Calis Beach and Fethiye Turkey Discussion Forum
General Topics => The Debating Chamber => Topic started by: Colwyn on March 03, 2016, 14:24:34 PM
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Over the last couple of years I have been gradually, off and on, reading my way through Georges Simenon's magnificent detective series attempting to cover them all chronologically. What comes over very strongly is the size of Maigret - a hulking figure in a big black overcoat - who solves many of his cases simply by his huge, brooding presence in the lives of suspects and those around them. ITV is making a new two-part series of a Maigret case. So who do they cast as Maigret? Rowan Atkinson. I kid you not, Rowan Bloody Atkinson! How the hell can Mr Bean intimidate suspects with his huge bear-like presence? Ridiculous!
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Ha ha, reminds me of another serious "mis-casting" which also made me question the authors integrity (and loyalty to his readers) in respect of the character he'd built up over numerous best selling novels.
I quote the author "He was one of the largest men she had ever seen outside the NFL. He was extremely tall, and extremely broad, and long-armed, and long-legged. The lawn chair was regular size, but it looked tiny under him. It was bent and crushed out of shape. His knuckles were nearly touching the ground. His neck was thick and his hands were the size of dinner plates...A wild man. But not really. Underneath everything else seemed strangely civilized....His gaze was both wise and appealing, both friendly and bleak, both frank and utterly cynical."
So who plays him in the movies, Tom feckin Cruise. He'd struggle to make the bench on a subbuteo team never mind the NFL!
JF
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I have very fond memories of Maigret as I cut my teeth as a clapper loader on the series. Visits to France from Lydd airport to Le Touquet in lumbering old Carvair car carriers taking no time at all and pretty much wave hopping. Rupert Davies was your man and would quite often turn up on locations in his huge American station wagon in which he slept when not on call. When not on location in France we often used Burnham Beeches just outside Slough suitably frenchified! I seem to remember mentioning this before Colwyn - enjoy your reading.
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I recall the Rupert Davies Maigret series as quite brilliant. Apparently nearly all the tapes have been destroyed. The BBC showed one some years ago which I watched with some trepidation - would it be a disappointment, quite dated, not living up to my memories? Not at all it was an outstanding drama. Unfortunately it was set at Christmastime; Paris was empty; all those cosy bars and cafes were shut; just unpeopled wet streets; all that great French milieu missing {even if it was just outside Slough}.
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The Jack Reacher/Tom cruise thing almost put me off the novels especially when Lee Cild defended te casting.
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I'm really looking forward to a deaf, dumb and blind black lesbian dwarf in a wheelchair appearing as 007. I'm really into this diversity and equality **it.
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Apparently nearly all the tapes have been destroyed.
As have the tapes for many early BBC productions.
The Jack Reacher/Tom cruise thing almost put me off the novels especially when Lee Cild defended te casting.
Aye, laughable. I still don't get it - its not as if he needed the money.
JF
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I always imagined Jack Reacher as a tall, muscular guy with startlingly blue eyes and tousled sun-bleached hair. Not much attention to fashion, just rough and ugly enough to be gorgeous.
:o Tom Cruise? Lol! well I didn't expect that!
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John Hannah as Rebus was another mistake thankfully corrected later by the character being recast in Ken Stott who brought Rebus to life.
Unfortunately the plots were pretty mangled compared with the books.
Still enjoyable if only for the street scenes of Edinburgh.
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Did you have to get the tissues out again H ? ;)
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John Hannah as Rebus was another mistake
Quite agree. Couldn't watch the series as it was not credible enough to hold my attention.
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Derek Jacobi as Cadfael, I could not watch the tv series when it was on, just for that fact.
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Despite internet rumours of his death last month, Robbie Coltrane is very much alive and kicking.
His excellent portrayal as the flawed character "Fitz" in "Cracker" showed that he can do more than a semi - comedy act e.g. the James Bond films.
Not wholly sure he has what it takes" to play Maigret but surely a better choice (for me, anyway) than Rowan Atkinson!
Perhaps, if you'd never read any of the books, Atkinson will come across well and will undoubtedly do a professional job.
I really can't see him doing it with a turkey on his head a la Bean but I'd watch the films.
Was it Mario Puzo who, when asked what he thought of the first "Godfather" film replied that it was like watching his prize bull being turned into a stock cube?
Maigret/Don Vito Corleone - same meat, different gravy (again, pun intended).
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I was disappointed by many of the cast in the recent series of Bosch, Michael Connelly's LA detective Harry Bosch. Its not that they were bad actors or that the series was bad, it was simply that I did not recognise them as looking anything like what I expected on the screen, well in my minds eye from Connellys description in the many 'Bosch' books.
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If you have a Kindle you might be interested in the current offer of Harry Bosch books for £1.99. I bought one earlier today.
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I've done all the Harry B books now ..... sadly. I eagerly await the next Bosch, or indeed Lincoln Lawyer, book, as I do any Bernard Cornwell, or Shardlake the Lawyer.
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How the hell can Mr Bean intimidate suspects with his huge bear-like presence? Ridiculous!
Not ridiculous. How could Hugh Laurie play an idiot in "Blackadder" and then the intimidating doctor in "House"?
Rowan Atkinson will pull it off. And we will be as surprised at his transformation as we were with Hugh Laurie's.