Joshua Malina as Dr. Ken Miller: Joshua Malina isn't very widely known, but he's quickly becoming one of those actors that you know from somewhere, you just don't know where. He graduated from Yale as a theater major and he's done a lot of work with writer Aaron Sorkin -- but I won't hold that against him. (In all honesty, I think Sorkin is an awesome writer, he just has a tendency to get a bit too liberal for my tastes.) I first saw him on Sports Night reruns on Comedy Central, and anytime I saw him on that show (he played Jeremy Goodwin), I would always think, "Wow, he looks a lot like Ken!" Add in the fact that he's Yale trained -- and a dern good actor -- and I don't think he'll have any trouble portraying the brilliant scientist.
Rebecca Gayheart as Lila: Let's face it: it won't take a method-trained actor to play this role. There's really not much to it. "My brother is in the back," "My brother has been kidnapped!," and "Thank you for saving my brother!" are pretty much the role's three major lines. So the key to casting Lila lies not in acting ability, but simply in appearance. Lila -- secretly an android -- was obviously made by her "brother" to be attractive. We need a pretty face with big blue eyes and poofy brown hair. Enter Rebecca Gayheart! Commonly known as "The Noxema Girl" because of where she got her start, she has gone on to appear in films such as Scream 2, Urban Legend, and Jawbreaker... but I remember her best as Dylan's wife from Beverly Hills, 90210, who got accidentally murdered by her own father's hitmen. Oops. I guess if she can act her way through that, she can act her way through taking a Sonic Gun hit.
Burt Reynolds as Lucero: The Phantasy Star Adventure Dream Cast gets a little Reynolds style! I actually had a very hard time casting this role, because Lucero is a bit of an enigma. He may have gray hair and a gray beard, but his face underneath all of that looks like the face of a 10-year old. "So who do I cast?" I thought. "A young actor with dyed hair, or an older actor?" I decided the best Lucero would be an older actor, but someone who could still be the type of hell-raiser Lucero is. Enter Burt Reynolds: he's older now, but remember movies like Deliverance or Smokey and the Bandit? I can perfectly imagine him yelling, "Those bastards!" and then trudging through the snow to break you out of prison. And besides, Reynolds is super-cool!
Zach Grenier as Carsonville's Shady Cop: Zach Grenier played the Narrator's boss in Fight Club. He did wonders with what should have been a small, forgettable role, and made it something memorable. "Make these your primary action items," is one of my favorite lines in that movie, thanks to him. As the author of a fanpage devoted to him says, "...he makes even the smallest roles memorable." That's why I was so happy to realize the physical resemblance (except in the hair...) between Grenier and Carsonville's Shady Cop. I'll wager 100 meseta that once again, Grenier would utilize his talent to make the minor role of the Shady Cop something quite memorable indeed.
Vincent Pastore as Baron's Bodyguard: Baron's Bodyguard is straight out of a mob movie, isn't he? The scowl perpetually found on his face just seems to shout, "You want I should rough him up, boss?" From the beginning, I knew the role of the Bodyguard had to be played by a big, burly mob movie type... and certainly not by Kevin Costner (rimshot). When selecting from this pool, Vincent Pastore comes straight to the top. He was in GoodFellas, The Last Don, and he played Big Pussy on The Sopranos. Hell, he was even a mobster in The Jerky Boys! Even Frank Rizzo would agree with this one... Vincent Pastore is the perfect actor to play Baron's Bodyguard.
Kevin Spacey as Dr. Baron: This was the very first Phantasy Star Adventure casting idea I had. When I first played the game, the minute I saw Dr. Baron, I thought, "Kevin Spacey!" Spacey is an absolutely incredible actor. He won the Best Actor award for American Beauty and he also starred in Pay It Forward, but my personal favorite work of his would have to be his roles as "Walter Mathau auditioning for Obi-Wan Kenobi" and "Christopher Walken auditioning for Han Solo" on Saturday Night Live. What makes Kevin Spacey so great is he can be a villain and cool at the same time -- and just try and tell me that "villain but cool" doesn't define Baron when he slyly uses a trap door behind his desk to elude capture in Phantasy Star Adventure. But as great as Spacey is, I'm thinking perhaps someone else should play Baron at the end of the movie, when he uses Dr. Miller's machine to become a monster -- Lou Ferrigno, maybe?
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 Remember, I'm Shir of the wind! Nothing can catch me! |
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| Please send all comments and feedback to mike at ripplinger dot us | ||||