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 people he's writing about start to discover it.

Here he shares his (and his associates') ideas about casting his protagonist in a film version of the novel:

A whole bunch of people have told me they see Anonymous Lawyer as Ari Gold, the Jeremy Piven character in Entourage. Alternatively, Alec Baldwin as network president Jack Donaghy in 30 Rock. And, more than a few people have mentioned Steven Weber as the network executive in Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. They're all pretty much the same type. Bosses. Screamers. They throw things. And Anonymous Lawyer does too. And they're probably all fair comparisons, and of course I'd be thrilled if any of them were to play Anonymous Lawyer in a hypothetical movie version. But there's a part of me -- and maybe it's just an author's natural sympathy for his characters -- that thinks Anonymous Lawyer is a little underestimated when people make these comparisons. I'd like to think he's more tortured than these guys. With more of a conscience, even if he doesn't always act on it. Rob Lowe has sometimes been the image in my head, although he's probably a little too handsome for the part. But he has a way of radiating an intelligence that I'm not sure I necessarily see in Ari Gold. Jeremy Piven, Alec Baldwin, Steven Weber -- perhaps they're The Jerk, Anonymous Lawyer's rival in the book, a guy who'll stop at anything. Anonymous Lawyer will probably stop at anything too. But at least he'll feel a little bit guilty about it.

Read "Anonymous Lawyer: From Blog To Book" and visit Anonymous Lawyer.

Where else would the Anonymous Lawyer work but at the Anonymous Law Firm LLP?

Visit Jeremy Blachman's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

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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 inventing an alternate currency, took over their regional economy. The novella appeared in a SF magazine, and was later shortlisted for a Nebula Award from the SF Writers of America. Inspired by its reception, I expanded it into a full-length novel.

The main character is one Rory Honeyman, a middle-aged ex-Olympian diving champ, and I've always had Jeff Bridges in mind to play him, somewhat in full Big Lebowski mode, although Rory is more stable and cautious.

Rory's antagonist is Earl Erlkonig, an albino African-American. Hmmm, I guess we'll let makeup deal with the albinoism and cast for the wise-talking shifty nature of the character: can I get Spike Lee in front of the camera again, in Mars Blackmon style?

Earl's girlfriend is a mysterious Asian woman: why not Sandra Oh?

And Rory's girlfriend is supposed to be sweet and somewhat naive, although she proves to be a government agent working undercover. I'm thinking Susan Sarandon.

Let the filming begin!

Visit Paul Di Filippo's official website and his blog.

--Marshal Zeringue

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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, and enough scenery to make you wonder why you live elsewhere:

Imagine Johnny Depp, that great American original from eastern Kentucky, rousing a community of backwoods folks that had already defied the British since 1772 and elected their own independent judges and council -- he leads the charge at the Battle of Kings Mountain on the South/North Carolina border in 1780, where the Overmountain Men turned the tide of the American Revolution and stopped the British advance. A generation later, Depp would re-emerge as Elihu Embree, the fiery Appalachian abolitionist who published the first abolitionist newspaper in the United States, decades before William Lloyd Garrison's liberator; a century later, he would play the role of a labor organizer in the coal mines at the Battle of Blair Mountain, the largest armed insurrection since the Civil War.

West Virginian Jennifer Garner would play Anne Royall, the "virago errant" from the mountains that took Washington DC by storm in the 1830s as the first female muckraker and editor/publisher of a newspaper that took on the religious fanatics and corrupt officials. She would emerge thirty years later as the young Rebecca Harding Davis, courted by the Bostonian elite in the 1860s for her groundbreaking social realism fiction on Appalachia that gave birth to literary naturalism in America.

Appalachians Andie MacDowell and Ashley Judd would join together as cotton mill girls in eastern Tennessee in 1929, leading a jazz-age walkout and strike by fashionable and sophisticated mountain girls, speeding down the back roads in their Model T to spread the news -- this takes place long before Daisy hops in that rig in the Great Gatsby. These actresses would emerge years later as authors Pearl S. Buck and Willa Cather, chatting about their Appalachian origins and influences, and those of Cormac McCarthy, Edward Abbey, Dorothy Allison, Thomas Wolfe, James Agee and Nikki Giovanni.

But we'd have to call on recent Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson, of course, to play two key roles of Appalachian singers who made jazz and blues part of the American experience: Bessie Smith and Nina Simone.

And the role of Sequoyah, the great Cherokee inventor, goes to Wes Studi; Dwight Yoakam would have to play himself, as well as A.P. Carter of the Carter Family; Denzel Washington would play Martin Delany, the 19th century abolitionist and writer. Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton would make an appearance, as would a thousand other musicians. The rest of the roles: auto leader Walter Reuther, Black History Month founder Carter Woodson, blues father WC Handy, civil rights godfather Myles Horton, abolitionist John Rankin, and legendary New York Times publisher Adolph Ochs ... well, Kevin Kline would be fine as Ochs, walking down 42nd Street, reminding viewers that "All the News That's Fit to Print" comes from the Southern Mountains -- that the first Times Building is in Chattanooga.

West Virginian Morgan Spurlock would direct.

Jeff Biggers has worked as a writer, educator, radio correspondent, and community organizer across the United States, Europe, India and Mexico. His award-winning stories have appeared on NPR, PRI, and in scores of travel, literary and music magazines, and national and foreign newspapers. He has been a commentator on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition and for Pacific News Service national syndication. Visit his official website to learn more about Biggers and his work.

--Marshal Zeringue

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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 caravan across a sparsely-settled continent, in a hotel in a great city where a murder takes place at festival time, and up a river to rescue a damsel in distress as the country hovers on the brink of war.

Smith, the fairly heroic middle-aged nobody who turns out to be pretty good at killing people, I always saw as Robbie Coltrane; though if the director (Terry Gilliam, please) were going for a less comedic angle, Russell Crowe would be a good choice. John Goodman would also work.

Lord Ermenwyr, the decadent half-demon princeling, could be played perfectly by Jason Isaacs in the makeup he wore to play Captain Hook, though he'd need to shed twenty years somehow. But he has the eyes for the character, and the ability to play a comedic role. His demoness Nursie? Angelica Huston, I think, with a deadly elegance and wit. His sorceress sister, The Ruby Incomparable, the damsel in distress in question?.... Catherine Zeta-Jones, no question. Beautiful, and statuesque enough with some CGI assistance.

We'd have to reach back in time to cast the cook Mrs. Smith: either Marie Dressler or Jennifer Patterson (of Two Fat Ladies fame). Both possessed a gravitas and wit that would work. Possibly an older Elsa Lanchester too.... All of them had that quality of a lady-with-an-unexpectedly-interesting-past.

A very young Elsa Lanchester could also have played the brainless ingenue, little Burnbright, and of modern actresses ... Emma Thompson, at age 13. Both actresses could handle the character's transition from street urchin to desperately romantic adolescent, and made it funny. The young doctor Willowspear, the object of her affections, might be played by Orlando Bloom, who is surprisingly good when being comedic and moreover has the earnestness necessary.

Lord Ermenwyr's mother, the Saint of the World, could be played by any older actress with breathtaking beauty but a certain steely quality. Cate Blanchett, years from now? Glenn Close or Sian Phillips, equally. And for her demon-lord husband, the Master of the Mountain, AKA Mr. Silverpoint, AKA Daddy ... nobody but Sean Connery.

In a world where a demon-lord can order cocktails and a live sheep delivered to his hotel room, or make an impulse purchase of a steam-powered "slaveless galley", or fight a wizardly battle in the equivalent of a tuxedo ... it seems like a good idea to work with actors who can do more than swing a sword.

Read more about Kage Baker's work, including "The Empress of Mars" (novella, 2003), which won a Sturgeon Award and was nominated for the Hugo and Nebula Awards.

--Marshal Zeringue

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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 belongingness, the emotional mattering to others at the heart of my book Evolving God. Belongingness has deep evolutionary roots — and helps to explain, I believe, the origins of religious behavior in humans.

I think I’d cast, right alongside Kanzi the celebrity, a more “typical” ape or ape family. A theme of the book is that chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas express belongingness in fascinating ways under many conditions (both in captivity and the wild). What camera wouldn’t love the gorillas my students and I have studied for six years at the National Zoo in Washington DC, or the chimpanzees of a community studied by primatologists in Tanzania or the Ivory Coast?

For the human-evolution chapters, the same principle would be at work. Our australopithecine ancestors and our cousins the Neandertals would be portrayed not just as dramatic bipedal striders (in the former case) or spear-wielding cave-bear hunters (in the latter), but also as proto-people who felt deep attachments to their family members and social partners. Over time, as in a dynamic feedback relationship their child-rearing, nurturing tendencies became more complex and their brains expanded and changed, these prehistoric hominids began to wonder about life’s mysteries (and death’s mysteries too). The circle of belongingness gradually expanded. In Neandertals and early Homo sapiens, it almost certainly included the otherworldly and the sacred, expressed through incipient spiritual practices such as burial rituals and (in our species) art ceremonies.

Photogenic, empathetic apes … artistic prehistoric cavedwellers … take note, PBS documentary-makers, ‘Evolving God the Movie’ could become a reality after all!

Kanzi "is regarded as the first ape to demonstrate real comprehension of spoken speech." Learn more about him and his interests, and judge for yourself if he has a lead actor's looks and bearing.

Read more about Barbara J. King's Evolving God at the Page 69 Test site.

--Marshal Zeringue

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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 wanted James Garner to play Rhodes. I thought he’d be perfect, with his laid-back ways and his ironic grin.

As the years passed and Hollywood remained oblivious to the charms of the Rhodes books, I clung to the idea that someday Garner would play the role. Someone would hand him the book, and he’d a few pages and say, “Hey, this Rhodes guy is tailor-made for me. Somebody call Bill Crider’s agent right now!”

As more years passed, I finally realized that it wasn’t going to happen. And that Garner was getting a little too old for the part. Rhodes, unlike some characters in modern mysteries, doesn’t age much. Even if he did, Garner might still be too old, and he’s too banged up from playing Jim Rockford to do much running around. So that little dream is ended.

While I was waiting for some major studio to come to its senses and option the books, James Drury, who lives in the Houston area, expressed an interest in playing Rhodes. That was fine with me. The Virginian was just the kind of guy Rhodes would have been if he’d lived in the 19th century, or so I liked to think. I met with Drury a couple of times, which was fun, but the movie deal we hoped for never materialized.

Now more than twenty years have gone by since Sheriff Rhodes first appeared in print, and Murder Among the OWLS is the fourteenth book in the series. Still nobody has had the good sense to option the novels for film. My current fantasy is that Tom Selleck will happen upon a copy of one of the books, maybe even this latest one, and decide that he just has to play Dan Rhodes. He’ll think, “These Jesse Stone movies I’m doing for CBS are making the big bucks, but they’re a little dark. It’s time I lightened up, showed a little of that Magnum side of me again.”

And it’s not like there are fourteen Jesse Stone books out there. Selleck needs to be looking for a new vehicle, and Sheriff Rhodes could carry him for seven more years if he did two a year. By that time Rhodes would have been in four or five more books if St. Martin’s continues to publish them. Plenty for another few movies.

So for right now, Tom Selleck is the guy. But he’d better hurry up and option the books. If he doesn’t, he’s going to be too old for the part.

Read more about Murder Among the OWLS, and check out the Page 69 Test results for it and its most recent predecessor, A Mammoth Murder.

--Marshal Zeringue

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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 trainer can sculpt a washboard gut, but this is only fussy vanity, not toughness). For Miles McEwan, the protagonist of The Wildfire Season, what's required is old-fashioned masculinity, a man for whom actions speak louder than his words. Because of this, I'd be looking at a short shortlist. Clive Owen. Russell Crowe. But both of them may be a few years too grizzled for the part. That leaves Matt Damon. I feel that, over the Bourne movies and, most recently, The Departed, Mr. Damon has been growing from college boy to man who withholds so much more than he shows or tells. This is the flawed trait of being a manly man. He'd do a great job.

Read more about The Wildfire Season, and check out what Miles is up to on Page 69 of the novel.

--Marshal Zeringue

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