Hey folks. I know a number of you out there are Dan Simmons fans and have read his Hyperion novels. I'm currently re-reading them, and I've noted the following from www.dansimmons.net: So it got me thinking...how should a Hyperion movie be cast? Who would you pick to play the various roles: The Consul Father Paul Dure Father Lenar Hoyt Martin Silenus Het Masteen Brawne Lamia Jonny Keats/Joseph Severn Meina Gladstone Saul Weintraub Sarai Weintraub Rachel Weintraub/Moneta ???
The Consul - Simmons doesn't really go into much detail about this character, physically. So I'm just picking an actor I like...Ed Harris Father Paul Dure - I keep picturing this guy... Jeffrey Dean Morgan, recently seen on Grey's Anatomy. Just put him in priest's garb.... Plus he plays "sickly" pretty well. Father Lenar Hoyt - Nestor Carbonell? Martin Silenus - Sam Kinneson would've been perfect if he was still alive. Instead I'll settle for Wallace Shawn, although he doesn't seem quite "strong" enough emotionally for this character. Het Masteen - This one jumped into my brain the first moment I read about the "True Voice of the Tree"--Max Von Sydow Brawne Lamia - Sara Ramirez. She's got the figure to pull off a Lusan, and still look attractive. Jonny Keats/Joseph Severn - this guy is supposed to be "beautiful". Huh. I dunno, how 'bout...Orlando Bloom? Meina Gladstone - Dame Judi Dench just screams "powerful", fitting for a Galactic CEO. Saul Weintraub - Richard Schiff. He's just so good at playing a Jew! Rachel Weintraub/Moneta - oh hell, just throw in your favorite brunette sexpot here. I'll pick Jennifer Love Hewitt, provided she goes the Linda Hamilton/Sigourney Weaver route and really gets buff in the arms/shoulders. (Cheesecake shot for the dudes) Col Fehdmann Kassad - Don't know a lot of actors who of the proper ethnicity, personally. Alexander Siddig is too skinny, and doesn't strike me as a warrior type. Oded Fehr does. (Beefcake shot for the ladies)
I could see "Sayid" playing Kassad also. Avery Brooks...not so much. The character is supposed to be of Lebanese descent.
Sorry, I just can't picture Benjamin Sisco as a "Fehdman". Maybe he'd make a good Consul...? The more I think of it, the more disappointed I am w/ my choice for Martin Silenus. Need someone more...dynamic. Gotta think on that one some more.
Hell, it was so long ago that I read Hyperion I can't hardly remember the characters, much less visualize them...
I have little trouble imagining "Sisko" as a tough as nails, bad ass soldier from the future. Besides, he wasn't Lebanese, he was from Mars.
Bizarrely even though I don't like him I can see Orlando Bloom in the Keats role. As for the rest of them... I haven't read it in a couple of years so I don't really remember...
I like the casting for the Consul, Meina Gladstone and the Keats Cybrid a lot. Schiff as Weintraub would be great! The others I'm not sold on one way or the other. Martin Silenus I have a totally different take on - what he says is annoying because of the combination of iconoclasm and heathenism, but the character seemed to have a lot of charisma. John Rhys-Davies might be a good fit. Have a hard time seeing a movie do justice to the books, which are some of my all time favorites. It would be tough to do the Canterbury Tales format for Hyperion. Fall of Hyperion actually seems a more script oriented story. Seems like a miniseries would be better - at one point there was discussion of the scifi channel doing it in that format IIRC, but sounds like that fell through.
