FANGIRLY RAGE

[featherxquill]

Augusta Longbottom has been cast for the DH film.

Please allow me to express my opinion loudly:

FUCK YOU WB. FUCK YOU SO HARD. Who IS that? Seriously. WHO IS SHE? She has a grand total of TWO entries on her IMDB page. TWO. I CAN'T. I DON'T EVEN. WHAT.

Out of all the AWESOME AND AMAZING older British actresses you could have chosen for this part (so what if it's small? Gemma Jones was back in HBP, and she didn't even have any lines!), you picked SOME COMPLETE RANDOM for AUGUSTA FREAKING LONGBOTTOM?

LOOK AT THIS PICTURE. Look at it. You want someone who can pull of wearing stupid hats and still be formidable? Judi Dench.

And if anyone wants to say that she probably would have said no anyway because she's too busy delivering verbal smackdowns to Daniel Craig in another series of epic popularity, you can SHUT UP, okay? Because she totally would have been able to have tea with Maggie in her dressing room and they could have had PRETENDY WAND FIGHTS and GIGGLED LIKE LITTLE GIRLS in the DVD extras, and IT WOULD HAVE BEEN AWESOME.

WAH.

Why are you so hit and miss, WB? I mean, okay, props for Bill Nighy as Scrimgeour and and Ciaran Hinds as Aberforth (I think, anyway - I'll wait to see him in costume), but this is another Helen McRory-as-Narcissa, which is so far out to sea on the failboat it makes me want to cry.

Okay. Rant over. I know return you to your regularly scheduled non-capslocky flist reading.

Comments

[tetleythesecond]

Argh. Nothing against the lady; who knows, she might be good. But yes, I think that it is a major failure of WB not to have Judi Dench in the films. With her versatility, they could even have gone for the three-for-one contract: Wilhelmina, Amelia, AND Augusta. Maybe she'd have thrown in a Muriel free of charge!

[featherxquill.livejournal.com]

They've cast Muriel too, actually. There is a grand total of about one picture available of her on the internet, and she's white haired and kind of formidable looking. Which works, I guess. Not at all the way I see her, but then my dream casting for her is impossible, so I can't get as riled up about that. *g*

[pale-moonlite.livejournal.com]

Judi Dench looks every inch an Augusta in that picture. It's a pity they didn't give her the part. (But we can imagine her like that in fanfic. *g*)

[featherxquill.livejournal.com]

Heh, yes. And I totally do. Wilhelmina, too, which is kind of odd, but then my brain is a very strange place, and Willa looks much more like Agnis Hamm from the Shipping News (http://content8.flixster.com/photo/12/28/15/12281510_gal.jpg).

[pale-moonlite.livejournal.com]

Indeed! She looks exactly how I imagine Willa (and isn't her versatility amazing?) I'm just about to begin a story about Willa, and this is great for inspiration.

[tetleythesecond]

I'm just about to begin a story about Willa
THAT is such good news! *bounces*

[tetleythesecond]

Silly me...I already knew that. Still it's good news.

[pale-moonlite.livejournal.com]

I finally had an idea today, which is definitely good news to me. *g*

[iulia_linnea.livejournal.com]

*cries*

[kellychambliss.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid they'll do with Augusta what they've often done with movie Minerva: make her silly rather than formidable. Of course, there's a touch of canon comedy about both of them, which is fine; they don't have to be made into paragons. But most of that humor comes in the context of their sternness and ferocity and genuine strength (and they have real, believable flaws, too). I fear the movies will just go for "funny old lady" and find the humor in the supposed incongruity of an old woman being a fighter.

[featherxquill.livejournal.com]

I can't think of a moment when I ever thought Minerva came off as silly. Comedic, certainly, but I think they've added quite a bit more humour to the films simply because they need the light to balance the intensity of the dark. And of course, some of Minerva's film humour comes from Maggie's consummate skill with dry wit. But yeah, I do hope we get to see her fighting and being awesome and powerful in DH, not just popping up two or three times to be wryly amused by teen-aged antics, or offer exposition, or be disapproving.

Of course, seventy-something Minerva is in the prime of her life, whereas seventy-something Maggie is recovering from cancer treatment and possibly not up to big action sequences, so a few shots of her with CG desks and duelling Voldemort will be enough for me *g*.

[kellychambliss.livejournal.com]

Minerva came off as silly

I'm thinking of the bizarre tartan hat/mittens at Quidditch, for instance, and the teach-the-kids-to-dance scene with the "blithering babboons" line (or whatever it is she says, though I think I'm in a minority in not liking this scene) and how fluttery she seems in the Yule Balls scene where she says to Potter, "didn't I tell you you'd need a partner? Ach, well, I'm telling you now." This line could have been delivered with that trademark wryness, but wasn't; to me, it just came across dithery (which isn't the same as silly, I guess, but I want kick-ass-ness, not flutter /g/). I think the character is too fey/fluttery at times in the films and/or has her power diminished by males (which happens in the books, too). And I haven't watched OoP in a long time, but my memory of that film is that Minerva is sort of triumphed over by Dolores (again, not an example of silliness, but just a general loss of power, a marginalizing.)

Still, thanks to Maggie, there are many terrific Minerva scenes in the movies (even the expository ones), and yeah, if we get even a little bit of General Minerva in DH, I'll be happy. (Oh, filmmakers, PLEASE don't cut out her duel with Voldy!!! If we can have that duel, I'll give up the charging desks [which I've always found rather too cartoonish anyway, like the supposed "Snape-shaped hole" in the wall.])

(I think I'm sounding more critical of film Minerva than I mean to be; I enjoy every second of McG screen time. But of course I have this mental image of just exactly how I want everything to be -- and for some reason, the directors and Maggie have never consulted my opinion!)

[beguiletosmile.livejournal.com]

Bahaha, I always loved the idea of a Snape-shaped hole. I remember laughing out loud for a good ten minutes when I read that line in the book. Comic gold. XD

http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs18/f/2007/205/7/a/HP___DH_SPOILERS__Snape_shaped_by_alicia_chan.jpg

[pale-moonlite.livejournal.com]

and the teach-the-kids-to-dance scene

I hate this scene, and not only because of Minerva. The whole scene is completely OOC, imo. Nothing like that would have happened in canon, and that's why everyone behaves just off.

[therealsnape.livejournal.com]

Except the Weasley Twins in the Making Off of the scene. They said that Rupert Grint had stared at them with a 'please, not a friggin' word' look in his eyes that had them in stitches. So of course they waxed lyrical on that scene.

[beguiletosmile.livejournal.com]

Oh, I totally agree -- Judi Dench would have been EPIC. But I've just stopped expecting much anything from WB now, since Narcissa's casting.

Know who else should've had a part? ANY PART! Helen Mirren. But nooooo, let's not hire England's most talented actresses for a movie otherwise known to be a "must-be-in" for British actors. Let's snub everyone in favour of some ... Unknown ... Nobody! PSHT.

[featherxquill.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Helen could have been a fantastic Arabella, maybe, or hell, she could even be Mafalda Hopkirk. Or Fleur's mother! Zomg, how perfect would that be? She could totally pull that off presuming she could do a passable French accent. Though of course there are several gorgeous French actresses they could also cast for that role. Not sure if they have cast Fleur's parents. Or, yeah, pretty much anyone.

[heather.livejournal.com]

:/

[therealsnape.livejournal.com]

Oh, if only we could have had Judi. Preferably as Wilhelmina, though, she's completely my idea of her. And then of course plenty of Wilhelmina in OotP.
Instead, we're reduced to writing the WGP/MM subplots ourselves. Fun of course, and great news that Pale_Moonlite is joining the ranks.

Actually, I could live without the Voldemort duel, even, as long as we get the duel with Snape. Those daggers in the harness. Love that. (And of course she was just helping him to get out of the castle, and they were friends again by then. Hence the totally over-the-top dagger gesture. And the amusingly-elegant Snape-shaped hole in reply.

Shrieking Shack? What Shrieking Shack?

[pale-moonlite.livejournal.com]

And of course she was just helping him to get out of the castle, and they were friends again by then. Hence the totally over-the-top dagger gesture. And the amusingly-elegant Snape-shaped hole in reply.

Yours is the first explanation that makes me think positively of the infamous Snape-shaped hole.

[therealsnape.livejournal.com]

I can hear him say (and made him say, on one occasion) that they were 'a rather over-the-top display of Gryffindor fireworks'.
He then emerges from behind the harness, lifts an ironic eyebrow, executes a perfect little Rickman-as-Colonel-Brandon bow, and disappears.
Minerva replies with a small, top o'the wand salute.

[zwoelfchen.livejournal.com]

Ooh, Judi Dench would have been awesome. I hadn't even thought of that.

[cranky--crocus.livejournal.com]

I would have died for Judi Dench. And the idea of those two having giggle fits together over that sort of stuff? ALMOST drives me to the point of wanting to write RPgenFic.

[addyit.livejournal.com]

even though many films are based on beloved classics like JK's, film making is still a business. maybe Judi Dench was asked, but she didn't want the part. or, she had prior commitments.
actors like her can pick and choose their parts. others, they go by what is written in the script, or if the film itself is commercially viable. (hence why being IN a film like this is good for your resume, even if you don't have any lines). maybe she didn't like what was written (a script for HP, no matter how well-written, isn't Oscar Wilde). and, this actress, Finch, was in a nonspeaking role in the Half Blood Prince.
having 1000 roles on their film roster isn't proof they're a good actor, either. it just means they haven't worked a lot, commercially. or, if she has, it's been voice work. maybe she's done a great deal of theater work- Gary Oldman work in theater exclusively for 10 years before going into movies.
in most of the films you see, you rarely see the "first choice".

[the_rainbow_jen]

Here sweetie, watch a trailer of the new movie Miranda's in: http://ukpress.waytoblue.com/distribution/tv3/Para_MID_1500K.mov

That might make you feel better.