OK, so today I had a celebrity sighting.  Well not so much a celebrity as a character.  Yes, a fictitious character.  I happen to currently be reading Meg Wolitzer’s recent release, The Interestings (am loving, btw), and while I was standing in line at the post office this afternoon (to, ahem, mail out some awesome Silent Echo swag), in walked Ethan Figman!  You know, one of the main characters in The Interestings?  The creator of Figland?  It was exactly him, or at least exactly as I’d imagined him to be.  It was everything I could do not to ask this complete stranger for his autograph!

When a book really speaks to you, how can you not develop a vivid image in your mind of its characters?  Which brings us to the book-to-movie adaptation thing.  There are some that have really nailed it for me and some that have totally missed the mark.

The Winners:
Brad Pitt as Paul Maclean in A River Runs Through it (one of the best book to screen adaptations ever!)
Colin Firth as Mark Darcy in A&E’s Pride and Prejudice.  (He is and officially will alway be my Darcy)
Keira Knightley as Cecilia Tallis in Atonement.
Carey Mulligan as Kathy and Andrew Garfield as Tommy in Never Let Me Go.

 vs 


The “what exactly were they thinking”s:
Barbara Streisand as Susan Lowenstein in The Prince of Tides (the worst book to film adaptation ever!)
Josh Hutcherson as Peeta Mellark in Hunger Games (sorry fans – he just isn’t my Peeta) but HELLLOO Liam Hemsworth (those Hemsworth brothers!)
Matthew Macfadyen as Mark Darcy in the 2005 release of Pride & Prejudice (See above about Firth:)
Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher in Jack Reacher (Tom is way too short for Jack!)

Which is your favorite Darcy?
What are some of your favorite book to movie castings and what book to movie adaptations are you looking forward to?

Oh, and if you want to share your thoughts on who you’d cast for Portia, Felix and Max, I’d love to hear them.  Maybe I’ll even share my dream cast…