He was the star of the directors last movie, which was both a critical and commercial success. He's the exact right age. He's got the exact right range, acting wise, yet this would be new, career aiding terretory, being a dark comedy, whereas he's only done lighter comedy, dramas, and a bit of romcom. He's got the level of star power they'd want in spades, being a perpetually rising star and by all accounts deservedly so.
where am I wrong?
Hi PartyBeachMonsterVictim (or PBMV)!
I loved Weitz's "About A Boy", Hugh Grant's best movie to date. I hated "In Good Company" -- a really bad script. This makes me question Weitz's ability to direct something like "Another *beep* Night in Suck City."
Topher Grace nailed the part of Carter Duryea in "In Good Company" and IMHO was the only reason to watch such a lame movie. But Carter Duryea is not that far from who Topher is. Topher grew up with future Carter Duryeas in prep school and he knows them well.
I'm a Topher fan and I think he's wonderful. BUT, I have real doubts that Topher could carry such a heavy role as Nick Flynn in ABNISC. I mean Topher has said in interviews that he CANNOT CRY. This does limit his emotional range somewhat. I think by the time Topher learns to cry, he will be too old to play Nick Flynn. (Incidently, Topher is also Irish.)
Furthermore, Topher is now busy pumping himself up for "Spider Man 3." He has also signed on to produce & star in "C_ckblockers" and another movie. That's three different movies that he's already involved in. Even if Weitz chose Topher to play Nick, I don't think Topher has the time to do it.
As far as scheduling goes, the C0ckblockers movie seems to be far off enough in the development process it doesn't even have an IMDB listing yet. Spider-Man 3 will be in production from January 2006 Until June 2006. They couldn't film this movie afterwords? Who even knows if Topher is needed for the full 6 months. His supervillain representation will be done almost all CG anyway.
And I googled "Topher Grace" + cry, to try to find out what you were talking about, and that's kind of a reach to get from that statement that he's incapable of believably representing Nick at his lowest, whether he uses menthol (as many actors do to get tears) or not.
Plenty of movie stars (not just bit part working minor actors) do 3-5 films a year no problem. The years listed on IMDB are the most unreliable things you could go on as well.
But if you still are that doubtful about whether Topher Grace has the range or the ability to schedule this role in this movie (which as of now has no schedule) who do you suggest in stead of actors who can and/or have opened movies, as Weitz up until now doesn't cast unknowns for his leads.
Hi PBMV!
It would be interesting to see Topher play Nick Flynn. Maybe I'm underestimating Topher's imagination & acting abilities.
I doubt that Topher has anything as painful as the events in Nick's life to draw on. One of the problems with having a smoothly functional family.
I can't think of any actor who looks like Topher. (I do NOT think Tobey Maguire looks like Topher.) Leo DiCaprio is the only young actor I can think of who has the acting chops to play Nick on screen. But DiCaprio is way beyond Weitz's reach.
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