Alan Lazar's "Roam"

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Alan Lazar is a platinum-selling musician/composer whose career began in his native South Africa. He lives in Los Angeles, where he has composed music for more than 30 films and TV shows.

Here he shares some ideas for casting an adaptation of Roam, his first novel:

The hero of Roam is a dog, half-beagle and half-poodle. So, no conventional movie stars need apply. In Marley and Me, I believe the dog was an incredible composite of fourteen real dogs and some CGI. If Roam is a live-action film I guess it would be something similar. Alternatively Roam might be a fully animated film. I’m a huge fan of pretty much all the Pixar movies, and I’d love for Roam to be made over there. Up and Toy Story 3 both got my tear ducts pumping. They handle dramatic subject matter with such a beautiful touch.

If Roam is live action, we’d need to cast the main human character, a beautiful concert pianist named Katey. She’s the original owner, or Great Love, of Nelson, our hero dog. The agent selling the movie rights asked for a couple of names for Katey, and I came up with Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, Anne Hathaway and Kirsten Dunst. All would be great choices.

Thatcher is a truck driver Nelson spends some quality time with, and he’s one of the favorite characters of many who’ve read the book. I somehow imagine Jeff Bridges in the role, one of my favorite actors. I just loved him in Crazy Heart recently. He’s a little old for the role, though, as Thatcher’s only 40, but they managed to shave off a lot of years in Tron, so maybe…

Another of Nelson’s owners is Jake, and his son Oliver. He’s Latino. Benjamin Bratt could be good in this role, although I would love for Guillermo del Toro to play it. If Mario Lopez took himself a bit more seriously, he could also be good, as he’s likely to be the right age by the time the movie might get made.

Learn more about the book and author at Alan Lazar's website.

--Marshal Zeringue