When the DC title “My Greatest Adventure” was converting to a superhero and adventure comic book in 1963, writers Arnold Drake and Bob Haney along with artist Bruno Premiani created The Doom Patrol.
The Doom Patrol was a team of super-powered misfits regarded as freaks by the world at large. Dr Niles Caulder motivated the original Doom Patrol, bitter from being isolated from the world, to use their powers for the greater good. The series was such a success that My Greatest Adventure was officially retitled The Doom Patrol beginning with issue #86. Over the years the roster has changed many times, the only constant member was Robotman.
I loved the Doom Patrol and the weirdness that comes with the book. Writers Paul Kupperburg and Grant Morrison tried to bring new life in to this band of misfits in the late 1970’s and again in the late 1980’s, but it wasn’t until John Byrne had put his version out and since I loved his work on The Fantastic Four, which I think copies the Doom Patrol more than The X-Men, I had to go back and read the older stories.
The Doom Patrol's rogues gallery matched the strange, weird tone of the series. Villains included the immortality-seeking General Immortus, the shape shifting Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man, and the Brotherhood of Evil led by the Brain, an actual brain kept alive by technology. The Brotherhood of Evil also included the intelligent gorilla Monsieur Mallah and Madame Rouge.
Mento-Steve Dayton/Joaquin Phoenix
Steve Dayton, one of the world's richest men, builds a helmet to enhance his mental abilities and calls himself Mento. This is an attempt on Dayton's part to impress Elasti-Girl (a.k.a Rita Farr) of the Doom Patrol. Phoenix is a great emotional actor and he would be a great arrogant billionaire. I think he is to Mento as what RDJ is to Iron Man.
Elasti Girl-Rita Farr/Eliza Dushku
Rita Farr is an Olympic swimming gold medalist turned Hollywood actress, who is exposed to unusual volcanic gases while shooting a film in Africa. When Farr recovers, she discovers that she can expand or shrink her body at will — from hundreds of feet tall to mere inches in height. I try not to be repetitive and I have never used Dushku in a fancast before since she is used so much. I then realized why she is used so much. She would have great chemistry with Phoenix as well. I know one person who will love this pick.
Negative Man-Larry Trainor/Cole Hauser
Larry Trainor had become a superhero when he was accidentally exposed to a radioactive field in the atmosphere while piloting a test plane. This experience leaves him radioactive himself, but also gives him a strange superpower: the ability to release a negatively-charged energy being from his body.
Robotman-Cliff Steele/Will Smith
Cliff Steele became Robotman after a race car accident destroyed his body. Caulder subsequently placed Cliff's intact brain into a robotic body. I’m going with the famous race change on this because I think it suits the character better. I want a very easily recognizable star to play Robotman since it will be mostly be voice work.
The Chief-Dr. Niles Caulder-Harrison Ford
Dr. Niles Caulder is a paraplegic gifted with a genius-level intellect. Caulder uses his scientific knowledge to develop numerous inventions and innovations that have made him wealthy. Caulder founded and organized the team called Doom Patrol to protect the innocent and fight crime, and to teach humanity to accept others who live as ostracized "freaks," who have been radically transformed from terrible accidents. Ford against Eastwood is the reason for this cast. Just having a scene with these two is worth the price of admission, even if it’s mostly voice over or commentary. And Ford can play a genius and a doctor. He did in the movie Extraordinary Measures.
The Brain-Gerard Depardieu
He is a French mastermind and criminal genius. The man who would one day become known as the Brain performed experiments on animals to raise their intelligence. One of these was on a captured gorilla, raising its I.Q. to the genius-level of 178. He named the gorilla Monsieur Mallah and educated him for almost a decade before making him his personal assistant. Depardieu is a great French actor and he doesn’t have a lot of recognition in America. I think his voice is all that is needed for this part. The man isn’t eye candy that’s for sure.
Monsieur Mallah-Jean Reno
Mallah was an above average ape that was the subject of The Brain’s experiment making him a loyal and brutal ally. Reno has a very deep voice and a thick accent which would be perfect for this role.
Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man-Rupert Everett
Dr. Sven Larsen is a Swedish scientist and a former student of Niles Caulder, but they had a falling out after Larsen accused Caulder of stealing his idea for the anti-decay ray. Larsen gains his superpowers after falling into a vat of amino acids. This FX driven character would be portrayed by a tall unusual looking actor. Everett fits the bill and I can’t remember seeing him in any other fancast.
Garguax-Val Kilmer
Garguax is an exiled leader from an unnamed planet. He has no special abilities and is quite slow due to his obesity and size. It seems Kilmer has been preparing for this role and will be ready if this movie ever gets made.
Madame Rogue-Marion Cottilard
Laura De Mille was originally a French stage actress. After an automobile accident, she developed a dual good/evil split personality. At this point, she attracted the notice of The Brain and his associate, Monsieur Mallah.
The Brain performed surgery on De Mille that suppressed her good personality and allowed her evil personality to remain dominant. At first, Madame Rouge was simply a master of disguise; subsequent surgery by the Brain eventually gave her the ability to alter her appearance and stretch her limbs. Coming off of a supporting role in The Dark Knight Rises, I would put Cottilard’s beauty up in the spotlight as a major player and the only female member of the Brotherhood.
And.......
General Immortus-Clint Eastwood
General Immortus, criminal genius, is perhaps centuries old, and his origins are shrouded in mystery; at some points it has even been implied that Immortus' origins lie in ancient antiquity. I always wanted to use Clint Eastwood in a fancast and the only other role he is perfect for at his age is Old Man Logan. He would be my Ledger for this movie.
Special Guest Cameo
Beast Boy/Changeling-Garfield Logan/Aaron Johnson
Some similarities exist between the original Doom Patrol and Marvel Comics' original X-Men. Both include misfit superheroes shunned by society and both are led by men of preternatural intelligence confined to wheelchairs. These similarities ultimately led series writer Arnold Drake to argue that the concept of the X-Men must have been based on the Doom Patrol.
Drake stated:
“ ...I’ve become more and more convinced that [Stan Lee] knowingly stole The X-Men from The Doom Patrol. Over the years I learned that an awful lot of writers and artists were working surreptitiously between [Marvel and DC]. Therefore from when I first brought the idea into [DC editor] Murray Boltinoff’s office, it would’ve been easy for someone to walk over and hear that [I was] working on a story about a bunch of reluctant superheroes who are led by a man in a wheelchair. So over the years I began to feel that Stan had more lead time than I realized. He may well have had four, five or even six months. ”
(X-Men #1 debuted three months after MGA #80; due to publication lag times, Lee could not have known of the Doom Patrol when he scripted the first X-Men story unless he had been told about it in advance of its publication.) Sorry Gusto..!
I think this cast has a lot of diversity and each actor could perform well with the others. The voice over work, I think is the hardest for these actors. I picked the professional actors with enough skill to make sure this didn't come off sounding like an animated film.
Theses heroes would be able to take on any clear and present danger. All the criminals would be unforgiven in their evil deeds. 2014 would be a good year to cause hysteria in the box office. I would grab the car keys and pass the stop signs just to get to the theater to see this flick.
*Information provided by Wikipedia, DC Archives, Who's Who and CBMTrolls.