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'Gilligan's Island' Heads to the Big Screen

Greg Cox said:
I've got it! Chi McBride ("Winston" on THE HUMAN TARGET) as the Skipper. He's got the right build and he does slow-burning exasperation well.
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It's an intriguing idea, and I'd love to see McBride do a funny grouch like Emerson Cod again, but I'm not entirely sure. There's an anecdote from the casting of the original show -- they wanted to make sure the Skipper would remain likeable no matter how mean he got with Gilligan, so they really had their candidates pour on the abuse in the auditions, and Alan Hale, Jr. was the only one who could pull it off without going too dark, too mean. No matter how mad Hale's Skipper got, he was still a big teddy bear and you were never scared for Gilligan. But McBride can be a pretty intimidating presence. If he could strike the right balance, it would be a great choice, but it would be tricky.
 
You basically just described Emerson Cod. He would get flustered and mean, but no one ever seemed scared of him except for the occasional badguy. The fact that he was a big softy who enjoyed knitting and pop-up books certainly helped sell the image, but McBride had no problem with the performance even before they focused on that stuff.
 
Checkmate said:
You basically just described Emerson Cod. He would get flustered and mean, but no one ever seemed scared of him except for the occasional badguy. The fact that he was a big softy who enjoyed knitting and pop-up books certainly helped sell the image, but McBride had no problem with the performance even before they focused on that stuff.
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Yeah, but Emerson's grouchiness toward others never really went beyond glowering and saying snide things. He wasn't yelling furiously at them and hitting them over the head with his hat.
 
Judging from THE HUMAN TARGET, I think McBride could pull it off. He's kind of a teddy bear on that show, too.

I see Christopher's point, though. It's a tricky dynamic to pull off, and easy to get wrong if the actor playing the Skipper has too hard an edge.

Kind of like Dr. Pulaski on TNG. They'd tried to recreate the bickering Spock/McCoy dynamic between her and Data, but it didn't work. She just came off as a bigot, probably because Data was too much of an innocent to fight back. (Unlike Spock, who always gave as good as he got.)

FRASIER had the same problem in the beginning, too. At first, the antagonism between Frasier and his dad felt a little too real. At times you got the impression that they genuinely disliked each other, which made the bickering more unpleasant than comedic. Fortunately, they toned it down and managed to inject some much-need warmth into the relationships, which worked much better, IMHO.
 
I'm having a hard time with casting; I'm too out of touch with Pop Culture to know all the candidates. :rommie:

I definitely think John Corbett would be cool for the Professor (my favorite character). And how about Jolene Blalock and Linda Park for Ginger and Mary Anne? :D
 
Joeman said:
Jeffrey Combs or Bruce Campbell as the Professor.
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I still say Campbell would be a better choice for Mr. Howell. For one thing, he's a bit past matinee-idol age. The Professor may have been a quintessential nerd, but he was a nerd that women went crazy for. Ginger went after him pretty aggressively, because he was pretty much the most virile and desirable man on the island, but he was totally clueless about his own sex appeal -- another thing that I doubt Campbell would be right for, since his screen persona is pretty much defined by swagger.

And Combs doesn't have the looks for the Professor either, and he's too eccentric. Cast him in the sequel as Vito Scotti's mad scientist character, Dr. Boris Balinkoff.
 
Sorry for bring this thread back from the dead, but I have my own cast list for this:

The Skipper: Philip-Seymour Hoffman
Mrs Howell: Shirley Maclaine
Thurston Howell III - Micheal Caine
The Professor - Hugh Laurie
Ginger - Amy Adams
Mary Ann - Emmy Rossum
Gilligan - Fred Ewaniuk (of Corner Gas, could totally pull off the clumsy Gilligan)
 
Michael Caine is an interesting suggestion for Mr. Howell, but I don't think it would work. Why? His accent. It's an emphatically working-class accent, and he doesn't seem able or willing to ditch it for a part; indeed, it's pretty much been his trademark throughout his career. And Thurston Howell III is not someone who came from working-class roots. He was born and raised in extreme wealth, to the point that he can't even conceive of any other way of life. If Howell were English, he'd have an upper-class accent without a trace of Cockney.
 
I never gave the accent much thought, but you're probably right :) I tried pairing two people together I thought would make a nice couple. I don't know if they've ever shared the screen together, but it certainly helps if there's a certain chemistry to work off of. Unfortunately I don't really have any other ideas better than Michael Caine. My mind is drawing a blank.
 
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