Kitty Pilgrim's "The Stolen Chalice"

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Kitty Pilgrim worked as a CNN correspondent and news anchor for 24 years. As a New York-based reporter her normal beat included politics and economics but her assignments also have taken her around the world – Russia, China, Venezuela, Cuba, the Middle East, Korea and South Africa. Pilgrim anchored her own CNN morning show, Early Edition in 1998-1999 and was anchor for prime time broadcasts at CNN from 2001-2010. Pilgrim is the recipient of an Overseas Press Club Award, a Peabody Award, an Emmy, and New York Society of Black Journalists Award. She is a member of the prestigious Council on Foreign Relations and the Explorer’s Club of New York.

Here she shares some suggestions for casting the lead in an adaptation of her John Sinclair novels:

The one question I am asked is who would I like to play my character John Sinclair in a film. Sinclair is the hero of both The Explorer's Code and the recently released The Stolen Chalice.

I thought about Sinclair a lot before I wrote the book(s). Someone told me to write an entire biography of the character before starting the novel and I found that served me very well. I went through a whole checklist of questions ranging from “what was Sinclair’s most tragic moment?” to “what is Sinclair’s favorite cocktail?”.

In brief Sinclair is a tall, dark handsome archaeologist who made a fortune in the tech industry and then went on to pursue his passion – digging in ancient ruins in Ephesus, Turkey.

The actor that plays John Sinclair has to be a rugged archaeologist type who doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty – but who can also be a man about town in London and a seductive charmer on the Cote d’Azur. Sinclair has a lot of baggage – plenty of past girlfriends, the tragic loss of his wife, a moody streak that makes him aloof and remote. I picture a modern  Cary Grant with moody overtones of someone like Clive Owen, George Clooney, or maybe a younger man like Michael Fassbender or Eric Bana. The actor would have to be very sophisticated – because the way I wrote Sinclair, every woman who reads my books always asks me “Where can I find this guy?” He is every woman’s dream.

Learn more about the book and author at Kitty Pilgrim's website.

--Marshal Zeringue