Movie Matchmaker: Alfonso Cuaron's Odd Thomas
by Brian Tallerico

THE MOVIE

Here's the point in Movie Matchmaker where we usually detail the development of the film based on the novel. Sadly, there has been no movement outside of optimistic message board postings from people who've read the book and seen its potential. Most of them focus on who should play the lead, a role that could be star-making in the right hands. Personally, we'd like to see an unknown in the role. Tobey Maguire's name pops up on message boards (and that's in the right ballpark), but Tobey's too old now and brings too much of his own baggage. Who's the next Tobey Maguire? The next Jake Gyllenhaal? Patrick Fugit's not a bad idea - closer to the right age - but the way to go here is to find someone almost completely new and then maybe put a few recognizable faces around him to draw in the ticket-buyers - kind of like how the Harry Potter movies cast unknowns in the major roles and then put every available major English actor around them, giving the new faces a virtual cloak of respectability. Anyway, we're getting ahead of ourselves. We need a director first.

THE ALTERNATES

With the mix of whimsy and darkness, Tim Burton seems like an obvious choice. Too obvious. The last thing any of us want is "Bigger Fish," and you just know that Burton would cast Johnny Depp and CGI him to look younger. Odd Thomas starring Johnny Depp simply doesn't work. (Ditto Freddie Highmore.) M. Night Shyamalan seems obvious too and, let's be honest, he could use a hit, but he brings SO much baggage to anything supernatural, and Koontz has enough of a second-rate reputation to shake already. (And no one wants to risk Night casting himself as Odd.) The final clearly obvious choice and the best of the three would be Frank Darabont. He has an incredible ability to mix the vaguely supernatural with the real as he did in The Green Mile, and he's made Stephen King movies much more tolerable, so why not Koontz? Honestly, if Darabont got the gig, we wouldn't cry foul, but we like to think a little left of center here at Movie Matchmaker.

On that note, consider Wes Anderson. The man knows whimsical (sometimes TOO much so), and it would add an air of authenticity to the project that would force independent film fans - the ones most likely to dismiss a Koontz movie sight unseen - to take the project seriously. If Richard Kelly could be reined in and forced to actually keep the plot moving, his take on Odd Thomas with its alternate worlds full of demon creatures and a character called "Fungus Man" might be riveting but we'll have to wait for Southland Tales to become the cult hit it eventually will (or for his next project, The Box, to really take off) for anyone to consider Kelly for a major project again. Finally, Jean-Pierre Jeunet has always had an ability to meld fantasy and emotion that would work well for Odd Thomas, but we'd want Marc Caro to come back for that one too. It would almost be worth it just to have Dominique Pinon play Fungus Man.

Movie Matchmaker: Alfonso Cuaron's Odd Thomas Page 3