Britt's On

I'm kind of…dreading…reading YA fiction right now. I'm just. Burnt out on it. And yet I still have a bunch of stuff stacked up to read in that department and it's all feeling a little stale (just like I burnt out on chick lit a few years ago).

Anyway in the last few weeks I've read Julianna Baggot's Pure, which was an interesting, twisty tale about life after a nuclear holocaust with rather pedestrian characters - plus their physicality was so gruesome I didn't really work hard to dreamcast the film.



I also read Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick, mostly because I received the third book as a gift of sorts from another blog I write, and I figured I should read the rest of the series. It felt like a horrifically close rip-off of Twilight, which hi, we don't need, but it was sadly better written than Twilight. Angels instead of vampires. Or something. I just started the second book yesterday and I'm kind of dreading it. The one thing I will say for dreamcasting in that case is that chick from The Descendants / Secret Life of an American Teenager, Shailene Woodley, earned the main role of Nora in my head. I think her hair isn't right, but she is lean and leggy so that works. Also, in retrospect, she'd actually make a good candidate for the Jessica Darling movie that's being developed right now.

Anyway the last one I read, which was thankfully not YA Dystopian, was the amazing John Green's The Fault In Our Stars. And since I've dreamcast his last two books (that I've read) on here, it only seemed fitting to cover this one as well.


Hazel - John Green's first female protagonist, who is pretty similar to his male protagonists. I think he only felt comfortable writing her because she is somewhat asexual given her condition - a terminal cancer prognosis. Anyway she needs to be a good mix of spunky and awkward, and after some consideration I landed on Jordan Todosey of Degrassi fame. I MAY have been influenced by the fact Jordy has short hair for her role as a transgender character on Degrassi, but I honestly think she'd be good at this part. WHATTTT! I've found an (old) photo of Jordan donning pretty much Hazel's look (but with more hair). FATE!


Augustus - The star-crossed cancerous lover to Hazel's own story. He's described as athletic and with a crooked smile. I'm sure I could put more effort into casting this role, but around the time I read this I watched the premiere of that new Lucius Malfoy (Jason Isaacs) show, Awake, which featured the kid that played Young Jack in Lost / the bully in the American version of Let Me In, Dylan Minnette. Something about him just worked for me, even though he does have a kind of perma-sour look on his face.


Isaac - I pictured a really pasty, kind of chubby-looking kid for this. I don't know if that's accurate because he's all kissy kissy with Monica at the beginning, but that's what I had in my head. As for an actual actor? I couldn't really pick one. This would have to be an unknown. Or maybe the 'half' from Two & A Half Men, Angus T. Jones.


Kaitlyn - Hazel's only friend left from high school, a sophisticated social butterfly that still makes time for her cancerous gal pal. Although probably not the best choice ever, I went with Pretty Little Liars' Sasha Pieterse, who plays the devilish / enigmatic Alison DiLaurentis.


Van Houten - a crazy, large, hyper-cerebral author that writes Hazel and Gus' collective favourite book. I have THE GUY in my head for this…I can see him with sort of big lips, square glasses, a beret, and a vest but I don't know if this is all in my head or if it's a real actor. For the life of me I can't remember where I (may have) seen this actor. So for the time being I'd love to see a comedic actor like Robin Williams really knock this out of the park without it coming across super campy.

So those are your characters + that's my dreamcasting!

- B

This has been the year of the YA dystopian novel for me. I read the entire Hunger Games series, and the first books in the Delirium, Matched, and Divergent series. Luckily I didn't have to dreamcast The Hunger Games - it was announced right around the time I picked them up - but I do think Jennifer Lawrence is a kick-ass choice. If you saw 'Winter's Bone' you'd fully agree that the movie provided a choice audition for Katniss in THG.


Anyway. I never really settled on my heroine for Delirium - the story of a society where love is considered a disease, and teenagers undergo a surgery to remove their capacity for true love. Part of me thought Kat Dennings, but I think she's might be a little old / brassy for the role.


Matched, on the other hand, I settled on Lucy Hale from Pretty Little Liars pretty early on. In this world, people are matched to who a computer identifies as their ideal romantic match - a better outcome than Delirium, to be sure, but things go awry when Cassia uncovers a flaw in their system. To be honest, there isn't much to the part of Cassia. Unlike some of these other protagonists, she's pretty restrained. Again, Hale might be too old unless the film started shooting ASAP, but I think she'd be good at it.

Divergent is the story of a futuristic Chicago which is divided into five factions, each of which lives, eats, and breathes (quite literally) the guiding values of their society. Sort of Harry Potter on crack. Our protagonist in this instance is Beatrice aka 'Tris', a girl who starts out in the pious, selfless Abnegation faction, but makes a decision to jump ship to the brutal, powerful, violent Dauntless faction. Honestly with all the YA fiction I've read this year, it gets harder to cast these things without falling back on the same 'ol young actors, particularly since this book had a MASSIVE roster of characters. Apparently twenty-something author Veronica Roth has already signed away the movie rights, so we'll see how accurate I am with my picks.

I actually finished this book a week or two ago, but I'm just getting around to dreamcasting for it. I'm on the fence as to whether I'd like to see John Green's work in films. In my opinion, good YA fiction typically gets ruined on the big screen because they are pandering to teenage audiences, when in fact, many (slightly) older folks like myself like them as well.

Anyway. An Abundance of Katherines is a great book. It's much funnier and lighter than Looking for Alaska, but also a tad on the frivolous side as a result. But I did laugh out loud, and that's hard to do. I'm casting five roles for this one, although two are kind of random, and one is probably not right at all based on the age of the character.

The book, for the record, is about a child prodigy named Colin that has just graduated high school and is skeptical about his prospects in college. He also has a habit of only dating girls named Katherine, having had 19 relationships with Katherines over the years. He goes on a road trip with his best friend Hassan, and they end up in a strange little town in Tennessee called Gutshot. The book is about moving on, growing up, and having a eureka! moment.

So here are my picks for An Abundance of Katherines movie casting.

COLIN
I didn't really have someone in mind for Colin, to be honest. He came off as very generic in the book, although some part of me thinks he may have had curly hair, I honestly don't really care. I basically just pictured someone that could play a kind of obnoxious nerd but still be semi-attractive, or else how do you explain the 19 girlfriends? Jesse Eisenberg would have been choice 1 a few years ago, Penn Badgeley would have been number two. They're both too old now though.

Best known for playing RJ Berger on The Hard Times of RJ Berger, a sort of American Pie-esque MTV comedy that I actually quite enjoyed when I caught an episode, but it never really went anywhere. Sad face. He looks pretty attractive here, which makes me think he can pull off Colin's nerdiness, but also be good-looking enough to nab a girl (or twenty).

I don't know why I didn't think of Brendan before - ie when I was reading the book - because now, a week after finishing the book, I think he'd be perfect for the part. Brendan plays lovable doormat Lucas on Pretty Little Liars: the nerdy boy you wish the pretty girl would wake up and date already (especially since I suspect Tyler Blackburn, who plays said pretty girl's paramour, is probably off to bigger and better things). He's good at handling the whip-smart dialogue that Colin has, and has a nice neurotic streak, but he's also endearingly sweet and winsome...something that this character really needs.

HASSAN
Colin's best friend is described as Lebanese, overweight, lazy as all hell, a huge fan of Judge Judy, and ultimately a funny, amicable guy. This was SO EASY to cast, it actually probably lent itself well to me thinking the book was as funny as it was.

Yay! Another YA book to cast. This time I was pretty limited with my dreamcasting. I generally picked out everyone pretty quickly, and that was that.

If you're unfamiliar with the book, it has a terrible title and a terrible cover. But it's actually a sweet little high school romance story set in - logically - Paris. Anna is the daughter of a Nicholas Sparks-type author who feels the need to validate his wealth by sending his daughter overseas to an American boarding school located in France. While at first, Anna is torn up at missing her senior year at home, including her best friend and a boy she feels she could have loved, she's soon caught up in the romance - and the drama - of her Parisian setting, including her very real feelings for the very off-limits Etienne St. Clair.

So without further ado, here is MY picks for casting the Anna and the French Kiss movie!

So I devoured John Green's fantastic YA debut, 'Looking For Alaska' in the last day. And lo and behold, it too is becoming a movie. Interestingly, seeing as how I 'cast' films in my head when reading books, I found this amongst the hardest to picture. About a third of the way through the book, I googled a bit to learn about the movie, see if any casting rumours had been sparked, and so far nothing...although one name from the few and far between fan cast lists I saw did stick with me and served as a very good potential casting choice, even if the movie isn't coming out till 2013. Most of the discussion on casting the movie was back in 2008, so I'm revitalizing it for 2011, since casting likely IS going to happen soon and shooting will happen in 2012. I hope. Interestingly, apparently Josh Schwartz is tied to the project...which would play in well for my number one choice for the titular Alaska.

Anyway. Here's my attempt to cast Looking For Alaska, in terms of the five main characters. The b-characters and authority figures (Mr. Hyde and 'the Eagle') could be SO many different actors, I won't bother.

MILES 'PUDGE' HALTER
Our main character and narrator is a lovable every guy - the type of wallflower that is content to fade into the background because it's easier, but is actually a pretty special person once you discover him. Needs to be tall, skinny, gangly, but also kind of good-looking.

Gahhhhhhh how I struggled with this. All of the skinny gangly types I could think of weren't good-looking enough, or were too old (and thus too bulky at this point). Adam Brody (Seth on the OC) and Penn Badgley (Dan on Gossip Girl) both would have been choice for this five to ten years ago.


Logan Lerman
Well okay. This works. Perfectly actually. I don't know how tall Logan is, I've never seen any of his movies, and I've only heard his voice in a YouTube clip I just Googled...but his look is pretty dead-on to the vaguest of vague images I had in my head. Sort of the boy next door, a sweet, vulnerable face. AND he's the right age - 19, like my primo choice for Alaska.


Justin Kelly
The actor I occasionally settled on casting in my head was Justin Kelly, who is a newcomer to the Degrassi cast this season...which is apparently my main source for 'mining' dreamcasts. Anyway. Jake might be a little beefcake-y to play 'Pudge', but he has the right look from the neck up, and could play a good little boy lost that easily slips into the crowd.



Gaelan Connell
If Hollywood wanted to get real about casting something, then Gaelan Connell would be a great choice. The character he played in "Bandslam" was pretty much Miles Halter to a tee. I'm not sure he's quite 'cute' enough for the role, given uber hot Alaska is supposed to be attracted to him whilst my casting choices for The Colonel and Takumi are both good-looking, but in terms of typecasting, he's totally your guy for the part...getting a bit old though, so act fast Hollywood!


David Henrie
Another actor I have zero experience with (but hey, if they cast Selena Gomez they could be reunited), but one that fits the bill for me physically. He's got that gawk-ward look to him that also reads charrrrrrrming. I'd need to see him act first to make sure he's not too mired in Disney slapstick drama, but watching a clip of him on YouTube he seems like an okay choice.


Matt Prokop
Apparently this kid was in High School Musical 3, which (shame) I have seen...I assume he's one of the newbies they randomly interject for a Degrassi: The Next Generation-style transition, but I don't remember him. Anyway he has the scrawny thing going for him, and he can apparently attract hot chicks if he's dating Modern Family's Sarah Hyland. Who for the record, would be a fabulous Alaska if she had a little more emotional range.

CHIP 'THE COLONEL' MARTIN
The troupe's fearless, overachieving leader with a serious chip on his shoulder. Caustic sense of humor and a passion for revenge, he's also fiercely loyal, protective, and dedicated. Should be short-ish, stocky, and commanding.

You know who I wanted to cast for this? A younger version of Russell Hantz (of Survivor fame), if such an actor existed. Alas...Hollywood, go with an unknown here I think. These are my two prospects for your enjoyment though.


Josh Hutcherson
I've only ever seen Josh in 'The Kids Are All Right' and I liked him well enough. In that movie he was relatively passive so not sure he'll be able to pull off the snarktastic guy in this film, but he has the right 'look' that I had in my head. Unfortunately I think his 'Hunger Games' duties will be keeping him busy for awhile.


Jeremy Sumpter
He played a SERIOUS asshat for a season and a half on Friday Night Lights as the love-to-hate baby-faced QB JD McCoy. That should disqualify him - playing a pretty boy jock type? But it doesn't. Because he was cold, and he had a stiff upper lip, and he was good at making smart cracks, and he's actually pretty small. See, I never necessarily saw The Colonel as a bad-looking dude. I saw him as a square-jawed guy with short(er) man syndrome. Jeremy Sumpter can grit his teeth and stare you down and set his jaw like few others, so I think he could rock this one out.

ALASKA YOUNG
The smokin' hot yet stupidly fucked up want-what-you-can't-have-love-interest in the book. Apparently has a rocking bod, but also needs to be extremely acerbic, dry, confident, and brainy.

A few names floated around in my head until I saw someone else's suggested cast list from years ago. The thing is, the main casting choice - the easiest one for me to picture - would actually still work in terms of age.


Willa Holland
Some keen eyes might recognize Miss Holland from her stints on The OC and Gossip Girl (both Josh Schwartz productions). At first I was like 'NO!' when I thought of her for the part...then I was like, actually yes. She's got the skinny / curvy body described in the book, and she's definitely good at playing a bit of a fucked up drama queen. The thing about Alaska is she's never entirely likable or stable in the book - but you WANT to love her, and I feel like Willa would do a bang-up job of portraying her brassy sentimentality. She's only 19-ish right now so she could totally film it in the next year and pass for seventeen.


Maiara Walsh
Seeing double? Yeah, Maiara Walsh is pretty much Willa Holland's doppelganger. So if she's not available, cast Maiara, she'll be fine enough. I've seen her on Desperate Housewives where she played a pretty thankless role as Gabby's niece. It was more of a self-entitled princess role, but she has the right 'look' - I'm sure she can pull of Alaska's complex smart-tortured-girl vibe. Willa's still my first choice though.


Aly Michalka
Aly played an awesome, mostly likable 'bad' girl in Easy A and Bandslam - I particularly liked the interesting level of gravitas she super surprisingly brought to the latter. She might be a tad old to play Alaska, but I think she'd be good at playing the bad/good/crazy/smart/dreamy/feminist multi-dimensional heroine.

TAKUMI HIKOHITO
I believe Takumi is supposed to be Japanese, although in the racist traditions of Hollywood, any Asian'll do (Hi, 'Memoirs of a Geisha'). He should be kind of laid-back and cool, and imminently likable if a little quiet.

My go-to 'Asian' at the moment is pictured below. I know. I'm as racist as Hollywood, given Shannon here is not from Japan (I feel like he's from somewhere really bizarre like South Africa), but he's a stone cold fox, and therefore I want to see him on my screen as much as possible.


Shannon Kook-Chun
See above. Shannon Kook-Chung is mesmerizing and downright dreamy on-screen. He might be a little too zen to play Takumi, who has this sorta slacker vibe circa John Cho in 'American Pie', but I think he'd make a good fifth wheel for the fab five that feature heavily in the plot.


Leonardo Nam
Quite frankly, Nam is too old at this point, but he sprung to mind while reading the book for his portrayal of Brian McBrian in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants films - a character I felt was quite similar to Takumi. So whoever the next Leonardo Nam is, if Shannon Kook-Chung is unavailable, I nominate you.

LARA BUTERSKAYA
A tricky one as she's described as a Romanian immigrant student who, up until a few years ago, didn't speak a lick of English. All of her dialogue is modified to including soft "i's" so she speaks leek theese. She is supposed to be very beautiful and have 'perky breasts', so I picture a gal who looks doll-like, as most beautiful Russian girls do. The hard part will be to find a girl who can do a subtle accent without sounding too fluidly American, or too cheesily faux Romanian a la Shannon Elizabeth in the Pie films. Since I've never seen any of these actors portray someone with a faux accent, I'm picking them for looks alone!


Lucy Hale
This is ultimately who I pictured as Lara, as per her doll-like features. She plays a good flirty wisp of a girl on Pretty Little Liars and I think she could nail the awkwardness, aloofness, but also sweetness of Lara.


Selena Gomez
True story. I've never actually seen Selena ACT in anything - only appear on many red carpets and talk shows. Sure she's actually a quarter Mexican as opposed to Eastern European, but if she can possibly portray Charlotte York, surely she can do a Romanian girl. The main motivation here is I see a resemblance between her and Mila Kunis, who actually is from Russia.


Nina Dobrev
I like how one of the more minor characters has so many options. Anyway, Nina Dobrev is a no-brainer because she's actually Bulgarian, which is close enough to Romanian in my books. I haven't watched her on the Vampire Diaries but she's got that sort of vacant sweetness with a touch of fiery flirtiness (on Degrassi) that this role requires.

Hmmmmmmm well we'll see how Hollywood decides to fuck this one up. I really sincerely vouch for Willa Holland above all others on this list. I can't imagine another actress more suited to the part that's actually of the right age, and I hope some lovely casting director out there stumbles upon this and heeds my warning! Don't. Fuck. This. Movie. Up. Thanks.

- Britt's On

One of my allllllllll-time favourite book series is the Jessica Darling series by Megan McCafferty. I read 'Sloppy Firsts' and 'Second Helpings' back in my angsty teenage days and was so moved by them, I emailed Megan to thank her for writihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifng the books, and actually received a really lovely reply that I've buried in my emaihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifl account to this day.

One of the questions I asked in that email was why the book hadn't been made into a movie or TV series. Oh naive me. Looking back, and thinking about how Hollywood has a tendency to BUTCHER book adaptations (at least 50% of the time), do I really want them to make a movie? Urgh, well in light of the terrible potential Sex and the City prequel casting, I'm a little apprehensive about seeing Notso and friends appear on screen.

Megan, for her part, has been spreading the word by asking fans to vote for who they'd like to see in the semi-iconic roles of Jessica Darling and Marcus Flutie. The thing is, these books have been released over the last decade, so many of the actors and actresses that I (and fellow readers) have maybe once considered are probably wayyy too old now.

I went to a movie camp one summer, and this guy there was a dead ringer for Marcus in my head. He had red hair, just not in dreadlocks, and he was good-looking in that ruffian, artistic kind of way. Seeing as how he is not an actor (that I know of) and I have no clue what his name is, or for that matter, the fact this happened nearly a decade ago and therefore he is ALSO too old, it's time to move onto other prospects.

I gave a haphazard answer on the Megan-post on Facebook about who I'd cast in the Sloppy Firsts movie, but now I'm trying to think a little harder. My main criteria for each character:

Jessica:
- Needs to LOOK young. None of this twenty-five-year-old playing a seventeen-year-old business (ahem, guess that counts me out).
- Needs to embody the 'everywoman' in terms of facial beauty. This is why I'd love to cast someone from Degrassi - the people on there just look normal. I don't want goddam Emma Roberts invading my screen for this.
- Ideally lanky in frame, although petite would work also. Va-va-va-voom curves are out.
- Needs to be able to carry off the whip-smart personality of our girl Jessica. No cutesy pandering to cameras, a la most Hollywood starlets.

Marcus
- Needs to be interesting looking, the type of guy that not all girls will immediately admit they're attracted to
- Again, ideally lanky in frame - not a muscular guy
- Slightly more okay with him looking mature (based on his reputation of being a dropout of sorts) - although depends on the actress he's paired with.
- Needs to have a very expressive face. Marcus is such a complex character - you always get the sense there is WAY more going on behind his eyes, just by the way Jessica describes his mannerisms, and the actor that takes on the role needs to be able to capture someone who is smart yet also a tad emotionally unavailable / chameleon-like.

Now. Ideally I think this film would cast some unknowns because what I've just described there doesn't describe very many people...at all...in Hollywood. But I'm going to try.


Saoirse Ronan
This photo of Saoirse makes me think she'd be an amazing Jessica Darling. She has an everygirl beauty about her, but her eyes really make her pop and stand out a little - much as I pictured Jessica. She's definitely got the long, lanky frame, and as an actress, from what I've seen her in, I think she can tackle Jessica's mix of self-assuredness yet also pull off her reactions when she gets hurt / has a wake-up call. She did a solid job at being an American in 'The Lovely Bones' so I think she could do this.


Ashley Rickards
A lot of people on Megan's Facebook discussion topic picked out Ashley Rickards, who I first encountered on One Tree Hill. I think she's definitely got the right personality - snarktastic to the nth degree - and her everygirl looks are pretty dead on. I'm a little worried this role might be too close to what she's currently doing on 'Awkward' - an outsider that has a surprisingly good grasp on navigating the social sharks of high school. Maybe that's not a bad thing? I wouldn't be disappointed if she got the role really.


Hailee Steinfeld
I just considered Hailee as of this morning. It's a really tough call for me though, because she's only been in True Grit, and really...that's not much of an audition for the role of Jessica Darling, other than the fact she held her own on screen with a very experienced, male-dominated cast. I'm not sure how she'd handle the petulant teenage role. And she's a touch young...but if the movie weren't being made for a year or two? I feel like she's got a sweet kind of pretty and as of right now, the right body type...hm.


Jamie Bell
THIS is what I'm talking about when I say Marcus should have an interesting, good-looking quality to him. Jamie Bell (of Billy Elliot, once upon a time) is not a ripped Prince Charming type. He has an impish quality that I always associated with Marcus. Now obviously, he would not be a good fit for someone like Hailee. He'd need an actress that's a little closer to his own age. But I think he's a solid contender.


Aaron Johnson
He came off a little weasely-voiced (given he's a Briton) in Kick Ass, but from a looks standpoint alone I think AJ here would be a fantasmic choice for Marcus. He is riveting to watch on-screen, has that charming smirk down pat, and is able to embody the nuances of a character incredibly well (see: his portrayal of a young, complicated John Lennon in 'Nowhere Boy').


Tyler Blackburn
The numero uno pick for Marcus that I saw on MM's Facebook wall. As someone that watches Pretty Little Liars, I don't disagree - his role as Caleb, the burnout cell phone hacker with abandonment issues works as a great audition tape for Marcus. He's a little too pretty and a little too wooden as an actor to fully make him my dream choice, but again, wouldn't be disappointed / surprised if he got the part. He can work a smoldering bad boy eye.


Munro Chambers
It's incredibly difficult for me to picture Degrassi's Munro Chambers without his trademark dark emo-cut and guy-liner, but from an acting standpoint alone, he would be a phenomenal choice. He is easily one of the most winsome young male actors I've seen on the screen in forever, and his role as Eli - manipulative, hot & cold, passionate, independent - is a fantastic foundation for playing Marcus. However, Munro is known to be a short guy, and Jessica is known to be a tall character...can it work? Hm.


Paul Dano
Believe it or not, Paul Dano is actually 26 already, which makes him probably too old to play Marcus, although I think he has an interesting look that would work for the part. I've only seen him in Little Miss Sunshine where he played a mostly mute role, but his ability to win you over in that film with little more than facial expressions proves he's still a potential dreamcast member


Hmmm...I need to think more. Hollywood is rife with young starlets, but few that I'd even remotely consider for the part. That being said, the b-cast members, man the possibilities are endless!

- Britt's On