Andrew Blechman's "Pigeons"

The movies use pigeons all the time, yet never in a starring role.Andrew D. Blechman recently published a well-received book about the birds, Pigeons: The Fascinating Saga of the World's Most Revered and Reviled Bird.Here's what he reported when I asked for his input should Hollywood decide to make a movie out of his book:My book delves into humankind's obsession with a gentle little bird that only wants to be our friend. These birds somehow act as a magnified human foil, bringing out the very best in us, and the very worst. What better vehicle for a movie than a bird that elicits tremendous

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Jason Sokol's "There Goes My Everything"

Jason Sokol's first book, There Goes My Everything: White Southerners in the Age of Civil Rights, was released by Alfred A. Knopf in August 2006.He and the playwright-performer Nina Louise Morrison teamed up to develop some casting ideas for a feature film adaptation of his book:A work of history and scholarship, There Goes My Everything contains within it manifold tales – stories of families, cities, and individuals who experienced massive upheaval in their daily lives. The movie version focuses on one of the many dramatic narratives that the book reveals.We set our movie in New Orl

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Kristine Kathryn Rusch's "The Retrieval Artist"

Kristine Kathryn Rusch is an award-winning mystery, romance, science fiction, and fantasy writer. She is the only person in the history of the science fiction field to have won a Hugo award for editing and a Hugo award for fiction.Here she develops some casting ideas for a television series adaptation of her "The Retrieval Artist" series of novels:I have written a lot of novels, most of which I can see as movies. But only one can I see as a television show.I’m writing a series of novels called “The Retrieval Artist.” They’re science fiction and mystery. In each book, I try to use a diff

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Ed Lynskey's "The Blue Cheer"

Ed Lynskey is a crime fiction writer and poet living near Washington, D.C. Here he shares his ideas about casting the main roles in a hypothetical film adaptation of his new novel, The Blue Cheer: A PI Frank Johnson Mystery:If Tinsel Town ever has the impeccable taste (ha!) to make my latest novel, The Blue Cheer, into a film, I could see Mark Wahlberg playing the lead role of Private Investigator Frank Johnson. Mr. Wahlberg, born in 1971 and now 36, falls in about the same age range. They both have the same wiry build. Plus Mr. Wahlberg snaring the Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Ac

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Chris Grabenstein's "Slay Ride"

Chris Grabenstein has written screenplays, made-for-TV movies, and Muppet scripts. He is the author of the "John Ceepak" mystery series, and the "Christopher Miller" Holiday Thrillers, which started with Slay Ride.Here he shares his ideas about casting the main roles in film adaptations of some his novels, beginning with Slay Ride:So, who would play Christopher Miller, the intrepid, stalwart FBI agent everybody calls Saint Chris?Easy.Laurence Fishburne.While writing the novel, I had a photo of Fishburne pinned to the wall over my computer. I think he’s the right age, look, and feel for the p

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Brian Freeman's "Stripped"

Brian Freeman is the author of psychological suspense novels featuring detectives Jonathan Stride and Serena Dial. His debut thriller, Immoral, won the Macavity Award for Best First Novel and was a finalist for the Edgar, Dagger, Anthony, and Barry Awards. The widely-praised Stripped followed in October 2006.Here he shares his (and his readers') ideas about casting the main roles in film adaptations of his novels:I hear from readers every week who wonder when they’ll be able to see the movies of Immoral and Stripped. I tell them my agent is still working on it – but they don’t call Los Angel

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Kenneth Gross's "Shylock is Shakespeare"

Kenneth Gross, Professor of English at the University of Rochester, is the author of, most recently, Shylock Is Shakespeare.Here he imagines who would best capture the central role in The Merchant of Venice:Who would play Shylock?The actors I’ve seen playing Shylock -- variously stoic, angry, seductive, sorrowful, playful, self-righteous, wearied, fearful -- wanted to keep audiences in view of a human Shylock. They showed us a Shylock who even in his rage or blind love of money is vulnerable, and who in turn makes us vulnerable. (David Suchet’s and Laurence Olivier’s were the best among t

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Jeremy Blachman's "Anonymous Lawyer"

Jeremy Blachman is the author of Anonymous Lawyer, a novel which he has described as:about a partner at a top-notch corporate law firm, from the outside living the perfect life, but on the inside a frustrated soul. He's fighting for the chairman's job (up against colleagues like The Jerk, The Tax Guy, and The Woman Who Missed Her Kid's Funeral) but in reality he's feeling trapped in a life he's not sure he ever wanted to lead, and taking it out on the people around him ... and all the while writing a secret weblog to vent his frustrations ... which becomes less and less of a secret as the peo

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Paul Di Filippo's "Spondulix"

Paul Di Filippo is the author of hundreds of short stories as well as a number of novellas and novels, including Ciphers, Joe's Liver, Fuzzy Dice, A Mouthful of Tongues, and Spondulix.He has been a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, BSFA, Philip K. Dick, Wired Magazine, and World Fantasy awards.Here he shares his ideas about the cast of a film version of one of the novels:Some years ago, I wrote a novella titled "Spondulix." Not hardcore SF, it nonetheless belonged in that genre, I felt, as a kind of "economic science fiction." It concerned a group of slackers in contemporary times who, by inv

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Jeff Biggers' "The United States of Appalachia"

Jeff Biggers is the author of In the Sierra Madre, The United States of Appalachia, and other works including stories and radio programs.Here he shares his ideas for casting the movie version of The United States of Appalachia, just released in paperback:We're talking a sweeping epic here, spanning 250 years. A lot of popcorn. But, we're talking a local production; the movie for my book, The United States of Appalachia: How Southern Mountaineers Brought Independence, Culture and Enlightenment, would feature some great Appalachian actors, some of the most dramatic moments in American history,

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Kage Baker's "The Anvil of the World"

Kage Baker is the author of many science fiction and fantasy novels and stories.Here she develops some casting ideas for the film version of her 2003 fantasy novel, The Anvil of the World:I wrote The Anvil of the World as a reaction against the heavy-handed serious fantasy of imitators of Tolkien. I thought it might be interesting to feature a principal hero who is a middle-aged nobody rather than an adolescent prince-disguised-as-farmboy or an adolescent girl-who-wants-to-be-a-warrior. The book is something of a triptych, following a varied cast of characters through three adventures: on a c

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Barbara J. King's "Evolving God"

Barbara J. King, Professor of Anthropology at the College of William and Mary, shares some ideas about the casting for a possible movie version of her most recent book, Evolving God: A Provocative View on the Origins of Religion:Were I feeling starstruck, Kanzi [now living at the Great Ape Trust in Iowa] would be the obvious choice for the ape chapter’s lead actor. Here’s a bonobo with class, style, and linguistic skills. In his life with other apes and with humans, Kanzi has shown empathy and imagination in specific ways documented by scientists. These are key behaviors related to belongingn

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Bill Crider's "Murder Among the OWLS"

Bill Crider is the author of fourteen Sheriff Dan Rhodes novels -- Murder Among the OWLS is the most recent -- and that's only a slice of his literary output.Here he shares his thoughts about who would be great for the role of Dan in the film version of the novels:When the first Sheriff Dan Rhodes novel, Too Late to Die, was published in 1986, I was sure it would be snapped up for the movies any day. Which shows how little I knew about Hollywood and options and my chance of ever having a movie made of one of my books. At any rate, almost as soon as the book was accepted, I decided that I w

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Andrew Pyper's "The Wildfire Season"

The Wildfire Season is Andrew Pyper's third novel.Here he explains who would be great for the lead role in the film version of the novel:In casting the male lead in the movie version of my novel, The Wildfire Season, I would look for the kind of actor who is a rare commodity in today's Hollywood: a manly man. So many of the stars who top the multiplex posters of late are, to my mind, either pretty boys or old hams. And when I'm talking manliness, I'm not talking about how ripped a fellow's chest is when he takes off his t-shirt (anyone with eight hours a day to spend with a personal traine

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