Movie Cast Mondays: February 22, 2010

Natalie at Mindful Musings has this meme in which you create fantasy casts for books of your choice. The rules are as follows:

1) Create your own cast for an upcoming book-to-movie adaptation OR pick a book you'd like to see be turned into a movie and choose a cast.

2) Post the book title, author, and summary.

3) Try to pick at least 3 of the main characters to cast.


This week's pick is...

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

"Everybody gets to be supermodel gorgeous. What could be wrong with that?

Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. Not for her license -- for turning pretty. In Tally's world, your sixteenth birthday brings an operation that turns you from a repellent ugly into a stunningly attractive pretty and catapults you into a high-tech paradise where your only job is to have a really great time. In just a few weeks Tally will be there.

But Tally's new friend Shay isn't sure she wants to be pretty. She'd rather risk life on the outside. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world -- and it isn't very pretty. The authorities offer Tally the worst choice she can imagine: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all. The choice Tally makes changes her world forever."

I am currently reading the third book in the trilogy, Specials, when I came across on Scott Westerfeld's blog that Uglies has been optioned for a movie! Before they start casting the movie in Hollywood, I want to make my own choices for the movie, which according to Wikipedia is scheduled to be released in 2011.

Dakota Fanning as Tally Youngblood

Dakota is one of my favorite young actresses, not only for her talent on the big screen, but also for her maturity despite her fame. I think she would play the role of Tally very well, especially if Hollywood decided to make the trilogy. Even though her natural hair color is blonde, she can play a brunette as I found from this picture, and a little makeup can help her adopt the visual transformations of Ugly, Pretty, and Special.

Mika Boorem as Shay

Mika is vaguely familiar to me and she has apparently been a child star in Hollywood for awhile now, acting in both movies and television. Her age is close to that of Dakota Fanning, so they could work well together, and her looks could be adapted for the different surgical stages, as well.

Spencer Treat Clark as David

I found this name in a list of former child stars and recognized a younger picture of Spencer from the movie Unbreakable(2000). He definitely has a rugged look to match the character of David, and his age is only a bit older than Dakota, so I could see the sparks fly between them. It doesn't hurt to have a little male "hotness" in the movie either, even if the books classify him as an Ugly.

Famke Janssen as Dr. Cable

I loved Famke as Dr. Jean Grey in the X-Men movies, and in this picture she even looks like she could pass for a Special, so she is an easy pick for the role of Dr. Cable, the head of Special Circumstances and antagonist to Tally Youngblood.

Who would you like to see cast in the upcoming movie Uglies?