box of slice character breakdown

[poor fool]

(probably safer to remove all of this)

[Purple Tentacle]

That sounds very very interesting, I'm sure we'd all love to see it!

There is of course the cloak of anonymity in posting on message boards, and unless your friend is  {edit - probably safer to remove that bit, don't want to risk anyone getting fired},, the only person who has access to this info, I can't see it getting him into trouble.

Production companies practically rely on "leaks" to maintain interest in their projects anyway......

[poor fool]

The Lead character has been cast but relates in this breakdown to several other characters. A brief character breakdown for this part below - it may help in reflecting the 'world' of Box of Slice. In his mid-20's and hails from a fairly comfortable background. After leaving University drifted from one small job to another before reinventing himself as a 'freelancer' - but it is never clear what he actually does. Claims to be working on screenplays, media 'events' etc etc, without any of these things coming to fruition. Has a short attention span and is too shallow and ill-informed to even pass as a proper pseudo-intellectual. Beneath a fashionable, confident and knowing exterior lurks a bewildered posh boy grasping for some sort of fulfilling role in life. Tries to affect an air of nonchalance that is both painfully studied and rigidly defended. Pretentious, shallow and ultimately lost.





Production: Box of Slice Production Type: Television Synopsis: A 6 x 30 min comedy for Channel 4, written and directed by Chris Morris, satirizing the world of  pretentious new media types who work for a design and lifestyle magazine in London. We are looking for experienced actors with strong naturalistic comedy skills Company: Talkback Director: Chris Morris Producer: Derrin Schlesinger Location: London Casting Venue: Talkback Thames Shooting / Rehearsal Dates: Shoot dates: June and July 2004, with part time rehearsals from mid April onwards. Fees / Agreements / Contracts: Final Date for Submissions: 19 May 2004





Roles being cast:
Role: RUFUS and NED, early to mid 20's Sex: M Description: Both Ned and Rufus are graphic designers who work for 'Sugar Rape' magazine (based in Hoxton; think along the lines of Dazed  Confused/Sleaze Nation style mags in terms of what they produce); they are both aged early to mid 20's, the type of people who get a fashionable haircut issued to them practically by default. They are quite pathetic really - they look up to the Lead character, who they think is cool, groundbreaking and a very funny man - in reality he is none of these things. Slight twinges of laddishness erupt every now and again (but underneath they are both mummy's dweebs). Entirely style over content types; self constructed and self conscious personalities- could be very exotic looking. Agreements/Contracts/Fees:





Role: SASHA, aged late 20's, early 30's Sex: F Description: Sasha is the receptionist/PA at 'Sugar Rape' - she is one of the few sensible people who work there. Aged late 20's / early 30's. She is generally a cool clear head in a sea of barking lads and arseholes - restores organisation and order, just gets on with her job, whilst others around her may try to 'look' like they are doing theirs. She doesn't stand any nonsense from the blokes in the office - definitely not wet/weak. She is simply a more sorted individual than most of those around her - more emotionally mature. She should be reasonably good looking (this would have been part of the criteria for hiring her no doubt). Agreements/Contracts/Fees:





Role: MANDY, aged 19/20 Sex: F Description: Mandy is a fucked-up rich girl with a terrible coke habit - she does some modelling for 'Sugar Rape' (thus should be good looking). She must be able to pass for 13/14 years old if you were told that's how old she is - but in reality she is 19/20. Think Britney Spears in the 'Hit Me Baby One More Time' video, all pigtails and short skirts, playing on a childlike sexuality.  She is utterly self-centred, untalented (but might like to be a singer one day), unstable, easily confused. Think Tara P-T on a coke binge (except not quite so posh), could veer from laughter to tears in the space of a sentence. In order to get drug money she gives the Lead character a blow job - she is a real mess. This is a big and difficult guest role - it needs a very capable actress, even though she is young. Agreements/Contracts/Fees:





Role: MONIKA, aged up to mid 20's Sex: F Description: Monika is aged up to mid 20's and works as a barista in a coffee shop near to 'Sugar Rape'. English is not her first language - she could be Eastern European, Malaysian or other - she speaks in broken English and this is where much of her humour comes from - in reality the actress would need to be fluent in English for the character to work. Should be quite pretty - the Lead character wants to show off in front of her, he is a regular customer. By nature she is quite reserved and polite. The actress should be very strong comedically. Agreements/Contracts/Fees:





Role: PAULO, aged mid-late 30's Sex: M Description: Manages the coffee shop where Monika works, mid to late 30's. Could be Italian or have a slight Aussie accent. Is not impressed by the Lead character who is a regular customer. He is self-contained, sneery. Could be any ethnicity. Agreements/Contracts/Fees:





Role: ROBIN, aged late 20's - mid 30's Sex: M Description: Robin is the financial manager for Place - which is an Art Space, something akin to ICA/Third Eye in its heyday - a place where lots of arty things occur; installations, exhibitions, performance art etc. Robin is aged late 20's - mid 30's, and looks/acts quite slick but is not as self-consciously cool/styled as the others at Place. Could be an ex-public school estate agent/PR type; he is increasingly horrified by the owners (a kind of Dave Stewart type) excessive spending but is contained enough to keep schtum. Agreements/Contracts/Fees:





Role: MOWGLI, aged 10 Sex: M Description: Mowgli is a 10 year old local Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi boy, and a budding drug dealer. You would never be quite sure if he was carrying a knife or not. Quite mouthy; looks innocent but a bad kid. The young boy in East is East is a good steer for type. Agreements/Contracts/Fees:





Role: LEAD SINGER, aged mid-late 20's Sex: M Description: The lead singer in band, The Necks, is male, mid to late 20's. As a band they perform god-awful electro-techno-dance-clash rock shouting songs about living on council estates - which none of them do. Very middle - upper class beneath the veneer of being hard and rock. Indignant, spoilt and white - but charismatic with it. Agreements/Contracts/Fees:





Role: GUITARIST, aged 20's Sex: F Description: With The Necks. A female, twentysomething cross between Peaches and Pink (both these references are contemporary American singers!) Has a brooding moody attitude that she carries with her at all times. Probably pierced. Could be any ethnicity. It would be helpful to know if the actress can play the guitar or not. Agreements/Contracts/Fees:





Role: SNOOTY MAN, aged early-late 30's Sex: M Description: Part of a laughably snooty middle class couple, aged early - late 30's. They are white, posh - they do their research on the current cool bars/restaurants to go to - but once there probably don't look quite they fit in with the crowd. He is old fashioned inside, easily offended and with stuffy opinions - don't like to be challenged. Probably read the Observer magazine and consider themselves arbiters of taste. They have those highly annoying voices that you hear in a restaurant that sound perpetually condescending. AA Gill types could be a useful steer. Agreements/Contracts/Fees:





Role: TOMMO, aged 40 + Sex: M Description: Good-natured chuckling Scots tramp, 40 plus. Might have been a stout yeoman in a former life but is now crippled by his need to drink - which he does with glee. Agreements/Contracts/Fees:





Role: NEWSAGENT, aged 35-50 Sex: M Description: Father of Mowgli, the young boy, the Newsagent is aged between 35 - 50 - very protective of his son and would do anything to protect him from bad influence, to the point where he would use violence - but he has no idea what his son is really up to. Agreements/Contracts/Fees:





Role: WALTON, aged 20's - 30's Sex: M Description: A black guy aged 20's - 30's; almost the stereotypical street based coke dealer. Utterly uncompromising and probably terrifying to meet in the flesh. Scares the shit out of the Lead character by being too cool to react to much - actually probably more likely to affect utter toughness than laugh about what a twat the Lead was when he left the room - he has got him sussed. Agreements/Contracts/Fees:

[lazyhour]

Erm.  Couldn't they have got someone who isn't illiterate to write this?

I hope it's a wind-up.

[Rootin' Tootin' Raspberry]

man dont know whether to laugh or cry, is it good or bad dude, cant decide

[Purple Tentacle]

Firstly... many thanks poor fool, it's much appreciated!!


But at the risk of putting a downer on it.... eeesh, it's all very one-dimensional isn't it? The scots tramp, the black street dealer, the dweeb friends.... is this post-modernism, or laziness?

[Mister Six]

Don't forget the Pakistani newsagent. On the other hand, it could turn out to be something special once the scripts come to light. Smarmy, pathetic landlord vs. intelligent, well-spoken black bloke doesn't sound like comedy gold but Rising Damp worked out okay.

However....

Role: SASHA, aged late 20's, early 30's Sex: F Description: Sasha is the receptionist/PA at 'Sugar Rape' - she is one of the few sensible people who work there. Aged late 20's / early 30's. She is generally a cool clear head in a sea of barking lads and arseholes - restores organisation and order, just gets on with her job, whilst others around her may try to 'look' like they are doing theirs. She doesn't stand any nonsense from the blokes in the office - definitely not wet/weak. She is simply a more sorted individual than most of those around her - more emotionally mature. She should be reasonably good looking (this would have been part of the criteria for hiring her no doubt). Agreements/Contracts/Fees:

...the "sensible, mature female who puts down the delusional main character" archetype is getting a little boring now. Chalk, The Office, Perfect World... how many of these are there in comedy? The only time I've been interested by this sort of character was in the second series of Chalk, when she started to crack up.

[butnut]

Thanks for posting this. But I'm with RTR on this, I don't know how to react to it. I'm pleased that in the description of the lead character, that there is some element of sympathy. I really feared they would create only a bitter nasty person there.

Is this the first confirmation, that it's been entirely written and directed by Morris? I don't see Brooker's name there at all.

[butnut]

(p.s. shouldn't this be moved???)

[9]

Thanks for that. No real surprises there but it helped to paint a picture I thought. Am quite looking forward to this now!

[m...wW(wwMww)Ww...m]

It's difficult to tell much from the character descriptions, but it seems like this may be a much more sitcommy sitcom than I had expected.  And I agree with Mr 6 about the Cynical Character archetype.

[alan strang]

It's an 'Absolutely Fabulous' for the 90s!

[Ambient Sheep]

Erm.  Couldn't they have got someone who isn't illiterate to write this?

What's illiterate about it?

I've never actually seen a casting guide before, most interesting.

I rather like the look of it...even if there are a few stereotypes.  As has been said, it looks far more sitcom-esque than expected.  And I see there's going to be yet more "coming-of-age-sexuality" controversy.

Definitely looking forward to it now.

[Partridge's Love Child]

I've never actually seen a casting guide before, most interesting.

I have, and that looks pretty genuine to me.

Irritatingly, I've never seen that particular breakdown.  I imagine all parts will therefore have gone to James Lance.

[thatmuch]

Role: SASHA, aged late 20's, early 30's Sex: F Description: Sasha is the receptionist/PA at 'Sugar Rape' - she is one of the few sensible people who work there. Aged late 20's / early 30's. She is generally a cool clear head in a sea of barking lads and arseholes - restores organisation and order, just gets on with her job, whilst others around her may try to 'look' like they are doing theirs. She doesn't stand any nonsense from the blokes in the office - definitely not wet/weak. She is simply a more sorted individual than most of those around her - more emotionally mature. She should be reasonably good looking (this would have been part of the criteria for hiring her no doubt). Agreements/Contracts/Fees:

...the "sensible, mature female who puts down the delusional main character" archetype is getting a little boring now. Chalk, The Office, Perfect World... how many of these are there in comedy? The only time I've been interested by this sort of character was in the second series of Chalk, when she started to crack up.

Well exactly. Men Behaving Badly also. This doesn't sound like a Morris type person at all. I can't imagine him having a 'sorted' or 'emotionally mature' character in anything he does, especially a woman designed to show off the idiocies and immaturities of bloody men.

[TJ]

Hm. This *might* work!

[Rats]

Yeah, looks really promising.

Production: Box of Slice Production Type: Television Synopsis: A 6 x 30 min comedy for Channel 4, written and directed by Chris Morris

No mention of chuck mcfuck which is too good to be true.

[Neil]

Thanks, poor fool!

Why would Brookers name be left off... so that more people are interested in going for casting perhaps?  Will this "it's all written by Chris, honest" attitude extend to the finished product in the hope of generating hype for the show?   I hope this does end up being great.

[lazyhour]

Erm.  Couldn't they have got someone who isn't illiterate to write this?

What's illiterate about it?

I've never actually seen a casting guide before, most interesting.

Yes, you're right.  When I first read it I did think it was very poorly and clumsily written, but reading through for a second time, it's not actually so bad.  Not sure what I had taken umbrage with now...

[Jemble Fred]

Hm. I'm not actually expecting this to be any more than so-so at best. In fact, I have no doubt that it will be watchable, but not terribly interesting or worthwhile all-in-all. So what do I do when it's aired and everyone else is either proclaiming it as the height of genius or the most foully unfunny betrayal of all that's humorous? I'm going to feel so left out.

[Godzilla Bankrolls]

Why should we accept a so-so product from Chris Morris, Jemfred? It's been about seven years since he did something truly original and good. My patience is wearing thin.

I really do want Morris to come back and make something that will blow everyone away - comedy-wise, I mean. I don't think I can make a judgement on what it'll be like from that casting list thing (although it's the nicest bit of info we've had so far abut the production), but I think he's been pandering to the media rather than offending them for quite some time now. Box Of Slice seems to be carrying on in this vein.

[weekender]

Interesting - and many thanks for the information.

My initial reaction is that the success of the show is going to depend on factors obviously not mentioned in the casting guide, namely a) the script and b) the quality of the actors involved.

I can't really try and make much more judgement on BoS* at the moment -  as people have mentioned, trying to summarize a programme with a soundbite can often lead to it sounding a bit shit, even though it's actually great.


*That is the acronym we're going to be using isn't it?  I'd hate for someone to come along and refer to it as BOS, I'd feel embarrassed.

[mr suit]

No mention of chuck mcfuck which is too good to be true.

well, he has to still have some level of involvement i figure. the extras casting email was from Brooker, with no mention of Morris at all.

[Lumiere]

I hope this is good. I hope to God it's good.

[Partridge's Love Child]

Why would Brookers name be left off... so that more people are interested in going for casting perhaps?  Will this "it's all written by Chris, honest" attitude extend to the finished product in the hope of generating hype for the show?

No, basically.  Believe it or not, most people still don't know who Chris Morris is.  And I really can't imagine any actor turning 'round and saying, "What, Charlie Brooker is involved, I'm not going for that shit."

I hope this does end up being great.

Yup.

[Jemble Fred]

Why should we accept a so-so product from Chris Morris, Jemfred?

I don't really expect anything more than watchable products from anyone anymore. Vic and Bob, Fry and Laurie, Morris, Coogan – even Armando has proved that he's fallible. I'm not being cynical, or putting on a false air of indifference, Chris Morris is really rather a talented man, so I'd never expect anything less than watchable TV from him. But I see no reason to expect anything great, especially with this idea. It's just that I personally expect BoS to be as chortlesome as a TVGH bulletin. They did make me laugh now and then.

If it helps, I do expect it to be a lot better than Nighty Night, which I should imagine will be the closest show to this in form and substance. That's the closest I'll go to setting myself up for disappointment. Poor old Lumiere's post (just for instance!) suggests he's due a nervous breakdown if it's anything less than the breath of god through yer screen.

[post]

hi i work in a post production company based in soho, and we are currently working on this feature, and it looks brilliant

[Jemble Fred]

Cheeky-chops.

[alan strang]

hi i work in a post production company based in soho, and we are currently working on this feature, and it looks brilliant

Framestore?

[TJ]

box of slice character breakdown


Isn't that by Led Zeppelin?