The Casting Thread

Gunroom casting suggestions for actors to play parts in the Aubrey-Maturin Novels of Patrick O'Brian.

Table of Contents

Introduction

There is a perennial cycle in the Patrick O'Brian and Searoom-L mailing lists of discussion about the casting of a hypothetical movie adaptation of Patrick O'Brian's sea-going saga of Jack Aubrey and his ship's Surgeon, Stephen Maturin in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. This discussion has been fueled by the news that Goldwyn has optioned the rights to Master and Commander the first novel in the series for just such an adaptation.

The discussion has periodically flamed up as a critical mass of new listswains, who have not yet been exposed to the casting disease and have no natural resistance, start up the discussion and like a brush-fire in the Arfrican Bush, it swells to Protean proportions as all the other new listswains post their contributions. They soon tire of the game, and the topic enters a dormant phase until a new critical mass of unwashed middies join the lists.

This page is an attempt to inject a proactive innoculation against the meme by collecting the bodies and anti-bodies suggested for the various characters in the novels in one place, so that only new and original suggestions are posted to the list. Please consult the web listing first.

Cheers,

Gibbons Burke

[Contents]

The New York Times recently carried a feature ``In the Authenticity Game, Only a Few Win" by Alex Ross on getting the details right in period films. A significant part of that versimilitude requires proper casting:

Getting the china just so is only one step toward a persuasive resurrection of the past. The critical phrase ``triumph of production design" is all too often joined to remarks on ``uncertain plotting" and ``peculiar casting choices." Sumptuous art direction has the effect of setting other failings in bold relief. Casting is often the most glaring of these. Demi Moore, Meg Ryan and Julia Roberts are assigned to ``The Scarlet Letter," ``Restoration" and ``Mary Reilly" for box-office appeal; but they struggle. An d no matter how artfully you coif or tailor Keanu Reeves, you can't tear him away from the suburban present: he wears an invisible set of Rollerblades.

Period film makers can always turn to a small group of overworked English actors: Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant and Helena Bonham Carter, in all possible combinations. After a while, their laudable efforts become repetitive. Watching ``Sense and Sensibility," I wasn't sure how Ms. Thompson's wide-eyed, quick-witted, emotionally reserved Eli nor Dashwood departed from her wide-eyed, quick-witted, emotionally reserved Margaret Schlegel in ``Howards End" or her wide-eyed and so forth Beatrice in "Much Ado About Nothing." ``Persuasion," the quietest and most subtly correct of this season's Jane Austen movies, at least had the virtue of lesser-known English actors expertly comfortable in their roles.

But the real stumbling block is the modern sensibility that film makers usually want to tease from older plots. Almost always, they want to tell of manners and convention, their cruel limitations. Period pictures often track a single character who rebels against the strictures of the time, who achieves premature liberation. ``The Scarlet Letter," with Demi Moore as an unbuttoned Hester Prynne, is an egregious example, but almost any other literary adaptation you can name trumpets the victory or defeat of passion in a hidebound age. Modern norms sound a dissonant note in the feasts of authenticity. They shut down the complex emotional life of narratives of the past.

[The New York Times, March 31, 1996]
[Contents]

Casting Suggestions

The following is a compilation of suggestions made by listswains on the Patrick O'Brian and Searoom mailing lists for actors to play characters in the Aubrey-Maturin novels of Patrick O'Brian, were they to be adapted to the silver screen. Items added on or after 7 December 1996 appear in boldface type.

Jack Aubrey:

  • Adrian "Highlander" Paul
  • Alan Hale (Skipper from Gilligan's Island)
  • Albert Finney
  • Antonio Banderas (anti-suggestion)
  • Bill Clinton
  • Brian Blessed (Augustus Caeser in I, Claudius)
  • Brian Dennehy
  • Charles Laughton
  • Charlton Heston (Patrick O'Brian's suggestion)
  • Corbin Bernsen
  • Daniel Day-Lewis
  • Douglas Hodge (Tertius Lydgate in BBC's Middlemarch)
  • Fabio (done deal)
  • Gerard Depardieu
  • Harrison Ford
  • Hulk Hogan (joke)
  • Jeff Bridges
  • John "Summer Rental" Candy (joke)
  • John Cleese
  • John Goodman (+/-)
  • Jonathan "Lexis" Pryce
  • John Wayne (joke)
  • Jonathan Frakes
  • Julian Sands
  • Kelsey Grammer
  • Kenneth Brannagh
  • Kermit LaRana
  • Kevin Costner (anti-suggestion)
  • Liam Neeson
  • Meat Loaf
  • Mel Gibson
  • Michael Caine (sans Cockney accent & age)
  • Michael York
  • Nick Nolte
  • Oliver Reed
  • Patrick Stewart
  • Penn Jillette
  • Peter Finch
  • Robert Hardy
  • Robert Redford
  • Robin Williams
  • Rutger "Blade Runner" Hauer
  • Sean Bean
  • Sean Connery
  • Siegfried Farnon (from "Sense & Sensibility")
  • Stephen Segal (no joke)
  • Tom Cruise
  • Tom Hanks
  • William Hurt
[Contents]

Stephen Maturin:

  • Alan Rickman
  • Anthony Hopkins
  • Antonio Gades
  • Armand Assante
  • Barry Fitzgerald
  • Ben Kingsley
  • Brad Pitt (anti-suggestion)
  • Brent Spiner (joke)
  • Charles Laughton
  • Daniel Day-Lewis (think Cecil in "A Room with a View")
  • Dennis Hopper
  • Derek "Cl- Cl- Claudius" Jacobi
  • Donald Sutherland
  • Dustin Hoffman
  • Gabriel Byrne
  • Gary Oldman
  • Gonzo DeGreat
  • F. Murray Abraham
  • Harvey Keitel
  • Ian Holm
  • Jeremy "Give me your arm, Sunny" Irons
  • Jeremy "Holmes" Brett
  • Joel Grey
  • John Carradine
  • John Hurt
  • John Malkovitch
  • Jonathan Pryce
  • Kenneth Brannagh
  • Mel Gibson
  • Michael Palin
  • Patrick Malahide
  • Patrick Stewart
  • Peter O'Toole
  • Ralph Fiennes (or is it Rafe Fanes?)
  • Richard Harris
  • Rowan Atkinson
  • Rufus Sewell (Will Ladislaw in BBC Middlemarch)
  • Steve Buscemi - Mr. Pink in Reservior Dogs
  • Stephen "Deer in Headlights" Rea
  • Teller (of Penn &)
  • Tim "Rosencrantz... or was it Guildenstern?" Roth
  • Tom Cruise
  • Tom Hanks
[Contents]

Sophie Williams:

  • Alicia Silverstone
  • Emma Thompson
  • Gemma Redgrave
  • Gwyneth Paltrow
  • Heather T. Gilchriest
  • Helena Bonham Carter
  • Julia Roberts (joke)
  • Kate Winslet (Marianne in "Sense & Sensibility")
  • Michelle Pfeiffer
  • Miss Piggy
  • Nicole Kidman (joke)
  • Phoebe Cates
  • Susanna York
[Contents]

Diana Villiers:

  • Amanda Donohoe
  • Demi Moore
  • Diana Rigg
  • Elizabeth "Showgirls" Berkeley (joke)
  • Elizabeth "What is he, crazy?" Hurley
  • Elizabeth Taylor
  • Heather T. Gilchriest
  • Jane "Medicine Woman" Seymour
  • Juliet Stephenson
  • Michelle Pfeiffer (+/-)
  • Natasha Richardson
  • Vivian Leigh
  • Wynona Ryder (joke)
[Contents]

Preserved Killick:

  • Anthony Hopkins ("Which, would you like a fine chianti with that toasted 'cheese'?")
  • Bob Hoskins
  • Broderick "I eat punks like you for breakfast!" Crawford
  • Harry Dean Stanton
  • Harvey Keitel
  • James Woods
  • Joe "Does my coffee amuse you?" Pesci
  • Kevin Kline
  • Marlon Brando
  • Michael Keaton (think of his Sheriff in Much Ado About Nothing)
  • Patrick Tull
  • Ray Walston
  • Richard Gere
  • Robert Guillame
  • Spike Milligan
  • Tony Robinson (Baldrick in BlackAdder)
  • Victor McLaglen (Rio Grande)
[Contents]

Padeen Colman:

  • Liam Neeson
  • Victor McLaglen
[Contents]

Molly Harte

  • Demi Moore
  • Jacqueline Bisset
  • Joan Collins
  • Kathleen Turner
  • Terri Garr
[Contents]

Mrs. Williams

  • Blythe Danner (with Gwyneth Paltrow as Sophie, who else?)
  • Hillary Clinton
  • Lucy Briers - played Mrs. Bennet in BBC Pride & Prejudice
  • Roseanne
[Contents]

Sir Joseph Blaine:

  • Sir Alec Guiness
  • Sir Anthony Hopkins
  • Charlton Heston
  • Nigel "Yes Minister" Hawthorne
  • Patrick McGoohan
[Contents]

Heneage Dundas

  • David Rintoul
  • Sean Connery
[Contents]

General Aubrey

  • Denholm Elliott
  • Peter O'Toole
[Contents]

Jagiello

  • Brad Pitt
  • Johnny Depp
  • Leonardo Di Caprio
[Contents]

Andrew Wray

  • John Malkovitch
  • Peirce Brosnan
  • Tim Roth
[Contents]

Barrett Bonden

  • Bob Hoskins
  • Daniel Day-Lweis
[Contents]

Tom Pullings

  • Hugh Grant
  • Kevin Whately (Lewis in Inspector Morse)
  • Liam Neeson
  • Sean Bean
[Contents]

Fanny Harte

  • Holly Hunter
[Contents]

Clarissa Oakes

  • Jenny Agutter (sp?)
[Contents]

Sam Panda

  • Denzel Washington
  • Orenthal James Simpson (joke?)
[Contents]

Corbett (The Mauritius Command)

  • Sir Anthony Hopkins
[Contents]

Lord Clonfert (The Mauritius Command)

  • Hugh Grant
[Contents]

Thatcher (the rock upon which H.M.S. Ariel foundered in The Surgeon's Mate)

  • Orson Welles
  • Marlon Brando
[Contents]

Director/Producer:

  • David Lean
  • David Lynch
  • Jane Campion
  • John Lassiter (Toy Story)
  • Kenneth Brannagh
  • Merchant Ivory
  • Neil Jordan (The Crying Game)
  • Richard Donner
  • Richard Lester
  • Ridley Scott
  • Russ Meyer (joke)
  • Stephen Speilberg
  • Tim Burton (joke)
[Contents]

Screenplay:

  • Emma Thompson
  • George MacDonald Fraser
  • Joe Eszterhas (joke)
  • Quentin Tarantino
  • Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (Merchant-Ivory screenwriter)
  • William Goldman
[Contents]

Charles Mitchell's Martin Scorsese Dream Team

  • Jack - Robert Di Niro
  • Stephen - Sean Penn
  • Killick - Joe Pesci
  • Sophie - Madonna
  • Diana - Sharon Stone
  • Tom - Ray Liotta
  • Admiral of the Fleet - Paul Sorvino
  • Mrs. Broad - Scorsese's Mother
[Contents]

Trekkie Dream Team

  • Jack Aubrey - William Shatner
  • S. Maturin - Leonard Nimoy
  • HMS Surprise - Starship Enterprise
[Contents]

Trekkie Dream Team Redux

  • Jack Aubery - Jonathan Frakes
  • Stephen Maturin - Patrick Stewart
  • Diana Villiers - Marina Siritis
  • Sophie Williams - Gates McFadden
  • Bonden - Colm Meaney
[Contents]

[Patrick O'Brian Web Resources] [Gibbons Burke's Home Page]

Last modified 17 February 1997