New Catching Fire Fancasting

Okay, it’s almost been a year since the original post. So here is my new “Catching Fire” Fancasting:

 

District 1:

Cashmere: Zoe Bell of “Death Proof” fame.

Gloss: An unknown stuntman.

 

District 2:

Brutus: Darren Shahlavi (“Ip Man 2″, “Mortal Kombat Legacy”).

Enobaria: Gina Carano (“Haywire”. Just think of her with fangs. That would be scary and awesome at the same time).

 

District 3:

Wiress: Jane Adams (They canceled “Hung”, so what are they waiting for?)

Beetee: Either Kurt Russell, Michael Emerson, Jackie Earle Haley, or Matthey Broderick.

 

District 4:

Finnick: Too bad Brad Pitt is too old and too big a star for this role. Ummmm…. ummmmmm…. Jake Abel? When does Stephenie Meyer’s “The Host” stop filming?

Annie: I am resolved that she is not a Manic Pixie Dream Girl. She only looks like one. My head Annie has the looks and personality of Bae Doona’s character in Bong Joon-Ho’s “The Host”. So, yes, Emily Browning could work. I’ll pick her.

Mags: I’m still think Sophia Loren is perfect for the role.

 

District 6:

Morphlings: Total unknowns, with a stuntwoman as the morphling woman.

 

District 7:

Johanna Mason: Jija Yanin, I even wrote a post about it. In fact, she’s the only reason I’ve always pictured Johanna as Asian.

Blight: Some unknown stunt man.

 

District 8:

Cecelia: Knowing how much “THG” casting likes to cast throwaway tributes as Asians, I’d say Yunjin Kim, who can play such a role like Cecelia real well.

Woof: I just recently thought of him, but Ernest Borgnine would be amazing in this role.

 

District 11:

Chaff: I’m still thinking Michael Jai White. Can’t find anybody more awesome than him.

Seeder: I’m still fancasting Cheng (not Chang, my mistake) Pei-Pei. But I’m also putting Pam Grier of “Jackie Brown” fame in the mix.

 

And others:

Plutarch Heavensbee: I’m thinking this is Joel Edgerton’s role.

Darius, Twill, and Bonnie: Unknown character actors.

If I voted in the Oscars…

Long time, no see, eh? Well, let’s get into it and just put in my annual tradition of how I would have prefer to see win the Oscars:

Best Art Direction: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

Best Costume Design: Anonymous (though I’ve only seen the trailers)

Best Documentary: Undefeated (though I haven’t seen it)

Best Documentary Short: God is Bigger than Elvis, on the name alone

Best Editing: The Artist

Best Makeup: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

Best Score: The Artist

Best Song: “Real in Rio” from Rio

Best Animated Short: La Luna

Best Live Action Short: Time Freak

Best Sound Editing: Drive (haven’t seen it, BUT I WANT TO REAL BAD!)

Best Sound Mixing: Hugo

Best Visual Effects: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (but the most mind-blowing part is that we can now call Real Steel “Academy Award-nominated movie Real Steel”. Don’t know if its a good thing or a bad thing.)

Best Cinematography: The Tree of Life

Best Adapted Screenplay: The Ides of March

Best Original Screenplay: Margin Call

Best Foreign Language Film: Haven’t seen all of them, but I’m going with A Separation

Best Animated Film: I’d say Rango, even though I haven’t seen the nominees also

Best Supporting Actress: I am possibly the only person in America who hasn’t seen The Help, but I’m going with Octavia Spencer

Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer (because I haven’t seen any one of the nominated movies, and because Albert Brooks was robbed)

Best Actress: Viola Davis

Best Actor: George Clooney

Best Director: Alexander Payne

 

Best Picture:

 

9. The Daldry. Nuff said. Won’t even call it by its real name.

8. War Horse. Looks to be one of Spielberg’s weakest to me.

7. The Help. NETFLIX, Y U NO HAVE SHORTER WAIT ON THE HELP?????????

6. Moneyball. The last of the four nominated movies that I haven’t seen, though I really want to see it ASAP.

5. The Artist. I saw the OSS 117 movies, and they are infinitely better than that movie, as good as The Artist is.

4. Midnight in Paris. A very fun movie, but not a Best Picture.

3. Hugo. Could be a Best Picture, but not this year because…

2. The Tree of Life. Best movie of the year. However, the Academy will not give the award to a 2.25 hour montage.

1. The Descendants. Second-best movie of the year, and the best with an honest-to-goodness plot.

And now, the fancast you have all been waiting for…

So, who did I chose for Johanna in the Hunger Games that I am witholding it for  a while?

From the very first instant I found out that Johanna was still alive in “Catching Fire”, I have pictured in my mind only one person for Johanna, having backups only if she wasn’t available. Let me introduce to you Thailand’s most popular martial arts star, Jija Yanin:

“But what about Tony Jaa?” you might ask. Well, it seems that in 2007-2008-ish Jaa apparently had a meltdown that made Charlie Sheen look sane in comparison. So, about that time, the director of Tony Jaa’s films “Ong-Bak” and “The Protector”, came up with a new movie called “Chocolate”, starring Yanin. In it, Jija (as she is usually called) plays an autistic girl whom becomes a martial arts prodigy by watching martial arts movies (yes, including Tony Jaa’s. Especially Tony Jaa’s.). Yes, the plot does sound ludicrous (and a fight in it might be considered insensitive if it wasn’t such a good fight), but it is an enjoyable movie to watch, and Jija’s acting has surprisingly gotten lots of praise, and was nominated for “Best Newcomer” in the prestigious Asian Film Awards. So she’s got the experience on faking to be a weakling but instead being a badarse girl. (It’s available on Netflix Instant, so if you haven’t seen it already, do so now. I tell you she’s far better than Maggie Q).

Oh, and this fight scene from “Chocolate” is how I think Johanna would perform in hand-to-hand combat:

She’s only done one movie ever since Chocolate, “Raging Phoenix”. Even though I haven’t seen it yet (Even though it is also on Netflix Instant), there are some stills and promotional stuff from this movie that helps me visualize Johanna. The opening picture above is a Thai poster for the movie, and here are more stills that show the closest possible photos to my visual view of Johanna.

And she can speak English pretty well, as shown in this video…

Plus, she has 3 films coming out this year: an action comedy that comes out later this month in Thailand (directed by Tony Jaa’s comic relief sidekick Mum Jukmok), a South Korean taekwondo film, and the sequel to “Chocolate”, which will be filmed in Japan, which will make her popularity increase throughout Asia.

And not only that, but the Sahamongkol, the film studio in which she is apparently under contract, is also the distributor of Lionsgate’s films in Thailand, which would make it relatively easy for her to get an audition for the part. All Lionsgate has to do is to ask Sahamongkol for her.

So what do you think? With casting international stars in order to get the all-important international box office, I think that Jija Yanin and the role of Johanna are fated to be together. If there is anyone who agrees with me, I might start a #Jija4Johanna campaign to make her known more to the Hunger Games community at large.

Good Golly, Ms. Molloy!

Words cannot describe how atrocious this article by Joanna Molloy is! Sure, the Space Shuttle Enterprise never went into space, and yes, it was in “Transformers 2″, but it it did flew some test flights, and was at times considered to be launched into space. Plus, how many Space Shuttles, working or non-working, was piloted by Fred Haise of Apollo 13 fame? Just the Enterprise!

Plus, the Endeavour will not go to Disneyland, it will go to the California Science Center, whose collection includes the Bell X-1 from “The Right Stuff”, Ham the Space Chimp’s Mercury capsule, the capsule for the Gemini high-altitude mission, and the Apollo-Soyuz Test Program’s command module. So I think this aerospace museum really needs a more important exhibit real bad.

And before you laugh about Discovery (yes, I feel its been used for about every other flight, maybe because of the HST lauch, the John Glenn flight, the Return to Space missions, etc.) going to Chantilly, Virginia, that’s were the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Station Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Annex is located, and no, it cannot go to the main museum because the shuttle is just too big to be placed there. And even though more people petitioned for a shuttle in New York than there are people in Chantilly, there are more than 50 times more people in Chantilly’s metropolitan area than people who signed the petition! Who’s laughing now, Ms. Molloy?

Oh, and the reporting on Endeavour is just horrible. Every Space Shuttle has a futuristic glass cockpit, duh! And what do you mean by it having “notches on its silvery belt for four spacewalks”? I really have no idea what you are meaning. And seriously, of all its voyages, all you thought about was its only Mir docking and Mae Jemison’s flight? As for Mae Jemison, I only follow her on Twitter just to be nice to a Twitternaut, and, to tell you the truth, she has behaved in Twitter. But, in my opinion, I felt that she became an astronaut just to say that she was the first African-American woman in space, and I feel that it cheapens the achievements of such great people like Pham Tuan, Arnaldo Tamayo Mendez, Guion Bluford, and the highly-underrated-by-spacetweeps Ellen Ochoa, who went there not to seek fame, but to seek a better future for all of us. However, I am digressing, and I thinks more important missions are its first mission, which fixed an Intelsat in heroic fashion, the Hubble repair mission, and STS-118, which is botched up entirely by this journalist thinking that carrying 5,000 pounds of supplies to the ISS is amazing. Well I have news for you, NO IT AIN’T. IF ANYTHING, IT’S QUITE NORMAL! But it did have the first educator astronaut, Barbara Morgan, on board, and that is far more interesting than the tidbit Ms. Molloy decided to write in.

And yes, the Enterprise has gotten farther than Tinseltown. In fact, it is the only space shuttle to have visited Europe! That’s something none of the so-called “real” space shuttles has done! And comparing it to a faux luxury purse or a wax museum figure is just plain wrong. It is a marvelous work of engineering on par with Columbia, Challenger, Atlantis, and Endeavour, just without the bling-ey engines.

And did I say that a member of the Apollo 13 crew flew it? I think Joanna Molloy would respond, “Yes, but it was neither the one Tom Hanks played nor the one Kevin Bacon played so, lets forget about him.”

Some folks are just too shallow.

 

Afterword: I also have a bone to pick Atlantis coverage. Ms. Molloy somehow decides to put in the fact that it launched the Gamma Ray Observatory because it sounds cool. It doesn’t sounds cool. Do you know what sounds cool? The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, which sounds like a classic West Coast hip-hop group, don’t you think? And she put in Magellan and not Galileo? Does she know that it was the first shuttle to dock with the Mir (I really do, because I’m pretty sure that was the only day in the summer of ’95 I can remember without seeing OJ Simpson on the TV)? Or that it has starred in 3 major motion pictures (including Armageddon and Deep Impact) and a Japanese anime (also starring Naoko Yamazaki)? And most importantly, does she know that it will be in the Kennedy Space Center? Yes, New York Daily News, fire Joanna Molloy.

UPDATED The final draft of my fancast (includes some “Catching Fire” fancasting)

Katniss: Already been decided. Jennifer Lawrence from Winter’s Bone. I recently saw it, it truly is a depressing but good movie (second best depressing film I’ve seen, with only an Iranian film I saw in high school social studies, “Turtles Can Fly”, being better), and when I saw J-Law stick her hands in the water to [the climax of the film], I knew that she could do the berries scene with the same force. I applaud this selection, even though I did not pick her, obviously, and my fears of “THG” being whitewashed notwithstanding.

Peeta: Same here. Josh Hutcherson has a very legit resume (he just got nominated for a SAG award, for crying out loud!), as he and J-Law were born 90 miles apart.  He’s definitely good for the part, just dye the hair and he’s ready to go.

Gale: In a perfect world (aka Hailee or Malese for Katniss), it would have been Drew Roy, hands down. However, it ended up Liam Hemsworth, and though I don’t anything in his work that proves that he will be a good Gale, Roger Ebert kind of sees him as “the next Peter O’Toole”. That means he must be doing something right and he will prove his acting worth with this role.

Oh, and before I move on, I have to have my two cents worth on Disney and/or Nick stars being cast into movies. I was kinda hooked on “The Social Network” from the time  I first heard of it. However, when I first saw the trailer, I was blown by it, however, I said to myself “that Asian girl looks familiar”. And when I found out it was none other than London Tipton from “The Suite Life” herself, Brenda Song, I was shocked and thought she would ruin the movie.  However, she was excellent in “The Social Network”, and from them on, I stopped complaining about Disney stars being cast. Heck, other great actors who started out in Disney stuff include Zefron, Justin Timberlake, Ryan Gosling, Kurt Russell, and Jodie Foster, who is directing (and co-starring with) J-Law in “The Beaver”. Oh, and don’t forget that both Miranda Cosgrove and Keke Palmer both broke out with legit performances and not overacting in Nickelodeon (and, yes, I have this gut feeling Hailee Steinfeld will star in her own Nick show).

Rue: Already been decided, and I am thrilled about Amandla Stenberg. PARKOUR!Thresh: Already been decided. Take a look at Dayo Okeniyi’s twitter, this guy IS Thesh!

Effie Trinket: Now that Kristin Chenoweth is going to be on the TV show “Good [major monotheistic religion] [word I cannot say due to me being male]”, who can be Effie? I like the idea I read once of a cameo appearance by Sandra Bullock (kind of spoofing her “All About Steve” character in a way), but then, I don’t know if she the time to be in the first movie. After that, I’m thinking Elizabeth Banks, whom I hesitated about picking at first, thinking that she has moved past the Marcella Howard (her character in “Seabiscuit”) part of her career, as she has now become primarily known as a comic actress. However, I forgot that she has done serious roles in later years, and my observation that Gary Ross likes to work with the same actors, and by the time she got into talks for Effie, was sold on her.

Tributes: Far easier. Danielle Chuchran for Glimmer, Jay Chou for Cato (just joking (he was “Kato” in “The Green Hornet”, got it?), I’m going for an unknown here), Malese Jow (again) for Clove, Bonnie Wright as Foxface, some unknown guy as Marvel, and the rest are teens and tweens found during the casting calls in Charlotte.

Primrose Everdeen: Elle Fanning. The previous sentence explains itself.

Haymitch Abernathy: Hugh Laurie is definitely not going to be Haymitch, and I feel RDJ is too A-list to be Haymitch (I can only think of him as Tony Stark and almost nothing else). Phillip Seymour Hoffman? Too old. However, I’m getting attached to Wentworth Miller, the star of “Prison Break”, for Haymitch. He apparently is of mixed race and has too many ethnic ancestries to list here right now (it’s on Wikipedia), and he does have that ethnically ambiguous look most of us think of when we think of the Seam. So can he be at least considered for Haymitch just to appease those who are potentially going to protest the whitewashing of Katniss? Plus, he seems to be a decent actor (and screenwriter, (hint, hint, Lionsgate)) to boot.

Caesar Flickerman: This is easy for me. William H. Macy. Even though I’ve never heard his name being mentioned in the rounds, Gary Ross is fond of casting him, and with good reason. Just watch Ross’ last film he directed, “Seabiscuit”. In it, Macy has an awesome role as colorful sportswriter “Tick-Tock” McGlaughlin that will make you think of Caesar.

President Snow: I think that among the current fan favorites, Malcolm McDowell is the best choice. However, when reading President Snow, I kept thinking about Robert DeNiro, but his acting skills have deteriorated so much that he is now a joke of himself, so I picked the next best thing, Dustin Hoffman. He could play an interesting Snow, don’t you think?

Cinna: Hmm… pretty tough to think about. First I thought Tobey Maguire (Gary Ross also likes to cast him), but then I said no. But then, the same article that inspired the Bullock as Effie also put Justin Timberlake as Cinna, and I can definitely see him as Cinna, especially after “The Social Network” (yes, Cinna’s a kinder, gentler Sean Parker).

Katniss’ Parents: Some decent character actress for Mrs. Everdeen.

Avox girl: No idea who can play her.Greasy Sae: One of those middle-aged women from “Winter’s Bone”. Definitely.

Buttercup: Any old cat.

District Villager #2: Quentin Tarantino. Hey, he’s from the general area of District 12, plus, he has Seam features. (Tongue out of cheek, I think Suzanne Collins will veto my idea for obvious reasons).

Finnick Odair: Joseph Mazzello. I really want someone from “The Social Network” to be part of “The Hunger Games” (in the matter of fact, Brenda Song is my runner-up for Johanna, as strange as it may seem), and this would definitely work (Armie Hammer is going to be too A-list by then to be Finnick, but then, I said that about J-Law). It also would be cool if they can coax Frankie Muniz out of retirement to play him.

Johanna Mason: Jija Yanin, as you might already know. But I won’t opt out Brenda Song and Ellen Wong from “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” for her.

Annie Cresta:In the comments section of my Johanna post, somebody is pulling out for Stephanie Hunt to be Johanna. I see her more as the perfect Annie.

Plutarch Heavensbee: Jeffrey Wright, the current Felix Leiter in the James Bond movies, is kind of like what I have in mind for him.

Woof: 60′s French hearthrob Alain Delon would work well, as casting international actors for foreign box office prospects has become the norm for tentpoles.

Betee: Possibly the most interesting fancast I’ve ever seen (with the exception of Kanye West as Cinna) is that of Lou Diamond Phillips for Haymitch. Even though I can’t see him as Haymitch at all, I can definitely see him as Betee.

Mags: I have possibly every living actress who has starred in a Hollywood movie before the JFK assassination to play her, but my favorite one of the bunch has to be Sophia Loren. That thick Italian accent of hers just screams “unintelligible to Katniss, yet sort of intelligible to the audience” to me! Other favorites include Catherine Deneuve, Doris Day, and Shirley Temple Black, the latter just for the irony to have a role of a Tribute chosen for something she did about three-quarters of a century ago been played by someone for things she did about three-quarters of a century ago.

Chaff: Michael Jai White, action star extraordinaire. Just see any trailer for “Black Dynamite” and be impressed.

Seeder: I am going to be raked real hard on this, but I don’t see Seeder to be black, and I have the original queen of wuxia, Chang Pei-Pei of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, to play Seeder.

I have already picked my Brutus, Enobaria, President Coin, and Boogs. However, I will reveal them to you when I feel fit to do so.

First post.

Okay, welcome to my blog. This is just a test post. I will post my first post within a few days, if not today.