Who would make a good Honor Harrington in a Movie/TV role?

siebeneck wrote:i think leonard Nimoy what make a good Protector Benjamin mayhew ix

For some reason I have always seen James Spader as Benjamin.

SethStar wrote:Not to provoke, but I just cannot see Angelina Jolie as HH, because she is too sensual. I agree:
1. She is good at action roles
2. She can act
3. She is a box office draw

but
HH in the early books especially, is uncomfortable with her sexuality, even before the incident with Pavel Young; this doesn't change until later in the series.

This board demonstrates that there are many possibilities out there, but an unknown might be the best bet

As has been said before I believe, Weber has very explictly stated in the past that he will never collaborate with any project of any sort that involves Angelina Jolie. I think its some kind of political concern or other.

Otherwise, Jolie is of course an extremely beautiful and sensual woman and, at least in the early Harrington books, that is explicitly *not* Honor. This is one of those "eh, could ignore it to make the character more appealing" criteria, but then you get back to Weber's personal opposition to Jolie.

Not that the series is, unfortunately, prominent enough to attract an established A-list actor like Jolie in the first place, unless someone is willing to put a lot more money into the project than I can predict.

If we ever see a Harrington TV show (IMO, more likely) or a movie (less likely, at least before a TV show) then it will and should involve someone who is young, talented, and probably inexperienced. Galactica relied on several key roles that they just auditioned, and then anchored the series with more prominent veterans in supporting roles... I'd like to see that.

siebeneck wrote:i think leonard Nimoy what make a good Protector Benjamin mayhew ix

Nimoy is too old. At the start of the series, Mayhew is in his '40s with pre-prolong aging. I would see someone like Nimoy as Howard Clinkscales.

dscott8 wrote:For some reason I have always seen James Spader as Benjamin.

Appearance wise, he fits the bill. I think Spader is more suited to an evil, or at least mischevious, role, though.

Cheopis wrote:Nimoy as Parnelle, post Cerberus

Parnelle is a prolong recipient, and IMO even Cerberus can't age someone with Prolong enough to appear as old as Nimoy is.

I have imagined Parnelle as Michael Ironside, though if they actually managed to get Ironside I would prefer him in a more prominent role. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Ironside

Nimoy's appearance seems to me to be appropriate for Parnelle immediately post Cerberus.

I'm pretty sure Parnelle was first generation prolong, which means his body mostly stops displaying signs of aging in early middle age.

Spend a couple decades in a middle age body in a concentration camp with barely edible food and occasional visits to the torturer and you would almost certainly look pretty rough around the edges.

Marcus Clem wrote:

dscott8 wrote:For some reason I have always seen James Spader as Benjamin.

Appearance wise, he fits the bill. I think Spader is more suited to an evil, or at least mischevious, role, though.

But Bejamin is mischevious -- he enjoyed yanking High Admiral Matthews' chain on a couple of occasions, notably Honor's return from Cerberus, and he's also teased Clinkscales and Honor herself.

The main problem with all this discussion is that it's all conceptual. e.g., "a young X". Unless the proposed film was one of the newer / later books instead of starting with Basilisk, then it wouldn't work.

To start with Basilisk, we would need an unknown actress in her first role, almost certainly. Same is true of the candidates for Benjamin or others.

That's not necessarily a bad thing. For example, consider the upcoming "Thor" film, with Chris Hemsworth. He's been in a couple of films but no headliners. I think we would need someone like that to portray Honor.

Now, if we're just talking conceptually, then all bets are off. :-) We can even talk Angelina Jolie. Though personally I think she'd be one of the worst casting options possible for the role. She's too sculpted and focused on appearances. Honor is the exact opposite of that. For personality, we should grant the benefit of the doubt that a skilled actress could assume the correct demeanor for the role, so that's probably a non-issue.

Wodan wrote:The main problem with all this discussion is that it's all conceptual. e.g., "a young X". Unless the proposed film was one of the newer / later books instead of starting with Basilisk, then it wouldn't work.

To start with Basilisk, we would need an unknown actress in her first role, almost certainly. Same is true of the candidates for Benjamin or others.

Too true. How many people had heard of Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner or Gates McFadden before Star Trek: The Next Generation? Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint weren't household names before Harry Potter. If anyone was really going to do a Honor Harrington movie or miniseries, it would undoubtedly be cast with young, relatively unknown actors -- some of whom would wind up launching new careers as stars, and some of whom would be typecast in sci-fi roles for the rest of their working lives. I could see bringing in big name guest stars for cameo roles, but the main characters would be newbies -- if only for reasons of cost. When you do a cast-of-thousands epic like HH, you can't afford to fill the screen with big names who get big salaries.

Still, it's a fun discussion for me becuase I "cast" novels in my head as I read and visualize them. And I, too, think that Angelina Jolie would be a disaster as Honor, and so would typecasting Claudia Christian (Ivanova of Babylon 5) -- even if they weren't too old to play Honor in the early books.

Amended to note that you would have to cast a lot of mixed-race actors to reflect the Honorverse's genetic mix. DW frequently mentions how generations of interracial relationships have turned the gene pool into jambalaya.

dscott8 wrote:Too true. How many people had heard of Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner or Gates McFadden before Star Trek: The Next Generation? Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint weren't household names before Harry Potter. If anyone was really going to do a Honor Harrington movie or miniseries, it would undoubtedly be cast with young, relatively unknown actors -- some of whom would wind up launching new careers as stars, and some of whom would be typecast in sci-fi roles for the rest of their working lives. I could see bringing in big name guest stars for cameo roles, but the main characters would be newbies -- if only for reasons of cost. When you do a cast-of-thousands epic like HH, you can't afford to fill the screen with big names who get big salaries.

Brent Spiner was famous for his work on Night Court!

Radcliffe, Watson, and Grint were 10 or 11 when they started those movies, very few actors become famous at that age.

Still, it's a fun discussion for me becuase I "cast" novels in my head as I read and visualize them. And I, too, think that Angelina Jolie would be a disaster as Honor, and so would typecasting Claudia Christian (Ivanova of Babylon 5) -- even if they weren't too old to play Honor in the early books.

Amended to note that you would have to cast a lot of mixed-race actors to reflect the Honorverse's genetic mix. DW frequently mentions how generations of interracial relationships have turned the gene pool into jambalaya.

And that is why it would be best to do it as a high end animation. Now all you have to do cast voices.

I don't know if it was pre-TNG or parallel to it, but Jonathan Frakes voiced one of the coolest ever bad guy/anti-hero characters (David Xanatos) in the animated series Gargoyles. Brent Spiner also voiced a character (Puck, yeah you read that right) while Marina Sirtis (possible typo, my apologies) voiced a wonderfully complex villainess named Demona (First episode spoiler, my apologies). For those who are interested, both series (plus the spin-off series Goliath Chronicles) are available on YoouTube, albeit with each episode split into 3 parts due to posting-length limits.

Seehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ0E3dEoP9E

Seeing what a good voice actor can do confirms my belief that should Harrington be turned into a TV series, it should be animated (preferably with well-integrated CGI) and to at least the same type of level as Gargoyles achieved.

And Jonathan Frakes should be in it as Thomas Theisman. And I'd vote for Patrick Stewart voicing Hamish Alexander.

Michael Everett wrote:I don't know if it was pre-TNG or parallel to it, but Jonathan Frakes voiced one of the coolest ever bad guy/anti-hero characters (David Xanatos) in the animated series Gargoyles. Brent Spiner also voiced a character (Puck, yeah you read that right) while Marina Sirtis (possible typo, my apologies) voiced a wonderfully complex villainess named Demona (First episode spoiler, my apologies). For those who are interested, both series (plus the spin-off series Goliath Chronicles) are available on YoouTube, albeit with each episode split into 3 parts due to posting-length limits.

Seehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ0E3dEoP9E

Seeing what a good voice actor can do confirms my belief that should Harrington be turned into a TV series, it should be animated (preferably with well-integrated CGI) and to at least the same type of level as Gargoyles achieved.

And Jonathan Frakes should be in it as Thomas Theisman. And I'd vote for Patrick Stewart voicing Hamish Alexander.

Most of the ST:TNG actors had been actors before getting there roles in the series. IIRC Lavar Burton aka Jordie LaForge was in the mini-series Roots as the Young Kunta Kinta. Mirina Sirtis was in a couple of the Death Wish movies. Jonathan Frakes played Stanley Hazard in the three North and South mini-series.