SHADOW LEGION CASTING CALL PART TWO

So the timewasting exercise of the blog strikes again as I give you my ideal casting for the Shadow Legion and related people.  To wit, it’s time to cast Alan Dennings, The Ferryman.

The thing about The Ferryman is that he’s a man of influence who, due to tragic circumstances, gains an ability that, as we’ll learn as the saga of the Legion continues, is going to drive him a little nuts.  Besieged by the spirits of the newly murdered, he is driven to avenge them and silence the howling in his head.  So we’d need somebody who’s classy but a little off, as if something will snap at any time.

Now last time I gave you a retro casting as well as a modern one.  If I had somehow gone back in time and somehow convinced a studio to make a SL movie, I would have ideally wanted Martin Landau to don the cloak and crimson blindfold for it.  There’s an intensity to Landau that I think will translate well to the Ferryman’s visage.

Now onto the here and now....

There was one actor who I had considered who turned out to be too old, so I ended up going with 39 year old Irish actor Cillian Murphy for the role.  Ever since I first saw him in the Wes Craven trifle Red Eye, I’ve always been struck by
the way Murphy is good looking but...off.  A lot of it is, of course, those far away eyes of his that always make me think he’s plotting something unsavory.  More importantly, we’ve seen him play sober and serious as well as massively deranged--in the case of Batman Begins, in the very same movie!  I can easily see him slowly transitioning from urbane socialite to tortured avenger over the course of a movie until the point where he’s actively scary.

Incidentally, given that my first two casting choices were in their late 30‘s, I’m thinking I may have to adjust my requirements upwards so everyone can appear to be, well, peers.

Do you agree? Disagree?  Have another idea?  Let me know.

SHADOW LEGION CASTING CALL PART ONE

Yeah, that’s right....it’s time for that ‘killing time’ segment all authors with a series do.  As we wait for Shadow Legion: The Shape Of Fears To Come to be released and I work on not one but two Legion novels, I’m going to do some fantasy booking and tell you who I would cast in a Shadow Legion movie.

And we begin with what has become The Legion’s most popular character--at least judging from the number of stories people have demanded about her--Maybelle ‘Dreamcatcher’ Tremens.

Anyone who’s listened to the podcast I co-host with Derrick Ferguson, Better In The Dark, might not be surprised to learn that I patterned Maybelle after Hammer Films icon Caroline Munro.  Hell, the depiction of our favorite sorceress with a white streak through her dark hair is a conscious tip of the hat to that timeless beauty.  And if the Shadow Legion had been created in the 70‘s or early 80‘s, she would be my choice.

However, we are talking about casting someone in the here and now.  And I have to also keep the cast relatively in the same age as each other.  I’ve always pictured the quartet of heroes that are my protagonists as being in their late 20's or early 30's, so I’m going for actors in this general vicinity.  And since I’m also a person who claims exact looks don’t matter as long as the essence is there, I’m not bound by casting exact replicas.

Which is why, for Maybelle, I would choose 38 year old English actress--and original member of The Better In The Dark Hottie Hall Of Fame--Rhona Mitra.

Yes, I will admit that Ms. Mitra might be a touch older than my stated age range (even though she’s only five years older than my choice for The Black Talon), but she beats out another Hottie Hall of Famer for a number of reasons.  I think she’s always had this air of  elegance that I always imagined Maybelle as having (I love how one reviewer for ‘Jolly With A Pistol,’ the Dreamcatcher story for this year’s Pulpwork Christmas Annual, referred to her as ‘nattily dressed.’), but with this undercurrent of fierceness that I imagine someone in a committed relationship with The Black Talon would have.  Plus she’s got these long, wavy tresses like I’ve always imagined her as having that would look great with a white streak through it.  Sure, her hair is more brown than black, but I can deal with that little variant.  I can just imagine her in Dreamcatcher’s signature ‘battlecoat’ over her heroing uniform...and to be fair, given that her uniform is mainly khaki shorts and a white shirt, I know Rhona ‘they based Lara Croft on me’ Mitra can rock that outfit perfectly.

What do you think?  Do you agree or disagree with my choice?  Who would you cast?  Let me know!