think the best thing to do in a situation where they are going to make a movie about such a great book that isn't particularly that "filmic," is to roll with the punches, and shut up until you watch the movie. There is absolutely no way you can full anticipate how the movie is going to (unless you happen to work in the movie, and b.t.w., you can hire me anytime you want), all you can do is speculate. And thus, I begin.

Peter Weir is a great director, but I'm not too happy that he's directing this. I would've liked to see this story through the eyes of someone like P.T.A. Sofia Coppola would be great, because she examines a scene introspectively, but stylisctically, she's not mature enough. Tarantino would understand this film the best (being Mr. Pop-Culture Reference, and all), but he's too busy. Robert Rodriguez, on the other hand, is not only perfect, but he resigned the DGA because he wanted to give directing credit to the creator of his next film "Sin City." And has anyone even mentioned Christopher Nolan? Now THAT would be impressive.

Bojan Bazelli ("The Ring") as cinematographer... YUM!

I've been mulling over the cast... It's so easy that it's difficult. I would love to see Maggie Gyllenhaal interpret Cayce, but Weir might think she's too young for the part. Angelina Jolie and Naomi Watts (even though it would be a little too "The Ring 3") are great prospects as well (and more age-appropriate). I always suggest Cate Blanchette for every role, but that is because her repertoire is not only varied, but impressive, as well. She's never let me down, in ANY role. Lauren Graham, of "Gilmore Girls" fame, needs this role more than any other actress, I think. And Jennier Garner, well... Duh.

Boone... (Insert unknown actor here)

Parkaboy? A late-thirties/early-forties' man who's just "a little gay"? Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Peter Krause. Eric McCormak.

Dorotea/Mama Anarchia? I don't remember if Gibson ever made reference to Dorotea's race, but I always thought of her as a strong black woman. It sounds a little bit off, but I'd love to see what Angela Bassett does with this. Or perhaps even Jennifer Lopez. She can actually act (remember "Out of Sight"?).

As for Bigend... Jim Broadbent comes to mind.

Damien should be attractive, kinda flaky though... so I'll go with... Johnathan Rhys-Meyers

And this is how I want to see the movie. Yeah.



So what do you guys think?

Cayce: just enough makeup to be allowed into meetings, a clingy black skirt thing, retro leather jacket, inner coolhunt marked by bright darting eyes... this is Rachel Griffith (6 Feet Under) Cate would be sublime.

Dorotea: a long shot, but Isabella Roselinni is fond of these offbeat roles. I got a very Italian Dominatrix vibe from Dorotea, Isabella would own this.

soundtrack: new york- elvis costello, anything a bit sad

london: Curve, their moody/feral/soothing darktronica, "Chainmail" from Gift (2001) is Cayce's internal theme

tokyo: some tokyo surf rock or ska for the moped action

Moscow/renderfarm: whatever hackers are into, Curve would work, as would Tom Waits/Public Enemy mash

I personally think an animated PR would work, allowing for surreal dissolves/audiovideo evnts to sync with Mirror World stuff. but I've been wrong, so very wrong, before

Sofia Coppola would be good for the Tokyo scenes. She filmed "Lost in Translation" in the same hotel Cayce stays at, so she'd be on familiar ground, at least.

what i think is that pr is a great book
the end
what is this obsession with making it into a film? why?
it's not going to be better or more slicker or smarter than the combination of william gibson and your imagination

quote:

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Originally posted by razorgirl:
what i think is that pr is a great book
the end
what is this obsession with making it into a film? why?
it's not going to be better or more slicker or smarter than the combination of william gibson and your imagination

---

because there are millions of people who don't read books but still enjoy a well told story.
Why not lobby for a more appropo cast and producers, directors, and screen play adapters who might be able to approach some semblance of doing justice to the material?

I'd rather see it as an animated feature (Perhaps the Ghost In The Shell group?).
Can you imagine how boring PR might play out in the wrong hands? Scary...

Consider Star Wars.

Only actors you haven't seen have no expectations.

Bob

I think a "newbie" cast would work best as well. Although, because I don't know the woman Our William uses to describe Cayce or what she's supposed to look like, I made up my own version in my head, and that version looks a lot like Annie Potts (roughly "Designing Women" era), with shoulder legth black hair. The Cayce in my head sounds like her, too, that same kind of metalic, slightly nasal twang that people try to fake but fail miserably.

I guess it's because she doesn't strike me a being a standard Hollywood beauty, she's an regular person who actually deals with the world on relatively equal terms, not afraid to give as good as she gets. Janine Garafollo might also work.

This is just my opinion, but I would like to know what you all think of that. (Barring coments like "What kind of crack are you on?" ^_^)

Wasn't Cayce compared to Jane Birkin somewhere at the beginning?

Oh well, I don't know how she should look like. In fact it's not that important. What worries me is that this character needs a really good thirty-something actress and when I think about the currently fashionable thirtysomething actresses, I can't see Cayce among them.

pixelherder mentioned curve for the renderfarm as a hackerish music. I personaly don't know their music. Here is what I can tell you though. When your coding you normaly listen to something a bit lower temp say Pink Floyd, Orb or some mild trance. This is because if you are prone to anxiety or ADD then your kepp yourself calm and focused. If your doing on the edge hacking or phreaking or something other you listen to some hard insdustrila or hard trance, it builds up the adrenaline and those psychic early warning paranoia sences are up. Question my knowleged on such things? Google 'oki 900 faq'

I could see Carrie-Ann Moss as Dorothea, and for Cacye, Anne Heche (if she were a better actress), Kate Winslet, or (even though she'd not the right race) Kimberly Elise.

quote:

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Originally posted by Liquid Cicada:
I'd rather see it as an animated feature (Perhaps the Ghost In The Shell group?).
Can you imagine how boring PR might play out in the wrong hands? Scary...

---

I know that Mamoru Oshii would probably be one of the few directors who wouldn't end up turning it into another piece of Hollywood bilge, and would understand the context of what WG wrote. Perhaps the worst thing for an audience (although not necessarily a bad thing for an author's bank balance) is for Hollywood and it's mainstream anorexic elite picking up an amazing book, running it through it's factory and spitting it out. I'd hate to see that happen to PR.

I just watched "Twisted" last night with Naomi Judd and was thinking about how she would make a great lead in the PR movie. I think that Naomi has that great combination of toghness and vulnerability that would do Cayce justice.

It occurred to me today whilt rereading PR that Paul Betthany (?) would make an excellent Parkaboy.

Not certain who could do Cayce tho.

I think absinthe's suggestion of C. Nolan as director is a good one, although it's hard to imagine any director doing this film justice.

How about Scarlett Johannsen or Samantha Morton as Cayce?

They are too young. And IMO Scarlett is not good enough an actress anyway.

Cayce is Janeane Garofalo...

That's so easy!

Did you guys read this in WG's recent blog:

"....In fact, I'm so cheered up generally that I'll actually talk about something other than politics for a minute: the proposed film of Pattern Recognition.

Where this stands at the moment, and literally all I know about it: Peter Weir (of whom I have been a huge fan since age twenty or so, so that's very nice indeed) wants to direct it, there's an option deal in place, and Weir has a contract with Warner to...well, not to go ahead and shoot it, but to go forward toward that end. Toward which he's hired a screenwriter -- whose name I've forgotten (which is actually a good sign with regard to Weir's choice) -- and has gone to London, Tokyo and Moscow to look at locations.

Absolutely nothing else known by me as to casting or anything else.

Though I should warn you, should you happen to bump into me in the meantime, that I don't regard films of novels as being the ultimate form in which a novel may be lucky enough to manifest. I regard *the novel* as the ultimate form in which the novel manifests. And if I should suspect that you think otherwise, I'm liable to snap at you. "

It's not surprising WG sounds a bit bitter about the possibility of an adaption. After all, his work has been notorious for not translating well onto the screen, from Johnny Mnemonic (fun but deeply flawed) through the Alien 3 script (never made, apparently the bar codes on the necks were the only thing that survived) to the couple of X-files episodes that weren't too striking...

He is a fantastic writer, but his style is poetic. If you were sitting next to John Keats as he looked at the dusk setting over the water-meadows in rural Hampshire, would you have had in your mind the words of the 'ode to Autumn'? Or would you have thought 'that's pretty'?

When you take a poetic style of writing from the page and turn it into pictures you have to rely on the poetry in the soul of the audience to awaken the images, and most of the time that just won't happen.

Or maybe I'm just too cynical about such things...

Mata - you make a good point. Gibson's writing style doesn't exactly lend itself to the screen...big or little. And I agree with Gibson's notion that the best vehicle for a novel is a novel. Adapted screenplays have to get shortened and repackaged and often pieces get lost in translation. Not to say that I don't think really good films could be made of a number of Gibson's films, but like any book that is made into a film the book will ALWAYS be better.

And as for who should play Cayce, I like Gillian Anderson...she's just soft spoken enough to play the Cayce I picture in my mind. Of course, she'd have to dye her hair...