Stephen Chow for Elric

[Pietro_Mercurios]

What about Stephen Chow for Elric? He's fairly angular and good looking. Built like a v. fit string bean. Elric should look oriental, anyway. And, he can kung fu like nobody's business! :)

He's very popular at the moment, but Elric might be a perfect crossover roll for him to bring him into the epic movie genre in the West.



http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2005/06/2...nterview.shtml

He's also got a sense of humour. :)

[Ant]

Added to [broken link]the Elric list!

Ciao,
Ant

[josambro]

I think Chow would be visually good, but I don't think his English is quite good enough for the role.

[Blackrazor]

Disagree with Chow

What about Stephen Chow for Elric? He's fairly angular and good looking. Built like a v. fit string bean. Elric should look oriental, anyway. And, he can kung fu like nobody's business! :)

He's very popular at the moment, but Elric might be a perfect crossover roll for him to bring him into the epic movie genre in the West.



http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2005/06/2...nterview.shtml

He's also got a sense of humour. :)

Well - I hate to do so - but I have to totally disagree with this...
Chow is excellent in many ways - don't get me wrong - I like his work.
What I disagree with is the matter-of-fact assertation that "Elric should look oriental anyway". That certainly wasn't the impression I got from his description from the books, and is in fact far from it IMHO.

Melnibonians are described at times as having angular features, aquiline but delicate. Tall and Willowy, statuesque, but with athletic warrior builds, even broad shouldered. Elric is unique within this - being particularly thin and frail looking due to his sickly nature.

I imagine stronger facial features, perhaps a narrow hawkish or romanesque nose, high cheek bones, narrow chin etc.

I find there is this reoccuring urge amongst fantasy fans to make the Melnibonians into other cultures we're familiar with or already fantasize about - from asian to point-eared elves and I've had this debate many times - often being reduced to pulling out the books to point to particular passages.

They aren't asian, or elven. They are Melnibonian. The melnibonians are repeatedly described as aliens, some half-breeds by some accounts with the populace of the young kingdoms [whether correct or not, whether from the outpost of R;len krin'a (sp) or the noble old ones] and need to look human enough for those legends to be believable, but alien enough as well.

I'd aim for more multi-racial casting to achieve the desired end result,
like spanish-mediterranian-arabic-indian-european mixes that hide the cultural origin and make them look just plain exotic.