Fan Casting

The story starts with Oscar, the life of the party, engaging in banter with the fellow residents of his neighborhood. To bring home the clams, Oscar works at the "Whale Wash" alongside diminutive pilot fish. There, they scrub gigantic whales that pull up for a full-service wash like eighteen-wheelers. As the whales pull in, they press a huge eye up against the cashier's window, T-Rex style, where Renee Zellweger's gum-cracking, singing character Angie rings them up and sends them on. Then, to the tune of "Car Wash" (which is going to be updated for the movie), Oscar and his fellow employees dance about their customers, washing them clean of dirt and foam while contorting acrobatically. Oscar lives in a truly stunning environment. New York has been plunged underwater and given an enthusiastic makeover from top to bottom. Skyscrapers emit enormous plumes of multicolored coral, bathed in sunlight and home to the rich. The city itself is vertical and socially stratified: as you go lower, past the brownstones and Time Square, you arrive downtown, which really is down--at the very bottom. There, it's the rough part of the city, with graffiti everywhere. The population is as varied as it is in the real world. Throughout the underwater metropolis, cars are replaced with schools of fish, each of which has an obvious mission. Yellow checked fish are cabs, while fat tunas carrying briefcases are businessmen hurrying to work. This world also has criminals, namely the mob. Five different families rule the underworld, distinguished by their species (including Great Whites, Hammerheads and Killer Whales). Headquartered in a rusted ocean liner impaled at an obscene angle on a nearby reef (which makes for great atmospheric lighting), the Great Whites are led by their godfather, Don Lino (Robert de Niro), who is advised by a trusty consigliere octopus. All of these characters bring the city to vivid life. In this world, Oscar dreams big -- he's a player. And this gets him into trouble with the owner of the Whale Wash--and criminal--Sykes (Martin Scorsese), who comes to collect on the money lent to him for reckless bets at the track. Though small and graying around the temples, Sykes is gruff, grouchy, and when infuriated, capable of quite a display, inflating his body and spines to room-filling proportions. Oscar sweet-talks him and his rasta jellyfish lackies, fobbing them off with a promise that today, at the races, he has a fantastic tip, a sure thing. That buys him some time. Unfortunately, things don't turn out so well for Oscar. He loses his shirt, and gets roughed up in a remote part of town by Sykes's hench-jellies, who have stingers that hang like braids from beneath their rasta-cap bodies, frightening weapons that zap their victims into instant, head-nodding compliance. This entertaining scene, juxtaposing Oscar's frightened expressions with sadistic, zapping stings is interrupted when a Great White shark with something to prove -- timid, vegetarian Lenny (Jack Black), egged on by his more brutal brother (Michael Imperioli)--chases off the jellyfish and pretends to devour Oscar. The brother, seeing through the performance, goes in for the kill himself, only to get fatally beaned by a boat's anchor. The rasta jellyfish return, and draw the wrong conclusion -- that Oscar is the sharkslayer. They blab the news, and Oscar is lifted up on the city's shoulders and celebrated for his courage with rewards and adoration. Unfortunately for him, he now has the duty of protecting the city from the sharks. To pull this off, he colludes with wimpy Lenny to preserve the illusion with a dramatic play-acted confrontation. By "killing" the gentle shark, Oscar hopes to free him of his loathsome duties and allow him to go into the Witness Protection Program (dressed as a dolphin). Problem is, Oscar is also fond of Angie, the Whale Wash cashier--and she is not impressed by his scheme. If Oscar is to win her heart, he will need to act honorably. Complicating things, Lola, the gangster's moll (Angelina Jolie), is also interested in Oscar. A sexy cross between Rita Moreno's Anita in West Side Story and Jessica Rabbit, Lola doesn't just exude sex appeal -- she flaunts it. Her oversize, multicolored fins snap and sway like wind-whipped flags, drawing stares wherever she goes. Somewhat full of herself, Lola is initially drawn to Oscar when she sees him placing a considerable bet at the track, but dismissive when she learns the truth, at least for a while.