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Casting Couch: Doctor Strange

By | February 26th, 2014
Posted in Columns | 3 Comments

Hello, and welcome to today’s Casting Couch! Recently it was revealed that Marvel was potentially courting a few directors for an upcoming Doctor Strange film, something that Marvel has seemingly been wanting to do for quite a while. These directors included folks like Mark Andrews of Brave, Nikolaj Arcel of A Royal Affair, Dean Israelite of Welcome to Yesterday and Jonathan Levine of Warm Bodies — all of whom are rather strange choices for a character like Doctor Strange, but hey, what do I know?

And then I remembered: wait. I do a column where I literally just show off movie knowledge and cast fictional movies with directors and actors I like.

So we’re doing Doctor Strange.

The caveat here, of course, is that we’re actually going to pigeon-hole the film adaptation to a specific graphic novel: “Doctor Strange Season One.” Published by Marvel a couple years ago, written by Greg Pak and illustrated by Emma Rios, it’s easily the most accessible modern day interpretation of the Doctor Strange origin story, featuring all the classic characters in a nice little package (with just gorgeous artwork). If anything were to be translated to film in a way that would seemingly fit in nicely with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I’d wager that this iteration would be the easiest to put to film, and one that most general audiences could enjoy while still keeping an appreciation of the original Ditko/Lee work.

So without further ado, we present the actual man who should direct Doctor Strange,

Director – Terry Gilliam

With no offense to Marvel’s assembled team of directors, none of them hold a candle to Terry Gilliam when it comes to interesting, compelling and bizarre storytelling. One only has to look at Gilliam’s line of films so far to see that he’d make the perfect director to bring to life the exploits of the Sorcerer Supreme on his journey from zero to hero, especially when you take in the something like the more subtle and nuanced storytelling of a film like the Fisher King and weigh it against the more bombastic Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Gilliam has a tremendous imagination and can certainly bring magic to life on the big screen, so he’d be the ideal pick for a magic-based film like this.

And our star?

Doctor Strange – Jean Dujardin

Jean Dujardin stole hearts when he appeared in the Artist, but since then most of us have been able to discover his work in other films and appreciate him for the great talent that he is. Dujardin has shown that he can play a character that is pretty brash, self-absorbed and egotistical while also someone more charming, vulnerable and sympathetic. Stephen Strange goes on a pretty big journey throughout his origin story, and all things considered we need someone that can play both polar opposite roles that Strange inhabits until he learns how to Wizard, basically. Dujardin is the man to pull it off.

Now, to date I’ve never seen Jean Dujardin pull off an American accent. But, hey, he’s an actor. He can learn.

Wong – Jay Chou

The second most important role in the film, Wong in “Season One” is a bit different than the Wong we’d seen in most versions of Doctor Strange’s story. Instead of someone who almost acts like a servant, Wong is another student that works with Strange and often times butts heads with him as they vie for who will be the better student. And while it might be type-casting a little bit, I’d like Jay Chou to get the chance to redeem himself from Green Hornet, a film in which he could’ve been a lot better if the movie itself was just a little bit … well, better. In that movie, Chou exhibited some of the traits of both classic and “Season One” Wong, so if given the opportunity, I think Chou could really make the role fresh and exciting.

The Ancient One – Vithaya Pansringarm

The man behind the curtain who teaches Strange everything he knows, the Ancient One is both a big deal in the overall film and not that big of a deal. He’s very much an archetypal character, and one who fades to the background quickly. However, those who saw Only God Forgives will certainly remember Vithaya Pansringarm’s menacing and memorable role as the film’s “villain” (though it’s hard not to consider Gosling the villain of that film, really). I’d love to see him take on the role of the Ancient One and bring to life a wise, stoic old sorcerer who watches insolent children fight amongst each other.

Continued below

Sofia di Cosimo – Morena Baccarin

Morena Baccarin has a great history of playing strong women in her work, from Inara Serra to Jessica Brody. I’m honestly not sure if there isn’t a role in which Baccarin wasn’t just great in, or at the very least perfect for the character she was bringing to life. She’s very good at taking women who seem like they might have smaller, background roles and then giving them full depth and personality. So with Doctor Strange, a movie that’s very male-dominated, the female role needs to stand out and become more than just the stereotypical love interest or even some idealized super-smart femme fatale, and I think Baccarin is a wise choice to take what is ultimately a very small and unused female character in the Marvel U and give her an iconic performance, perhaps even similar to what Rinko Kikuchi did as Mako Mori in Pacific Rim.

Baron Mordo – Luke Evans

The main villain the film, it was a bit hard to cast Baron Mordo. Mordo is someone who needs to essentially be a polar opposite of Strange, someone who is the shadow to the light that he brings. We need an actor who can play someone who is stoic and unsettling, someone who you could potentially see as a hero but can clearly tell was corrupted long before he had the opportunity to learn how to be one. Luke Evans is an actor who, in all fairness, keeps appearing in bad movies — Immortals, The Raven, The Three Musketeers — but he’s always done his best in them, all things considered. However, it was his role as Bard in the Desolation of Smaug that I think really solidified him as having potential to break out of his own stereotypes onscreen, and against Jean Dujardin as Doctor Strange, I think he makes an excellent foible.

Dormammu – Kevin Grevioux

Dormammu is likely going to be a light, background role all things considered. He’s a great and powerful demonic entity who hangs over the film like a shadow, but at the same time he will most likely never cross over into our plane, instead using Mordo as a conduit for his evil. However, Dormammu’s presence must still be felt throughout, and for that we need someone who has a very powerful voice — and since we don’t want to just lean on some of the boring, obvious choices, I’ve instead cast Kevin Grevioux, whom some of you may recognize from the Underworld film series. Grevioux’s voice is a voice that carries, is something deep and with strong resonance that with a few nice effects can make the walls of any theater quake. And since it’s all in the voice here, Grevioux’s history in voice acting will certain come into play well in bringing Dormammu to life in a powerful and hopefully frightening way.


//TAGS | Casting Couch

Jess Graham

Jessica is the secret weapon behind the Multiversity Casting Couches, utilizing her vast knowledge of film and Hollywood gossip to help concoct absurdly brilliant comic book movie scenarios. When she isn't thinking about movies however, she is playing with cats, watching Futurama and pleading with George RR Martin to stop killing everyone she loves in A Song Of Ice And Fire. Feel free to follow her on Tumblr and Twitter for random odds and ends.

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