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Nero Wolfe
Oct. 15th, 2002 01:41 pmI've been a fan of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe for ages. I first read him as a kid, in my post-Doyle and Chesterton phase. First I tried Agatha Christie, but she never really did anything for me. Lots of folks adore her work, but the characters are too cardboard. Once you figure out who done it, why bother? I mean, sometimes the plot twists are startling, but I just found the characters blah.
Rex Stout, on the other hand, wrote great characters. It doesn't matter who done it, because you read the story for the interaction between Wolfe and Archie, and for the great secondary characters -- Lily Rowan, Saul Panzer, Fritz the cook, and Theodore and the orchids. And so you could read them again. And again. My favorite's probable The League of Frightened Men.
So when they started a series on A&E, I took a look, because I like the books so much. Unfortunately, although they hit most of the characters and sets physically (Wolfe's size, the yellow pajamas, and so on), I didn't like the portrayals. Wolfe isn't just supposed to be physically big; he needs to command more psychic space, have a presence that goes beyond his appearance. He needs to almost never have to raise his voice, but be riveting to everyone in the room anyway, and to be able to cut into a shouting match with a few, well-chosen words. Saul needs to blend in, to not attract notice until he wants to do so. Archie needs to be funny and intelligent. Not just a sidekick, no: he's a sidekick by choice. When he works on his own, he makes more money than he does working for Wolfe, and he solves plenty of cases.
I thought about this again recently because when I was home for the weekend, my dad and I caught the end of the TV show and once again bitched about it. And we did what we always do (I think my dad and I have done this on a yearly basis for ages): we tried to cast the books better.
We keep coming back to Dustin Hoffman for Saul. The nose is perfect, the attitude is perfect, you can just see him in the funny little hat....
But Archie and Wolfe are really, really difficult to cast because we're not just talking about physical stuff. We've talked a lot, suggested Marlon Brando for Wolfe and joked about Johnny Depp for Archie. (Joseph Fiennes? Too broody.) We've suggested casting possibilities if we could make it in the '50s (Cary Grant? No, too clean-cut, but Katherine Hepburn would make a beautiful Lily Rowan), okay, okay, what about that guy from ... and so on.
My dad finally came up with the perfect Nero Wolfe: Dame Judi Dench. I don't care that she's not 300 pounds, male, or from Montenegro. He suggested it, I thought about it, and it's perfect. She's got the voice, the mannerisms, the persona; she can command the attention of a room with a word, and be dismissive and a perfect Wolfe-style genius. Okay, Wolfe being a woman changes the story a bit, but I don't give a flying fuck. I mean, if she can be M and James Bond's boss, she can be Wolfe.
So then we were all: who could be Archie? If Wolfe's a woman, would Archie be a woman? If not, there would be a temptation to turn it into a love story, which is exactly the direction we don't want to go.
So we thought: maybe Janeane Garofalo? She could pull off the intelligent snark, but could she pull off the taking-everyone-out-dancing "lady"-killer that Archie needs to be? Maybe not. What about Gillian Anderson, not as a redhead? Could be fun... she could do intelligent, snarky, and take everyone out to the Flamingo Club to dance...
So now I just have to become a wealthy movie producer, stat. So that I can see Judi Dench saying "pfui." Just imagine that. Or "Mr Cramer. I repeat. I am not interested, not involved, and not curious." Or "If true, boorish. If false, inane." It would rock my world.
Rex Stout, on the other hand, wrote great characters. It doesn't matter who done it, because you read the story for the interaction between Wolfe and Archie, and for the great secondary characters -- Lily Rowan, Saul Panzer, Fritz the cook, and Theodore and the orchids. And so you could read them again. And again. My favorite's probable The League of Frightened Men.
So when they started a series on A&E, I took a look, because I like the books so much. Unfortunately, although they hit most of the characters and sets physically (Wolfe's size, the yellow pajamas, and so on), I didn't like the portrayals. Wolfe isn't just supposed to be physically big; he needs to command more psychic space, have a presence that goes beyond his appearance. He needs to almost never have to raise his voice, but be riveting to everyone in the room anyway, and to be able to cut into a shouting match with a few, well-chosen words. Saul needs to blend in, to not attract notice until he wants to do so. Archie needs to be funny and intelligent. Not just a sidekick, no: he's a sidekick by choice. When he works on his own, he makes more money than he does working for Wolfe, and he solves plenty of cases.
I thought about this again recently because when I was home for the weekend, my dad and I caught the end of the TV show and once again bitched about it. And we did what we always do (I think my dad and I have done this on a yearly basis for ages): we tried to cast the books better.
We keep coming back to Dustin Hoffman for Saul. The nose is perfect, the attitude is perfect, you can just see him in the funny little hat....
But Archie and Wolfe are really, really difficult to cast because we're not just talking about physical stuff. We've talked a lot, suggested Marlon Brando for Wolfe and joked about Johnny Depp for Archie. (Joseph Fiennes? Too broody.) We've suggested casting possibilities if we could make it in the '50s (Cary Grant? No, too clean-cut, but Katherine Hepburn would make a beautiful Lily Rowan), okay, okay, what about that guy from ... and so on.
My dad finally came up with the perfect Nero Wolfe: Dame Judi Dench. I don't care that she's not 300 pounds, male, or from Montenegro. He suggested it, I thought about it, and it's perfect. She's got the voice, the mannerisms, the persona; she can command the attention of a room with a word, and be dismissive and a perfect Wolfe-style genius. Okay, Wolfe being a woman changes the story a bit, but I don't give a flying fuck. I mean, if she can be M and James Bond's boss, she can be Wolfe.
So then we were all: who could be Archie? If Wolfe's a woman, would Archie be a woman? If not, there would be a temptation to turn it into a love story, which is exactly the direction we don't want to go.
So we thought: maybe Janeane Garofalo? She could pull off the intelligent snark, but could she pull off the taking-everyone-out-dancing "lady"-killer that Archie needs to be? Maybe not. What about Gillian Anderson, not as a redhead? Could be fun... she could do intelligent, snarky, and take everyone out to the Flamingo Club to dance...
So now I just have to become a wealthy movie producer, stat. So that I can see Judi Dench saying "pfui." Just imagine that. Or "Mr Cramer. I repeat. I am not interested, not involved, and not curious." Or "If true, boorish. If false, inane." It would rock my world.
