Sunday, 21 June 2020

Characters And Actors

Occasionally, when a novel is filmed, the actors are so well cast that we remember them whenever we reread the novel, as with the Swedish screen adaptations of Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy.

This has to be done with Poul Anderson's works. Of existing actors, who would be most suitable for the role of Nicholas van Rijn? Obviously, he must both look the part and reproduce the flamboyant character. Maybe someone would have to put on weight to look right? The best option for van Rijn and other characters would be previously unknown actors who could be signed on for several years until the entire series had been filmed. Van Rijn appears in ten works, several of which would have to be serialized. Dominic Flandry needs to change actors after his single biosculp. This can be done. In fact, it would be infinitely more worthwhile than yet more Star Wars or Star Trek films.

2 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I only wish SOMEBODY in the movie industry would take a chance and film versions of the Nicholas van Rijn and Dominic Flandry stories! And that these films be accurate. They would be far more interesting than endless reiterations of the hackneyed trophes and stale plots of the STAR DRECK and STAR BLAH movies!

Old Nick is described by Anderson as fully two meters tall and both massively muscular and obese. So any actor playing him would need to be six feet, four inches tall and be willing to put on weight.

Yes, one actor can play Dominic Flandry in ENSIGN FLANDRY and A CIRCUS OF HELLS, while another would be needed to play him for the later stories. Fortunately, these actors would not need to be fat!

And in my "Textual Scrawl For Flandry Movies" I discussed the desirability of beginning Flandry movies with a textual scrawl similar to that of STAR WARS. And quoted a text that could be used as a basis for a more condensed textual scrawl. And something should be done for Nicholas van Rijn films.

Ad astra! Sean

Sean M. Brooks said...

Correction: I made an error about my article mentioned in the previous note. It should have been "Textual CRAWL For Flandry Movies." Not "Scrawl."

Ad astra! Sean