Populating a Brave New World

Sun
Aug 9 2009 11:04am

Populating a Brave New World

In a move that surprises no one, Leonardo DiCaprio is angling to get cast in Ridley Scott’s adaptation of Brave New World. Since DiCaprio’s production company (Appian Way) had already optioned the rights, it was pretty much inevitable that he’d want in, and while the article doesn’t confirm any casting, it hints that DiCaprio would like to get his hands on the role of pivotal Alpha citizen Bernard Marx.

I’d be surprised if DiCaprio didn’t go for Oscar bait John Savage instead—that frowny-browed scream-cry only he can do would come in handy in the movie’s last act!—but I’m not thrilled with the idea either way.

Brave New World is one of the few dystopian books that hasn’t been slaughtered by Hollywood yet (minus a 1998 TV version starring Peter Gallagher’s eyebrows), and even though Ridley Scott is not above bad decisions and might end up delivering Brave Runner, there are worse fates for SF books. (Total Recall, I’m looking at you.)

However, casting makes or breaks a movie, and is DiCaprio really the best man for the job? Can’t we come up with a better cast than that?

Sure we can! We’re on the Internet! Opinions are what we do.

The roles. Alpha Bernard Marx, Beta Lenina Crowne, Friendly Neighborhood Dictator Mustapha Mond, John the Savage (“Mr. Savage”), and his mom Linda.

The Stakes. Depending on who has final say over the casting, these hypothetical movies will either be an incisive look into an increasingly media-brainwashed society that places more value on celebrity than the integrity of the human experience, or The Island.

The Studios. The studio push would be, of course, for an A-List cast that would get asses in the seats no matter what. Leo is right at home here, and extrapolating from the casting of other recent blockbusters, the cast would look like this:

Bernard: Leonardo DiCaprio
Lenina: Angelia Jolie
Mustapha: Daniel Craig
John: Matt Damon
Linda: Oh, any woman over 45. They all look the same once they get old.

Tagline: IN A WORLD, where you can have everything you want...how do you fight…FOR LOVE?

The Director. Our man Ridley has a hit-and-miss history of casting, and an occasional weakness for the flavor of the month (Orlando Bloom? Really?), which seems to stem from a desire to get the look right rather than from having tested the actor against the material. (Some people call these “auditions.”) The good news is that at least he’ll cast people who can manage English accents, and the casting for all the smaller parts will be amazing.

Bernard: Russell Crowe
Lenina: Cate Blanchett
Mustapha: Liam Neeson
John: Robert Pattinson
Linda: Helen Mirren

Tagline: From Ridley Scott, director of Blade Runner. (What? That’s all he ever gives you! Nobody knew what Kingdom of Heaven was about before they saw it!…or after they saw it.)

The Internet. Just in case you wanted proof that we’re a society doomed, a casting based on popular search results:

Bernard: Robert Pattinson
Lenina: Megan Fox
Mustapha: Robert Pattinson
John: Robert Pattinson
Linda: Lindsay Lohan

Tagline: WTF, dude, take some soma and shut up.

Naturally, it’s too early to know how badly casting for this movie will end up, but despite my general faith in Ridley Scott, this DiCaprio business is not a good sign.

How about it? Does this casting leak worry or enthuse you? What would your dream cast be? And how many ways can this movie go deliciously, horribly wrong?

1. Jaws

view all by Jaws | Sunday August 09, 2009 03:36pm EDT

One correction: There was a network-broadcast miniseries (over two nights) of Brave New World back in the late 1970s, actually broadcast in 1980, starring Harold (Bud Cort) as Bernard Marx. Unfortunately, I remember it all too well for academic reasons...

The casting was so inept that anything Ridley Scott does will be an improvement.

The script was so inept that anything done by Ed Wood would be (have been) an improvement.

Nobody, except perhaps Bud Cort himself, had read the bloody book beforehand.

And those were the good points.

2. ubxs113

view all by ubxs113 | Sunday August 09, 2009 07:34pm EDT

Would you rather have Ben Afflek?

3. Space Pickle

Sunday August 09, 2009 07:55pm EDT

I don't know, I actually think DiCaprio is a pretty decent actor. Although he's best at being broody and angry, plus he looks soo young. I could see him as a john savage.

Ridley Scott is def hit or miss though, but hey maybe we'll get another alien or bladerunner. It's been a long time since he did any sci fi...

4. kbellwether

view all by kbellwether | Monday August 10, 2009 02:08am EDT

Best Case Scenario: Richard E. Grant
Worst Case Scenario: Tom Cruise

At least DiCaprio has a few different emotional states in his arsenal.

Samantha Morton would also be good.

5. Ursula

view all by Ursula | Tuesday August 11, 2009 12:19pm EDT

I’m wondering how they’re going to manage all of the reproductive technology issues in the book for a modern audience. Half the reproductive technology we already have (reliable birth control), and the other half (babies in bottles) has been done in a much better and more positive way by Bujold, so that much of the SFinal audience wants the very thing that Orwell considered most frightening. (Same technology, different social implementation.)

Plus, much of his reasoning against reproductive technology boiled down to “women won’t do ‘women’s work’” which made me, at least, want to stand up and cheer when I read this in high school, and I’m sure I’m not the only one.

And another big part of his reasoning against reproductive technology was “women will be able to enjoy their sexuality without fear of pregnancy or STDs” which he seemed to think would make us brainless sluts, rather than happier people able to focus our energies on various other interesting and productive pursuits.

The coercive aspects of his world are a problem, but with the focus on early-childhood conditioning, he didn’t write a world where adult women were coerced into their reproductive choices, he wrote a world where adult women made choices sensible according to the rules of their culture.

And Savage’s obsession with sexual purity, when faced with the BNW’s sexual permissiveness, doesn’t really scan these days, compared to how it might have when first written. He represented a value (virginity until marriage) that was quite real then but is not nearly as emotionally compelling now.

The best way to make the story work might be to make Savage a woman, not conditioned according to the culture, but being pressured to make reproductive choices according to the ways of the Brave New World. Perhaps a woman who had seen other “savage” women die in childbirth, so that she’s both tempted and repulsed by the outside society. Change the sexual temptation from one of sexual pleasure to one of reproductive temptation – with a woman Savage wanting to avoid the pain and danger of childbirth, both pleased that women don’t have to suffer or die in childbirth and also horrified that the women she lived with were dying needlessly, but also wanting to reproduce the close mother-child relationships she observed but didn’t get to have being raised in savage culture by a BNW mother.

6. ellenw

view all by ellenw | Friday August 21, 2009 09:20pm EDT

...I would like to see the version of this movie cast by the internet. If you're going to be bad, there's something to be said for being spectacularly bad.

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