An IMAGINARY remake of The Devil Rides Out

[shanedwyer]

Sorry for yelling the word 'imaginary'- I didn't want to cruelly raise people's hopes about any actual remake.

So, here I am, far too tired to deal with the mound of paperwork stacked up in front of me and I’ve caught myself speculating about an imaginary modern version of the original 1968 Hammer film. As in: ‘if I were a casting director, who would I recommend for which part?’ So far, I’ve come up with the following:

Duc de Richleau- Charles Dance (Game of Thrones, Bleak House)
Simon Aron- Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter)
Rex-Chris Hemsworth (Red Dawn, Thor)
Richard Eaton- James Purefroy (Rome, Dance to the Music of Time)
Marie-Lou- Lucía Jiménez (Ben Hur- 2010 remake)
Tanith- Eva Green (Casino Royale)
Mocata- Ian McShane (Deadwood, Lovejoy)

Naturally a very personal (and provisional) list and I’m sure my suggestions could easily be bettered. (Well, perhaps not Dance’s patrician gravitas pitted against a gloriously camped up McShane villain.)

Any takers?

[Charles]

I thoroughly approve of the line up.

Much as I am a huge fan of Charles Dance, I rather fancy Johnny Depp for the role of the Duke ... he was so wonderful on the other side of the Abyss in 'The Ninth Gate' that I think like Christopher Lee, he might make a good transition to the Right Hand Path.

I look forward to hearing others' day dreams ...

All best !

[Jim]

Depp is about twenty years older than Radcliffe and Hemsworth, so that would work, but Richard Eaton should not be as old as the Duke. I had no problem with Christopher Lee, but the Duke should be more or less 60 at this point in the sequence.

[ericmocata]

I guess it all depends on whether you are trying to go with the way the characters are described in the book or base it more off of the movie. Daniel Radcliffe could work, just because he has that weird soft-spoken, somewhat nervous quality about him. I could actually picture him saying, "Ner."

If you shaved his head, I think Frank Langella could work pretty well as Mocata, though I suppose his voice is much too imposing for the part. That one came to mind since Charles mentioned The Ninth Gate.

I think that Scarlett Johansson would look good as Tanith, mainly because she just looks good period. I don't know if she would actually be good as Tanith, but I can pretend she would, since this is imaginary. As for Richard, how about James McAvoy from the not-particularly-good X-Men prequel? I can picture that guy rolling his eyes at all of the Duc's white magic antics and getting upset over the fact that he can't have any alcohol more than anything else the Duc tells him.

Johnny Depp could work as the Duc, but I would be worried that he would play it a little on the goofball side, seeing that most of his roles in the last decade or so have been really quirky. I guess we would just have to hope that Tim Burton wasn't directing it.

Also, I think I could go for Mila Kunis as Marie Lou, again because she just looks really good. Besides, she's Ukrainian, which seems a bit appropriate. Also, she is supposed to be small and Mila Kunis is pretty small, so that works as well.

I don't really have any ideas for Rex, but hopefully he can at least seem American this time around. He doesn't have actually be played by an American, just played as an American.

[shanedwyer]

As you say Charles, Johnny Depp was wonderful as the amoral loner Dean Corso in The Ninth Gate. But Jim’s reservations about the possible cast’s age differentials do have a certain traction. In fact, I’m not sure where I’d assign that quirky/charismatic and absurdly young-looking 50 year old in any proposed DW film. Perhaps as a particularly magnetic Gifford Hillary?

And, yes, I think Rex should at least be shown to be an American. The Aussie actor Dominic Purcell did a good job playing one of our ‘cousins’ in Prison Break. I could see him giving an equally decent performance in TDRO.

[ericmocata]

Of course, I suppose there should a bit of French in the Duc this time around, as well. I love Christopher Lee, but he never sounds anything but English, through and through. Although, to be fair, I have not seen him as Fu Manchu, so I don't know if he played that sounding English or not. By the way, anybody else read Sax Rohmer?

And I think that Depp could make a pretty good Gifford Hillary as well. If you gray up his hair and he grows a beard or something along those lines, he could look a bit less youthful. Plus, I can easily picture him in a smoking jacket, as well as waking up in his casket. But what would the death ray look like? I also think of something from Flash Gordon, for some reason. Probably because it is a death ray.

[shanedwyer]

I read one of the Fu Manchu novels when I was a schoolboy back in the 70s. In fact, I’d bought it at a Scout jumble sale, along with my first Wheatley- The Haunting of Toby Jugg.

[ericmocata]

Haunting of Toby Jugg was my first Wheatley novel as well. I bought mine along with a copy of Ka of Gifford Hillary at a used book store. I bought both because they were the only two Wheatley titles the store had and for some reason, the name rang a bell with me, but I couldn't place it at the time. Turned out to be the fact that I am a fan of both Hammer films and the band Black Sabbath, so the name popped up in both places.

[shanedwyer]

All of which takes me back Eric...

I must have been 10 or 11 when I read Toby Jugg. Scared the bejabbers out of me. As did listening to my brother’s copy of the Black Sabbath LP.

[Steve Whatley]

I'm a great fan of Sax Rohmer. The Fu Manchu books have risen in my estimation since I first read them in my youth and was rather disappointed with them. But for me some of the other novels are much better. Brood of the Witch Queen and The Green Eyes of Bast are two which I thoroughly enjoyed.

But Sax Rohmer was also an excellent writer of short stories. Tales of Secret Egypt, Tales of East and West, Tales of Chinatown, and Egyptian Nights are all splendid collections.

There's a great Sax Rohmer website, The Page of Fu Manchu - well worth a visit. [font=Courier New] [/font]

[ericmocata]

I am actually reading Brood of the Witch Queen at the moment. I have an old paperback copy that I got along with a couple others by Rohmer: The Quest of the Sacred Slipper and The Secret of Holm Peel and Other Strange Stories. I also have a paperback of his occult book, Romance of Sorcery, plus a couple of Fu Manchu books. I have to say that his stuff seems even more difficult to find than Wheatley's here in the U.S. However, I do get lucky sometimes.

As for Toby Jugg, I think that book has quite splendid atmosphere and the sense of paranoia that permeates the book is quite well done, on par with something from a Polanski film, perhaps. The fact that Wheatley can make fully go along with Jugg's wavering opinions about Helmuth is remarkable. The way Toby is fully convinced of Helmuth's evil intentions in the dark of night, but is reassured, usually by Helmuth himself, in the bright light of day is a fairly difficult thing to do in a book, I would imagine. It would certainly make a tense, creepy movie, if done right. Which, of course, means keeping to the original story, not abandoning it ten minutes in, as some people would do. . . .

If Hammer had made this back in the late '60s as a follow-up to The Devil Rides Out, it most likely would have been quite good and would be great as a double feature. But, since the remake of Devil Rides Out will not likely ever happen, I doubt there will be a proper adaptation of Toby Jugg either. If they did, they should certainly get somebody better than Robert Pattinson to play Toby. That guy always looks like his mother just scolded him rather harshly and he is trying not to cry.

[Steve Whatley]

What a splendid description of Robert Pattinson!

One can only imagine that DW would have been apoplectic if he had seen that travesty of an adaptation of Toby Jugg. It made the film of To The Devil - A Daughter look like a faithful adaptation, and we know what DW thought of that![font=Courier New] [/font]

[ericmocata]

I am certain Wheatley would be rather outraged by The Haunted Airman. At least they had the sense to change the title. I do agree about that, because even though To the Devil was not very faithful to the source material, at least it did keep the black magic element, which is completely removed from The Haunted Airman. Why did they even bother with that one random scene with the spiders? Plus, To the Devil has Nastassja Kinski and that woman is hot. Okay, yes I know she was a wee bit underage in that movie, but she still looked like that we she became legal. . . so there. She looked really good in that remake of the Cat People, just with short hair. They must have used all of her hair to supply Malcolm McDowell with his bizarre hairdo in that one.

And that is what is called digression . . . .

Now, back to the never-going-to-happen remake of Devil Rides Out, I wonder if they would have the Goat of Mendes appear much like it did in the original or go with the description from the book (i.e. just a big honking goat with four horns). And maybe the sabbat sequence could be a bit more interesting, rather than looking like a bunch of hippies at a Jefferson Airplane show.

And on a side note, if you weren't aware of this already, the mask used for the Goat of Mendes in the Devil Rides Out has belonged to Glenn Danzig since sometime back in the '80s and, last I checked, was displayed on his mantle in his home. Just had to throw that in there, since I am a rather big fan of his.