Is Me Gonna Be The Right One?

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Howdy! JA from MNPP here. I was a big, huge fan of last year's bloody and bloody-good Swedish coming-of-age tale Let the Right One In - made #2 on my year-end list, it did - as I'm sure many of you were too. So when news broke of the American remake, I joined in on the earth-rattling sigh we all let forth.

But since then I've been keeping abreast of the news and have found myself having a bit of a mental tennis-match over it all. I was a bigger-than-most fan of Cloverfield - a jolly good time in the theater I thought, even though yes, I don't get how anyone could walk sixty blocks in heels either - so word of that film's director, Matt Reeves, taking the reins on the Right One remake dulled my hate-lust a wee bit. A weeeeee bit. I still don't think he can possibly match the heights Tomas Alfredson did, but I do think he can maybe make a go of it without totally blowing it.

Then came word that they were going to use a more literal translation of the book's Swedish title - instead of Let the Right One In it would simply be Let Me In. Oh I raged at first - way to vanquish the poetry, you guys! If was gonna be their general attitude, literalizing the beauty right out of the original, then I knew we were in for what we expected - an edge-dulled Hollywood bore. But the further I got from that, the more I began to appreciate the title-switcharoo. Not because I thought it wasn't a sign of what I just called it mind you, but for reasons purely of self-interest: I'm appreciating every step they take to distance their remake from the original. Let the Right One In keeps its space on the video-store shelf; it keeps its own IMDb page (or at least it will once IMDb gets around to recognizing the title-change, which it hasn't yet). When somebody talks about one film there won't be the need to qualify which one you mean. So simple, so easy, especially for a blogger like me who'd inevitably get tired of specifying. All that extra typing!

And according to script reports they're going even further distancing the two films by renaming at least the two main characters - instead of Oskar and Eli we now have Owen and Abby. Which... again I refer you to the tennis match in my head. We've swung back to unhappiness. In the book (which I'd quote if I had my copy right now), Eli's name has some very specific and deeply significant purpose on a couple of fronts. Slight spoilers ho for those of you who haven't seen the film. See, the name is taken from the Latin Aramaic "Eli Eli lama sabachthani?" which means "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" which is of course what Jesus utters as he dies on the cross. How do you just erase without a second thought to that sort of beautiful character shading? I don't get it. And secondly, it confuses Eli's gender which is a pretty important point. Renaming her/him to Abby pretty much guarantees that that's something they're probably nixing from the remake. Again, dulling off all the interesting edges. Not good. End spoilers.

But then came the rumor that the very good Australian child actor Kodi Smit-McPhee might be taking the role of Oskar excuse me Owen. I've only seen him in Romulus, My Father but he was terrific there, and Nathaniel tells me that he gives a very good performance in this Fall's Cormac McCarthy adaptation The Road. And he definitely looks like he could play this part. And he's the right age - it's good to see they're not casting older. So all that's a step in the right direction.

Then came some early artwork for the remake yesterday; you can see them here - including that poster to the left - and they're not too bad. Give the right mood, at least.

So again I don't know where I stand on this film. I don't believe it can top the Swedish film but I'm curious, obviously, all the same. Perhaps they can find something worth the retelling in it so soon. Like I keep saying at my own blog, at least the CG cat-attack will have a higher budget and look better than it did in the original.

And now for the obvious question to you all: With Kodi Smit-McPhee probably playing the boy part, who should get cast as Eli excuse me Abby? What young actress has the goods? I was kind of surprised but the first girl I thought of was Dakota Blue Richards who was wonderful in The Golden Compass and then sort of vanished, but a) I can't decide if that's good casting or not, and b) She's fifteen now so maybe a little old for the part. Smit-McPhee is 13. But then Eli excuse me Abby IS older, much much older... I don't think it would be terrible if she looked a year or two older than the boy.

ETA Slash/Film has posted a trio of casting tapes for the role of Abby up today! Coincidence? Conspiracy? You decide!

Hrm. Casting ideas? Your thoughts?
General concerns?
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Saoirse and the Dakotas

When someone in Hollywood needs a 15 year old blonde with dramatic chops to headline or co-star in their movie, I imagine that Saoirse Ronan and Dakota Fanning are getting the scripts first. Can we get a few mailed to Dakota Blue Richards, too?

Dakota Blue Richards in Five Miles Out (2009)

She's exactly 1 day older than Saoirse Ronan (weird trivia!) but I fear she may get lost in the shuffle. Fanning has two months on both of the Dakotas and many more years of experience and celebrity. But Saoirse already has an Oscar nomination and a primo gig with Peter Jackson. Richards, on the other hand, is only known for headlining The Golden Compass, the blockbuster that didn't bust blocks. Since Compass she's made 1 TV film, 1 short and 1 feature.

<-- Saoirse and Dakota the First

In that stack of shorts I saw whilst in Nashville, Richards had the lead in a beautifully shot miniature called Five Miles Out. She played a morose and preoccupied girl, trying to shake off the heavy weight of a family crisis during a trip to the seaside. That 18 minutes was enough to remind me that she holds the screen really well. You look at her face and you must know what's going on inside her head. It's the same feeling I get when I watch someone like Samantha Morton... albeit on a much smaller scale in this case.

Did you think Richards was strong in The Golden Compass? Any other mid-teen actresses you think are worth watching? It won't be long before they're all fighting it out for what we now think of as the Keira Knightley, Amanda Seyfried, Scarlet Johannson parts.
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