Casting the movie version of "The Goldfinch"?

What is the book about?

Three-sentence synopsis, please.

Anyone but Rachel Weisz, I can't stand her in anything.

It's about a painting r1.

Here:

We're all still waiting for the film version of The Secret History. Gwyneth probably still wants to play the only female role....

Is there a maid?

I pictured Liam Aiken as young Theo as I read the book, and Michiel Huisman as adult Theo, and Ezra Miller as Boris throughout.

Ben Whishaw as adult Theo.

Jennifer Connelly as the mother.

Is there a role for me?

R5 - LOL.

R8 - Yes, Jennifer as the mother.

Christina Hendricks as Xandra.

Will it be like a 12-hr movie?

It should be a miniseriies.

The Hunger Games producer Nina Jacobson is making a movie or cable series. What about Ellar Colltrane as Theo and Gwyneth as Mrs. Barbour? Boris could be Dane DeHaan. Hobie is Stellan Skarsgard. Xandra is Mamie Gummer and Theo's dad is Dermot Mulroney. His mom is Rachel Weisz.

Mamie Gumma as Xandra? Um, no, thank you, Meryl at R13.

I would love to be in it! Is there a beautiful female character in it who is better than everyone else and who teaches them important lessons about nutrition, purchasing, and morality?

How old was Hobie supposed to be? All I recall was that he was a big man, sort of like John Goodman or Oliver Platt.

Okay then, Anna Farris as Xandra.

Movies will never be made of books by authors like Franzen and Tartt. Hollywood writers are incapable of adapting them.

Kind of agree. This work would need a great film or television writer to adapt it. Still waiting for Michael Cunningham to adapt The Good House, which is another rich book but far simpler to adapt.

[quote]I would love to be in it! Is there a beautiful female character in it who is better than everyone else and who teaches them important lessons about nutrition, purchasing, and morality?

LOL!

Another one who thinks this book will be hard to adapt for TV. For one, the Nevada part is far out there with Theo and Boris pretty much drunk or high on very page. It's a long section of the book that would never survive, due to its repetitiveness, on TV or film (it's my favorite part of the book, by the way).

I pictured Xandra like a less attractive Drea de Matteo, as she was in the Sopranos.

In fact none of the women in the book are described as beautiful. The mother is an interesting looking, modestly fashionable woman.

Mrs. Barbour is not so much beautiful as well put together. She has class and wealth on her side.

In Theo's own words Pippa is interesting looking, but not beautiful.

Kitsy may be the best looking of them all (even Boris says so), but has no personality.

Cate Blanchett as Mrs. Barbour, since Tilda Swinton may be too old for the part.

Mark Ruffalo as Theo's father.

Madge as Mrs. Vogel.

I just finished reading the book. I finished it in 3 days even though it was a long book. It's beautifully written and even through it's long-winded, it hooks you. Not so much the story, but the characters.

Theo's mom is pictured as a beautiful person, inside and out, very caring and warm. Jennifer Connelly is picture perfect for the role but does not project warmth. I would cast Rachel Weisz in that role.

Yes to Mark Ruffalo as the dad, Carmen Diaz as Xandra. Cate Blanchette as Mrs. Barbour.

I kept picturing this girl as Pippa. The freckled, the red hair and gentle nature...

I don't know who Ezra Miller is but I can see a dark-haired Ryan Gosling as an older Boris.

Cameron Diaz is too fucking old to play Xandra.

Adam Driver from "Girls" is no-brainer casting for older Boris. Almost a guaranteed Oscar nomination, too.

R27, read the fucking book again. Xandra is a fit-looking lady in her 40s. There's a passage where he says he usually doesn't find 40-something women attractive but Xandra was kind of sexy.

Hollywood would probably cast Jennifer Lawrence as Xandra.

young theo and young boris: I feel that these have to be unknowns or at least not big stars due to the age. the first part of the novel takes place from age 13 to 18. If the director has to chose to go young or old, I pick young. The book depicts theo as more childlike and mischievous in his escapades and less teen angsty. A 13 year old stealing drugs and running away is brave and poignant. 18 year old man doing that is not.

older Theo: jake gyllenhaal will do this movie. He is mainstream enough for such big producers to invest in plus he would do well. he is handsome but not too handsome Hes the right age, and hes could play theo well. theo needs to be sweet and likable but also holding inner deomons. Jake will probably be theo because he seems like he would reallllyyy want the part

boris: adam driver, no contest. look up the authors description of boris and it is adam driver! he will probably get an oscar nomination

Pippa: mia wasikowska is a wildly talented actress that brings and air of intelligence and class to every movie. she not attractive in the standard way but very capable of being a love interest

kitsy: kate bosworth if they want her to be unlikable. amanda seifreid if they want the audience to pity her.

xandra: connie britton, cameron diaz ( top pick) or nicole kidman theos father: mark ruffalo theos mother: evangeline lily

Mia Wasikowska? Yuck.

Hated this book, it never went anywhere, well it went all over the place actually but still never moved.

I'm pretty sure you're a complete dummy, r33.

R33 Wow, thanks for that brilliant insight.

Keep that Mia Wasikowska creature far, far away from this film's casting, please.

Agreed, R36. I want whoever cast Wasikowska a Madame Bovary to be homeless. What a shock that she was terrible.

Ben wilshaw for Theo

M. WILL BE Mrs. Barbour.

Please, Hollywood, never hire R13 to cast ANYTHING.

R40, I actually think that R13 gets half of the casting right (and half wrong - I mean, Mamie Gummar? Fuck no.)

Gwyneth would actually make a good Mrs. Barbour if she were a tad bit older. Or maybe she actually is the right age.

Rachel Weisz as Theo's mom is spot-on casting. And I also like Stellan Skarsgard for Hobie.

Ellar Coltrane is too old at this point to play the wrong Theo. Did you see Boyhood (or even his appearance at the Golden Globes)?

Adam Driver would be ideal for the older Boris but he would need to de-beef. He's a bit too built for that role.

Just finished the book. I don't normaly see actors in the book's characters but I saw Clancy Brown as Hobie as soon as he was described, and I think he'd be a very good choice to play him.

Too bad Cate is too old to play Mrs. Barbour. It would have been her third Oscar.

That character actor who just died would have been a great Welty. For some reason I pictured Gerard Depardieu as Hobie and couldn't shake it. James McEvoy as Theo, could NOT get a handle on Boris, but I thnk Adam D is all wrong. Way too big. I pictured Boris as a skinny slip of a thing. Gary Oldman in the 80s would have been perfect.

I'm the OP. I see Jeff Bridges as Hobie or Brendan Gleeson, that wonderful Irish actor.

Have always thought Michael Fassbender would be great as Theo's dad. He's good at playing a charming sleeze.

I originally saw Logan Lerman in my mind as young Theo, but maybe he's too old now LOL. Not sure who looks like him as an older version. James McEvoy or Eddie Redmayne might work as adult Theo.

I read that the producers are viewing it as a potential mini-series rather than film, so maybe that will affect casting decisions.

Well you were all wrong about this, weren't you?

Frozen features Nicole Kidman as Mrs Barbour!

Was older Theo meant to be hot?

Ansel Engort unfortunately cannot act. Was that a casting couch thing?

I kind of love the idea of Sarah Paulson as Xandra. You know she'll fully commit.

Well, the book may or may not be well-written, but the critical commentary is a hoot:

[quote]In The New York Review of Books, novelist and critic Francine Prose wrote that, for all the frequent descriptions of the book as “Dickensian,” Tartt demonstrates little of Dickens’s remarkable powers of description and graceful language. She culled both what she considered lazy clichés (“Theo’s high school friend Tom’s cigarette is ‘only the tip of the iceberg.’ … The bomb site is a ‘madhouse’ ”) and passages that were “bombastic, overwritten, marred by baffling turns of phrase.” “Reading The Goldfinch,” Prose concluded, “I found myself wondering, ‘Doesn’t anyone care how something is written anymore?’ ”

[quote]“A book like The Goldfinch doesn’t undo any clichés—it deals in them,” says Lorin Stein, editor of The Paris Review, perhaps the most prestigious literary journal in America.

Do you suppose Stein sees the irony in using a cliche like that to criticize cliched writing?

Stein should have said "it luxuriates in them" instead, R48.

Xandra is a part that could have gone to a lot of actresses. Paulson is just hard on the eyes. And the ears.

I think Paulson is good in small doses (see Bird Box).

Are they really making the film? A wonderful book but Hollywood will probably screw it up. Will the leads be attractive? Probably not.

I wanted Ezra Miller but they would never pick him and he may be dumb enough to turn it down. I hope the producer won't be gay...gay men never know what is attractive.

Does Boris still kiss Theo in the movie?

Donna Tartt is an over rated hack pushed by the media, just like those cunts Jonathan Franzen and Gillian Flynn. All awful but beloved by the press. I wish all 3 would develop an aggressive form of incurable cancer stat. I hate looking at their smug faces.

And how's your novel coming, r55?

Where's the trailer?

R56 Not a disgruntled writer, I promise. I just hate those hacks . Joyce Carol Oates too.

I think Ezra Miller would have made a better Boris than a Theo. But I like who they've cast for the former so it's all good.

R59 Ezra Miller will always be bad seed Kevin to me.

The Goldfinch is a wonderful book and I will always love it.

[quote]Donna Tartt is an over rated hack pushed by the media, just like those cunts Jonathan Franzen and Gillian Flynn. All awful but beloved by the press. I wish all 3 would develop an aggressive form of incurable cancer stat. I hate looking at their smug faces.

Flynn is an author of commercial genre fiction. Tartt is a literary fiction writer, and Frazen falls somewhere between the two.

Obviously, literary criticism varies widely on Tartt, as well as Franzen.

But saying that the media is pushing Flynn is like saying that the media is pushing Michael Crichton, Stephen King, or George RR Martin - of course, it is.

Publishing is marketing and sales.