And of course, "The Third Man".

Love, love, LOVE this movie. I saw it first when I was still in grade school, and the casual cynicism of it was a huge revelation. That and the fact that people weren't acting like they did in the movies I was used to (i.e. the hero was clueless and out of his depth, and didn't get the girl, plus an outrageously charismatic "villain"). Also, best entrance evah!

Then again, that never stopped them from casting too old for other parts

Yeah. God knows I adore Rickman-as-Snape, but seriously, he's 17 years older than Thewlis, who's playing his contemporary. I can't imagine anyone else in the role though.

Friel is 29 but can easily play early 20's, so the age probably isn't the issue. Her screen presence is very... effervescent. Although more in a pouty way than I'd imagine Tonks to be, although that's probably the roles I've seen her in.

I hear Imelda Staunton has been tapped as Umbridge. That's a terrific bit of casting there.

Also, best entrance evah!

Ooooh yeah. The cat and the shadow and man, the whole bit was masterful. And who can forget the cuckoo clock speech? And it has one of my top five last scenes of any movie EVER, that long, silent walk, with that utterly crushing contempt--nay, worse than that, indifference--in every line of her body. So fucking pitiless. I love it.

Back when Half-Blood Prince was published this summer, Entertainment Weekly had some casting suggestions for the movie version, including (my favorite) Brian Cox as Scrimgeour. I'd love to see Cox in the HP movies, period.

I love to see him in just about any movie, Troy being the notable exception.

Brian Cox as Scrimgeour.

Cox would rock in the role. For some reason though, Scrimgeour in my head is thinner--kind of skeletal and rangy, with sort of tough leathery skin. I was thinking of Jeremy Irons.

I can't wait to see who they cast as Luna. Oh, and Slughorn, too.

Watching Manhunter and seeing Brian Cox as the original Hannibal Lecter is startling, to say the least. (Also, William Petersen is (a) damn young, and (b) damn good-looking!)

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The girl on the left (plays Lucy?) could be Loona.

Mmmm'young William Petersen...

And the movie had very young Joan Allen, I think? In sort of the same role Anna Massey played in Peeping Tom. Actually, one of the things I remember the best from the movie is the scene in which the blind Allen lovingly caresses a tiger, which had startlingly lush eroticism about it. And Noonan, I of course remember the best as John Lee Roche from the X-Files episode, "Paper Hearts". Once an X-phile...

Joan Allen was ravishing in that movie. It's weird, that she can be so lovely in her 40s in one way, and then you look back at her in her 20s, and she's lovely in a different way.

(Also, William Petersen is (a) damn young, and (b) damn good-looking!)

He's also bow-legged, which I did not know till I saw that movie.

The funny thing about Tom Noonan is that he's so polite and nice and soft-spoken in interview, and then he turns around and plays the same attributes as creepy on film. I've seen some of What Happened Was, a film he directed, and it's all about the awkward things one reveals to fill up a silence.

Also, I just like the fact that Noonan is 6' 9". He is like a walknig pool cue.

And it has one of my top five last scenes of any movie EVER, that long, silent walk, with that utterly crushing contempt--nay, worse than that, indifference--in every line of her body. So fucking pitiless. I love it.

Which got simulatneously sent up and hommaged (brilliantly) at the end of Altman's THE LONG GOODBYE.

(Also, William Petersen is (a) damn young, and (b) damn good-looking!)

He's also really good (and young) playing an obsessive Treasury agent who's a bit of a serious dickhead in TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A. which also features one of Willam Dafoe's first (and nastiest) turns.