Hiatus Over! Let’s celebrate with an LOEB entry

So a couple weeks off turned into a month off, whoops, that was not what I intended.

This week’s assignment: Remake one of your favorite movies with a cast of current Hollywood stars. The first thing that came into my head was Anne of Green Gables and this is why: Emma Stone as Anne Shirley. The A stands for Anne – obviously (and awesome). Recently (or really her entire career, its just shes been in more stuff recently) has shown she has a fair amount of versatility (The Help to Zombieland to Crazy-Stupid-Love…I could continue, but why?). She has the chops to be vulnerable and sincere which is a facet that needs to be brought to Anne but she also has the fun loving attitude and sass to make Anne shine.

Although no one could be as loveable as Richard Farnsworth was as Matthew Cuthbert, there is something endearing about Donald Sutherland. Not when he’s forcing kids to compete to the death of course, I think it’d be more reminiscent of his time as Mr. Bennet. (As a complete side note if the most recent thing you saw Mr. Sutherland in was the Hunger Games and then saw him in Kelly’s Heroes you’d lose it. Seriously, it’s a stark contrast. The seriousness of President Snow versus the higher than a kite Sargent Oddball is fantastic. I highly recommend you  watch them to experience it for yourself.) Anyway I think he’d be a good Matthew, he can do a lot with little words, which when paired with Marilla is valuable.

Which speaking of,  I would love to see Dame Maggie Smith as dear old Marilla Cuthbert. After keeping the Gryffindor students in line at Hogwarts for the last decade certainly one little red head isn’t too much to handle right? Perhaps not when that one is Anne Shirley and you don’t have magic to back you up. Smart money says she’d still knock it out of the park though. She is one tough lady and I think could do well with the hard-shelled Marilla.

For her neighbor (and friend), Rachel Lynde, I wasn’t quite sure who to pick. Actually this whole assignment was difficult because I’m quite terrible at conjuring up actors. I can make associations like nobodys business (such as Michael Gambon who was Baltus Van Tassel before he was Dumbledore starred beside Miranda Richardson in both movies as well (as Lady Van Tassel/Rita Skeeter and this isn’t even a very good association). Or when I’m in a movie I remember that I really like a character (such as Michael Caine – he’s good, perhaps he’d make a good Matthew. I also really enjoy Anne Hathaway, Morgan Freeman and Joseph Gordon-Levit…and Zooey Deschanel – besides that last one guess what movie I saw most recently). Anyway I thought Dame Judi Dench would do the job credit. I can’t recall anything she’s been in that I haven’t enjoyed her performance and it would fun to see her being a nosy gossip. She has quite the repitor of either being in charge or period pieces (or both) as evident in her roles of Lady Catherine de Bourg, The Queen of England, or M (although that ‘period’ is present) it would be quite amusing to experience her be a person who isn’t actually in charge ever but thinks that she should be.

Taking up the role of Anne’s ‘bosom friend’ Diane Barrt I imagine Anna Kendrick. For me Kendrick is an unsung star (although she is making herself heard more and more). I can’t recall a performance of hers that I haven’t enjoyed (even in random movies like Elsewhere). If memory serves she got her big break in the Twilight movies – they are what they are but I don’t feel like any of the actors get true opportunities to shine in those movies. Excellent case in point – Kendrick. Take her out of that setting and pair her with say George Clooney and you have an award worthy performance (never mind the fact she didn’t actually win). Even without George Clooney she played that role well. I digress it’d be fun to see her as Diana Barry – a character that always amuses me. Diana strikes me as a girl that is truly a space cadet but seems like she is only partially on this plane – and usually when Anne is there to ground her (Anne doing the grounding? Seems like that should be the other way around but until she grows up she seems to always be under her mother’s thumb – who wouldn’t spend there days somewhere else under those circumstances?). Also I just IMDBed her and saw that she has been in theater too, when she was younger. Would have loved to seen that because live theater is super fun and its always interesting seeing movie actors on the stage and vice versa.

Gilbert Blythe. What is there to say about him and who should play him. Right now I’m on a bit of a Josh Hutcherson/Andrew Garfield kick but I did love Penn Badgley’s performance in both John tucker Must Die and Easy A. He is essentially the same guy in both. The nice guy who waits in the wings while the protagonist goes on making all these semi-bad choices (pretending to be the school harlot or going on a revenge mission for three other girls) only to step in and pick her up when shes at her lowest. Although truth b etold the both saved themselves in the end and only then were able to truly fall for his nice guy ways. Anyway I just don’t know who should play the seemingly arrogant (at first) school heartthrob who eventually wins everyone (even stubborn Anne) over but since this is pretend I don’t actually have to.

Anne of Green Gables has a huge cast so I didn’t go through them all but a few characters I did cast were Muriel Stacey, Reverend Allan and Alice Lawson. For Miss Stacey, the new teacher who comes in to encourage and challenge Anne and the others I picked Tina Fey, because really she’s hilarious and do I need any other reasons? These last three are more whims anyway as evident by my choice of Reverend Allan, Sir Sean Connery. I’d consider moving to Prince Edward Island to attend his sermons. Finally for the somewhat ditzy (or perhaps just preoccupied) shop keeper Alice Lawson who better than Amy Poehler. Reinvent the character a bit that it’s acceptable for her to overtly sass her patrons and you have the perfect setting for Poehler to shine (just look at the face in the photo, how can you not pick her as the new Alice?).

That’s the extent of my casting, other movies I’m now mulling over recasting are High Society, The Court Jester, Holiday Inn (with Bing Crosby), White Christmas and Alvin and the Chipmunks (the 1987 one where they go on a hot air balloon race). Perhaps after more time has past I’ll be able to think of the right people for the roles and less shoot from the hip that this Anne recast was. In any event those are my picks (for now) of Anne of Green Gables: 2012.

Until next time ~ Q

I think it’s safe to say my entry was one of the girliest and I’m really glad I did it before reading the other bloggers’ entries. It makes me want to go find a different movie to remake – like Baby Blues (First thing to pop into my head again – I’m sensing a theme here. Perhaps I should think things through more), who doesn’t love a good ‘covert ops while on vacation’ movie?

Wanna see what other League Members are remaking? Check out the master list (in the comment section) at Cool and collected
http://coolandcollected.com/this-weeks-assignment-from-the-league-reboot-and-recast/

Otherwise here are some more specific ones:

The Beastmaster – I’ve never heard of this movie but would see it for the remake cast alone – I love Chris Hemsworth, pair him up with Jessica Biel and Lawrence Fishburne and you have an awesome mix
http://dorkhorde.blogspot.com/2012/08/league-of-extraordinary-bloggers-weekly.html

Check out a Shattered Remake for more Jessica Biel and other favorites at  http://www.infinitehollywood.com/2012/08/the-league-bob-hoskins-movie-remakes.html

For a different pairing of Hemsworth and Lawrence (serious love for that matching) check out the Krull remake at http://goodwillhunting4geeks.blogspot.com/2012/08/reboot.html

I can’t even get over the casting of Masters of the Universe – love the styling of the photos btw – check it out for yourself at http://shezcrafti.com/if-there-is-one-movie-that-deserves-an-awesome-reboot-it-is-masters-of-the-universe/

Also now whenever I watch Clue I’ll of course see this casting or imagine how the actors would have done it – see who they are at http://blog.paxholley.net/2012/08/10/my-dream-cast-for-a-clue-the-movie-reboot/

Finally I regret to say I’ve never seen Taxi Driver (it is on the list of course) but this casting (via photos only) seems spot on – http://greenplasticsquirtgun.blogspot.com/2012/08/this-weeks-assignment-from-league-over.html