Casting Call

Since I am in the midst of reading the Hunger Games series and loving it (as mentioned in my post before last), I was curious about plans for a Hunger Games movie. After doing some brief research, I discovered there are quite a few rabid fans out there who have taken the time to post videos on YouTube which depict their idea of the perfect cast.

I must say I was appalled at some of the casting choices in the couple of videos I watched. Goes to show, even with the descriptions detailed by the author, everyone sees things their own way when reading a novel.

Here is a link to one of them: http://tinyurl.com/y9xd4cq

Then, I read an article from the LA Times (http://tinyurl.com/yk6x8au) which proposed actresses who should be considered to play Katniss, and about gagged when the writer suggested Kristen Stewart. I know she's all hot because of Twilight but she is one of the most annoying actresses I have ever seen. Her emotional range goes from sullen to really sullen, and her off-screen personality is no better.

I would like to see unknown actors cast for most of the roles (as long as they could really act and not just look the part - ahem Twilight), with some famous names in supporting parts such as Haymitch, Katniss's Mom, Cinna, and maybe President Snow. The idea of Johnny Depp playing Haymitch is interesting, and I bet he could pull it off, but physically he's not a great match. I would suggest Russell Crowe, although he's not usually a supporting player. For Cinna I could agree with James McAvoy. For Katniss's Mom I'd love Sally Field, but she's too old, so I'll say Marion Cotillard. President Snow could be done well by Liam Neeson, just off the top of my head.

Anyway, there are a lot of strong opinions out there, so it should be interesting when the cast is announced. However, although I am loving the series, I am not so obsessive as to create a video about it. Although, I guess I have now blogged about it twice. Hmmm.

A Great Blog on the Twilight Debate

I had to have two posts today. (I've finally got high speed Internet and a new computer--I'm going crazy.) I am the only Inker who adores and rereads the Twilight Series. J. Scott Savage had a great answer to the debate on Stephenie Meyer here:

Find Your Magic: BPA

This debate reminds me of one thing I learned about in a theatre class I attended recently. You want your audience to not have sympathy for your characters, but EMPATHY. You want them to feel what your characters are feeling. That is a key to a good story for me. Do I feel the emotions being played out on the page? What are some examples of creating Empathy in books you've read?

Back to the blog post: What is your strength in writing? I'm not sure what mine is yet . . . ideas probably. (Let me insert here a quick moral lesson: When you get those incredible ideas, write them down. I had one the other day that I KNEW was going to be amazing, but I didn't write it down and now I can't remember--you can all mourn with me now.) HA HA HA hA Ha

Stephenie & Oprah

A post on Facebook informed me that Stephenie Meyer would be on Oprah this week in her "only interview about the New Moon movie". Although not a regular Oprah watcher, I have tuned in when enticed by one of her big, super-exclusive, extra-special episodes, so I set the DVR.

Here are some things I found interesting from the interview, which some of you more rabid Twilight fans probably already know:

• Ms. Meyer did not plan to write a book, but the concept for Twilight came to her in a dream, and she started writing in notebooks any spare moment she had to continue the story. The dream was the basis for chapter 13 of Twilight and she wrote to the end of the story before going back to do the beginning.
  
• At the time of said dream she had three kids under the age of five.
  
• After finishing the story, she still did not consider trying to get published, but was encouraged by her sister to do so.
  
• She received eight rejections from agents before getting an agent. It took her two years and a few months from the time she started writing it to having it on bookshelves.
  
• For New Moon, she didn't originally include the section at the end with the Volturi. She had planned to introduce them later in the series, but her Mom said she needed more action at the end.

I will leave it to individual judgement as to how you will interpret these tidbits, but it has proven to me again that there is no formula for becoming a phenomenon or making a gazillion dollars as an author.

Also, since I hadn't seen Oprah in a long time, it reminded me that the sketch about her "favorite things" shows on Saturday Night Live is really not much of an exaggeration (women's heads exploding, peeing their pants, etc. with excitement over Oprah's revelations). You should have seen the audience when she told them they were all getting the Twilight box set.