Let's cast the Silmarillion

[tom bombariffic]

Chuck Norris as Fingolfin roundhouse kicking Melkor outside Angband. Though by the laws of science (and chuck norris) that would mean Melkor would have to die.

Oh and Ving Rhaimes as Manwe. Nuff said.

bombariffic

[Diamond18]

I'd like to see Rufus Sewell and James Franco in The Sil. Any role. I'm not good at matching particular actors to particular roles, but those are two actors I'd like to see playing men (as opposed to Elves or Maia.) Rufus in particular, there's got to be some role that just cries out for those eyes.

(And yes, this is influenced by my having recently watched Tristan and Isolde -- though I've seen both actors in other films as well.)

And honestly I think the only actress beautiful enough to play Luthien would be a young Olivia Hussey.

[Macalaure]

Sewell is a good idea. He could play anyone of the Noldor, or maybe Túrin.

Another suggestion: What about Cillian Murphy? I think he would be fitting for Orodreth.

[ninja91]

What about Johnny Depp as the fair form of Sauron? His white appearance in Edward Scissorhands was... interesting.

[Rune Son of Bjarne]

I like this thread, it is funny trying to cast the Sil. . .

But I am awful at remembering actors so in this post I will stick with saying who should never ever be castet as Luthien.

Agelina Jolie! I guess it al comes down to the fact that I don't find her beautiful. I can see why some people would think that she is hot, but no I dont find her atractive at all. Now alot of you, proberbly think that I am a sick individual and that might very well be. Another thing that I think speaks against her as Luthien is that who ever is chosen has to have have some resemblance to Liv Tyler. (only if we consider this silm cast as beeing a continuation of the LOTR movies. Was Arven not supposed to look a bit like Luthien? It might be me mixing things up.

I will be back later to tell you who I would like to see in the role as Luthien and others one of the days. ( I need time to do research)

[Nogrod]

How about making it really radical? So forget al the "fan-poster"-idols and those more "beautiful than life" and cast a film with actually ordinary looking people? Well as they would be elves (and the Valar, the Maiar and the baddies) in the case of Silm as most, they should share some characteristics of them, but anyhow. So dissing all the "supermodels" and the fan-magazine -guys. Just making it for real in a sense?

Why Frodo is somewhat unbelievable in the films but Sam is believable? Because the first is the "poster boy" to gain the teen-audiences, and the other is the comical (fat) helper (which he is not) who actually does some real acting.

I've just been looking at a couple of "independent" films and the thing that struck me in them, was that the roles were not given to those who'd be perfectly beautiful / handsome (ready for the covers of the top magazines), but to those who were looking real and acted as they were the people they acted.

I mean, c'mon. The Pirates of the Caribbean vol.2 (or one to that matter). Yes Johnny Depp and Orlado are model-kind of guys (and Depp is also a good actor) and Keira is a very sexy. No doubt about these. But should those kind of persons - with our century's ideals of "being hot" - have been around the time of these pirate adventures? Probably not...

It might be just in vain to call for "real people" to act on Silmarillion, but surely, we could have some real-looking Elves around in the film (like those appearing shortly in the PJ film where the Fellowship is caught in Lorien - in the theater version - unhappily the best Elves were cut out from the extended version...and the most unelflike were given the lead roles, at least the males)? And anyhow, real personas, not just the cover guys and gals' who normally can't do anything else but look pretty / handsome?

[Thinlómien]

Originally Posted by Nogrod

How about making it really radical? So forget al the "fan-poster"-idols and those more "beautiful than life" and cast a film with actually ordinary looking people? Well as they would be elves (and the Valar, the Maiar and the baddies) in the case of Silm as most, they should share some characteristics of them, but anyhow. So dissing all the "supermodels" and the fan-magazine -guys. Just making it for real in a sense?

I agree to some point. I think Elves should be cast with some really unhuman-looking people (yeah, like the few scary looking archers in Lorien and the elf-guy who was accompanying Arwen to the West in the movies). But they shouldn't look like commoners, no way! They should be special. And they should be beautiful in some way at least, because surely there has never been anything like ugly elf?

As to the Men, I agree with you. We really should see normal people in these roles, as long as it isn't in contradiction with what they are described to look as in the books. For surely it can't be a very normal looking person who plays someone who is said to look e.g. noble and elf-like. I mean, the descriptions of the characters would pretty much ruin the commoner-looking -cast. Too many of them are described with words you can hardly use for every second guy you see. (And this is not to mean that filmstars'd be any better for these roles...)

The third point is that before we should cast the Silm, we should consider whether we'd like to have a pure fantasy tale, a legend or would we try to add some depth and make the story more human (which could ruin it; in the end, Silm's main merit is nobleness and high beauty and the feeling of a legend) and make the people look like real people. If we want to see the Silm as a legend, we shouldn't maybe have commoners in the main roles. A legend tale where e.g. Túrin is 170cm tall, a bit plump and has a potato-shaped nose slips over the edge to comedy. And surely that's not what we want. If we'd try the "more human" version, I'd be warmly recruiting a bit more commoner type actors. For I'm too a bit bored to se the same botox-faces all the time...

So, it depends on the viewpoint.