Toby Ball's "The Vaults"

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Toby Ball works at the Crimes against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire. The Vaults, his first novel, was published in September by St. Martin's Press.

Here he shares his preferences for the above-the-line talent for a cinematic adaptation of the novel:

I definitely did not write The Vaults with any particular actors in mind, though the sensibility of gangster movies from the 1930s and 40s was very much an influence. That said, casting the film had become a popular conversation topic, generally over drinks.

Here's my vision:

Frank Frings would be played by Ed Norton of ten years ago or possibly George Clooney.

Arthur Puskis would be played by a sixty-year-old Bruce Dern. No one else will do.

Ethan Poole would be played by either a mid-twenties Mark Wahlberg or seventies icon, John Saxon.

Nora Aspen would be played by Scarlett Johansson.

Carla would be played by a mid-twenties Nastassja Kinski or a big money producer's girlfriend if we have to go that route.

Red Henry would be played by Alec Baldwin who doesn't have the size to play the hulking mayor, but can convey the outsize personality necessary to capture the essence of a bully.

I'm a big Stanley Kubrick fan and think he would do a great job directing. The hallway scenes in The Shining could easily be translated to Puskis in The Vaults.

Visit Toby Ball's website and blog.

Writers Read: Toby Ball.

--Marshal Zeringue