THE GHOUL ARCHIPELAGO Fantasy Cast

A commonly recurring question in interviews is "Who would you like to play various characters if your novel is ever made into a movie."  I've taken a crack at this once or twice before for BRAINEATER JONES, but to be honest, fantasy casting is something that I'm not very good at.  I gather that some authors actually start with an actor in mind, then model the book character after him or her, so fantasy casting is actually the first thing they do.  I'm kind of oblivious.

I was very lucky recently to have romance author and friend of the blog Claire Ashby send me her fantasy cast for THE GHOUL ARCHIPELAGO.  (Make sure to check out her debut WHEN YOU MAKE IT HOME.  This is a seriously great book, and the only thing I've ever read that dealt fairly with the subject of Wounded Warriors.)  I just want to say right off the bat, I'm very impressed with Claire's choices.  It's a hell of a lot better than anything I would've come up with.  So let's take a look at what Claire said, and I'll make a few comments along the way.

Henk "Howling Mad" Martigan
(Mark Ruffalo)

Yup.  I can definitely see Ruffalo in this role, especially in this non-copyrighted picture.  I gathered all these pictures on Wikimedia commons, so while they're all legal for use in my blog here, they don't all necessarily capture the character of the actors.  Still, in this photo, I can see Ruffalo as a devil-may-care smuggler with an unwanted beard.

"Tuan" Jim
(Charlie Day)

Charlie Day is not, to my knowledge, Filipino, and I might prefer to have an actual Filipino actor play Jim.  But in terms of general squireliness-cum-caginess, Charlie Day would fit the bill.  He's definitely got a Jim vibe, especially in what I've seen of him in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Rand Bergeron
(Michael Cera)

Yup.  Rand is not-so-secretly based on our very own Mark Zuckerberg, and I would have to pick either  Cera or Jesse Eisenberg to play him.  And Eisenberg is probably all zombied-out after Zombieland.                                   

Reverend Coughlin Sonntag
(Brad Pitt)

At 50, Brad Pitt's a little young for the elderly Sonntag.  That being said, we've seen him play older in Benjamin Button.  And if anyone's got the convincing, charismatic conviction of Sonntag, it's the star of Fight Club.

Dwight "Hannibal Mo"
(Jason Segel)

I had no idea who Jason Segel was until I had to look him up for this fantasy cast.  That being said, this picture says it all.  That IS Mo.

Leona "Butch" Candiru
(Aubrey Plaza)

Another actor I never heard of, but I'm happy with.  I had to check on Wikipedia, but Aubrey Plaza is actually half Puerto Rican, so I could see her playing the Hispanic Butch, and I could definitely see her playing the first half of the movie disguised as a boy.  A pretty boy, but still.

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So, what do the rest of you think?  Would you make any changes to this cast?  What about Eve?  Fall?  Zakira?  Papi?  Kurtz?  Chime in in the comments below and let me know!