quote:

Originally posted by CastAbout:
I couldn't get Vin Diesel as Shadow out of my head as I read AG.

I can't either! I'm glad someone else sees that. My brain, agaisnt my wishes, it seems, defaulted to Vin Diesel every time I read the book. Not sure why, really, since Shadow has hair.

(I realized after I posted this that, reading backwards in this topic, the conversation on Vin Diesel has been beaten to death, so I digress.)

Odd, though.

I can totally get with Clive Owen playing Shadow, though. Really. He's got that passive coolness in his expressions and voice that he could pull it off quite well... he's a big man, attractive in a way yet not "handsome", looks a bit rough around the edges...
Not to mention the fact that he's got the acting chops for it.

Just my $.02.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Glamour_Junkie,

It'd be ironic, though, to have a Brit as the leading man in American Gods.

Oh, and by the way - welcome to the World's End, Glamour_Junkie!

As far as I can remember, Clive Owen can pull of the American accent pretty well I like him too as an actor, especially his voice.

Wouldn't be the first time that a Brit plays a very American character - look at cases like Christian Bale in American Psycho

quote:

Originally posted by Thirith & His Enormous Tibia:
It'd be ironic, though, to have a Brit as the leading man in American Gods.

Oh, and by the way - welcome to the World's End, Glamour_Junkie!

Hey, thanks!

Americans, English & Australians have been playing each other since the days of Hollywood first began!
For me, Christian Bale has been Shadow ever since I first read the book. I think he's a far better actor than Clive Owen...Clive always seems a bit wooden. Christian has the emotional range that playing Shadow would require, & he can do a perfect accent.
To play Wednesday I'm thinking Helmut Bakaitis, who played the Architect in the Matrix sequels. He got all the worst dialogue, but was still imposing...as imposing as you can be while sat behind a desk. & look at his face - he could be Wednesday: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0048127/
Brendan Gleeson as Mad Sweeney (has to be).
Tori Amos as Easter. She can sing Pagan songs, & it's impossible to tell how old she is just by looking at her (there is a line about this in the book).

AG is probably my favorite book of all time.Most of these have been posted before but not in this grouping.

I agree that Clive Owen would be a nice pick for Shadow, but I also like the idea of Tahmon Penikit (Helo from BSG) as Shadow. In my head though (he looks like "the rock")
Wednesday = Jack Nicholson (think about "The Departed")
Ibis= Ben Kingsley
Jacquel= Lawrence Fishburn
Easter=Drew Barrymore
Laura= someone recognizable (so that we get creeped out as she rots)
Mr. Nancy= Morgan Freeman or Danny Glover
Czernobog= Peter Stormare(Fargo, Armagedon) or Gary Oldman
Sam= Someone unknown (otherwise they'll put her with shadow in the end)
Hinzelman= Micheal Caine (he's likable and could pull off the creepy)
Loki= Edward Norton
Chad Mulligan= Viggo Mortenson or John C Reilly
Whiskey Jack= The Chief from One Flew Over The Cookoos Nest or Graham Greene
Unknown God= I have to agree Neil Gaiman
Mad Sweeney= Simon Pegg, Michael J Fox or Andy Serkis
Mr. Town= Anthony Edwards (think Zodiac)

Now we need to cast the "Coming to America" sequences.

Really it wouldn't fit into a movie, for it to work it would need to be an HBO/BBC mini-series or similar format.

There is only one guy who I can imagine as Wednesday: Brian Cox
Couldn't possibly picture the the guys you have been talking about.
Jack Nicholson = To much obvious mindtinkering...
Kevin Spacey = wtf?
Anthony Hopkins = yes he can act like a god but Wednesday really isn't a regular god he is a god from the nordic mythology. The guy needs to be a little raw and barbaric.
I see Wednesday as a worn down old man who have seen way too much and Brian Cox would be super for that role!

As for Czernobog I would like to see a middle length and strong guy who looks like he has been working deep down a coal-mine his entire life. Gary Oldman? Does he look like he has been doing that? hell no. It would be really cool if they put an actual east-block actor on that role!

As for shadow I picture someone like Jason Flemyng and yes I think it would be a good thing that shadow isn't an american actor. Shadow is a man surrounded by shadows all the way from the inside out. Either an unknown american actor for that role or someone from abroad and I think Jason Flemyng would be excellent.

dude, everyone seems to think that all these proprer english actors should play wendsday like anthony hopkins or sean connerey but that's just wrong. he needs to be american. that's the whole point. what about the guy from the royal tenenbaums?

i just finished reading the book today after half a year and the whole time the person i saw as shadow was christian bale. i don't even really like him, but that's just what i saw like on axident and that's how i'll always see him. but it dosn't really matter what i think because i don't think this bok would go over well as a movie. maybe a tv show, but a movie isn't enough. alan moore said that a point of fantasy is to show what you can't do cinematicly. although i do admit that parsival has a good list. especially with tim roth and natelie portman (alo\though she might be a bit old.)

By "the guy from the Royal Tenenbaums," do you mean Gene Hackman or Bill Murray?

yeah. gene hackman. that's the guy. he would be great! don't you think?

He doesn't strike me as a Mr. Wednesday.

How about Malcolm McDowell? Has he been mentioned? I say this based on his performance on "Heroes" as Mr. Linderman.

Errmm, I've just encountered this thread, but am I the only who received, from the descriptions of Shadow's mother, the idea that Shadow is partially African-American? And while all of the prosed actors are excellent, none of them look as though they could be partially African-American .... *gets ready to duck*

Why not try Daniel Sunjata (from FX's "Rescue Me" as Franco) as Shadow? He can play black based on his portrayal of Reggie Jackson in "The Bronx is Burning" on ESPN. Plus, he's not an established star, so he's not going to bring the people going "I expected something different from that actor."

Never seen either 'Rescue me' or 'The Bronx is burning', but I bow to your greater knowledge of actors!

Shadow: Clive Owen (Children of Men)
Wednesday: Peter Fonda (Easy Rider)
Laura: Rachel Weisz (The Fountain)
Sam: Alexis Bledel (Gilmore Girls)
Mr. Nancy: Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwawanda)
Czernobog: John Rhys-Davies (Indiana Jones, LOTR)
Mad Sweeny: John C. Reilly (Chicago)
Mr. Town: Hugo Weaving (The Matrix)
The Fat Kid: Johah Hill (Superbad)
Loki/Mr. World: Daniel Craig (007)
Hinzelman: Earl Hindeman (Home Improvement)
Mulligan: Clancy Brown (Shawshank Redemption)

Don Cheadle is too young to play Anansi

Jonah Hill dropped a bunch of weight after Superbad, so while he's still a little hefty, he's no longer fat enough, in my eyes to play Technology.

here is Daniel Sunjata:

Personally, the only person I can see as Wednesday is Dean Stockwell.

Someone may have mentioned this already, but I just imagined Malcolm McDowell as Wednesday as I was reading... (Alex in clockwork, Loomis in new Halloween)

He's great on heroes as well, but i can just see him as Wednesday...

Mad Sweeney would be great if it was Brendan Gleeson of the General

I actually said that a few posts back...

Great minds think alike.