Promo Poster for Lynne Ramsay’s We Need To Talk About Kevin

If you notice, the promo poster clearly indicates that there is still some casting work to do on Lynne Ramsey’s We Need To Talk About Kevin. Clearly this is a showcase for Tilda, but before it starts lensing in Connecticut next April, there are a pair of “Kevins” to be cast, and the Culkin brothers are all grown up. There is the young boy version – a mean-spirited looking child to cast, a younger sister and finally the adolescent Kevin.

I was thinking of some names/faces that could fill the role, not sure about you, but I came up with these guys. Logan Lerman (Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief) who is being rumored as the next Peter Parker. Lesser known actors in Carter Jenkins (Valentine’s Day) and Jake Abel (The Lovely Bones) to more recognized actors who are slowly moving out of their teen roles in Freddie Highmore, Nicholas Hoult and Josh Hutcherson. I think my top two picks might be Skandar Keynes from The Chronicles of Narnia trilogy or Sterling Knight (17 Again) who is perhaps the one that looks closest to Swinton in appearance. Actually the person who cast Alba Rohrwacher as Swinton’s daughter for I Am Love made a great match, so maybe someone should give this person a call, and for the younger role you might as well go with the kid in Julia, who sort of looks like he could come from John C. Reilly’s family tree. 

Based on Lionel Shriver’s novel, through a series of moving and harrowing flashbacks, this examines the role of Kevin’s upbringing in a high school massacre that he carries out as a teenager. Despite seemingly accepting his father (Reilly), Kevin displays an unstinting disdain towards his mother, Eva (Swinton), from the day of his birth. She, in turn, appears indifferent towards her son. After the atrocity, Eva visits Kevin a number of times in prison and, combined with her flashbacks, she begins to discern the vague outlines of a motive for Kevin’s abhorrent crime.