Casting the Movie: Hellbender

It's not as if you didn't see this one coming. If I read a good book that's cinematic and visual, you better bet I'ma dreamcast that sucker to hell and back. I mean I've done it, a few times in fact. So you better bet I've got an all star cast picked out for this one. The book is just calling for some heavy hitters to really go after the material and embody the material the way it was meant to be shown.

So, without further ado:

 

Henry Jack Collins

Garrett Hedlund plain and simple, with Taylor Kitsch placing in a close second, but really it has to go to Garrett. There's a lot of action but also a lot of introspection involved in the part and I think Garrett could do both pretty easily. I can see him easily rafting down the river and saving drowning swimmers and just as easily unleash a can of woop ass on people who obviously deserved the vengeance coming to them.

 

Alex

This one is taking me awhile to suss out. For some reason, my brain is stuck on Katie Cassidy (when is it not, ha) but maybe it should go to someone younger like AnnaSophia Robb but I'm not completely sold. I need somebody a little softer, with more of a country edge and nobody's screaming at me for the role.  Ashley Benson maybe? I'm willing to leave it up for discussion.

 

Henry's Dad

I don't quite remember Henry's dad's name, so I apologize for not getting and posting it. But I do think I have figured out who should play him. Well Actually, I have two actors battling it out to the death in my mind for this role. William Sadler and Chris Cooper, but it has to be the grimy Hank Williams-singing version of William Sadler from Shawshank Redemption or the grimy slightly scary Chris Cooper from Adaptation with his two front teeth missing. They have to be on that side of the line of crazy for them to pull off the part. Henry's dad is constantly battling himself and using drink to do it and you know those two guys could do that part justice in a heart beat.

Ben

I love Ben. I said it in the book review but I'ma say it again. I love crazy old Ben and all the demons he's fighting in his head and his "for snakes" mentality and his willingness to run headlong into a shitstorm. He's my kind of people.Who better to play him than Ben Foster, who is nothing but masterful in every thing he's done, especially when he's had to play crazy and unhinged. You can't really take your eyes off of him in every movie he's in.  And yes I'm counting Get Over It. And yes I saw Get Over It. Leave me alone.

 

Katie

Katie is another one whose casting I've struggled with in my head. Lucy Hale for some reason resonates with me in the role, but I'm not really set on it. I'll leave this one up to the comments. Help a sister out.

Pap

Pap! OMG Pap! How I love him. Yes, if we lived in a just and verdant world, Pap would be played by none other than my grandad, but that ship has sailed. Can we all settle for Hal Holbrook? Is he still working? I think he'd do.  You need somebody very lived in with a well of sadness behind his eyes. Hal Holbrook would work great in that capacity don't you think?

 

Preston Black

Okay, hear me out, Ethan Peck. No really. First off, he'd be great in the lead capacity if the Preston Black books were to be spun off into their own movies. I haven't read them yet, but I think it works. And besides, I'll look for any excuse ever to cast Ethan Peck in anything. But I really do think t fits.

 

Charlie Lewis

The choice is really clear once it came to me: Clancy Brown. Who's gonna bring shit-your-pants crazy scary better? Nobody is who. Listen, if I got to run in the woods like a madwoman to escape evil, who better  to be the face of the evil I'm escaping? He's it plain and simple.

 

Odelia Lewis

Angelica Huston, hands down. As exhibit A, I give you The Witches. Nobody's gonna do justice to a backwoods witch better.