.challenge #19: Second Chance.
.recasting: The Philadelphia Story






The Philadelphia Story



A high-society comedy of manners, which involves the wedding of a socialite, a paparazzi journalist and photographer marauding as wedding guests, an errant and dashing ex-husband, womanizing uncles, daddy issues, more witty repartee than you can poke a rapier at, copious amounts of champagne, balls, mansions, butlers, cases of mistaken identities, and love, love, love, love and human nature.

Kidd: Your assignment will be Spy's most sensational achievement - Tracy Lord. Big game hunting in Africa, fox hunting in Pennsylvania. Married on impulse and divorced in a rage. And always unapproachable by the press. 'The Unapproachable Miss Lord.' 'The Philadelphia Story'...quote 'A Wedding Day Inside Mainline Society.'
Mike: Or: 'What the Kitchen Maid Saw Through the Keyhole.' unquote...quote 'No hunter of buckshot in the rear is Cagey Crafty Connor' unquote, close paragraph.
Liz: Close job, close bank account. But Mr. Kidd, how can you possibly get inside the Lord estate, let alone the house?
Mike: Now we're not gonna do it, Liz, dawgonnit, it's degrading. It's undignified.
Liz: And so is an empty stomach. How do we get in?

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Tracy Lord: Eva Green

Previously played by: Katharine Hepburn, Gracy Kelly.



Dexter: [to Tracy] Not interested in yourself, Red, you're fascinated. You're far and away your favorite person in the world.

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Tracy: Oh, I'm such an unholy mess of a girl.

Runner Ups: Cate Blanchett, Keira Knightley, Nicole Kidman.

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C.K. Dexter Haven: Ewan Mcgregor
(Tracy's ex-husband)

Previously played by: Cary Grant, Bing Crosby.



Dexter: I thought all writers drank to excess and beat their wives. You know one time I secretly wanted to be a writer.
Runner Ups: Robert Downey Jr., George Clooney.

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Macaulay (Mike) Connor: Jude Law
(Reporter from Spy Magazine)

Previously played by: James Stewart, Frank Sinatra.



Macaulay Connor: The prettiest sight in this fine pretty world is the privileged class enjoying its privileges.

Runner Ups: Adrien Brody, James Franco

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Elizabeth Imbrie Natalie Portman
(Photographer from Spy Magazine)

Previously played by: Ruth Hussey, Celeste Holm.



Macaulay Connor: I can fill them in right now: the rich, rapacious, American female. There's no other country where she exists.
Elizabeth (Liz) Imbrie: And would I change places with Tracy Samantha Lord for all her wealth and beauty? Oh boy just ask me.

Runner Ups: Anne Hathaway, Christina Hendricks.

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George Kittredge: Leonardo DiCaprio
(Tracy's fiance)

Previously played by: John Howard, John Lund.



George Kittredge: You're like some marvelous, distant, well, queen, I guess. You're so cool and fine and always so much your own. There's a kind of beautiful purity about you, Tracy, like, like a statue.
Tracy Lord: George...
George Kittredge: Oh, it's grand, Tracy. It's what everybody feels about you. It's what I first worshipped you for from afar.
Tracy Lord: I don't want to be worshipped. I want to be loved.

Runner Ups: Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, Jack Davenport.

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Dinah Lord: Dakota Fanning
(Tracy's younger sister)

Previously played by: Virginia Weidler, Lydia Reed.



Elizabeth (Liz) Imbrie: There's a cousin, Joanna, who's definitely crazy.
Macaulay Connor: Who told you that.
Elizabeth (Liz) Imbrie: Dinah.
Macaulay Connor: Well Dinah would know.

Runner Ups: None.

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Uncle Willie: George Clooney
(Tracy's uncle, Seth Lord's younger brother)

Previously played by: Roland Young, Louis Clahern.



Uncle Willie: [hung over] This is one of those days that the pages of history teach us are best spent lying in bed.

Runner Ups: Willem Dafoe, Bill Murray.

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Margaret Lord: Meryl Streep
(Tracy's Mother)

Previously played by: Mary Nash, Margalo Gillmore.



Tracy: If you just face the facts squarely as I did.
Margaret: We both might face the fact that neither of us have proved to be a very great success as a wife.
Tracy: We just picked the wrong first husbands, that's all.

Runner Ups: Helen Mirren.

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Seth Lord: Harrison Ford
(Tracy's Father)

Previously played by: John Halliday, Sidney Blackmer.



Seth Lord: What most wives fail to realize is that their husband's philandering has nothing whatever to do with them.
Tracy Lord: Oh? Then what has it to do with?
Seth Lord: A reluctance to go grow old, I think.

Runner Ups: Sean Connery, Anthony Hopkins.

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Bonus Casting: Lee Pace as Sandy Lord, Tracy's brother from the Broadway play



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A couple of miscellaneous cast pictures:






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fin

Comments are love.