Bill Cameron's "Lost Dog"

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Bill Cameron is the author of Lost Dog and stories and poems.

Here he develops some ideas for actors should Lost Dog be adapted for the big screen:

Way back when I first started writing Lost Dog, I was already visualizing the movie version. As each new character materialized on the page, the casting director in my mind was on the job. The brooding, yet smart-assed form of John Cusack would be Peter. Dennis Farina as crusty Skin Kadash. Gillian Anderson as perky Ruby Jane (yes, I confess to a deep and abiding Scully crush). Jake was a tricky one, and while I never settled on a specific choice, any of the boy toys from Beverly Hills 90210 had the inside track.

Those are the main folks, and I confess to never having cast the support roles, though secretly I dreamed of being Jake’s first male victim, a fellow who dies before the start of the action and only appears in a photograph late in the novel. Yeah, a bit part, but then I can’t act my way out of a speeding ticket.

The nature of publishing being what it is, so much time passed between my initial concepts and the actual appearance of Lost Dog as a book that my thoughts have had to change as a matter of necessity. Let’s face it, actors age even if characters on the page don’t. Much as I still adore Cusack and Anderson, I fear they’ve aged past Peter and Ruby Jane. Alas. If I could still have them in the mid-90s, ... But no.

So I’m looking now to fresh fish. After much rumination, I realized that the perfect choice already had practice as an on-screen couple: John Krasinski and Mandy Moore. Okay, so it didn’t go so well for them with License to Wed, but I’m a man who believes in second chances. John, Mandy? What do you say? You in?

Dennis Farina could still do Skin, though I’ve recently found myself taken with John C. Reilly. He’s got a quirky presence on screen, plus amazing range. And for Detective Mulvaney I’ve settled on Emma Thompson. I don’t even care if she loses the English accent for the role; she’s Mulvaney.

And for Jake now that the 90210 Boy Toys are getting their first face lifts? Haley Joel Osment, of course. Not only is he the perfect age and more than capable of projecting darkly creepy, but he sees dead people. In Lost Dog he’ll get to make some of his own.

Read an excerpt from Lost Dog and visit Bill Cameron's website where you can view a video trailer for the novel.

The Page 69 Test: Lost Dog.

--Marshal Zeringue