GONE GIRL CASTING QUESTIONS: TOLDJA! Tyler Perry to play Tanner Bolt in Gone Girl #book2movie

First, to any 'regular' readers out there, I'm baaaaack. I got slammed with real life stuff about a week or so ago and have been so busy dealing, I've neglected our passion for bookish movie news. But I am back and with an "I told you so!" Tyler Perry has officially been cast as Tanner Bolt, the spray-tanned celeb lawyer in Gone Girl. Back in July, I toldja in my post they were looking at Perry for Gone Girl; there were smatterings that he might play one of the cops. I knew that couldn't be true; the only cop part worth playing in Gone Girl is Boney, the female detective. That part has just gone to Kim Dickens. Apparently, the director was sold on Perry for Bolt when he saw his work in Alex Cross. So much for the detective theory! 

Remember how Boney is introduced in the book? 

Nick tells us "The woman was surprisingly ugly - brazenly, beyond the scope of everyday ugly: tiny round eyes set tight as buttons, a long twist of a nose, skin spackled with tiny bumps, long lank hair the color of a dust bunny."

Yikes! Sure hope Ms. Dickens doesn't take the casting personally; the madam on Deadwood, seen most recently in Treme, Dickens isn't 'surprisingly ugly' by any means but she does have an interesting face, full of character. I hope she'll bring the dogged determination to the part of the bulldog detective with a reluctant soft spot for Nick Dunne.

Nope, Perry will not be playing the much more minor role of Detective Gilpin - that part has been given to Patrick Fugit, the Cameron Crowe discovery we loved in Almost Famous. Fugit hasn't garnered a ton of attention since; most recently he was a video documentarian in Cinema Verite, the vampire's assistant in Cirque de Freak. In the image above from Crowe's We Bought a Zoo, Fugit is the guy with the bird on his shoulders.

Rounding out the cast, Tony-nominated actress Carrie Coon (shown above as Honey in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) has been tapped to play O, Nick Dunne's twin sister and co-owner of the bar. The pair are typical twins, knowing each other like a book, feeling understandably protective towards each other. Frankly, I don't know Coon's work but I like her look; she's up next in the Ironside television show reboot starring Blair Underwood. 

The key remaining role to be cast is Amy's mother, she and Rand are cloyingly close and almost inappropriately affectionate. They are also the authors of the Amazing Amy series of books. I'd suggest Jane Fonda if she wasn't already so damn busy - can't wait to see her in This is Where I Leave You.

The remaining roles I'm curious about are Desi's hovering mother and that of Tanner's wife; in the novel he's white and she's black. That was an interesting dynamic; it's a very different dynamic now that Tanner's black. Switching it up and giving him a white wife doesn't do the same thing at all. I like the bi-racial marriage in the book but the last thing I want to see is a typical white trophy wife; hoping Fincher uses a strong black actress.

It looks like Fincher is ready to go; location scouts have been all over Cape Girardeaux to stand in for the fictional New Carthage, Missouri town and the production staff is in place. As a former production coordinator, I can tell you that folks in the area should see cameras rolling any day now.  AND location wise it looks more and more like a Dunne deal; according to the South East Missourian construction crews have been hammering away turning the former Social's Cafe and Catering on Cape Girardeaux' Themis Street into Nick and O's bar. 

Gone Girl stars Ben Affleck (Nick Dunne), Rosamund Pike (Amy), Neil Patrick Harris (Desi Collings), Kim Dickens (Detective Boney), Detective Gilpin (Patrick Fugit), Carrie Coons (O), Tyler Perry (Tanner Bolt) and David Cullen (Rand Elliot).

Thoughts? 

READ ALL THE GONE GIRL POSTS HERE