Pam Houston's "Contents May Have Shifted"

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Pam Houston divides her time between her ranch in Colorado and the University of California at Davis, where she is director of the Creative Writing Program. She has been a frequent contributor to O, The Oprah Magazine, and her writing appears regularly in More and other publications. She in the author of the best-selling Cowboys Are My Weakness.

Here Houston shares some ideas for director and main cast members for an adaptation of her new novel, Contents May Have Shifted:

If they make Contents May Have Shifted into a film, I would want Sandra Bullock to play the Pam character. I say this party because I know her production company was seriously considering buying my last book, Sight Hound for a while (they eventually passed) but during that time I did a little research and found out we feel the same way about animals in general and dogs in particular, about several works of literature and other things, (the questionable taste in men on both our parts hardly needs to be spoken of.) But beyond the practicalities of that I see a lot of myself in her, in her authenticity, her humor, and maybe most of all what I would call her “try.”

I love Philip Seymour Hoffman about the best of any male actor these days, and I especially like him in a romantic role, which he does not get all that often, so I think I would like him to play Rick. Annette Bening is perfect for Cinder. (Hey, this is more fun than I thought it was going to be). Drew Barrymore would make a great Willow. (How we doing on budget so far?) Laura Linney as Janine, the acupuncturist. Salma Hayek as Ruby. Maybe Geoffrey Rush as Fenton the human. This book has so many characters, I think I better stop here.

As for a director, I think I would throw that back to Sandra Bullock. This book needs a woman at the helm, I think, and one who is able to laugh at herself.

Learn more about the book and author at Pam Houston's website.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Pam Houston and Fenton Johnson.

The Page 69 Test: Contents May Have Shifted.

--Marshal Zeringue