Lisa O'Donnell's "The Death of Bees"

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Lisa O'Donnell won the Orange Screenwriting Prize in 2000 for The Wedding Gift and, in the same year, was nominated for the Dennis Potter New Screenwriters Award. A native of Scotland, O'Donnell is now a full-time writer and lives in Los Angeles with her two children.

Here she dreamcasts an adaptation of The Death of Bees, her first novel:

I would love to see The Death of Bees as a movie. It’s dramatic, vivid, rich in action and heartbreaking, while at the same time comedic. My dream director would be Jim Sheridan who directed In America, My Left Foot and In the Name of the Father. He has an amazing voice and I love his work. He also has a gift for weeding out talent. You could trust him with anything.

I would like to see two unknown young actresses given an opportunity to play Marnie and Nelly. I have very fixed ideas in how they should look and I would know them immediately if I saw them in front of me in a casting situation. Marnie is pretty and vulnerable. She’s hard, but gentle. Nelly is beautiful, but weird.

I would love to see John Hurt as Lennie. I love John Hurt and when I was writing Lennie it was always his voice I heard in my head.

James Cosmo is Robert T MacDonald. A strong hulking man with eyes that can hide anything.

Goran Visnjic as Vlado because Vlado is a beautiful older man and Goran’s accent is perfect.

Samantha Morton as Izzy because Samantha Morton can be anyone she wants.

Robbie Carlisle as Gene because I love how compassionate he can be in one role and utterly psychotic in another role.

Learn more about the book and author at Lisa O'Donnell's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Death of Bees.

Writers Read: Lisa O'Donnell.

--Marshal Zeringue