Who Should Play Patti Smith in the Just Kids Movie?

Rock legend Patti Smith set the literary world on fire last year with her memoir Just Kids, a sensitive, longing look at her friendship with the late photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. The book mostly chronicles their years in New York prior to her fame as a punk poetess from the mid-'60s to the mid-'70s -- before Horses revolutionized Ginsbergian rock. Now word is out that Smith is adapting the National Book Award winner into a screenplay with Gladiator scribe John Logan. Who should play the inimitable lady on the big screen?

Let's rank our top three candidates, shall we? We're looking for a thespian of about 20-30 who can telegraph the soul of an artist. Pickings may be slim.

3. Kat Dennings

Now, the Nick and Norah bombshell is a bit voluptuous and vampy for Patti Smith's cut-up men's shirts and suspenders, but i suspect some clever corseting can be done. I'm interested in seeing more sides of Dennings than the cavalier wisegirl who isn't too cool to talk to you. I want to see her proclaim, dammit, in a woozy fit. Her version of "Because the Night" would surely bring CBGB patrons to their knees.

2. Kristen Stewart

Say what you will about the sleepy-eyed maiden currently bearing a Cullen seedling, but Stewart looked damn fly in The Runaways. When given heartfelt dialogue, she's a fine actor too (see: Adventureland). Though Patti Smith's husky voice and electric stage presence would be a challenge for Stewart, she's an obvious choice thanks to her natural air, a combination of surly and shy.

1. Cate Blanchett

Blanchett possesses that mysterious ability to convey not just any gender or accent, but nearly any age. If you couldn't believe how convincing and cool she was as a young Bob Dylan in the ridiculously stupid I'm Not There, imagine how ferocious she'd be as the drag-in-drag Smith, a woman who always flaunted the firepower of a Gorgon, the sneer of Dylan himself, and the call of a mythological bird demon. Blanchett's got the nerve -- and the cheekbones.

Runners-Up: Keira Knightley, Mia Wasikowska, "Ezra Miller

":http://www.movieline.com/2011/08/we-need-to-talk-about-kevin-french-trailer-tilda-swinton-and-john-c-reilly-birth-a-sociopath.php

· John Logan And Patti Smith Duet On Her Robert Mapplethorpe Memoir 'Just Kids' [Deadline]