Today I am going to cast the movie for the novel I wrote last November as part of National Novel Writing Month. http://www.nanowrimo.org/
The novel I wrote was titled A Space Story. I still feel like I should come up with something more catchy but nothing has come to me yet. If you have suggestions after reading this please share them.
I hope to one day get A Space Story and my other work published in some form. I have not had any sucess yet. I have to say I think A Space Story has more potential than the novel I wrote last year which was partly about vampires.
So first I should probably explain what the novel is about. This will just be a sort of book jacket explanation of the story.
In the future humanity was moving out beyond the boundaries of the Solar System when they were attacked by aliens called the Spectral Horde. For decades humanity has been fighting a losing battle against this alien enemy.
Genetic modifications are common in the future. At first gene mods were mostly cosmetic but once the war started the governments of the world created programs to breed a whole generation of gene mod soldiers to fight the aliens.
Janessa Kepshawn is not a gene mod soldier. She is a naturally born human. She grew up in a world where 'naturals' are now the minority and 'enhanciles' make up most of the population.
Janessa is a pilot and her skill has earned her a place on the prime squad of the starship Daedlus.
The Daedlus is the most advanced starship ever built and has been heralded as humanity's salvation.
Once on the Daedlus Janessa makes a few friends among her crewmates and clashes with others who think their gene mods make them better. To further complicate things the commander of the Daedlus mission is Duron Ardiniero, Janessa's ex-fiance.
But Janessa soon discovers something disturbing. The Daedlus is not of human origin. In truth it belongs to Zai, last of the Raath, a mysterious alien warrior who is allowing humanity to use it in secret. Zai soon reveals himself to the entire crew and explains that he has not come to save humanity, he has come to judge us. He selected most of the crew himself to serve as an example by which he will determine if humanity deserves to be saved.
What is the mysterious force that Zai serves?
What secrets are the crew of the Daedlus hiding?
Even if Duron still loves Janessa, does she really want him back?
What will happen to the crew of the Daedlus if Zai finds them unworthy? What will happen to the Earth?
So that is how A Space Story starts. As this post goes on and I go through the cast I may end up revealing other plot points and such but I am not going to worry about that right now.
I think it would be hard to make A Space Story into an actual movie without sacrificing some of the characters and story. It would probably work better as a mini series on SyFy or a three season limited series on HBO. Anyway here are my choices of actors and actresses to play the characters of A Space Story.
We start with the main character Janessa Kepshawn. A natural born human and daughter of two well known pro-natural human activists. She is a figher pilot on the prime squad of the Deadlus. My first choice for who to play Janessa would be actress Deborah Ann Woll.
Deborah Ann Woll is best known for playing Jessica on HBO's True Blood. As far as looks go she is perfect to play Janessa because to be honest I had her in the back of my mind when I came up with the character. And she has shown she has the acting range to portray Janessa in all the situations the character is put through in the story. But True Blood is doing very well and Deborah Ann Woll might not have time to work on this project so I should probably have a back up.
If Deborah Ann Woll is not available my second choice to play Janessa would be actress Amanda Righetti.
Amanda Righetti is best known these days for playing Grace Van Pelt on the Mentalist. Now that I think about it the Mentalist is doing pretty well too. Oh well it does not matter, the chances of this project ever actually getting done are pretty slim so lets move on.
Next I would like to cast Duron Ardiniero. He is Janessa's ex-fiance and the commander of the starship Daedlus. It is hard for me to cast Duron. I would prefer that the actor who play him actually be hispanic. But the only hispanic actors I can think of off the top of my head are way too old to play him. Now I hate to discriminate based on age (and I will probably bring that subject up again) but I would also prefer the actors to be close in age to the characters they are playing. So since I can't think of a young hispanic actor to play Duron I will just have to think of some actor of a different ethinicity but with the right look to play him.
Okay I am still having trouble here. You know what screw it. If anyone has a suggestion I am open to it. And if you suggest Taylor Lautner, I already thought of him and decided against it but if you want to argue for him go ahead.
So lets move on to the next character Junitha Pendragon. Junitha is a gene mod soldier and another pilot on the prime squad and the first person to befreind Janessa on the Daedlus. Junitha is also the Antalla, a superpowered warrior dedicated to seeking out and destroying evil in the world. More on the Antalla later. So who should play Junitha Pendragon? At first I was really not sure but no there is only one actress I can think of to play this character and that is Agam Darshi.
I choose Agam Darshi for this role because the character she plays on Sanctuary, Kate Freelander, pretty much has the same attitude and temprament as Junitha Pendragon. So I already know she can do most of what would be needed for the role. The only issue would be if she can sing. At one point in the story Junitha sings and it is kind of important to the plot so I hope Agam Darshi can sing.
Now that we are on this character there is an issue I feel I should bring up. The character Junitha Pendragon is from Pakistan. I have no idea what Agam Darshi's specific ethinic background is and I don't think it matters. And yet I find myself guilty of a bit of a double standard in that regard given how I choose to cast some of these other characters. Read on and you might see what I am talking about or maybe I am just overthinking this. Lets find out together.
Next we shall cast Vanz Kerrigan. Kerrigan is the CEO of the Solar Fleet corporation and one of the richest and most powerful men in the world. He is one of the few who knows the truth about Zai and the Daedlus. Kerrigan puts himself on the Daedlus mission in order to maintain control.
Vanz Kerrigan is a very important character to me because I actually came up with him long before I had a story to put him in and when I finally got to use him in a story he was one of my favorite characters to write.
So as far as people with the right look and proven acting talent I would have to go with Alexander Skarsgard.
Alexander Skarsgard is best known for playing Eric on True Blood. Now Alexander Skarsgard has the right look for how I always pictured Vanz Kerrigan and I know he is a good actor. But there is someone else who also comes to mind. I have no idead why but sometimes when I think of this character I also find myself thinking of actor Michael Shanks.
I don't know why Michael Shanks keeps popping into my head. He is best know for playing Dr. Daniel Jackson on Stargate SG-1. More recently he has had guest nappearances on shows like Eureka, Burn Notice and Smallville. He is also married to actress Lexa Doig. That last bit is not really relevant to the issue but for some reason I feel compelled to include it. Wierd. Lets move on.
I guess now would be a good time to try to cast Zai, last of the Raath. The last of a warrior race who now serves an unknown force that has sent him to judge humanity. Playing Zai will require a lot of prosthetic makeup because I don't care how good motion capture technology is you can still tell the difference between a person and CGI. Well I can tell the difference and I don't understand why so many people I talk to about it can't see it.
Doug Jones comes to mind because he had a long history of being covered from head to toe in costume and doing a great job of it. But the one thing Doug Jones does not have to play Zai is the right voice. Doug Jones could do the physical performance of Zai but someone else would have to do his voice.
And here we run into problems again because I have trouble thinking of anyone who could do justice to the character. Zai is a character I created a long time ago and he is very important to the overall mythology/lore of the universe I am building. Kiefer Sutherland comes to mind because his voice is awesome but it might not be quite right for Zai. Michael Clarke Duncan comes to mind but I am not sure he could pull of the dark broodiness of Zai's voice. Christopher Lee has a great voice but Zai is not British. No offense to Christopher Lee meant, he is awesome. It's too bad David Carradine is dead, I bet he could have done Zai's voice.
I guess it's about time I moved on to the rest of the cast.
Next up we have Ryoko Jeagan the commander of the prime squad. She is a Japanese gene mod soldier and considered to be the greatest acheivement of the Human Enhancment League's super soldier program. Ryoko is the best and she knows it.
Now I would prefer it if Ryoko Jeagan were played by an actress who is actually Japanese. I hope that is not unreasonable. I am willing to be more lenient in that department with most of the other characters. Is that a double standard on my part? I am not sure.
So who would I cast as Ryoko Jeagan? Considering how many Japanese films I have seen you would think I know their acting landscape better and could come up with a decent Japanese actress to play this character but I am drawing a blank.
It took some thinking but then I decided on Japanese actress and model Yumiko Shaku.
I feel like I should let you all know that finding a usable picture of her was a pain in the ass.
So where was I? Oh yeah Yumiko Shaku could play Ryoko Jeagan. The only thing of note I can think of that any american might know her from is that she was in a few Godzilla movies. She has also done some voice work that some anime fans and gamers might be familiar with but I don't feel like going to the trouble of listing it. So as long as Yumiko Shaku is willing to do a lot of swearing and play a lesbian it should all work out.
The next character to cast will be Therazane Sajan the head of security on the Daedlus. To play this character I would go with Eliza Dushku.
You can recognize Eliza Dushku from shows like Dollhouse and Tru Calling. She also played Faith the rogue slayer of Joss Whedonverse fame.
Now in all honesty Eliza Dushku was not my first choice when I was thinking about who to cast as Therazane Sajan and I feel kind of bad about the whole thing and I want to be honest with everyone. My first choice was Charisma Carpenter.
Charisma Carpenter is also a veteran of the Joss Whedonverse, she played Cordelia Chase. I know she was on Veronica Mars after that. She was just in one of those made for TV SyFy monster movies. Now you might be asking why I changed my mind here. I feel kind of bad for the reason but it really boils down to the fact that Charisma Carpenter is 39 years old. I feel like an asshole just for saying that. The story hasn't even been published yet and I'm already letting Hollywood discriminitory thinking pollute my creative process. Or something like that.
Anyway the point is Charisma Carpenter is a very atractive woman but she is also almost 40 and that is about a decade older than this character is but then again Charisma Carpenter looks great for her age. Dammit I'm doing it again. Who made up the rule that women are not allowed to be attractive when they are 39?
So I feel like I should weigh some pros and cons here. If I choose to cast based on ethnic specificness Eliza Dushku is the more apporpriate choice to play Therazane Sajan based on how I originally imagined the character. On the other hand Charisma Carpenter has the more appropriate bustline to play Therazane Sajan. But Eliza Dushku has a long history of playing roles where she kicks people and that sort of thing might be needed for this role. Now I feel like I need to apologize to Charisma Carpenter. I try to be as pro-feminist as possible and I feel like I am doing a really bad job right now. Can we just move on to the next character?
Our next character is Zemwell Tickbird another prime squad pilot gene mod soldier. The only actor that comes to mind to play this character is Channing Tatum.
Why Channing Tatum you ask? Because Zemwell Tickbird is one of the characters I gave the least amount of thought to in terms of personality and motivation. And Channing Tatum is not known for giving his acting roles either of those things. I could list some of Channing Tatum's work but I don't feel like it. All the actor who plays Zemwell Tickbird has to do is fill a spot on the prime squad and be there when Therazane Sajan wants to have sex with him.
Wow that might be the worst endorsement for this story I could come up with. You know I did not plan for this story to have as much sex in it as there is. It just sort of happened. Hey there is another reason for Eliza Dushku to play Therazane Sajan. She has done no shortage of sex scenes on Dollhouse and there are a lot of them in A Space Story. Well they are more like just before and right after sex scenes. What was I talking about?
Okay, um, I am going to talk about another character now. That character is Dr. Winchester Faction. Winchester is named after a gun because all of the clones from his batch were named after guns. In the future Africa was basically taken over by corporations and instead of kidnapping children to wage war with each other they make clones. Winchester and his brothers were liberated and he went on to become a doctor. He is the only surviving clone soldier of his generation left. The only actor I can see playing Dr. Winchester Faction is Morgan Freeman.
The one and only Morgan Freeman can do anything. He could totally play a former child clone soldier who became a doctor and is now in charge of the medical facility on a spaceship.
So now lets move onto another character. Samal Hectorese is a super soldier from Afghanistan. I don't know of any actors who are specifically Afghan and the few actors who I can think of who are of the ethinicity from that part of the world, I just can't see them as this character. Samal does not do much early on in the story but he shines later on when we take turn into horror territory. So if anyone has any suggestions let me know. I guess you would have to read the book to get a feel for the character. By the way if anyone wants to read the book just let me know. But be warned I have cpoies and can prove I am the original author and I will not tolerate people stealing my work. Sorry I get a little paranoid about that sort of thing sometimes.
It is time to cast the last member of the prime squad, the american super soldier Raddy Volcane. It has been hard for me to think of an actor to play this character who spends most of the first part of the novel trying to get laid. The only actor I can think of who might be able to do it is Tom Welling.
Tom Welling of Smallville fame is sort of an ironic choice for this role, if ironic is the right word to describe it, there might be a better term. Tom Welling plays Clark Kent who will become Superman. In A Space Story Raddy Volcane is the first great american super soldier and the character is overall this sort of commentary on the whole sending mixed messages to boys about what it means to be a man and the horrible things it can lead to later in life.
Now I shall cast Suchin Markjon the leader of the intelligence team on the Daedlus mission who also turns out to be a latent telepath that helps open communications with the Spectral Horde. To play Suchin Markjon I choose actress Grace Park.
Wow it took some time to find an image of Grace Park where she is not in her underwear or in a Battlestar Galactica outfit. I have been trying to avoid that sort of thing.
So I think Grace Park could play Suchin Markjon. Although again I am violating my own sort of rule about ethinicity specific casting since Grace Park is apperently Korean and the character Suchin Markjon is supposed to be Chinese. Am I crazy for beating myself up over this? Grace Park is known for playing a Cylon on Battlestar Galactica but if I am casting her for any reason it is because of the character she played on that one episode of Stargate SG-1. Am I the only one that remembers that episode?
Are we almost done you ask? No not yet. It is time to cast Roweth Sinclair the british guy in charge of the ships armory who is a natural born human but has been posing as a gene mod soldier for years. I would like to cast someone who is british. I think I would go with Ray Stevenson.
Ray Stevenson played Titus Pullo on HBO's Rome and he played the Punisher and some other stuff. So I think Ray Stevenson could play a guy who looks like a big genetically engineered soldier but is really just pretending to be one and has done a good job of it.
There is a bit of interaction in the story between Roweth and Suchin. No not that kind of interaction, in fact they are some of the only characters that do not have any sex in A Space Story. If any of this were really happening that might disappoint the Grace Park fans and oh god they are infecting me with their dirty thoughts stop it.
What I was trying to say is that Ray Stevenson and Grace Park have never worked together before so I don't know if how well they would play off each other in a scene between Roweth and Suchin. The whole thing was meant to be funny but I don't know if it came off that way.
It is time to cast Amyantha Whitecross, the personal assistant to Vanz Kerrigan. This is another character I struggled with because I never had a clear mental picture of what she should look like even though I know the character very well. One actress who came to mind was Summer Glau.
Summer Glau of Firefly and Terminator the series fame. Another veteran of the Joss Whedonverse you can see her on some episodes of Dollhouse now. This role would be a departure for Summer Glau because the character is not crazy or a robot or in anyway superpowered. For the most part Amyantha is pretty normal. She has had gene mods like most people in this future world but she was not bred to be a soldier and mostly just helps Kerrigan keep to his daily schedule.
I also considered actress Nina Dobrev for this role.
Then again The Vampire Diaries is doing pretty well so Nina Dobrev might be busy.
I would also add that at some point for some reason I decided that Amyantha Whitecross was from Denmark. Summer Glau and Nina Dobrev are not from Denmark. So there is that.
Next up is Evan Evaide the young man in charge of the Daedlus inventory because Kerrigan thinks everything should have a human touch and not be completely trusted to computers. Evan has a crush on Amyantha and they develop a relationship. Basically Evan is a nerd. So I need a good nerd actor to play him but I have trouble thinking of a good nerd actor. There is one thing I am sure of. It will not be f*sking Michael Cera. I am sorry for that outburst. I am sure that Michael Cera is a decent human being but I do not ever want to see him cast in any project based on something I wrote. Dammit now I feel like I have apologize to Michael Cera too. He better not f*sk up playing Scott Pilgrim.
Okay who should play Evan Evaide? Jesse Eisenberg? No not unless he gets a f*sking haircut. No I take that back, there will be no f*sking Jesse Eisenberg in this cast. I am not apologizing for that one. You're just going to keep staring at me like that aren't you? Okay fine I'll apologize to Jesse Eisenberg too.
Okay I got no clue who should play Evan Evaide. Once again I am open to suggestions.
Next we will cast Dr. Vandis Bane, the ships pyscological counselor. She is there to help everyone deal with the war and the deep space travel. She also happens to secretly be a member of the Purity group which is dedicated to restoring natural born humans to supremacy through sabatoge and blowing stuff up and all sorts of other violent nasty things. She also happens to be Ryoko Jeagan's lover in secret. This is another charater I am not sure about. Dr. Bane is Russian and I don't know any Russian actresses. The closest I can think of Olga Kerylenko who is from Ukraine but she is only 30 and Dr. Bane is in her late 40's. Brooke Shields popped into my head for some reason but I don't know if she is the right fit for this project. I wonder if Carrie Fisher can do a Russian accent? Oh hey I know how about Amanda Tapping.
Amanda Tapping played Samantha Carter on Stargate SG-1 for many years and now she pretends to be british on Sanctuary. I'm sure she could pretend to be Russian.
The last member of the main cast is Felina Golumbine, the perky skinny blonde who is the host of the documentary being filmed about the crew of the Daedlus who has some terrbile things happen to her but she survives them. I had someone in mind when I was writing this character. That was actress Sarah Fletcher.
Sarah Fletcher can be seen on Comedy Central's Secret Girlfriend which is slightly amusing at times but mostly just dumb. There is any number of skinny blondes that could be cast as Felina Golumbine but I want to see if Sarah Fletcher can pull of the portrayal. I did not plan to do as many terrible things to this character as I did. The story just kind of went that way. Maybe I am exagerating.
So that is the core cast down. Oh but we are not done yet my friends. Yes we have the main cast down but there are roles yet to be filled. In the last part of A Space Story a lot happens and there are number of brief appearances that need actors and actresses.
We start this round with the casting of Tania Zed. Tania was Janessa's best friend and the one who introduced her to Duron. At the start of the novel Tania is dead. She was killed during a Spectral Horde attack and her death lead to Janessa and Duron's breakup. Tania appears in flashbacks and as a memory. I find myself picturing Amber Benson in this role.
Why Amber Benson? Because Amber Benson is awesome. That image alone makes me want to cast her as everyone in everything. Wow I just cast another Joss Whedonverse veteran. I'm worse than Rob Bricken. For those of you who may not know, Amber Benson played Tara on Buffy the vampire slayer. That reminds me, that one time Amber Benson was at Wizard World Chicago I forgot to ask her thoughts on why the first slayer chose Tara to be her voice.
Anyway Tania Zed was also the Antalla before passing the power on to Junitha Pendragon. Tania Zed holds the record for becoming the Antalla at a younger age than any of the other Antallas.
Next we move on to some aliens. The Spectral Horde are not seen in person until later in the book and all we see of them are their two representatives who call themselves Deep and High. There would be no physical actor here just some creatures designed by either Jim Henson studios or Stan Winston's creature shop because I still say a live model is better than any motion capture CGI. To do the voices of Deep and High I would cast Espada No.9 Aaroniero Arruruerie.
Heh hehe. Okay in all seriousness when I was writing Deep and High I heard the voices of the 9th Espada from the manga and anime Bleach. Now Aaroniero Arruruerie was voiced in the English dub by Keith Silverstein and Wendee Lee so they could certainly do the voices of the Spectral Horde aliens Deep and High.
Now we need to cast the memorys of Antalla from Junitha's mind trap. First we will cast Hikari Hanso the first mortal Antalla. To play this character I would go with Japanese actress, singer, idol Aya Ueto.
Aya Ueto play Azumi in the movie Azumi which was very popular in Japan but most americans have probably not heard of it. She would only need to appear in it briefly and she would have to dress in punk look which is not what you usually see on Japanese idols.
The next memory of Antalla is the second mortal Antalla Cassandra Dukane. We need a strong black woman who can pull off wearing a big red coat like Vash the stampede from Trigun or Alucard from Hellsing and smoke a cigar. I can think of a number of afro-american actresses but none that feel just right to play this character for her brief appearance. Again I am open to suggestions.
The next character with a brief appearance to cast is the Raath female Zel from Zai's mind trap. I wonder if Gina Torres would be willing to wear a lot of prosthetic makeup and look like an alien.
Gina Torres? Did I really just do that? Get out of my head Joss Whedon. GET OUT OF MY HEAD.
Okay now that is over and we can cast the role of Nadia Pentangelus the Chosen of Antalla who also appears in Junitha's mind trap. Nadia is another character important to the mythology/lore of this universe and for a long time I have struggled with who could play her in a live action adaptation. I think the only thing I can do here is try to come up with someone who fits the look of how I picture the character. The only actress I can think of that works in my mind as Nadia is Sarah Carter.
I know there are a lot of blonde actresses out there but for some reason Sarah Carter is the only one I can actually picture as Nadia Pentangelus. By the way you might recognize Sarah Carter from some quest spots on Smallville. She has been on CSI:NY recently. Most of the other shows he has been on have been cancelled. Oh she also played Helena in the D.O.A. movie.
And finally there remains only one character to be cast. The man called D who is also The Balance the force that Zai serves. This is not just another major mythology/lore character of this universe he is The mythology/lore character of this universe. So I had a hard time casting him. Then the perfect actor to play him came to me, John Barrowman.
Wow it took me a long time to find a picture of John Barrowman that was a appropriatly silly and not of him staring off looking brooding and handsome. Wait what did I just say? Nevermind moving on.
John Barrowman of Torchwood and Doctor Who companion fame would be perfect to play D and to do the voice of The Balance. If you read A Space Story I like to think I left enough clues so people can work out who D is and if I ever write a sequel or get any of my other work I will eventaully explain how he became The Balance and how he and Zai met and how Zai came to serve him. But that is for another time.
So there it is my cast for A Space Story if it were ever made into a live action production. I hope people will read this and help me fill out the missing roles and that I have not offended anyone.
And remember,
we all live on a yellow submarine.
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