Deborah Grabien's "Uncle John's Band"

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Deborah Grabien is the author of the JP Kinkaid Chronicles, including the newly released Uncle John's Band.

Here she shares some ideas for casting an adaptation of the series:

Show me a fiction writer anywhere in the western world who claims they haven’t cast the film version of their work, and I’ll show you a writer I don’t think I believe. I’m not personally big on popular culture these days – since everything from writing to cooking to singing has become a form of competition, the only TV I watch regularly are BBC America’s Top Gear, weather shows like Stormchasers, and hockey games (which are supposed to be competition) – but I’ve cast my latest book. Hell, I’ve cast the entire series, because the Kinkaid Chronicles are now at eight books and counting.

These are books about adults, growing up emotionally to match their actual ages in the muffling, surreal world of rock stardom. They do adult things. When we meet them in Rock & Roll Never Forgets, it’s June 2005 and John Kinkaid is mid-fiftyish. Bree Godwin is eleven years his junior. So, casting them was easy: Ralph Fiennes or (a solid choice, all things considered) Rick Springfield as JP. I was spoiled for choice for Bree, but my personal choices boiled down to Rene Russo, Susan Sarandon or Famke Janssen. My only drawback with Sarandon is her height – Bree is a big girl, five-ten or thereabouts and curvy. Still, she has everything else that character needs.

Something interesting happened along the way – as the characters aged, so did the actors. And they aged into just the way I see the characters seven years after the series began.

So I’m sticking with my original choices. All I ask is, let me write the screenplay.

Learn more about the books and author at Deborah Grabien's website.

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