Cast the Novel

El Patron:

Murray, Mr Andrew. "Old Man in the Wheelchair." Flickr. Yahoo!, 18 Apr. 2009. Web. 07 Mar. 2012. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrandrewmurray/3450737675/>.

“Very dark indeed is his majesty when he wants to be. When he was young, he made a choice, like a tree does when it decides to grow one way or the other. he grew large and green until he shadowed over the whole ofrest, but most of his branches are twisted.” - Tam Lin speaking about El Patron. (Page 70)

“El Patron’s sisters were carried off by typhoid when they were so small.” - Speaking about El Patron. (Page 58)

This is our actor who will be playing El Patron. This photograph was taken apart of the “Old Person’s Home’ exhibit by Sun Yuan and Peng Yu. This old man is the perfect actor for El Patron because he fits the description so well. “He was extremely thin, with shoulder-length white hair neatly combed beside a face so seamed and wrinkled, it hardly seemed real.” This man definitely has white hair, he is relatively thin and is very wrinkly. Wrinkles are a sign of oldness, as El Patron is 140 years as mentioned on page 54. El Patron was also from a place called Durango in Mexico. That being said, we can assume that he has a olive coloured skin, which is why I choose someone with a darker skin town. El Patron reminded me of someone who was evil or twisted, as a quote in the book mentioned that El Patron was like a tree, but most of his branches were twisted. Furthermore, the man looks sad in the picture. El Patron must be saddened with his life as he has had a terrible childhood where all his siblings died young.

Matt:

"He understood he was only a photograph of a human, and that mean't he wasn't really important. Photographs could lie forgotten in drawers for years. They could be thrown away." (Page 84)

This is the Actor we have chosen to be Matt. I felt like this picture was perfect. His expression really relates to the story. I chose this boy because relating back to Angel's paragraph about El Patron, we assumed he would have relatively darker hair considering El Patron is from Durango, Mexico. As we know, Matt is El Patron's clone so I have made the inference that they would both have somewhat of a similar skin tone. Looking at his expression I could clearly relate it to his personality. Living with Celia his entire life, he is very attached and dependant on her. Page 6 - "So Matt allowed her to go, but he was angry at the same time. It was a funny kind of anger, for he felt like crying too. The house was so lonely without t Celia singing, banging pots, or talking about people he had never seen and never would see." As he grew older he started to become more and more curious, noticing the little things such as realizing the poppy fields were not so empty, he saw horses and with that his curiosity grew stronger. I really can see the curiosity in his face. Lastly, he is quite short tempered. You can't make that inference from this picture but in page 46 when he gets taunted by Tom, he snaps fairly quickly and throws a rotten orange at his face.




Tom:

We have chosen this boy to be Tom. Page 44 - When Tom was first introduced, Tom described him as "A boy somewhat older than himself, with bristly red hair and freckles. He is known to be somewhat of a 'rebel' considering he tried to drown Maria's Cat. This picture really reflects that, his expression really shows that he is somewhat of a rebel or mischievous. Furthermore, Tom seems to be really two-faced. Just like Matt stated in Page 96 "He could be courteous and helpful on the surface, but you never know what was going on underneath." He often treated Matt very poorly so I wanted to find a photo of a boy that looked like a trouble-maker and this seemed to be the best fit. After the fight with Matt on page 66, Tom apologized and pretended to be innocent when frankly he was the one to start the fight, and he wasn't really sorry, again this really backs up the 'two-faced' point.

Maria: Genevieve Hannelius

I chose G. Hannelius to play Maria because I would imagine her as a little girl who is very vibrant, small, and delightful. She 13 years old, born in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., and has been acting since 2009. Her most popular appearances were in Sonny With A Chance, Good Luck Charlie, and Den Brother.

G. Hannelius can portray a young and smaller girl (page 15) who is observant, like Maria. Maria is observant about the current situation but she doesn’t look towards the future for what will happen. Like when Tom, Matt and her heard the noise in the distance so they wanted to go check it out (Matt didn’t necessarily want to go, but he went along anyway). Maria didn’t want to back out of the plan, or wherever they were going, because she believed it was a cat weeping. Maria does not make a big affect on others, or in other words she doesn’t have a big say in decisions, except for when it comes to Matt. She can make a big effect on Matt because Matt really cares about her. Matt became a whole other person just because he wanted Maria to sit with him and not Tom at El Patron’s party ( page 103). Maria is incredibly stubborn as well, because she believes in her opinion only, when she has decided something she normally will follow through with her decision or opinion. Like on page 30 even though Maria wasn’t told to go see Matt because he is an animal/clone she still went because she liked Matt. Or this situation could be seen as, nice and forgiving, or like she has a short term memory because something tragic would happen and then a second later she is happy! Lastly, Maria clings and holds on to the things she has, for example: she holds onto Furball because she’s scared she’ll leave like her mother did. 

Tam Lin: Gerard Butler 

Gerard Butler would be suitable to play the role of Tam Lin because he is not only from Scotland but he is thick necked, has a flattened noes, and has piercing blue eyes (page 63).  He began acting in 1997, and is currently 42 years old, is 6”2, and is most commonly known for his roles in 300, P.S. I love you, how to train your dragon, and Nims Land.

When Matt had his first look at Tam Lin he described him as “brutal”, but eventually he thought Tam Lin gave of a hint of friendliness after he looked into his eyes. My first look at Gerard would be the same, which is part of the reason why I chose him to play Tam Lin’s role. Throughout the book Tam Lim proves Matt’s friendly prediction correct, he definitely gives of an attentive and kind spirit towards Matt. Tam Lin brings Matt to a pond where no one else knows about, this would show how much he trusts Matt (page 79). Tam Lin also gives Matt books to read on page 149. Matt realizes he is uneducated on page 149, after Tam Lin wrote a note to him.