Maybe Ulrich, Maybe Caviezel, Definetly not Ed Norton. To recognizable, the guy playing Jack should be like Jack; under 6' tall, 34 to 38 year old, relatively plain so as not to be recognivable. As far as Abe, how bout Danny Devito.

The guy playing Jack should be like Jack; under 6' tall, 34 to 38 year old, relatively plain so as not to be recognivable.

See, to me that sounds like you've just described Edward Norton. He's only recognizable to me because he is a famous actor, not because he particularly has looks that would stand out in a crowd.

The biggest reason I've always wanted to see Ed Norton as Jack is his acting ability. He can go from that disarming grin to flat out rage better than anyone I've ever seen.

(Edited to remove a wayward "is".)

See, to me that sounds like you've just described Edward Norton. He's only recognizable to me because he is a famous actor, not because he is particularly has looks that would stand out in a crowd.

The biggest reason I've always wanted to see Ed Norton as Jack is his acting ability. He can go from that disarming grin to flat out rage better than anyone I've ever seen.

As usual, Noelie, you and I are in sync. I'm always agreeing with you.

Edward Norton is just about unrecognizable. If he walked down a street in Manhattan, I have the suspicion he'd go virtually unnoticed. And he is a marvelous actor. He'd be a great Jack.

the guy playing Jack should be like Jack; under 6' tall, 34 to 38 year old, relatively plain so as not to be recognivable.

The actor needs to be in his mid-twenties.

If the studio is being at all smart about this (I know, but let's pretend), then they are looking at Repairman Jack not as a film, but as a film franchise. A new Jack movie every 2-3 years. That means you are going to need an actor who can still pull off the part for the next 20 years. You cast a 38-year old actor, and he's going to be pushing 60 by the time we're sitting in the theatre watching Harbingers.

If wishes were fishes, we'd all cast nets. so here's my net:

I wish Repairman Jack would be done as a series on cable, so that rather than getting one film every 2-3 years, we could get the whole Repairman Jack saga in 5-6 years.

Ten years ago this might have been a joke, but today...cable shows are the best stuff out there. Cinema, with very few exceptions, has stagnated. Network TV, with very few exceptions, has not only stagnated but is now in full-fledged rot.

Cable, on the other hand, has some of the best stories in ages. Shows like The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, The Wire. That is how to do Repairman Jack.

I wish Repairman Jack would be done as a series on cable, so that rather than getting one film every 2-3 years, we could get the whole Repairman Jack saga in 5-6 years.

Ten years ago this might have been a joke, but today...cable shows are the best stuff out there. Cinema, with very few exceptions, has stagnated. Network TV, with very few exceptions, has not only stagnated but is now in full-fledged rot.

Cable, on the other hand, has some of the best stories in ages. Shows like The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, The Wire. That is how to do Repairman Jack.

Yeah, I was thinking along those lines the other day. Showtime is doing an EXCELLENT job with Dexter, for example. I can't imagine that the adaptation would have been any better on the big screen than it is in that series. In fact, the series may actually be doing a better job of it because the whole story doesn't have to fit into a 2 hour window. And there's the added benefit of seeing Dexter every week instead of every 2-3 years.

Yeah, I was thinking along those lines the other day. Showtime is doing an EXCELLENT job with Dexter, for example. I can't imagine that the adaptation would have been any better on the big screen than it is in that series. In fact, the series may actually be doing a better job of it because the whole story doesn't have to fit into a 2 hour window. And there's the added benefit of seeing Dexter every week instead of every 2-3 years.

Noelie, I've been having a blast reading "Darkly Dreaming Dexter." It's hilarious. Unfortunately, I don't get Showtime, but I'll be looking forward to the DVD boxed set of "Dexter" at some point in the future.

Perry Smith and Richard Hickock.

The guy who played Hickock was a relative newcomer, but the actor who played Smith was Robert Blake, and he had been acting since he was about six years old -- 1939. He played Mickey on Spanky And Our Gang.

Ken V.

Always there to shoot me down, Ken!

I just used it as an example to get my point across...its actually been years since I saw it and I remember hearing that the actors were unknowns (first saw it in Criminology class in high school and thats what the teach said)

but I still stick by my opinion that the actor needs to be an unknown. I understand that we want a success and want continued movies, but nothing says a newbie can't make that happen. Besides, is this all just wishful thinking or has there ever been "real" talks about making RJ movies that any one knows about?

Always there to shoot me down, Ken!

I just used it as an example to get my point across...its actually been years since I saw it and I remember hearing that the actors were unknowns (first saw it in Criminology class in high school and thats what the teach said)

but I still stick by my opinion that the actor needs to be an unknown. I understand that we want a success and want continued movies, but nothing says a newbie can't make that happen. Besides, is this all just wishful thinking or has there ever been "real" talks about making RJ movies that any one knows about?

There has been LOTS of talks about making Repairman Jack - The Movie. The most recent sounds pretty promising. Here is what FPW wrote in the October Newsletter about it (pasting in verbatim here for those who didn't get the Newsletter... this will eventually be included in the News page of this site. You can subscribe to the Newsletter there also.):

[INDENT]“REPAIRMAN JACK” – THE MOVIE
[Historical note: Years ago I sold film rights to THE TOMB to Beacon Films/Touchstone Pictures. The idea has been to title the film “Repairman Jack” and turn our guy into a franchise character. The project has spent 10 years in development hell, chewing up 6 or 7 writers who’ve churned out reams of scripts.

10/6 – the day of the powwow with Beacon – and when you say “Beacon” you’re saying Armyan Bernstein.

1 PM: Off to Santa Monica for lunch with Barry and Bill Borden – sort of a meeting to discuss what will go on at the meeting. They bring me up to speed on the situation with the movie. They have a version of the script by Craig Spector and Chris Morgan they want to take out to directors. Army still has character and plot issues. It’s the same stalemate again and again, so they want to put Army and me in the same room and see if we can resolve this.

Truth is, if I had the rights back, I could resell them in a heartbeat. My agent has people lined up who are dying to make this movie, and who would get it done, but it just so happens that the guy who has it has not been getting it done. Talk about frustration.

And the thing is, I really, really like Army. He’s bright, charming, and funny. I believe he’s a good person, a straight shooter who sincerely wants to make the film (obviously – he’s spent seven figures on screenplays). But he’s been stymied by certain realities of the film industry. When he shows a full-blown, true-to-the-novel script to big stars, they balk at the rakoshi. When he de-emphasizes the supernatural-paranormal elements, the story becomes anemic and flaccid.

What’s the answer? Well, that’s what the meeting’s about.

2:30: We (Army, Barry, Bill, production chief Suzann Ellis, Army’s assistant Glenn, and yrs trly) gather in Army’s office overlooking the beach and the Santa Monica Pier. I’m watching the Ferris wheel as we talk. Army talks about the problems I mentioned above, also about his problem with the necklace being “magic”—he thinks that’s too convenient and wants a rationale for how it does what it does. I talk about how I don’t think you can make Jack the neighborhood fix-it guy everybody knows and loves. The Jack in the script is too goody-goody, and Kusum does too much mustache twirling. We need to stick at least one of Jack’s feet in the demimonde, and make Kusum a conflicted villain. I go on about how I’ve always seen Jack and Kusum as flip sides of the same coin: both outcasts with their own strict moral codes. They understand each other and might even be friends if their agendas weren’t diametrically opposed. Neither will back down.

This goes over well. Bill and Barry tell Army that if he gives them X-million dollars (I’m not mentioning numbers until the budget is settled), they can make this picture. Army says okay. But first he wants me to go through the script and flag everything I like and don’t like and get it back to him ASAP. The meeting lasts 2-1/2 hours during which Army comes up with a cool and elegant solution to the necklace problem (if I’d thought of it in 1983, it would have been in the novel). He says he wants a tweaked and polished version of the script out to directors before Thanksgiving. We talk about budget, where we can get the most bang for the production buck, where to have the CGI done, etc. We talk directors (don’t ask – I’m familiar with the work of only a few) but not stars. Director first.

I leave the meeting feeling pretty good. This is starting to look like it might happen at last. Barry, ever the realist, says, When we’re both sitting in a production test eating catered food and film is rolling and the checks have cleared, then you can believe it’s happening. He’s right, of course.

10/8 – on the flight home I pore over the script and scribble mucho notos.

10/9 – I spend the morning typing my revisions and additions into the Final Draft file of the script, then send it off to the Beacon gang.

10/13 – a conference call with the same gang, plus screenwriter Chris Morgan who’s on board for the revisions. Reaction to my comments and changes has been generally positive all week (but that could mean they’re just being polite). They’re looking at Australia to do principle photography with a second unit to shoot exteriors in NYC. Barry says he’ll put together a list of Australian directors. They discuss the possibility of using Weta Digital for effects. We close with Chris saying he’ll go through the script, make notes, and get back to Army next week.

10/27 – things seem to be progressing but have slowed due to negotiations with Chris’s agent about the rewrite.
[/INDENT]

And there really was a HWMNBNUPOD (He Who Must Not Be Named Under Pain of Death) young, well-known actor who expressed interest in playing Jack. HWMNBNUPOD has apparently changed his mind, leaving the door wide open for that outstanding as-yet-unknown actor!

Always there to shoot me down, Ken!

No, I just remember seeing the Spanky And Our Gang series when it was on TV back in the mid-fifties.

He also played a young American Indian boy in a series called Red Ryder -- I remember him from the series, but mostly I remember the Red Ryder comic strip in the Sunday Denver Post newspaper.

I just used it as an example to get my point across...its actually been years since I saw it and I remember hearing that the actors were unknowns (first saw it in Criminology class in high school and thats what the teach said)

That's understandable.

I remember seeing it when it was in the theater a few years after I graduated high school. And I remember recognizing Robert Blake from "Spanky," and Red Ryder. (I had a Red Ryder BB gun when I was a kid. )

Another reason it stuck in my mind was because I was good friends with the brother of one of the people Truman Capote interviewed when he was writing the book. My friends brother was on Death Row in the Colorado State Penitentiary, and he was in prison with Smith and Hickock in Kansas.

The guy who played Hickock (Scott Wilson) was unknown at the time.

but I still stick by my opinion that the actor needs to be an unknown. I understand that we want a success and want continued movies, but nothing says a newbie can't make that happen. Besides, is this all just wishful thinking or has there ever been "real" talks about making RJ movies that any one knows about?

He doesn't have to be a complete unknown, but he definitely doesn't
have to be a big-name star. The only positive thing I can think of regarding a fairly big-name star having the role is that he would probably have an established fan-base and that would probably save money on promoting the movie. Other than that . . .

Real talks . . . yes. Real action . . . not so much.

Ken V.

Noelie, I've been having a blast reading "Darkly Dreaming Dexter." It's hilarious. Unfortunately, I don't get Showtime, but I'll be looking forward to the DVD boxed set of "Dexter" at some point in the future.

If you're enjoying the book, I think you'll really love the series. Michael C. Hall is absolutely fantastic as Dexter. I wasn't familiar with him before (never watched Six Feet Under), but he has a fan for life in me now.