AfterElton Fantasy Casting: Who should star in Adam Shankman's remake of "Bye Bye Birdie"?

Having seen Mr. Jackson (as I'm nasty) do a mighty good Elvis in ALL SHOOK UP, I think he's a shoo-in for the role. I'd love to see America Ferrera as Rosie, just to see the girl cut loose. Can she sing? And am I the only one seeing Seth MacFarlane in the mix? Yes? K.

afhickman

Given that it's Hollywood, they're bound to screw this one up: Matthew Broderick in the Dick van Dyke role, Lindsay Lohan in the Ann-Margaret, etc.  I like almost all your ideas, but I'd substitute Bette Midler as Mae and Elliott Gould as (a slightly older) Harry.  I think they could use the work.  What about the Bobby Rydell (Hugo Peabody)role?  If you let NPH take that one, that would free up Jensen Ackles to play the role of Albert.  Why?  Because he's Jensen Ackles.  Barring that, you might cast Jerry Seinfeld, who also could use the work. 

 

"The mountain has wings."

First off, I don't see any need for this remake. I actually rather liked the TV version. But if they're going to do this second remake, Adam Shankman has my full confidence, after Hairspray. Most of the choices here are very good, except Miley Cyrus. Because I'd rather scoop my brain out of my head with a spork than have to see her on the big screen. The closest I came was Bolt and even there her oddly husky little voice annoyed me. And that husky voice is the same reason I think she'd make a dreadful Kim.  Kim needs to have a pure, innocent voice, not a creepy Disney pop star voice. I'd personally like to see an unknown in the role. Or maybe someone like Laura Bell Bundy. Neil would be perfect for Albert, though. And I echo the "Bette Midler" sentiment for Mae that someone else posted above. And though I actually greatly dislike Cheyenne (I thought he was overrated and meh in Xanadu), he would be perfect for Birdie, a character I also rather dislike. Only thing I'd say is I hope that they incorporate at least some of the new songs written for the TV version, as some of the best songs in the score, IMHO, were added in that version.

Why should Kim be a girl?  Think about it...what gay young man growing up in the pre-Beatles sixties didn't sing "One Boy" and imagine himself in Ann-Margret's place?  Make the main character a male, and give the whole story the gay spin it deserves when Birdie comes out and still wants to go into the military.  Just make sure you keep that fabulous chicken dance in "Got a Lot of Living."  The TV remake was dreadful, and proved just how awful the book of this muscial was; the movie was a muddle for other reasons, but the casting (except for Janet Leigh, and even she did a nice smoky alto duet with Ann-Margret on the reprise to "One Boy") was very good.

I can't watch the TV remake. Jason Alexander is just wrong and poor Vanessa Williams trying to act like he's adorable.

The only reason to watch the TV movie is that it's a lot more true to the original than the Dick Van Dyke version, which I have to watch between my fingers.

Give him a part, Adam.

I see him on the bus here in L.A. all the time.

Plus there's gotta be a role in here for Mark Indelicato. As for "Rosie" if Ana Ortiz can sing and dance she'd be perfect (much as I love America Ferrara.)

 

The Cheyenne idea is brilliant, as is Bette Midler as Mae. I'm also not entirely opposed to DHP & NPH. It's just too often that movie musical casting passes up great opportunities in favor of big movie star names. Sure it might guarantee a bigger initial box office but then the film has to live on as a piece of cinema once these big star names have faded (looking back now, Janet Leigh in Bye Bye Birdie is just ridiculous). Hasn't it been shown that casting the stage actor in the film role can actually result in an artistic pay off (a la Ellen Green in Little Shop)?

PS: does everyone know that Lainie Kazan was Barbra's understudy in Funny Girl??  

afhickman

If it's going to be an all-gay "Birdie," please find a role for Jay Brannan.  This fine actor/singer is criminally underused!

"The mountain has wings."

...I saw the 1963 version but not the remake. How odd is it the Maureen Stapleton, who's only a few months older than Dick Van Dyke, played his mother?

 

As for the remake: Yes to Cheyenne, Neil, David, and Elaine. 

For the part of Kim,  how about Evan Rachel Wood? She's a better actress than Cyrus and I thought her singing in Across the Universe was fine.

I second the choice of Ana Ortiz if she can sing, or even if she can't-nobody says they can't dub her singing like in the olden days.

The 1963 movie was fun. The TV remake was painful, especially the casting.

I like Neil Patrick Harris as Albert and David Hyde Pierce as Mr. McAfee.

Add Bette Midler as Mama Mae, Taylor Lautner (Twilight - team jacob) as Hugo, Sean William Scott (Ameican Pie fame) as Birdie, Amelia Varni (Adina's Deck) as Kim McAfee, and Ana Ortiz (Ugly Betty's sister) as Rosie.

I look forward to this remake.

Egad, it's like the endless "Gypsy" revivals on Broadway!  Whatever happened to their idea to redo "Mame" that we were talking about a few months ago?  Now THAT'S a movie that really needs a redo.  Really, after remakes of "Gypsy" and "The Music Man" and "Birdie,"  can't they cast the net a little wider?  (I'll give a pass to the lovely remake of "Once Upon A Mattress" with Tracy Ullman from a couple years ago, which I thought was terrific.)

Scarlett Johanssen(sp?)anyone? She's a really good singer and a WAAAAAAAAAAAY better actress than Miley Cyrus. UGH!

 

After more thought the last couple days, I came up with a few changes: 

James Franco as Albert - he could easily pull it off, and the ladies love him

David Hyde Pierce as Mr. McAfee. - the master of comedic timing and expression

Jamie Leigh Curtis as Mama Mae - semi-tribute to her Mom in the original

Taylor Lautner (Twilight - team jacob) as Hugo - every tween girl would attend

Steve Howey (Bride Wars; and Van from Reba) as Birdie - he's big and goofy

Amelia Varni (Adina's Deck) as Kim McAfee - as fresh a look as they get, and what a voice!

Ana Ortiz (Ugly Betty's sister) as Rosie. - hilarious

Note: Kim and Hugo should be real "fresh" teenagers, rather than someone in their mid-twenties trying to act 16 or 17 year old.

What do you think?

It has been three or four years since Red Wagon Productions (Gladiator, Jarhead, Memoirs of a Geisha)  announced 20 something director John Chu (Step up 2) was going to remake this film musical and then promptly released WIN A DATE WITH TAD HAMILTON.  It was going to be cast with unknown teens.  Tina Fey even took a whack at writing a script.  But let's face it there is no Ed Sullivan Show  anymore, No one is going to celebrate a young man being drafted into the army today since we have an all volunteer army, and negligible support (at best) for a war, and then there is that whole juggernaut of HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL, which only offer Lucas Grabeel in another coded gay role as Hugo.  Neal Patrick Harris seems too young still to play Albert since Bebe Neuwirth seems an obvious choice to play Rose, who needs to be a great dancer.  While I love David Hyde Pierce he seems far too in control and repressed to play the overly excitable Mr. MacAfee; Gilbert Gottfried seems a far better choice.  Harriet Sansome Harris seems a good fit to play the long suffering Mae.  Or, possibly, Holland Taylor could pull it off too. 

The idea of doing the this as a hip-hop musical has all the appeal of an all-white production of RAISIN IN THE SUN.  There is diversity and then there is stupidity.

Adam Shankman can do musicals because of his dance background, not because of his film directing skills are at breakthrough level.  He's closer to John Huston directing ANNIE than he is to Stanley Donen doing SINGING IN THE RAIN.  There are so many other unfilmed musicals that deserve filming, let this one go.

Thats all I am saying... 

INSIDEGUY