The perfect Jack Aubrey

[kate_nepveu]

The rhinoceros sent me off on a skim re-read of the Aubrey-Maturin books, which reminded me how, though I quite enjoyed the movie, I don't think either Aubrey or Maturin were properly cast. And thus:

Chris Hemsworth (in recent-Thor mode) would be the perfect Jack Aubrey, y/y?

Maturin . . . look, I think it's important that Maturin be scrawny. And I'm not particularly up on scrawny European dudes? So I've got nothing there.

Going purely off looks, Diana can be Katie McGrath (I haven't actually seen anything she's been in). Sophie's tall, so she can be Elizabeth Debicki, who does a nice coming-into-her-own arc in Widows.

And I spent all afternoon standing outside in the cold and I need to go to sleep now. Please feel free to contribute your own fancasts in comments (and to move the series in space and time so we can racebend).

Comments

[sovay]

And I'm not particularly up on scrawny European dudes? So I've got nothing there.

Ben Whishaw?

[minoanmiss]

Ben WIshaw! (I seriously was just about to write his name and saw you had)

[kate_nepveu]

six inches shorter, that would work!

[kate_nepveu]

hmm, half a foot height difference, yeah, that would work!

[minoanmiss]

I like your ideas, and hope that when you read this comment you are comfortably warm!

[kate_nepveu]

oh yeah, the kids have taken up downhill skiing and the Pip, since it was only his second try, wasn't skilled enough yet to go with SteelyKid and Chad (it was also only SteelyKid's second try, but she is a natural athlete). so I stood at the bottom of the easy hill to keep an eye on him. fortunately my ereader app lets me turn pages with the volume button, so I could read while he was waiting in line for the rope lift and going up the hill!

[cofax7]

Concur on the miscasting of the movie, although I enjoyed the movie much more on a second viewing after I'd read the books. They really did a great job of shoe-horning in a LOT from the series. That said, both Aubrey and Maturin were totally miscast. I think Bettany might have been able to pull off a Maturin written closer to the original (cranky, dirty, secretive, obsessive), but Crowe was just... wrong. I'm not sure why: maybe he has too much interiority?

Hemsworth is not a bad idea, although I think he's much better-looking than Jack is.

I like your ideas for Sophie and Diana, although I would want to see them in action.

But who, WHO do we cast as Preserved Killick and Barrett Bonden?

[kate_nepveu]

I'm not sure what I think of Crowe at this point (edit: the details, I mean), I'd have to rewatch. I personally think Hemsworth is looks best in gladiator mode (very short dark hair, beard), so if you put a long yellow wig on him, his attractiveness immediately drops by about a third to me. => but too attractive is going to be a problem generally for this, and his physical presence and ability to manage both goofy and intense I just think are perfect.

I am completely incapable of thinking of a Killick or a Bonden! character actors all the way, the kind that are "you know, that guy . . . "

[oracne]

Rory Kinnear for Bonden?

[qian]

lol I thought of Ben Whishaw for Maturin too, but only once he's aged properly. In the Mary Poppins trailer he looks like a 10-year-old with a fake moustache. Hemsworth is goofy enough for Jack but he doesn't seem English to me at all and Jack is so English!

[kate_nepveu]

hah! as a USian I have no feel for what "English" feels like, apparently!

(somehow I have managed to avoid taking the kids to see the Mary Poppins sequel, their love of outdoor winter sports has some benefit! not that I have anything against it, it just gives me this vibe of . . . trying really hard?)

[minoanmiss]

The new Mary Poppins was a tribute band, hitting exactly the same beats as the first with nothing new and no growth to the universe.