a member of a rival pack that's involved with decidedly seedier business. Kevin Alejandro can definitely pull off these two personas: For lawyer Baron, see photo at left. For San Pedro Baron, see here. It's as if he's a completely different person!
Bone (Theo Rossi)
Baron's brother, lycanthrope
Some of us have problems.
They still talk about Bone and what the grease does to him.
He can’t go into fried chicken places
the smell, the scent, turns his blood right away.
They say he took out a Popeye’s once.
It made the news, unsolved.
It took him an hour.
He walked in, just to pick up a bucket.
The smell hit, the change happened,
and the whole place had to go.
Chicken, customers, biscuits, and gravy.
You get the feeling that Bone doesn't have the highest standing on the totem pole within the pack, but he seems okay with it; he's not hoping to become alpha dog. He's a scrappy guy who's content with following, and he goes wherever the tide takes him. I picked Theo because he's like the definition of scrappy to me thanks to his turns on Veronica Mars and Sons of Anarchy. I can't help but think that there's something cute and puppyish about him, but I wouldn't want to piss him off because he'd kick my ass and he wouldn't have any problems with fighting dirty, either.
Cutter (Colin Farrell) and Blue (Chris Evans)
Members of Lark's pack, lycanthropes
They have been doing well, rising slowly in the various local tournaments.
And when the claustrophobia gets too bad
they drive out to the desert and run,
hunting for the occasional feral cat.
They like to think of it as a community service,
after all, house cats that escape into the wild
survive on local birds, threatening the blue jays and warblers.
So hunting the felines down does protect the biodiversity,
but actually, they only do it
because dogs hate cats.
Lark sends Cutter and Blue to do some investigating for him at bridge tournament, so a lot of their scenes involve the two of them either playing cards or killing time in their hotel room in between matches. They are always seen together, so there's a slick, tag-team vibe to them, but they come off as frat boys at times, too. What I like most about them, though, is the way in which their dog sides come out in their human personalities: they rely on their senses and their instincts to suss out their situations, and they are unconditionally loyal. I picked both Chris and Colin because they can pull off being playful and goofy guys one minute, and then become rougher, more wild beings the next. Cutter and Blue are also inseparable, and something tells me that Chris and Colin would have great chemistry together.
Ray (Mark Pellegrino) and Sasha (Sienna Miller)
Leader of Long Beach pack, lycanthrope; lover of Ray, etc., lycanthrope
Ray has made this bed, he wants Sasha to keep the pack in line
but he wants her too. As his own.
She calls bullshit on his attitude every few days.
Things get physical. Both of them kick
and scream and bite.
She’s not afraid to put her fist into his face,
though she pays for it.
The back-and-forth goes on.
Blood spills on the floor.
I'll be honest: I've only seen Mark in Dexter as Paul, Rita's abusive ex-husband, but that was enough to leave an impression on me. Both Ray and Paul have a violent streak in them, and there's a smugness to them, like they believe that everyone else is there to do their bidding. Mark doesn't exactly fit Ray's physical description, which has him as short and stocky, but I'm just going to let that slide. Meanwhile, Sasha, as the lone female of the pack, has every guy wrapped around her finger, which, to be frank, sounds a lot like Sienna's personal love life. The character also has dark hair and is kind of trashy, and these promo pics from G.I. Joe are just so perfect for what Sasha should look like.
Annie (Amanda Seyfried)
Survivor, recruiter, lycanthrope
Annie nods, grins sweet, almost like she's
being patient with him.
Being patient with the whole world too
while she's at it.
"Okay," she says. "'Cause if you're going to wait
I could get you a sandwich."
He chuckles at the funny, awkward path
this case is taking.
"No thanks." He smiles. "Anyway, how did you
know I was here?"
"Oh, we smelled you," Annie says,
then walks away.
Annie reminds me of characters like Laura Palmer from Twin Peaks or Lilly Kane from Veronica Mars; a pretty, bright exterior with a hint of darkness that doesn't even begin to reveal the secrets hidden inside, secrets that people cannot even begin to fathom. When it came time to cast Annie, I thought, why not go with Lilly herself?
Maria (Rosario Dawson)
Lycanthrope
Maria was different from the last girl.
That girl was hurt and wide open
when he found her
hiding behind her tears on Abbott Kinney.
But Maria was more guarded.
He could sense her quietly looking
for the tender spot,
the place where she could reach in
and tear the heart
out of the world.
Rosario is one of those actors who has a strong presence, one where you can't help but sit up and take notice when she says or does something. I also find that there's something rather steely about her; she doesn't seem like the kind of gal who puts up with bullshit. All of these qualities befits Maria, who's been hurt bad in the past but now calls the shots in her pack and whom the rest would do anything for in order to capture her attentions.
Peabody (Josh Brolin)
L.A.P.D. detective conducting an ongoing investigation
The cop, remember the cop, eats toast with
too much butter on it
and double-checks paperwork.
His phone rings, he picks up to find
an odd voice
a man's voice,
"Mr. Peabody, Detective Peabody?"
Instinct makes Peabody look at the picture of his kid
and his wife on the desk.
As his old partner used to say, sometimes you can feel it coming
before it even begins.
Working for the L.A.P.D. means that he's strapped for resources (the department couldn't even afford to get him a new partner after the first was taken off-duty), but he's still tenacious and not quite as cynical as you might expect him to be. At the same time, he's not naive enough not realize that he might be in over his head with his investigation. Josh has a contemplative strength and slight gruffness to him that fits well with how I pictured Peabody in my head.
Mr. Venable (Jason Watkins)
A mysterious man with a variety of interests
Cutter sizes up Mr. Venable.
The man looks sharp and cagey,
he smells like bay rum and lavender.
Blue looks at them too.
He notices the way Venable’s eyes
don’t match his smile, eyes warm,
smile cold, eyes alive, smile dead.
Venable, a man whom Cutter and Blue meet at the bridge tournament, is described as short and similar to Truman Capote in appearance. Jason does look a bit Capotesque, but what really sold me on him was his portrayal of Herrick in Being Human. There's a potent combination of friendly yet creepy and self-serving there that's so Venable.
Goyo Castillo (Dwayne Johnson)
Mr. Venable's confidant
Cutter can tell that Goyo is the machine.
Venable lets him lead them, Blue can almost smell
the numbers burning in Goyo’s mind.
Goyo is a big, silent guy with a head for cards. In my mind, Dwayne not only embodies Goyo physically, but he'd also be good at being impassive like Goyo (let's face it, he's not the most expressive actor).
Calley (Peter Sarsgaard)
Dogcatcher
Calley pauses, draws on a smoke
the red in his eyes almost matches the
blood vessels spidering across his face
It's a foggy, milky, bloodshot stare,
but it still holds a mean light.
He rasps, "You like dogs?"
"Yeah, sure."
"Mmmn," he nods. "You won't."
Even though I love Peter, the fact that I was still able to cast him in the role of this gross, sad sack of a man who drinks the days away, is a testament to his talent and versatility. Ultimately, though, I think it was all of the hair in this picture that sealed the deal for me. (It's funny because Calley is so unlike Newt, the character Peter played in Year of the Dog, who was a super straight-laced dog enthusiast.)
Bonnie (Amy Adams)
A lonely, neurotic single woman, and a friend to lost strays
The days unfold, repeat and rerun.
Bonnie laughs at the TV. Lark gets playful,
jumps around the room
makes her laugh some more.
She brings home scraps for him from her office lunch.
She rubs his high haunches.
She picks up his shit.
Who knew
life could be this good.
I love Bonnie’s relationship with Lark so hard. It’s not what you would expect, yet it’s adorable and sweet, and not without a touch of sadness. The way that they supported each other in their own way had me rooting for these two immediately after Bonnie made her first appearance in the book. Amy is mostly known for playing lovable, perky characters, but there's always this underlying vulnerability in her performances, a quality that is key for playing Bonnie. And pardon my shallowness, but how pretty is this pairing?
So, for all of you whom I've pressured convinced to read the book, what do you think? Yay, nay? I'd love to hear who you pictured for the characters as well!
Also, let me take this opportunity to plug recastaway, a great but sorely little-known/used comm that encourages you to play casting director for your favorite books, movies, and shows. My gal underhand_glory runs it, and I know she'd love to get new members and have the comm become more active, so come and join the fun!