C. K. Kelly Martin's "The Lighter Side of Life and Death"

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C. K. Kelly Martin's books include I Know It's Over and One Lonely Degree.

Here she shares some ideas about who should direct and star in an adaptation of her new novel, The Lighter Side of Life and Death:

The Lighter Side of Life and Death: The best day of sixteen-year-old Mason’s life concludes with him falling into bed with his longtime crush (and close friend) Kat Medina. In the aftermath she’s not as happy about this as he is and Mason sets about distracting himself from the messy state of their friendship by pursuing a twenty-three-year-old woman he’s recently met … a twenty-three-year-old woman who happens to return his interest.

Director: Sofia Coppola. She does such an amazing job with creating tone in her movies. I loved Marie Antoinette, The Virgin Suicides and especially Lost in Translation. I think she could give the movie version of The Lighter Side of Life and Death a terrific, heady vibe.

Mason Rice - Aaron Johnson. I’ve been wanting to see Nowhere Boy where he plays young John Lennon for awhile and then, about six weeks ago, I went to see Kick Ass, which he also stars in. But I didn’t realize it was the same actor in both these films until I saw Aaron speaking on a British talk show in his real-life strong English accent. He was fantastic in a really down to earth way in Kick Ass and we know he can do a completely convincing North American accent! Incidentally, he’s involved with a much older woman in real life…

Kat Medina - Zoe Sandejas. There aren’t many young Filipino actresses in Hollywood but I heard such good things about the Filipino movie Dinig Sana Kita (If I Knew What You Said) when it was at the Toronto film festival last year. I really wanted to see it but couldn’t swing it and have been looking out for it ever since. I think Zoe Sandejas, the seventeen-year old star of that movie (who is fluent in English) would do a great job as Kat and since she can also sing and play guitar it would be cool to work in some kind of musical performance for her. Here you can see her sing the theme song from Dinig Sana Kita and here she talks about her role in Dinig Sana Kita (at the 1:20 mark).

Colette Fournier (the sexy twenty-three-year-old woman Mason becomes involved with) - Elyse Levesque. I’m a big Stargate Atlantis and Stargate Universe fan and Elyse of SGU is really the image of Colette. I bet she and Aaron Johnson would have great chemistry.

Mr. Rice (Mason’s dad) - Steve Carell (who is always a pleasure to watch) playing more Dan in Real Life than Michael Scott as Mason’s easy going father.

Brianna (Mason’s stepsister-to-be) - Chloe Moretz. She blew me away as Hit Girl in Kick Ass. She and Aaron Johnson have a sort of sibling-like relationship in that movie and it would be fun to see them together again but with a twist, Mason’s stepsister can’t stand him and he’s the kind of person who always wants to be liked. They crash like crazy in the book.

Nina (Mason’s stepmom-to-be) - Rachel McAdams. It wouldn’t be a very big role but Rachel McAdams improves every movie she’s in.

Jamie (Mason’s best friend) - Freddie Highmore. It doesn’t seem like that long ago that I saw him in August Rush or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory but he’s eighteen now. He’s so talented at playing really thoughtful roles.

Miracle (close friend of Mason’s) - Sofia Vassilieva. She was wonderful in My Sister’s Keeper and always fantastic in Medium. Miracle’s the kind of person who has a really good head on her shoulders but is still a very artistic personality.

Watch The Lighter Side of Life and Death video trailer, and learn more about the book and author at C. K. Kelly Martin's website and blog.

--Marshal Zeringue