‘Everybody’s in movies’: calling the powers that be with further unsolicited casting ideas for their upcoming movie on The Kinks

‘Ah, Tom is young and Tom is bold’: could Tom Hughes be the one to fill out the infamous Avory underpants?

‘Can’t get these people off my back’: Mick had had enough by 1984.

I’m assuming the Julien Temple-Jeremy Thomas film project about The Kinks is progressing though I’ve no idea what stage of development it’s now reached. Last I heard Ray Davies had quibbles about initial treatments. But with no updates forthcoming, fingers crossed no news is good news. And brothers Ray and Dave Davies seem to have both attended a family get-together this month without visible rancour, a positive sign that relations haven’t broken down.

Still, I have no intention of shirking my duties and will continue to seek out and propose contenders for the main roles.[1]

With that in mind, I’d like to suggest Brit Tom Hughes (above left) for the backbone of the band, stalwart, laconic drummer Mick Avory. Recently seen this actor playing a moody, disaffected rebel simmering with unfocused attitude in a dead-end factory job in Cemetery Junction. I think the two of them look remarkably alike and I’ll wager Tom could wear the infamous Avory underpants with something approaching style.

‘Put on your pin-striped suit’: Matthew Goode as the 70s corporate cocksucker in Cemetery Junction.

‘Hello people we used to be’: who should play Pete in the movie?

In fact, also in that film, Matthew Goode (pictured left) played the oily, caddish, chauvinistic salesman with considerable aplomb. Maybe he could get his acting chops into the part of fashion-conscious, scooter-riding mod bassist Pete Quaife, to whom he bears a passing resemblance?

Meanwhile, a friend has suggested singer-actor Carl Barat might make a reasonable stab at Ray Davies. There are physical similarities, for sure – hair and eyes – but Carl’s nose looks a little too distinctive to me. I still can’t find a credible or convincing Ray.

‘But he’s been practising days to make his hair fall a certain way’: Libertine Carl Barat.

Michael Mosley still gets my vote for Dave Davies, at least at one stage in his life. Since recommending him in the last bashful blog on the subject, I’ve witnessed his turn in the final season of Scrubs.

In the medical sitcom, his character Drew is described by girlfriend Denise (Eliza Coupe) as a ‘med student who thinks he’s way cooler than he is … kind of a serial killer vibe’, one of those self-reflexive in-jokes as the actor is regularly cast as such.

The 5′ 10½”[2] native of Iowa says of their on-screen relationship, ‘We’re going to continue to be weird and creepy and awkward together.’

‘So don’t shoot me’: Michael Mosley gets his weapon out in Castle.

The epitome of effortless charismatic cool, to the knuckle-biting envy of previous students, he boasts one of the most intriguing backstories ever created. This imbues his understated delivery of the best lines, such as ‘I lost my virginity to a sofa’, ‘I’ve eaten out of dumpsters’, ‘I’ve been through my bald black dude phase. No, seriously, I have’ with throwaway panache. Playing an ex-con with a scary tattoo, he also rocks a set of scrubs.

But back to the movie, producer Jeremy Thomas, who has secured the rights to both Kinks brothers’ autobiographies, has said of the project: ‘It’s incredibly exciting, a unique tale, the Cain and Abel of rock’.

I don’t think that in the case of the Davies there was ever a clean distinction between bad and good brother, however. It was more a story of faults on both sides and a basic personality clash that became more pronounced the more time they were forced to spend together, exacerbated by familiarity and proximity, as most sibling rivalries are. With conflict the essence of drama, the story should make a memorable movie, replete with its fair quota of ‘celluloid villains and heroes’.

‘He would still turn round and smile’: Michael Mosley flashes a grin in Pan Am.

Director Julien Temple has worked with both Ray and Dave before so presumably has their trust in this endeavour though I imagine that, as work progresses on You Really Got Me, the movie, it’ll be harder and harder to keep both parties satisfied.

If you’ve any ideas about people who would make passable Davies brothers in the film, perhaps one of Dave Davies’s sons, whom I haven’t considered yet, please let me know via comments. The same goes for the other band members.

Don’t worry, though, bashful is still on the case and will keep burrowing relentlessly to snout out more possibles for the roles.

Check out a blog on a recent Jackie Leven tribute evening here.

Lyrics from kindakinks.net.

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[1] I’ll disregard Dave’s facetious suggestion that Peter Kay play Ray.

[2] I love that he puts in that half an inch, being someone who would never dream of omitting the three-quarters of an inch that completes my own vertical dimension.