This week on Multiversity Casting Couch, we’re taking on one of our favorite series around, and one that actually has a pretty solid foundation already in the world of movies. That series is B.P.R.D., a Mignola-verse title that spun off from Hellboy and quickly became one of the best in the business.
Now, a good amount of the characters that would be featured in a B.P.R.D. movie have already been seen in Hellboy, which means we could just cast the same people and follow the same cues. But where would the fun be in that?! Find out our picks for this awesome series after the jump.
Pretty simple breakdown here. For our two B.P.R.D. movies, we split four of the minis between them. The first movie would be Hollow Earth and Plague of Frogs, with the second movie combining The Black Flame and The King of Fear. Sure, there are parts missing because of other minis being involved, but any other important parts can be integrated into our movies.
The Director – Guillermo del Toro
Sometimes you need to start from scratch when you’re (sort of) bringing a movie series back to life. This is not one of those times. del Toro brought the Hellboy movies to life, and he did a great job of capturing the spirit mostly and the look entirely. We’d be fools not to bring him back for these movies. That said, we have one little change.
Writers – del Toro, Mike Mignola and John Arcudi
Come on guys, the Hellboy movies could have been better. The second movie did get better when Mignola was more closely involved. Now we take it a step further and get B.P.R.D.’s secret weapon involved by bringing John Arcudi into the picture. That’s how we make an awesome B.P.R.D. movie.
Abe Sapien – Doug Jones
Abe Sapien’s representation in the Hellboy movies was always at last physically Doug Jones. However, it was in the second film – the better one – that Jones himself took on voicing the character as well, and that was when he really came to life. Not many actors out there do we really feel could properly represent both the physical aspects of the character as well as his demeanor and voice, but Jones did a really, really solid job. For this ensemble cast, we feel like he’d swing the role quite well once again.
Liz Sherman – Jennifer Connelly
Sorry Selma Blair, you never quite cut it for us. Sherman is supposed to be a little older – think late 30’s, early 40’s – and Connelly has the look and the strong force of will to play a character like Liz. Sure, she’s not always the willful Liz that I speak of, but Connelly is versatile enough to handle any aspect of the character that del Toro and the rest would need. Plus, if her story arc was weaved more tightly into the story like it was in Hellboy, we feel like she’d really nail each and every emotional touchpoint.
Johann Kraus – Christoph Waltz (voice)
Is it a little obvious to cast Waltz as a German ghost man who previously was a medium before being a disembodied spirit? Sure, if you’d like to say so. But just because it is obvious, doesn’t mean it isn’t right. Waltz has the sass and panache of Johann, along with the always present intelligence and feeling of capability. I have to say, Johann was arguably my biggest disappointment of the Hellboy movies, and with Waltz in the role, disappointment would disappear.
Kate Corrigan – Amy Poehler
Here’s a confession: I’m a Parks and Recreation fanboy. I love Leslie Knope, which means I love Amy Poehler. That will provide a little foundation for why the name came up, but I really do believe that Poehler is perfect for Corrigan. You can actually see the foundation of the character in Knope herself – utmost capability, DIY tendencies, fierce (almost scary for some) intelligence – and we feel like she would absolutely kill as Kate Corrigan, as well as giving the character a real sense of vitality she would need to stand out in a cast of this sort.
Ben Daimio – Kenneth Choi
This is a bit of a shot in the dark, because Choi hasn’t worked on a ton of high profile work. He had a small supporting role in Captain America: The First Avenger, he was in Sons of Anarchy, and a range of other things, but if you missed those, you missed him. He seems to be making a bigger name for himself every single year, and he’s proved himself to be a very capable actor throughout every role he’s had. For the Japanese-American were-Jaguar/soldier that is Daimio, we feel like this would be a coming out party for him. We’ll see when Hollywood does our bidding and makes these movies happen.
Roger the Homunculus – Viggo Mortensen (voice)
It was very deliberate to put Viggo’s character from Eastern Promises as his character here. While Roger is a homunculus, meaning he is essentially composed of magical herbs and what not, the idea is he is still from Romania so he would sound…Romanian. Which I don’t necessarily agree with (he is magic herbs!) but the logic is there. Regardless, whatever decision is made about the character and his accent, Mortensen has proven himself as someone very capable of handling any accent, any role, any time. I mean, the guy just played Sigmund Freud. Playing Roger should be a scene-stealing cakewalk for him, and meaty enough for Mortensen to love every second of it.
The Black Flame – Clive Owen (mostly voice)
I’m not sure of The Black Flame’s human form’s nationality or accent or anything, but we can say this: a) Clive Owen looks like him, b) Clive Owen’s voice would be wicked badass coming out of a massive guy with a flaming blue head. Those are two irrefutable facts. Oh yeah, and we love the guy. We would cast him in anything, and he’d be great here.
The King of Fear – Ken Watanabe
While it was very difficult to resist just casting James Hong, we did so. And yeah, it’s a little on the nose to cast Watanabe, but man, tell me a role that Watanabe has not been amazing in? Really try hard. Got nothing? That’s right. The King of Fear is obviously an integral part of this story, and with Watanabe’s presence there, these movies would have one amazing villainous foundation.
Lobster Johnson – Bruce Campbell
So a mysterious pulp badass that shows up intermittently to save the day? A throwback to yesteryear who is a hero’s hero? Come on. It was always going to be Bruce Campbell, right? It had to be.
