Mar 292012
First, read this article: BBC Films joins RPC for Julien Temple’s Kinks feature.
Then, help out BBC Films, Julien Temple et al, by casting the Kinks bio-pic for them. Obviously, Ray and Dave Davies are key, but don’t forget everybody else, including:
- Pete Quaife
- Mick Avory
- Shel Talmy
- Rasa Davies
- John Dalton
- John Gosling
- Clive Davis
- Chrissie Hynde
- Jim Rodford
- Damon Albarn
… and on and on…
Include as many supporting players as you see fit. The screenwriters will also be keeping close tabs on your choices.
I look forward to your responses.
No way they could pull off the voices so all dialogue would have to be silent with Tarantino as Ray and Sean Penn as Dave.
I’m not familiar enough with Brit actors but have always thought Dave Davies was the Proto-Spicoli
aloha
LD
The non-Kinks are a little easier to cast. Stanley Tucci as Clive Davis, I’m feeling pretty confident about that. Jude Law is a no-brainer as Albarn, who I assume is in this in a Titanic-esque framing sequence (maybe he finds the Great Lost Kinks Album that, for the purposes of the film, Ray and Dave accidentally threw into the ocean while beating the shit out of each other?).
I want to say Michael Sheen as Shel Talmy, but it would be weird to waste a British actor on one of the other few American parts, so maybe Sheen gets to play Mick Avory and Michael Shannon as Talmy.
If we’re going with a slighlty older Kinks with Sheen at Avory, then Rhys Ifans (Welsh, not British, but this is America, man) looks like Ray. But probably it has to be a younger cast, so either current Dr. Who Matt Smith as Ray or BBC Sherlock stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Ray and Martin Freeman as Mick Avory, with teen icon Robert Pattinson as Dave Davies so you can actually sell tickets (and drive up search hits to Rock Town Hall).
Also, Idris Elba as Pete Quaife.
I’ve got to give this some thought, but Ray’s got to be played by someone whose not going to make my wife mutter the entire length of the movie, “I can’t believe they cast someone as ugly as Rhys Ifans to play Ray Davies!” She gets really annoyed by how ugly she finds him. I get really annoyed when she gets really annoyed by how ugly she finds an actor. For that reason I’m suggesting Ewan McGregor for Ray. He’s cute.
Heck, let’s go for Justin Bieber, then!
Oh, and I reeeeeally hope they can get that awesome Backbeat band to do for the Kinks what they did for the Beatles. That Dave Pirner is magical.
This guy could play Ray, especially the Preservation Act 2 era:
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d29/tattooedsteve/uncle_floyd.jpg
Uncle Floyd kicks ass, but c’mon.
I bet it’d be Ryan Gosling as Ray. He’s the it guy of the moment.
Another guy I’d have to hear my wife grumble about – not to mention myself. That guy’s Look really bums me out, with the 15-year-old boy’s scruff beard and $10 mall chain haircut. No style, man!
Thank you all for your contributions. It occurred to me shortly after I wrote this post that it’s a pretty tough assignment, kasting the Kinks.
Mr Mod, does your wife have any feelings one way or the other about Andrew Garfield, of The Social Network (played the best friend who got squeezed out of Facebook) and the next Spider Man? He’s actually British, and I think he could play younger Ray. And then Dominic West (McNulty from The Wire) could play “Come Dancing” mullet-era Ray.
Also, I don’t think he and the Kinks actually ever crossed paths all that much, but this film has to have Christopher Eccleston (Shallow Grave, Dr. Who) as Pete Townshend, because I’ve been saying for years that it’s a no-brainer casting choice.
Knock Knock Knockers on Heavens Door
I hope this is never completed, because it’s bound to be awful.
I think Adrien Brody might pass as Mick Avory
You guys REALLY mustn’t want my wife to see this movie. He’s another guy she can’t stand seeing onscreen.
She had no particular feelings for or against Garfield in The Social Network. She was surprised at how much she liked that movie. I liked it too, but we’re pissed that Spider Man will go on without Tobey Maguire.