One of the Best SF Movies Never Made, Sort Of

The Register (UK) polled its readership for good SF movies that were never made.  In practice, this meant nominating books that had never been moviefied.  They narrowed the list down to fifty (heavily British); then picked the winner.  This was Use of Weapons by Iain M Banks.  Placing second was Niven and Pournelle's The Mote in God's Eye.   

However, buried in the fifty "also-rans" was The Wreck of the River of Stars, by yr. obt. svt., which surely indicates that someone once read the book. 

It does make some sense.  The whole thing takes place inside, or on the skin of, a large ungainly tramp ship; and all of the small cast of characters are human, more or less. 

In the interests of assisting Hollywood in their decision-making, we are asking for nomination for which actors ought to play the various rolls. 

1. Evan Dodge Hand (captain)
2. Stepan Gorgas (first officer)
3. ’Abd al-Aziz Corrigan (second officer)
4. Eugenie Satterwaithe (third officer and sailing master)
5. The late Enver Bey Koch (engineer)
6. Ramakrishnan Bhatterji (engineer)
7. Mikoyan Hidei (engineer’s mate)
8. The Lotus Jewel (sysop and purser)
9. Eaton Grubb (biosystems/life support/cook)
10. Fransziska Wong, M.D. (ship’s doctor)
11. Timothy “Moth” Ratline (cargo master)
12. Nkieruke Okoye (first wrangler)
13. Raphael “Rave” Evermore (second wrangler)
14. Twenty-four deCant (third wrangler)
15. Ivar Akhaturian (least wrangler)
16. Bigelow Fife (passenger)