What?

[tree_and_leaf]

So... Colm Meaney as Gene Hunt in US- Life on Mars?

Chief O'Brian?

I mean, I love Miles O'Brian, but... I have difficulty imagining the chap who plays him saying things like 'You're surrounded by armed bastards!' or referring to people as Dorothy. Or, come to that, with an interrogation based on punching people in the stomach.

Maybe I'm underestimating him, but I really don't see it.

Comments

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

I think that one has to factor in the change of locale and year - this will be Los Angeles in 1972 - as well as a different audience and expectations. Meaney-Gene will have a comparable attitude to Glenister-Gene; but it won't be exactly the same. The comparison will bear parsing, though - which elements have travelled over the Atlantic, and which have not; and how have those that have, been transformed?

[tree_and_leaf]

True: I'm not sure whether I'd like to see US LOM or not. It could be dreadful, but also very interesting.

[sangerin.livejournal.com]

Meany did a significant line in playing terrorists while he was also playing O'Brien (I think he even turns up as a terrorist in TNG, despite being in the very first episode as O'Brien as well. In The Gambit, I think.)

If I wasn't loathe to watch any US remake of a British program at all, I might be vaguely interested by Meany being cast. Plus, I still need to see most of Life on Mars, the original. (Looking forward to Ashes to Ashes, though - being the Keeley-fan that I am.)

[tree_and_leaf]

Ah: that makes more sense of it - I suppose I'm doing the typical typecasting thing.

I think I feel like you about the re-make: I hate the idea on principle, but it might be interesting to see how it's altered for a different culture.

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

*leaps in with icon*

Why do they have to make a remake in the first place? It's because it's so rooted in its own time and place that it's good!

*punches whoever thought of that in gut*

It's 1973, almost dinner time. I'm having hoops.

[tree_and_leaf]

"Don't you EVER waltz into my kingdom acting king of the jungle!"

In the abstract, it might be interesting to see how they translate it. But I can't help thinking that that's what AU crackfic is for....

Re: It's 1973, almost dinner time. I'm having hoops.

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

True enough. Q and I have had a bit of fun trying to translate bits of the dialogue into the dialect he grew up speaking - colourful, but sounds completely different.

[owl]

Heh, he looks so unbelievably Irish. He's like a leprechaun or something.

[tree_and_leaf]

For some reason, when I read that Meaney was playing Hunt, I assumed it was going to be set in New York or Chicago. Prejudiced, me?

[azdak.livejournal.com]

Presumably the American Gene Hunt will be an entirely different kind of person. The British Life on Mars is based on '70s cops shows, like the Sweeney and the Professionals, that were going through a gritty, working class hero phase, full of socially deprived characters, with an Ugly Britain aesthetic (hence the fact that LoM had to be shot in Manchester, hem hem - there aren't enough truly decrepit parts of London left to recreate that abandoned-warehouse Sweeney feel), whereas American 70s cop shows were shiny happy things like Starsky and Hutch and, um, things like Starsky and Hutch. So if they're going to play with viewers' memories of what things were like in the 70s, and specifically of what TV cop shows were like, they'll have to go a totally different route anyway, or viewers really will think they're on Mars. Mr Meaney won't have to play Jack Regan, he'll be Captain Dobey!

[tree_and_leaf]

That's an aspect I hadn't considered - not having seen any US cop shows of the period. It would change the character of the show quite a lot, certainly: perhaps more purely comedic?

Hum.

[azdak.livejournal.com]

That would be my guess - more dwelling on flamboyant 70s fashions and dreadful music, a certain amount of sexism (I'd be surprised if they dared touch racism), and a lot less beating up suspects and swearing.