Riding the comedown from the Oscars, Cláudio Alves and Nick Taylor speculate on the remake potential of Best International Film winner, Drive My Car.
CLÁUDIO: April Fools' Day is always a frustrating time to be on Twitter. From nobodies to reputable sources, countless accounts share announcements of fake projects, preposterous stuff that nonetheless feels plausible in our current paradigm. One of those jokey posts reported an American remake of Drive My Car. Though false it rings true; "Foreign" awards season juggernauts are often retrofitted for Hollywood versions. Though they haven't yet seen the light of day, Toni Erdmann, Parasite, and Another Round are all to be remade as English-language features and series.
And yet, outrage couldn't last when someone mentioned a brilliant idea – Oscar Isaac in the Hidetoshi Nishijima role! Maybe because I love great acting, perhaps because I like to imagine Isaac being all sad and hot, my curiosity was piqued. As ever, when the matters of sexy hunks and dream castings arise, I had no choice but to turn to my dear friend Nick Taylor…
So, Nick, what do you think about the possibility of Oscar Isaac in an Americanized version of Drive My Car. Are you as horny/fascinated as I am?
NICK: I sure am! Isaac is an ideal choice for an intelligent, experimental, erotically inspired artist whose depression has left him stuck in his own head thinking about what could have been. It’s a role that feels suited to talents he’s displayed in other projects without being a guy I’ve seen from him before. More than that, it would be a great excuse for the gray-edged, long hair and beard combo that he’s been asked to sport less than I'd like. That same tweet also emphasized maintaining the multi-ethnic casting that runs throughout Drive My Car, and I think this condition would make Isaac even more suitable for the role, both because of his own heritage and as a wink to his culturally broad casting potential (which the man himself joked about on SNL).
Casting Oscar Isaac as Kafuku is such a strong idea that I admittedly haven’t fantasized much about other men to fill up that void. Sterling K. Brown, Ewan McGregor, and John Chu all hold different qualities of melancholy, braininess, and fuckability that could fit nicely into the role. I’d discuss a gender-flipped version, but I suspect we’d be here all day listing women who could pull off a sexy depression (Melanie Lynskey! Emayatzy Corienaldi! Etc...)
What about the other pivotal roles? I know I immediately thought of Ezra Miller as a way too close to home possibility for Takatsuki, and the “hot young star” casting call certainly has a boatload of options. Is there anyone who’d stand out to you for the part?
CLÁUDIO: Oh, Miller is a bit too close to reality to be comfortable. Major yikes. I'm sure that, if this were an actual Hollywood project, whoever was producing would try to court Timothée Chalamet. Or maybe they'd go with another pretty white "it" boy and throw a bone at Jacob Elordi, who recently got a gig as an Oscar presenter for no apparent reason. I mean, he's tall and handsome, but I'm not sure he'd be able to convey all the gradations of vulnerability required by the part. For all his fuckboy energy, Takatsuki is one of Drive My Car's trickiest characters, much thornier and tender than what might appear at surface level.
Indeed, trying to come up with someone in the suitable age bracket who could confidently tackle all those internal complexities is challenging. It needs to be someone relatively young, undeniably hot, but also vulnerable. So much so that a conversation with him can fall into the realm of fatalism, eyes shining with the Byronic pull of self-annihilation. Finally, a sense of danger must manifest from that emotional mess, the threat of tear-stained violence.
I just talked myself into casting Mike Faist, didn't I? Let's do it. Maybe this time, he could get the Oscar nomination he so ardently deserved for West Side Story.
NICK: Faist’s volatility, ambition, and sensitivity make him excellent casting, though I agree it would probably default to someone like Chalamet, who is not at all a bad call for the part. I for one would be interested in Lucas Hedges, who gets at some of those edges in Honey Boy. Or maybe Trevante Rhodes, who’s closer to Masaki Okada’s age, is also incredibly easy on the eyes, and still hasn’t gotten the post-Moonlight breakout I think he deserves (all of which could apply to Beale Street’s Stephan James).
And of course, there’s the women. Oto, Kafuku's wife, is a tough role in part because the script and direction impart qualities of opaque mystery onto the character that Reika Kirishima’s performance largely refutes. Drive My Car is built on her being not completely knowable to Kafuku, in life and in death, yet Oto seems like a normal woman, albeit an exceptional one given her interests. I can see the appeal of casting women like Eva Green or Rebecca Ferguson whose personas have overtly otherworldly qualities, but is that what the role demands? Should Jessica Chastain go another round with Oscar Isaac? Maybe the terrifically relaxed sensuality of Penélope Cruz, or Carrie Coon's agility with brittleness and tender connections? I know who you want for the role, Cláudio, so why not throw her hat into the ring.
CLÁUDIO: You know me. After Passing, I want Ruth Negga to be cast in everything, and Oto feels like the perfect fit for her. Sure, she can be mysterious, but Negga is able to ground her ambivalent allure in underplayed realism when she wants to. I imagine a midpoint between her Oscar-nominated subtlety in Loving and her rightful Oscar-winning magnetism in Passing… What do you mean she didn't win? She wasn't even nominated? Get out of here with your scabrous disinformation. I won't tolerate such nonsense!
How about we move on to Misaki Watari, the driver in Drive My Car? I think American Honey's Sasha Lane could be amazing as the saturnine young woman who sits behind the wheel.
NICK: Sasha Lane’s an excellent idea! I’m curious how Florence Pugh might do in the role, since Misaki is such a taciturn character and Pugh‘s most remarkable trait as an actress is her preternatural expressiveness. Would it be an engaging exercise, an unexpectedly fruitful fit, or a noteworthy miss? Admittedly, I have a smaller reference bank of 20-something actresses who feel right for this role. How about Saniyya Sidney in a few years? Or Elle Fanning now? As someone who doesn’t watch Euphoria, would any of those women make sense? Frankly, I want more from you, Cláudio. Does anyone besides Lane stand out to you? And who would you like to see sitting in the director’s chair?
CLÁUDIO: There's someone I think would be perfect for Misaki, but they're a bit too old. Normally I wouldn't let age be such an issue but it's crucial to the central dynamic of Drive My Car that the protagonists have a modicum of father-daughter vibes. In some regard, they draw so much out of each other because their very presence both fills and accentuates an emptiness in the other's life - a void made by loss, grief, guilt. The actress that made me ponder all of this was Lily Gladstone, whose performance in Certain Women is such a gorgeous portrait of a lonesome soul yearning for connection through a stoic façade. I'm sure she'd nail the part of Misaki, her mysteries and miracles.
Anyway, there's still another role to cast before talking about writer-directors. I think you'd agree that the multilingual Uncle Vanya cast would be ideally made up of less-known theater actors from across the American continent. But who would play the polyglot producer married to one of the actresses? In Drive My Car, Jin Dae-Yeon is a warm presence, playing Kon Yoon-su as a solid and serene supporting force. Whatever actor tries to fill his shoes should have a similar quality. Initially, I considered Jake Lacy because he's shown time and time again that he's an excellent second-fiddle to brilliant actresses. However, Jesse Plemons also springs to mind, as does Brian Tyree Henry. Maybe Randall Park for a more comedic twist on the character?
NICK: Lily Gladstone’s a wonderful choice, and lord knows I’d like to see her in a major part again. The only problem with casting Jesse Plemons is that I’d want Kirsten Dunst to play his wife, which wouldn’t really be kosher for that role. Meanwhile, watching Brian Tyree Henry would only make me want to be his wife, but that’s more of a general thing. Jake Lacey slots in quite nicely, but I’d divert our line of Guys slightly by thinking of soulful giant types - Dave Bautista would be such a sweetheart in this role. Or maybe Jon Bernthal, still wearing those King Richard tennis shorts?
Not that I don’t love thinking about ideal screen husbands, but Cláudio, who would you like to see direct? I for one have not been able to stop thinking about what Marielle Heller might do with this, given that she’s both one of my favorite working directors and someone whose films consistently excel at negotiating art, sexuality, inner turmoil, and deeply complex interpersonal relationships. If we’re thinking about directors who also helmed thorny, singular adaptations this year, perhaps Maggie Gyllenhaal? Or maybe someone completely outside the box Hamaguchi’s directing would suggest - Thomas Vinterberg? Aaron Sorkin? Pablo Lorrain? Sebastian Lelio? Pedro Almodóvar? I’m drowning in names, throw me a life raft! Who do you agree with! Who should we leave off our giant wooden door?
CLÁUDIO: I feel you on that Brian Tyree Henry conundrum. However, I cannot overlook the horror you have made me imagine through those director hypotheses. Why did you put the idea of an Aaron Sorkin-helmed Drive My Car remake out in the world? You've cursed this imaginary production, dooming this nightmare to become a reality. Almodóvar would be a better fit for a European Drive My Car, and I can't imagine Larraín tapping into the quietness the material demands.
On a more positive note, I wrote down a small list of directors for this conclusion and am joyful that we overlap in some names. Marielle Heller feels like a perfect choice for the material. Sebastián Lélio also features among my finalists, mostly because I think he'd knock the prologue out of the park. He's both a master of sensuous melancholy and someone who knows his way around a powerful introduction.
As for those you didn't mention, I can't help but think Sara Colangelo could be a fantastic fit for the material. Moreover, she's already proven herself an excellent American re-maker of international arthouse cinema. The Kindergarten Teacher honors its Israeli original and finds new possibilities for the story in a different cultural setting. Tonally, I also thought about Andrew Ahn, whose casually precise character studies evoke some of the same emotions Drive My Car provoked in me. Finally, I loved Petra Costa's Olmo and the Seagull and would love to see her return to its actor-oriented stage-bound milieu, reflections on performed life, intimacy and theater. Do you like these suggestions, or are Heller and Lélio our final two candidates?
NICK: Your suggestions are, on average, far more merciful than mine. Colangelo is my favorite of the directors you named, though all three of them have really interesting potentials. Ahn's such a dream with actors, and Costa would certainly give his version a visual strategem all its own. Heller’s still my top pick, with Lelio, Colangelo, and Ahn right behind her, in roughly that order.
After trading all these names, I’m really excited to read what the commenters suggest, not just for the cast and director but the crafts too. Who’d be the best editor! The best costume designer! Tell us what sounds cool!
I think it says a lot about us that we saw this joke prompt and ran this far with it, but since I like our ideas a lot, I’m going to say that all of those things that could be said are good, and that more Hollywood casting should be handled by impassioned queers. And I really love this sort of exercise, taking apart a film I think is already so fully realized and putting it together in a completely different cinematic context. Nothing makes me appreciate the art we have now like thinking about other versions of it, for better and for worse, and imagining what might have been, or what could be. I have absolutely no idea if we’ll ever get a remake of Drive My Car, though an announcement is arguably more likely than a finished product. Either way, if it ends up happening, the one thing I really hope for is that it’ll surprise us. Just not an April Fool's surprise.
Drive My Car is currently streaming on HBOMax and MUBI and is available to rent online.