#the idea of Alice being the super-serious super-cop that Nicholas is just amuses me

[victorluvsalice]

AU Thursday: Bringing That Hot Fuzz AU Back Out

"What AU?" I bet most of you are going right now. It's understandable -- Wonderland Fuzz has always been one of those AUs that has kind of flown under the radar. Hell, my last proper ramble on it (as opposed to it popping up in posts about multiple AUs) was back in November 2014: Meet the Cop Who Can’t Be Stopped And the only fic I ever posted for it was back in March of 2013! Wonderland Fuzz Sins & Virtues And neither time did I really explain it that well. But it's also one of those persistent AUs that likes to pop into my mind from time to time, so let's give it a proper (and properly tagged) explanatory post:

-->The AU is based off the movie Hot Fuzz, directed by Edgar Wright and starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. It's both a send-up of and loving homage to your typical cop action movie, only set in a sleepy English village with a dark secret. The starring roles are Nicholas Angel, a supercop from London who is sent to the village of Sandford to be sergeant there because he's making the rest of the London service look bad (Pegg), and Danny Butterman, one of the local constables and son of the Chief Inspector Frank Butterman, who idolizes action movies and dreams of being a "real" copper who sees action and shit like Angel (Frost). It's a freaking excellent movie and I can recommend it whole-heartedly -- with a small caveat that, due to its nature, it can get gory at times. There is one notable death where a guy gets his head crushed. Be warned.

-->In the Valice AU, Alice takes on Nicholas's role, while Victor takes on Danny's. Alice is sent down to the little village of Burtonsville, Wonderlandshire after proving too competent for her fellow officers in London. She's soon wrapped up in the mystery of the many "accidents" that seem to plague the residents, as well as becoming surprisingly close to her new partner Victor (a sweet, shy boy with a surprisingly incongruous love of action movies). Eventually it all blows up into a massive shoot-out between the dark conspiracy behind the town and the pair (later joined by the rest of the rag-tag village police force). Really, one of the main draws of doing this AU would be Victor and Alice getting to participate in some hilariously ridiculous and awesome action sequences. :p

-->I'm going to do a separate post later with casting, but I've already decided that most of the "evil" villagers should be Corpse Bride characters (with the exception of the Queen of Hearts and the Tweedle Twins), while the police force should be largely Alice characters (with the exception of Victor, Victoria, and Emily). "Neutral" characters and the murder victims can be from either side -- in particular, the "hoodie" group that keeps popping up contains both the Insane Children and the few child characters that show up in CB (the Solemn Village Boy and the two skeleton children).

(Now I'll be discussing spoilers in more detail, so behind a cut it goes!)

-->"Wait a minute -- you just said the role Victor's playing is the son of the Chief Inspector. Shouldn't William be on the 'good guy' team despite being a CB character?"

Nope. Frank Butterman is the MAIN VILLAIN of the movie. He's the one behind the murderous Neighborhood Watch Association that kills anyone remotely capable of making the village look bad. Which means --

Yup, we have an evil!William! That's actually another major draw of the AU for me -- of the four parents featured in CB, William basically got the least personality. As a result, he often gets painted as the token "good" parent in fanfic. The idea of him being a villain while still having his "kindly old man" attitude really appeals to me. (Admittedly, the inspiration for his villainy would still be Nell, who like her counterpart in the film would have been obsessed with winning the "Best Village" award -- but like her counterpart in the film, Nell is long dead by the time of the film, and I'd like to think even she would balk at KILLING the people who threaten the village's image.)

-->Alice's backstory has been modernized, of course, but still includes Bumby killing her family and managing to get away with it for twelve years. I don't know yet if she should still have been in Rutledge for a while or adopted by Nan Sharpe -- I mean, she's a cop in this AU, and I think having been in an asylum, even as a child, might be an automatic rejection? Maybe Dr. Wilson just visited her at home. . . At any rate, she does end up under Bumby's care to continue recovering from her trauma, and realizes that he's the one who killed her family. This time, she's actually able to bring him to justice (using Lizzie's room key as evidence he was in her house) and take down his child trafficking ring. The experience inspires her to become a police officer to help make sure no one has to suffer like she did. The reason she goes so hard, becoming the super-serious super-cop at the beginning of the AU, is a combination of that desire -- and the knowledge that her file, no matter how many talents she possesses, arrests she does, or awards she wins, will always have "watch for abnormal behavior/suicidal actions" on it. She managed to become a cop because she proved she could take the heat and be the best, and now she's afraid that if she ever slips -- well. (William's comment that the stress has "driven her round the bend" hits her VERY hard later in the AU.)

-->Victor's backstory also has been modernized, and has dropped the "corpse bride" element -- Emily is very much among the living here. Although Victor did still date both her and Victoria for a while -- think a scenario like the one I generally use for my "high school" AUs, where Victor was just casually involved with both. William still hints that Victor should get back together with Victoria ("Your mother would have loved her, Victor!"), unaware that Victoria's now dating Emily. Other changes include Victor being much closer to his father thanks to Nell's death when he was young; being somewhat less shy than his counterpart (he goes with his fellow officers to the pub, where March and Dormy make a game of getting him shitfaced -- fortunately, unlike Danny, he never tries to drive afterward); and loving action movies (something Alice finds baffling but amusing).

-->The ending of the AU might be a little darker than the ending of the original movie. Hot Fuzz ends with a sea mine exploding in the station's evidence room (it makes sense in context), which demolishes the building -- but mostly leaves the officers unharmed, since this is first and foremost a comedy. However, I've been thinking lately that -- well, one of the things I sometimes do with modernized/all-human, all-living AUs is to give characters like Emily and Hatter prostheses in place of their skeletal/mechanical limbs (this is most notable in the Cuddlepile AU). I wasn't sure about doing this in an AU where they're all cops, but as a result of the explosion? *shrug* I'd also already planned for Victor to quit the service afterwards (he gets shot by the sole NWA member that escapes the final epic shootout, as Danny does in the movie, and when he recovers, he decides he's had more than enough of real-life action movie shenanigans). This does probably mean the AU ends with only Alice (and maybe Victoria) still on the beat, but I'm sure I can work it into a "everyone's still happy and doing things they love" epilogue.

[victorluvsalice]

AU Thursday: Wonderland Fuzz -- Casting Call! Part 1

All right, I gave you an overview and a few details on the AU last week -- this week, I’m giving you some of my initial ideas on who plays what in this AU, and a couple of notes as to why! This is “Part 1″ because I’m still debating over who in the fandoms fits certain roles best. Got most of them, though! For spoiler and length reasons, everyone past our main two is going under a readmore.

Alice Liddell as Nicholas Angel -- Determined, takes no shit, surprisingly good with weaponry, perhaps tries a little too hard to prove herself sometimes, will not stop when it comes to bringing evil to justice? Alice in a nutshell, baby. And as I stated before, the idea of her as the super-serious super-cop who eventually finds friendship/love and learns how to calm down a bit appeals to me.

Victor Van Dort as Danny Butterman -- Okay, admittedly Danny is pretty much NOTHING like Victor, but hot-gluing a few of his traits onto my boy -- namely his love of action movies -- amuses me. Plus I do headcanon my Victors as the sort who would appreciate having a bit of adventure in their lives (at least before the CB incident), which goes well with Danny's want to experience "real action and shit." Hot Fuzz also doesn't officially have a romance, but -- well. Nicholas was going to have a female love interest (named Victoria, of all things), but she ended up cut -- and her lines given to Danny. With minimal editing, from what I understand. So yeah, everyone (including Pegg, Frost, and Wright) just accepts Nick and Danny enter a relationship at some point. With this being a Valice AU, of course Victor has to be in the "love interest" spot.

Sandford Police Service

William Van Dort as Frank Butterman -- As I said in the first post, the idea of kindly William turning out to be evil just tickles me. He also fits Frank pretty well personality-wise -- they're both fairly affable, make their fair share of dumb jokes, and are inspired largely by their wives' wants (Frank does what he does because his wife so desperately wanted to win Village of the Year that, when Sandford lost at the last minute thanks to some traveling Rromani, she killed herself driving her car off a cliff -- Nell of course will do the same in the backstory of this AU).

The March Hare and the Dormouse (humanized into Marchand Hare and Dormand Mouse) as detectives Andy Wainright and Andy Cartwright (the Andys) -- Duo who are pretty much never seen apart, are clearly best friends with each other against the world, are kind of lazy but capable of good work, can be rude and abrasive but also helpful to the main character? Sounds like March and Dormy to me! The best part is their humanized names keeps both the "March and Dormy" nicknames we're familiar with from Alice stuff, plus the "Andys" nickname from the original movie.

The Hatter (Richard Hatter) as Tony Fisher -- Again, a largely-incompetent fellow who believes himself to be better than he is, but is capable of moments of competence, even genius? Sounds good for Hatter! And Tony regularly begging Nick for help during police work in the movie does kind of remind me of Hatter demanding Alice's help in finding his limbs in A:MR.

Emily (Cartwell) & Victoria Everglot as Doris Thatcher -- Okay, TECHNICALLY only Emily is playing Doris, as she's the one I can see cracking Doris's dirty jokes. The reason Victoria's "sharing" the role is that I wanted her to be part of the station set, but there isn't another woman officer in Sandford, and she's not appropriate for Bob Walker. So Victoria is a new character who patrols with Emily and who everyone just assumes is Emily's best friend. Only Victor (and later Alice) know the truth that they're actually dating. (Yes, Victor did actually date both of them in the past -- William still bugs him to get back together with Victoria.)

Scraps as Saxon -- Saxon's a pretty minor role as the local police dog in Sandford, and as the Alice games have no major dog characters. . .besides, a sleepy town doesn't need a big police dog, now do they? :p

Generals (Bill) Bonesaparte and (Bailey) Wellington as Desk Sergeants Turner -- This one sadly destroys a joke (namely, that there are two Desk Sergeants Turner -- Bill Bailey plays both, and we only see them together at the very end, right before the climax), but it's a minor role, and it seems suited enough to this double-act of general friends. I figure Bonesaparte, being the chattier of the two, would be the Night Sergeant (who's neater and talks more), and Wellington would be the Day.

Neighborhood Watch Alliance

Barkis Bittern as Simon Skinner -- Cripes, this was simple. Skinner is set up as basically Obviously Evil from the word "go," and since Barkis comes off the same way. . . They share the same smarmy "charm" and vaguely threatening air. Plus Barkis getting a model church spire through the chin is pretty easy with the size of his. XD (I BRIEFLY considered making Bumby Skinner early on, but then decided to keep him in Alice's backstory. Skinner is supposed to be kind of funny too, and that's easier with Barkis than it is with Bumby.)

Finis and Maudeline Everglot as Joyce and Bernard Cooper -- There's two main married couples in the movie, and I felt the Everglots fit this pair better. The Coopers run the hotel Nick stays at for the majority of the movie -- I could see slightly-less-snooty (or more desperate) Everglots converting their mansion into a hotel for the cash. And Maudeline well fits the "fascist"/"hag" gag that pops up between Joyce and Nick (she's doing a crossword when they first meet -- "facist" and "hag" are answers in it). I might have to switch their roles in the big finale, though -- Joyce uses a gun and Bernard a sword, but it makes more sense for gun-loving Finis to shoot at Alice.

Paul and Ms. Plum (Paul and Jane Plum) as Roy and Mary Porter -- This is the other main married couple -- as they run a bar, The Crown, I figured using some of the staff of the Ball & Socket would be appropriate. Paul's the character most associated with serving drinks in CB, and Plum the main female character of the B&S, so there you go! ...Actually, thinking about it, given that Roy is taken out during the climax via a bear trap to the head -- yeah, definitely has to be Paul. XD

Pastor (Christopher) Galswells as Reverend Philip Shooter -- Just fitting the two religious figures together here. Galswells is a sterner figure than Shooter, but that should just make him shouting "Fuck off, grasshopper" and pulling guns in the final battle all the more hilarious. XD

Murder Victims

Carpenter (Bruno Carpenter) as Martin Blower -- This was easy -- Martin is an absolutely awful actor (the version of Romeo & Juliet he stages is PRICELESS), so there was no competition for this role. Though somehow I think Carpenter is going to be an even bigger ham than he was. At least Martin never made up words. XD

Walrus (Walter Russo) as Eve Draper -- Eve's no great shakes as a thespian herself, which is a decent fit for Walrus -- as is her general annoying personality (she specifically has an awful laugh, which I'll probably give Walter). Eve and Martin are also in a relationship in the movie, so this is a great way to keep the Walrus and the Carpenter together.

The Town Crier (Tom Crier) as Tim Messenger -- I was stuck for a while as to who should be the town's local reporter -- then FINALLY I realized "oh hey, there's a character in Corpse Bride who's only role is to SPREAD THE NEWS." So that works! I even have the built-in quirk of him ALWAYS SPEAKING AT TOP VOLUME.

The Queen of Hearts/Red Queen (Rose Queen) as Leslie Tiller -- I was also stuck on this role for a bit -- Leslie is a local, super-skilled florist, and has a minor but important role of telling Nick some crucial information before she's killed. After some thought, I decided the Queen was a good fit for three reasons:

A) Both the Queen of Hearts and the Red Queen (of which the game Queen is an algamation) are associated with gardening/flowers (the famous "painting the roses red" bit, and the Looking Glass garden where the Red Queen first appears)

B) The Queen's big bit in A:MR is giving Alice some crucial information (her domain's big memory confirms it was Bumby who killed Alice's family, and she encourages Alice to look more at what's around her, which probably helps her realize how Bumby's been abusing the children)

C) Leslie's also a NWA member, and the Queen is the main villain in AMA. Leslie is murdered for wanting to move (they didn't want another village getting her skills), while the Queen is eclipsed by the bigger evil of Bumby's Dollmaker. Pretty damn good fit in the end!

Other

Charlie, The Insane Children, Skeleton Boy, and Skeleton Girl as The Hoodies -- The Hoodies are actually teenagers/tweens, so they'd have to be aged up a bit, but I figured this was a good place to stick most of the children from both the Alice games and Corpse Bride. The Insane Children and Skeleton Boy and Girl certainly seem up for the mischief they perpetrate, and for helping Alice out in the end. Charlie, being the only one of the lot with a canonical name, might have the pleasure of being the Hoodie Leader (aka Gabriel Weaver -- the subplot about him being the grandson of NWA member Tom Weaver was cut, but anything can happen in an AU).

Solemn Village Boy as Aaron A. Aaronson -- I almost gave this role to Charlie, but then I realized I could keep the joke with Aaron's name if I made him the unnamed Solemn Village boy from Corpse Bride instead. And as the joke (and being Skinner's brief hostage before biting the jerk) is really Aaron's only point to being in the movie...

The Houndsditch Children as the Underage Bar Patrons -- Again, aged up to teenagers. It seemed like overkill to stick the Houndsditch kids in with the Hoodies, and the bratty responses most of the patrons give suit the bratty nature of the Houndsditch lot. Also the fact that something horrible happens to them in the end (the kids start misbehaving when Angel ejects them from the bar, and the NWA kills ANYONE who makes the town look bad...).

Emil as Tina -- Once again replacing a woman with a man, but this is a minor role focused on being a helper (Tina is Skinner's secretary, who spends most of her time lounging at his desk), and we all know Emil the super-butler is good at that. We'd just have to take out the part where he's also a dancer at a club. (Or we could leave it in and have everyone be weirded out.) This also has the amusing consequence of him being taken out at least partially by his canonical employers' daughter. XD

Maggot and Black Widow (Enn Maggon and Betty Black) as Greg and Sheree Prosser -- These are background characters noted as being better actors than Martin and Eve; might as well fill their roles with some of Emily's comic relief friends, right? They're also minor NWA members, so that helps keeps the ranks appropriately Burtony.

Nan Sharpe as Janine -- Sort of -- Nan is not Alice's former girlfriend, as Janine was for Nick! Instead, Nan retains her role as Alice's old nanny, who she goes to talk to after gets she gets promoted/transferred. Nan's the one who tells her she needs to find someone who helps her "switch off," thus setting up the eventual Alice/Victor romance. It's a minor role, but it seems well-suited for Nan (especially since I've already cast the other role she could have -- dirty-minded Doris).

Tim Burton, Mike Johnson, and American McGee as The Met's Sergeant, Inspector, and Chief Inspector Kenneth -- These characters have the minor but important role of sending Nick to Sandford in the original film (for making everyone else look bad), so I just thought it would be funny I used the directors of CB and the mind behind the Alice games for them.