Lebowski Fest
hungry101,
I was actually thinking that as part of the Lebowski Fest we could stage a reenactment of various scenes from the movie. I have met certain MERB members who would be good for various parts such as Doc Holliday playing "The Dude" (he would have to grow his hair longer), Special K as Walter Sobchak (no acting would be required on all the "Shut The Fuck Up Donny" lines - because Joe T would be the perfect Donny). I know they could pull those roles off.
For Bunny Lebowski I would suggest Oceanne or Lya of XXXtase and for Maude Lebowski, Charlie of Eleganza.
I would like to play Jackie Treehorn.
Cast and characters from "The Big Lebowski":
* Jeff Bridges as Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski, a single, unemployed slacker living in Venice, California, who enjoys marijuana, Creedence Clearwater Revival, White Russians, and bowling. He has a very laid-back approach to life and seems unconcerned with money. Jeff Bridges had heard or was told by the Coen brothers that they had written a screenplay for him. The Dude is mostly inspired by Jeff Dowd, a member of the anti-war radical group the Seattle Seven (The Dude actually mentions during the film that he was one of the Seattle Seven), and a friend of the Coen brothers, Pete Exline, a Vietnam War veteran, who actually found a twelve-year old's homework in his stolen car.
* John Goodman as Walter Sobchak, a Vietnam War veteran, and the Dude's best friend and bowling teammate. Walter runs his own security firm, Sobchak Security, and places the rules of bowling second in reverence only to the rules of his adopted religion, Judaism, as evidenced by his strict stance against 'rolling' on Shabbos. He seems to have been quite dominated by his now ex-wife (for whom he converted), and still quickly does whatever she commands him to do. He is unstable, has a violent temper, and is given to pulling out a handgun in order to settle disputes. He says the Gulf War was all about oil and claims to have dabbled in pacifism. He constantly mentions Vietnam in conversations. He is based on screenwriter John Milius, who is a friend of the Coen Brothers, and Lew Abernathy, a friend of Peter Exline.
* Steve Buscemi as Theodore Donald "Donny" Kerabatsos, a member of Walter and the Dude's bowling team. Charmingly naïve, Donny is an avid bowler and frequently interrupts Walter's diatribes to inquire about the parts of the story he missed or did not understand, provoking Walter's abusive and frequently repeated response, "Shut the fuck up, Donny!" This line is a reference to Fargo, the Coen Brothers' previous film, in which Buscemi's character was constantly talking. Donny bowls only strikes the entire movie, the only exception being the scene before he dies of a heart attack.
* David Huddleston as Jeffrey Lebowski, the "Big" Lebowski referred to in the movie's title, is a wheelchair-bound multi-millionaire who is married to Bunny and is Maude's father by his late wife. He lost the use of his legs in Korea and seems to despise the Dude, whom he calls "a bum".
* Julianne Moore as Maude Lebowski, the Big Lebowski's daughter. She is a feminist and an avant-garde artist whose work "has been commended as being strongly vaginal". She is good friends with video artist Knox Harrington (David Thewlis), and is possibly the person who introduced Bunny to Uli Kunkel (Peter Stormare), the nihilist, porn star, new wave musician and would-be kidnapper.
* Tara Reid as Bunny Lebowski; born Fawn Knutsen, she is the Big Lebowski's "trophy wife". She ran away from her family's farm in Moorhead, Minnesota and soon found herself making pornographic videos (such as Logjammin') under the name "Bunny LaJoya". According to Reid, Charlize Theron tried out for the role of Bunny.
* Philip Seymour Hoffman as Brandt, a sycophant and loyal assistant to the Big Lebowski, who tries to please everyone. Hoffman auditioned for the film and had to do the scene where Brandt shows the Dude around Jeffrey Lebowski's office.
* Sam Elliott as The Stranger, the film's narrator, who sees this story unfold from an unbiased perspective. His narration is marked by a thick, laid-back Western accent.
* Ben Gazzara as Jackie Treehorn, a wealthy pornographer and loan shark who lives in Malibu. He employs the two thugs who assault the Dude in his home at the beginning of the movie.
* Peter Stormare, Torsten Voges and Flea play The Nihilists, composed of Uli Kunkel (aka "Karl Hungus"), Franz and Dieter respectively. They are Germans who claim to be nihilists, along with Kunkel's ex-girlfriend (Aimee Mann), and they pretend to be the ones who kidnapped Bunny. The character of Uli originated on the set of Fargo between Ethan Coen and Stormare, who would often speak in a mock German accent.
* John Turturro as Jesus Quintana, an opponent of the Dude's and Walter's team in the bowling league semifinals match. This eccentric, Latino, trash-talking North Hollywood resident speaks with a thick Cuban-American accent, and often refers to himself in the third person, insisting on the English pronunciation of his name (GEE-zus) rather than the Spanish (Heh-SOOS). "The Jesus", as he refers to himself, is a pedophile and generally creepy pervert who did six months in Chino for exposing himself to an eight-year old. Turturro originally thought that he was going to have a bigger role in the film but when he read the script, he realized that it was much smaller. However, the Coen brothers let him come up with a lot of his own ideas for the character, like shining the bowling ball and the scene where he dances backwards, which he says was inspired by Muhammad Ali.]
* Jon Polito as Da Fino, a private investigator hired by Bunny Lebowski's parents, the Knutsens, to entice their daughter back to their farm in Moorhead, Minnesota. Da Fino, who drives a battered blue Volkswagen Beetle (in reference to the Coen Brothers' first film, Blood Simple), mistakes the Dude for a "brother shamus" (a fellow P.I.), and offends the Dude by referring to Maude as his "special lady" and not the Dude's preferred term, "my fucking lady friend".
Minor characters
* David Thewlis as Knox Harrington, the Video Artist
* Mark Pellegrino as Blond Treehorn Thug
* Jimmie Dale Gilmore as Smokey
* Jack Kehler as Marty
* Leon Russom as Kohl the Malibu Police Chief
* Aimee Mann as Nihilist Woman, Franz' Girlfriend
