Subject: Finding Richard: 'The Movie' Sat 04 Apr 2015, 21:29
Here's a bit of fun for the Easter holidays.
You're the director of a big Hollywood production company and your casting scout has handed you a list of actors available to take part in a forthcoming film. It's planned to be an all-star blockbuster (in conjunction with Film4 of London, England) about the exhumation and reburial of the remains of King Richard III. All you need to do is match the actors to the roles.
1. James McAvoy to play archaeology fieldwork director Matthew Morris
2. Johnny Galecki to play Channel 4 journalist Krishnan Guru-Murthy
3. Cate Blanchette to play historical novelist Philippa Gregory
4. Tom Hollander to play the Very Revd David Monteith, Dean of Leicester
5. Simon Farnaby to play himself
6. Archie Panjabi to play television newsreader Sonali Shah
7. Ed Harris to play genealogy Professor Kevin Schurer
8. Richard Gere to play constitutional historian David Starkey
9. Susan Sarandon to play Australian Yorkist descendant Wendy Duldig
10. Larry Lamb to play Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow
11. Jeremy Irons to play historian John Ashdown-Hill
12. Marion Cotillard to play geneticist Dr Turi King
13. Harrison Ford to play HRH Richard, Duke of Gloucester
14. Ryan Gosling to play forensic pathologist Dr Stuart Hamilton 15. Ashley Jensen to play Richard III Society campaigner Philippa Langley
16. Pierce Brosnan to play lead field archaeologist Dr Richard Buckley
17. Benedict Cumberbatch to play himself
18. Vanessa Redgrave to play archaeology Professor Lin Foxhall
19. Henry Cavill to play armoury curator Toby Capwell
20. Rachel McAdams to play medieval historian Helen Castor
21. Jude Law to play Canadian Yorkist descendant Michael Ibsen
22. Anne Hathaway to play osteoarchaeologist Dr Jo Appleby
23a. Mark Rylance to play the Skeleton (i.e. Richard III and/or 'One Unlucky Abbot')
23b. Kathryn Hunter to play the Skeleton (i.e. Richard III and/or 'One Unlucky Abbess')
Last edited by Vizzer on Sat 09 Apr 2016, 18:56; edited 7 times in total
Temperance Virgo Vestalis Maxima
Posts : 6895 Join date : 2011-12-30 Location : UK
Subject: Re: Finding Richard: 'The Movie' Sun 05 Apr 2015, 19:10
Bit confused, Viz: are the actors above to be people just from the 21st century, or do we have flashbacks to the 15th century, with all our favourite characters from 1483-85 appearing? Does the film move back and forth between the past and present? Anne Hathaway is a dead ringer for Dr. Jo Appleby.
I rather like the idea of a twist in the tale: could Mark Rylance possibly play a maverick professor who boldly challenges the University of Leicester's findings? Rylance's character is dismissed as a bolshie loon, but the nutty professor - working with his dedicated team - unearth, so to speak, some startling new evidence...
Hunter would make a good nun.
Vizzer Censura
Posts : 1783 Join date : 2012-05-12
Subject: Re: Finding Richard: 'The Movie' Sun 05 Apr 2015, 20:29
Well done Temp.
Role 22 is Jo Appleby and Role 23b is indeed 'the Nun'.
All the remaining roles (with the exception of one) are from the 21st century. They are either with the University of Leicester or with the Richard III Society or other interested parties etc and would have featured in documentaries or live broadcasts by Channel 4 Television.
Caro Censura
Posts : 1514 Join date : 2012-01-09
Subject: Re: Finding Richard: 'The Movie' Sun 05 Apr 2015, 21:18
I think I don't read things thoroughly enough - I was trying to think which actor would go with which War of the Roses person (and also getting muddled by having all the Tudor discussions floating into my head and wondering which one would be Thomas Cromwell!)
I don't usually have the knowledge for these quizzes and this one even less so, since all the discussions about this don't really make it to NZ. I only know the names because of this board really. Who is Dr Jo Appleby for instance?
Vizzer Censura
Posts : 1783 Join date : 2012-05-12
Subject: Re: Finding Richard: 'The Movie' Sun 05 Apr 2015, 22:50
Hi Caro
Just to confirm that none of the remaining roles (except Role 23a) are of people from the 15th century. They are all from the 21st century
This game (don't think it quite warrants the name 'quiz') could be construed as being somewhat UK-specific. One is likely to be at a loss particular if one hasn't seen the television documentary The King in the Car Park which was made in 2013. I know that Channel 4 is also viewed outside the UK in southern Ireland but I'm not sure how widely its output reaches the rest of the English-speaking world. From what you say it doesn't seem to have registered in NZ for example.
Jo Appleby is an osteologist with Leicester University who played a central part in the excavation of Richard III's remains.
I'm afraid I'm at a loss here too - I don't recognise either the faces or names of most of those pictured above so I nominate them as possibly the peers who as yet are awaiting something worthwhile to review. Otherwise I'm stumped. There are enough females to populate a decent sized nunnery if we're doing the whole back-story from some time around the early 15th century (best estimation for the bones' age if one leaves out the fish), but you say they are of this century so I must confess I now have a screenplay for "Zombie Nuns of Leicestershire" rattling around in my head.
This bamboozled me too but I think I've sussed it now - these are the possible actors in a film recounting the story of the discovery of the nun and the subsequent shenanigans. Since Cumberbatch is in there I assume it includes the cast of the funeral/re-interment or whatever. In that case, one must be Buckley, one Phillipa L., one Ashdown-Hill (good luck to him getting the hair-do) and so on. Rylance must therefore be the alternative bag of bones. Given her experience in away-with-the fairies stories, could Vanessa R be playing Philippa L.?
Congratulations ferval for sussing it out. And absolutely right that Mark Rylance is the alternative casting for the role of the Skeleton.
Also right is that Richard Buckley, John Ashdown-Hill and Philippa Langley are on the list - although Vanessa Redgrave is not cast as Philippa Langley.
I'm losing the plot, Viz, I meant to suggest Arwen, aka Cate B., as the ethereal and shivery Philippa. Has Tom got a well deserved promotion to Canterbury?
Apologies for the delay in coming back. I was engrossed in (coincidentally) another Leicester-based, forensic science, historical dramatisation on television, Code of a Killer about the groundbreaking work in the 1980s by Leicester University geneticist Alec Jeffreys on DNA fingerprinting and profiling and its pioneering use by Leicestershire Constabulary in the detection of murder cases.
ferval - when you describe Philippa as 'ethereal and shivery', which Philippa is being referred to?
Tom Hollander has indeed got an ecclesiastical promotion from mere 'Rev' - but not all the way to Archbishop of Canterbury.
Ah ha, so Philippa G. is there as well. Sorry Viz, I meant the queen of the fairies, Philippa L. Should I assume that the hat wearing Indy is playing the hat eating Buckley?
Cate Blanchette isn't cast as Philippa Langley. Not that Philippa no.
Good thinking re Indiana Jones but neither is Harrison Ford playing Richard Buckley. His was the most difficult role to cast as I really couldn't think of any actor who looks even remotely like Buckley. So he's being represented by a tall actor with a quiet but strong voice. That actor also took the lead role in an obscure 1998 film somewhat aptly titled Quest for Camelot.
Although Harrison Ford wasn't in that film, his character in Finding Richard: 'The Movie' is, however, indeed royal.
Yes - Harrison Ford is cast as Prince Richard (although I'm now quite taken with ferval's brilliant idea that Indiana Jones should have been Richard Buckley). Henry Cavill is to play Dr Tobias Capwell, the Curator of Arms & Armour for the Wallace Collection. Tom Hollander hasn't switched denomination and - quite right - he's no longer just 'Rev' but here is the 'Very' Reverend, Dean of the Cathedral.
Turi King is on the list - but not to be played by Susan Sarandon.
And just to clarify re an earlier post Philippa Gregory is indeed also on the list.
Ah, so facial resemblances are important then - I hadn't picked that up. In that case, Vanessa Redgrave as Prof. Lyn Foxhall? Cate B.must be the other Philippa then and maybe Ashley Jenson being the the other blonde as Philippa L. Nobody, but nobody, anywhere, looks anything like Ashdown-Hill but he's quite teeny so maybe that's where dinky wee Richard Gere, he of the silver locks, fits in.
Yes. Look-a-like is the name of the game - (along with tongue-in-cheek pinches of salt etc.)
Spot on ferval! Vanessa Redgrave is Professor Foxhall and Cate Blanchette is the author of The White Queen while comedy actress Ashley Jensen portrays Philippa Langley. (Is it just me or has Philippa Langley lost some of the Scottish lilt in her accent over the last couple of years?)
Richard Gere is not cast as John Ashdown-Hill. Gere is, however, cast as another historian - a sort of Lancastrian yang to Ashdown-Hill's Yorkist yin as it were.
LadyinRetirement Censura
Posts : 3293 Join date : 2013-09-16 Location : North-West Midlands, England
I am absolutely hopeless at your quiz, Vizzer, but you have made me laugh with Cate Blanchette (don't want to be lady doggish so I'll just say she's not my favourite actress) as somebody who is not my favourite historian writer of fiction.
Thanks LiR. It's intended to be lighthearted and not taken too seriously. And it's not a quiz at all really but more of a guessing game.
Vizzer Censura
Posts : 1783 Join date : 2012-05-12
Subject: Re: Finding Richard: 'The Movie' Sat 09 Apr 2016, 18:52
Just noticed that this is a year old and wasn't fully completed. So I've filled in the gaps. Enjoy!
LadyinRetirement Censura
Posts : 3293 Join date : 2013-09-16 Location : North-West Midlands, England
Subject: Re: Finding Richard: 'The Movie' Sat 09 Apr 2016, 20:16
Oh this was indeed fun (although I couldn't guess who was playing any of the parts). In true Hollywood fashion you have made some of the actors better looking than their real life counterparts - Richard Gere might be a tad concerned if he thought folk think he resembles Starkers. Mind you in a funny way I do like Starkers even though I don't agree with everything he says.
Triceratops Censura
Posts : 4377 Join date : 2012-01-05
Subject: Re: Finding Richard: 'The Movie' Wed 04 May 2016, 15:07