Casting Couch is back this week with a look at one of our favorite titles on the shelves these days: Matt Fraction, Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon’s “Casanova.” Since debuting at Image, this book switched publishers, went through 2.5 volumes, a recoloring (coloring?) and all kinds of other shenanigans. It’s challenging, wild and a damn fine book.
So how do you make an idea like this work on celluloid?
Do it for the laffs. THE LAFFS!
Find out our picks after the jump.
Format – Movie Series
Each trade equals one movie. One wild and crazy movie.
Director – Michel Gondry
There really was only one answer for this. Who could tell a dimension spanning, time traveling mind fuck of a super spy thriller better than Gondry? Nobody. This guy has made a career of giving the most wild of ideas weight and grounding, and we just could not envision someone making this book come to life better than him.
Casanova Quinn – Cillian Murphy
Casanova is about as complex of a character as you can find in all creation. The guy is dense, even switching genders in this book as many times as Wolverine will likely switch sides in “Avengers vs. X-Men.” One of the best in movies these days at handling intelligent and thoroughly intricate characters with serious questions of morality and often sanity is Murphy. With Murphy set as Cass, he makes everyone’s job easier around him, and makes this movie all the more fascinating.
Zephyr Quinn – Olivia Wilde
Incredibly deadly. Dead sexy. Occasionally dead. These are three things that we know Olivia Wilde can play, and while she’s never really had the chance to prove herself in a truly spectacular fashion (cue everyone else on the site yelling THE BLACK DONNELLYS at me), methinks she could make a role such as this pop. Here’s your chance kid. Knock our socks off.
Cornelius Quinn – Ian McShane
The only beef with this casting is that Cornelius, Casanova and Zephyr’s father and the leader of E.M.P.I.R.E., is quite the hulking figure. But given that this character is a massive beast of a man and we have to cast human beings, we’re fine with making the once and future Al Swearengen him. More than fine, as McShane’s voice and sheer will of personality would steal every scene he exists in.
Newman Xeno – Paul Bettany
Dit Dit Dit Dah Dah Dah Dit Dit.
A once upon a time comic book writer/musician who happens to become a criminal mastermind and the opposite number to Cass in many ways, while also doing everything he can to pretend to be Thomas Pynchon (maybe not on the latter part, I just wanted to reference him pretending to be Pynchon again)? Bettany could play that in his sleep. I can already imagine his smooth, British accent emanating from the swath of bandages that covers Xeno’s face. It’s too perfect. Tooooo perrrrfect.
Dit Dit Dit Dah Dah Dah Dit Dit.
Kaito – Aaron Yoo
Aaron Yoo is a guy who, frustratingly enough, hasn’t gotten as many jobs as we’d like him to have. Thus, we’re casting him as Kaito, the kung fu badass who lives in a giant robot off of Japan. You’re welcome in advance, Aaron Yoo.
Ruby Seychelle – Yvonne Strahvoski
As originally, essentially, a sexbot, and then as the sultry voice of a monster looking thing that floats, Strahvoski would kill. We know she’s a gorgeous woman, and for the limited time she wasn’t a monster looking thing that floats, she’d be eye candy galore. But for those that have seen her throughout “Chuck” know that she’s someone who is often funny and someone who is quite sharp. As Ruby, we’d get one heck of a performance from Strahvoski.
Continued below
Sabine Seychelle – Matthew Gray Gubler
An intensely intelligent criminal mastermind? Why not cast someone from Criminal Minds?! Okay, that’s honestly not what we were thinking, but the guy is a really solid actor, and someone whose personality and general demeanor strongly fits the character of Sabine, someone who starts out bad, ends up good, but then even further ends up as probably bad. But what a character arc!
Fabula – Albert Finney
A floating monster thing that is sort of originally the villain of the story but then mostly disappears from the rest of the story? Who doesn’t want Albert Finney, that gravelly voiced genius, to make a quick appearance (in voice only) as him? He’d make Fabula SING (not literally, thankfully), and he’d have one of the scene stealer roles of his life.
Buck McShane – Neal McDonough
I took the picture of McDonough as Dum Dum Dugan from last year’s Captain America movie and used it because that is pretty much exactly what McShane looks like. Here’s the fun part: McShane is essentially Dum Dum if his body was possessed by McDonough’s character from this season of Justified, Robert Quarles. The guy is a great actor, and he could chew some scenery with the best of them as Cornelius’ right hand man.
