Given how often big-screen (and sometimes "small") adaptations of terrific books fail, often due to casting, I can understand the reticence to making a Pendergast film.
That said, I would love to see Aloysius brought to life. However, for a character of such magnitude and uniqueness, it will be difficult to please all of the people all of the time...or even half of the people half of the time. Witness the uproar over Ben Affleck's Batman - and he spends most of the movie covered up in a suit!
Look how badly they screwed up Clive Cussler's Sahara by casting Matthew McConaughey and Steve Zahn! Not only did they not, in any way, resemble beloved, vividly described, characters that have appeared in 24(!) books, the filmmakers got the tone all wrong. Cussler was not happy, and will perhaps retreat from movies again (Few remember...and fewer enjoyed...Raise the Titanic in the 80s!!) forever!
So...given a choice between a poorly-realized and loathed Pendergast film, and continuing on with only the version of Aloysius that resides in my head...I'll have to choose my imagination - and Preston and Child's tantalising prose.
BUT...as long as we're playing...
Paul Bettany seems to be many people's choice to play Pendergast.
What about Neal McDonough? Probably about the right age...intense actor.
Oooh oooh ooohh.....Gustaf Skarsgard from "Vikings". His Floki is the best character on the show, a bit brooding, intense, and maybe a little bit crazy.
Or since I'm on a Vikings kick, why not the lead, Travis Fimmel? He might be a bit too brawny and bad-ass for our Aloysius; I usually picture Pendergast a bit on the slight side - his various skills allow him to get the most out of a smaller body. But Fimmel is intense as well and brooding as well.
Although Fimmel and Skarsgard may both be a bit young...
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suxx-1
8 years ago
This is from the Pendergast Wiki page :
"Television adaptation[edit]
On February 1, 2016, authors Preston and Child confirmed that producer Gale Anne Hurd would be heading a television adaptation of the novels Relic and Cabinet of Curiosities. The adaptation, simply titled Pendergast, will air on Spike TV. The first season will focus on "Pendergast investigating a present-day crime mimicking a century-old mystery — that links to his own family's dark past."[1]"
Don't know what truth there is to this, but it sounds pretty exciting. Gale Anne Hurd served as Producer on the Walking Dead and many big movies in the past.
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