The ideal cast in a remake of The Magus...
Conchis = 3 actors come to mind, Al Pacino, Donald Sutherland or John Malcovich??
Nicholas = Matthieu Kassovitz (from Amelie) - although i imagine he would have to perfect his english accent.
Alison = Julie Delpy (from Before Sunrise/Sunset)- again, with a bit of linguistic training.
Julie/June = Scarlett Johansson.
Conchis= Ben Kingsley
Nicholas= Jude Law
Julie/Lily= Charlize Theron (though a bit too old) or Gwyneth Paltrow (though a bit too bland and a lot too American)
Conchis = Anthony Hopkins
Nicholas = Jude Law
Julie/Lily = Maybe Scarlett J (Cant decide)...someone with classic beauty
Alison = Sienna Miller
Chnchis=Ben Kingsley
Nicholas=Paul Bettany
Julie/June=Amy Smart (for the looks ONLY)
or Scarlett J (for her acting skills - cos that's a very complex role)
Alison=Mia Kirshner (again for the looks)
Conchis = Ben Kingsley
Nicolas = Clive Owen (He's perfect for that!)
Alison = Audrey Tautou (not sure though..)
Julie/June = Scarlett Johansson
conchis: gary oldman
nikolas: colin farell
alison: Ioanna
julie: scarlet johansson
Just off the top of my head... try
Spend thousands of pounds on a pain staking restoration project, and then re-release this forgotten British classic back to the cinema audiences.
Would be a damn sight more beneficial than spending in excess of a $100 million dollars to do an empty remake starring Jude Law! Just keep that man away from any Michael Caine persona in the future... please.
In an ideal world, we should be spending money restoring the originals for cinema and its audiences. We should stop wasting millions on mimicking these masterpieces. For it's the original that will remain the Rembrandts of film and not the 12 year old kids crayoned versions drawn amateurishly from the minds of Hollywood execs.
I know we have heard this anti remake thing many many many many times before and we will continue too because they make big money. I would just like to have a little of that money donated solely for the prosperities of their original sources… and may help alieviate that some countries are unaware that the movie they are watching is even a remake. This could change. Wouldn't it be great to see the original and Michael Caine and Anthony Quinn on the big screen together?
Rant over. Thanks for helping me get that off my chest. The Magnus is a true British classic.
Conchis=Ben Kingsley
Nicholas=Paul Bettany
I also thought of a director: Michael Radford. I interviewed Radford in in 1994 in Portland, Oregon when he was on a press tour of the U.S. for IL POSTINO. He's a cultured and highly intelligent man, and I enjoy his films tremendously. I thought he'd be absolutely perfect to direct THE MAGUS. I thought I'd throw him the idea, so I wrote him a letter through his official website. There was no reply, but I wasn't expecting one.
Here's a slightly abridged version of the letter I wrote to him:
Dear Michael Radford,
My name is Kirill Galetski. I am a Russian-American journalist who interviewed you almost ten years ago in Portland, Oregon on the press tour in conjunction with the film IL POSTINO. I am now writing from Moscow, where I currently live and work.
I am compelled to write to you at this point in time because I have long been cogitating over an idea for a film which I feel you could realise in the most definitive way. Before I go on, I must emphatically say that I am not offering a script or the possibility of myself writing a script, but merely an idea which you would take or leave at your discretion and develop entirely through your own channels and capacities. My hope is that you will take it and run with it, for at least from this end, it seems like a journey well worth undertaking.
The idea I have in mind is a film adaptation of John Fowles' novel THE MAGUS. I received the book as a gift from an Irish friend of mine who is particularly fond of the author. I have been imbued with some of that fondness since reading THE COLLECTOR and THE MAGUS.
While reading THE MAGUS, I couldn't help but imagine it as a film. In finishing the book, I had a vivid picture in my mind of the story as a film directed by Michael Radford, with Paul Bettany as the protagonist Nicholas Urfe. I can't really go into why I saw it this way - that would be the subject of self-analysis which I won't go into here and now - but I see that at this point in your life, you are in a good position, having the means and resources at your disposal, to see such a project through to realisation.
I have also read some reviews of the book, and in one of these, a phrase caught my attention which may sum up why one would undertake the transformation of this book into visual media and a different temporal field: namely, the reviewer described the book as "leading us to question both the reality of our own lives and the relationship between a work of fiction and reality." This may seem like a gross generalisation, but it reminded me of what a possible reason for adapting 1984 to film could have been.
I understand that you may not have the same affinity for Fowles' book as I have, but I urge to examine (or re-examine, as the case may be) the world of the novel and consider it for a possible project. My intuition is that it should have a certain appeal for you. It would also be a better excuse than many for spending time on a Greek island - a setting not too far removed geographically from your favourite Mediterranean stomping grounds.
At any rate, I've been meaning to write this letter for a long time, and so now I've done so. I do not expect a personal response, but would certainly welcome one should you have the inclination.
Sincerely,
Kirill Galetski.
The ideal cast in a remake of The Magus...
Conchis = I can't believe no one has suggested Rade Serbedzija
Nicholas = Paul Bettany
Alison/Anne = Jennifer Connolly
Julie/Lily/June = anyone but Scarlett Johansson. Paltrow would be a good start.
This is a difficult book to film, but I believe it's possible to do it a decent way, keeping some of its haunting atmosphere.
As to restoring the original version: no, thank you. Saw about 3 minutes of it and that was enough. And the casting... Anthony Quinn was a wonderful actor, but frankly, he just doesn't fit the role of Conchis. I guess he got pigeonholed into playing Greek characters.
My ideal cast:
Conchis: I always thought of Anthony Hopkins. Maybe because of the comparison to Picasso in the novel ;) And those eyes (the hypnosis scene!). He was supposed to be quite frail, D. Sutherland and J. Makovich seem too big imho.
Nicholas: Having recently seen him in various films, why not James McAvoy? His Nicholas Garrigan shares some traits with N. Urfe. Or Jude Law, if he were younger.
June/Julie/Lily/Rose: I'd think of somebody more subtle than S. Johansson (though she has some qualities for June). Kate Bosworth wouldn't be bad in the looks department, or Charlize Theron, if she were younger.
Alison: she was described as petite and not exactly pretty, but exuding strong sexappeal. Sienna Miller wouldn't be bad (though I don't think much of her as an actress), or Sienna Guillory, as in the role of "Jamie's bad girlf" in Love Actually.
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