Priya Parmar's "Exit the Actress"

Priya Parmar, a former freelance editor and dramaturg holds degrees in English Literature and theatre. She attended Mount Holyoke College, Oxford University and is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Edinburgh. She divides her time between Hawaii and London.

Here she shares some casting ideas for an adaptation of her new novel, Exit the Actress:

Exit the Actress the movie? My dream cast? Dead or alive? For the royal family: Cary Grant would make a heavenly Charles II. He had just the right mix of bite, wit, charm and disarming flirt about him. Emily Mortimer would make a perfect Catherine of Braganza—calm, sincere and lovely. Maggie Smith would be perfect as Henrietta Maria; dripping with scathing criticism and able to throw away the most outrageous lines perfectly.

And the theatre? Johnny Depp was a perfect Johnny Rochester in The Libertine, insouciant yet with a simmering sense of pathos beneath, and Rupert Everett would be a fantastic, hilarious, lovable Edward (Teddy) Kynaston.

And the Gwyns? Merle Oberon would be perfect as Rose; dignified yet wounded. And Nell? Small, beloved, funny, happy, thoughtful Nell? Audrey Hepburn. If only….

Learn more about the book and author at Priya Parmar's website and blog.

Writers Read: Priya Parmar.

--Marshal Zeringue

Read more »

{[['']]}

Dave Zeltserman's "Outsourced"

Dave Zeltserman is the author of ten novels, including Killer, Pariah, The Caretaker of Lorne Field, Small Crimes, and Blood Crimes, as well as many short stories and a collection of short crime fiction, 21 Tales.

His new novel is Outsourced:

A classic heist thriller pitched somewhere between Ocean's Eleven and Dog Day Afternoon, it’s the story of a group of software engineers who lose their jobs due to an industry push to outsourcing. Desperate, and seeing their middle class lives crumbling apart, they come up with a brilliant plan to use their computing skills to rob a bank. But not even a systems analyst can foresee every eventuality, so the group falls foul of the Russian Mafia.

Here Zeltserman shares some casting preferences for a cinematic adaptation of the novel:

Outsourced has a film deal where the script is different than the book, so I don't want to get in trouble with this. But if I was casting the book and not the script the film company is using, I'd have the following dream cast:

Dan Wilson: Kevin Costner
Carol Wilson: Maria Bello
Alex Resnick: Rob Morrow
Gordon Carmichael: Dan Ackroyd
Joel Kasner: Sean Penn
Shrinivas Kumar: Kunal Nayyar
Viktor Petrenko: Val Kilmer

Learn more about the author and his work at Dave Zeltserman's website and blog.

My Book, The Movie: Small Crimes.

The Page 69 Test: Pariah.

The Page 69 Test: Outsourced.

Writers Read: Dave Zeltserman.

--Marshal Zeringue

Read more »

{[['']]}

Stephen Deas's "The King of the Crags"

Stephen Deas is the author of the acclaimed short story “The Snow Fox.” The Adamantine Palace introduced The Memory of Flames Trilogy and is followed by The King of the Crags.

Here the author develops some ideas for casting a big screen adaptation of the trilogy:

Generally when I write, I don't write with particular faces or actors or movie characters in mind, I just let each new personality form on its own. However, in this case, there is one striking exception. Prince Jehal, the lead protagonist in The Adamantine Palace and still one of the main players in King of the Crags is Joaquin Phoenix, back in his Gladiator days. Best. Sneer. Ever. He's also the Ultravox song Young Savage, in case he needs theme music. He just might.

For the rest, I've gone for contemporary actors and actresses who could fill the roles as they are today. It's tempting to go back and bring Paul Newman back to life for almost every male character, and please yes, can I have Veronica Lake for Zafir? But somehow, indulging in time-travel feels too much like science fiction rather than fantasy, so I've stuck with more generally familiar names.

Prince Jehal – Joaquin Phoenix

Queen Zafir – Scarlett Johansson. She does capricious to a tee.

Vale Tassan – Alexander Skarsgård (aka Eric Northman). For his unrivalled powers of looming-over-people-in-a-menacing-way.

Kemir – Javier Bardem. Someone who can play a tortured soul and a psychopath with equal ease.

Hyrkallan – Sean Penn. I need a reason to include Sean Penn? Don't be ridiculous.

Semian – Shia LaBeouf. To play a deranged man whose earnest self-belief should be scary enough in itself, never mind what he does with it? Yes. Also for what happens at the end.

Prince Meteroa – Jason Isaacs. You know him as Lucius Malfoy and various other villains, but over in the UK we see a bit more of him that that. Check out The State Within.

Jostan – Owen Wilson. Because of what happens in Chapter 7.

Queen Shezira – Cate Blanchett. Because it is simply necessary, after The Lord of the Rings, that Cate Blanchett be in any and all epic fantasy.

Princess Jaslyn, Princess Lystra – Deborah Ann Woll and Anna Kendrick. Can exchange notes on bloodsuckers and find out what it's like to be in a series with some real monsters.

Isentine – Ben Kingsley. Do not...

Kithyr – Geoffrey Rush. ...Need...

Jeiros – Alan Rickman. ...To justify...

Vioros – Jeremy Irons. ...Any of these. (Although I admit to casting with book three in mind)

King Valmeyan – Tim Roth. For that cocked head cockney gangster look.

King Sirion – Hugo Weaving. Because V For Vendetta earned forgiveness for making Elrond into Agent Smith.

The Picker – Brad Dourif. Because Dune wasn't as bad as you remember it.

Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightly didn't quite make it simply because I couldn't find any characters who die off quick enough and messily enough to achieve some sort of catharsis for Pirates Of The Carribean II & III. I'm amenable to recasting Jehal as Johnny Depp providing I can have him from about ten years ago. I don't much care who directs it, provided they have the vision and the sense of scale for a battle scene with about a thousand dragons in it.

Visit the official Stephen Deas website.

The Page 69 Test: The Adamantine Palace.

The Page 69 Test: The King of the Crags.

--Marshal Zeringue

Read more »

{[['']]}

Craig McDonald's "One True Sentence"

Craig McDonald is the Edgar®/Anthony nominated author of Head Games, Toros & Torsos, and Print the Legend.

Here he shares some ideas for cast, director, and music composer for an adaptation of his latest Hector Lassiter novel, One True Sentence:

There will come a time when George Lucas will deliver on his alleged promise (threat?) to cast movies using digitally resurrected, long dead actors. When that moment arrives, it would finally be feasible to cast the movie I see in my head when I think about One True Sentence, the fourth Hector Lassiter historical literary thriller — one peopled by pop culture titans who have left indelible images of themselves in readers’ heads.

The novel is set in 1924 Paris, but the characters who cross my pages left myriad photos — and even some grainy film footage — of themselves to posterity. We all know how Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas and other City of Lights luminaries looked back then.

My series character, crime novelist and screenwriter Hector Lassiter, has always been personified by the actor William Holden for me. In fact, in several books, his resemblance to Holden is remarked on (in a still-to-be-published Lassiter novel, a key plot point revolves around a seventy-something Lassiter actually posing as Holden). So, in that George Lucas virtual world, Lassiter would be played by a young Holden. His love interest, the darkly enticing mystery writer, Brinke Devlin, would be portrayed by the silent-screen siren who largely inspired her, Louise Brooks.

But, for now (and to the possible chagrin of Mr. Lucas), we have to content ourselves to casting living actors. That being the case, for Texas-born Hector Lassiter I envision Texas-born actor Jensen Ackles, who has come into his own as the charming, charismatic and very gray character Dean Winchester on the cult-favorite television series Supernatural. Hector, too, is a charming, capable guy who can stray into some very dark behavior yet remain winning. It’s a tough tightrope to walk, but Ackles can do it with aplomb.

For Hector’s sidekick, a still largely unknown Ernest Hemingway, I envision actor Timothy Olyphant. He’s got a the bearing, the attitude and intensity to bring off the young Hemingway, a man whom even those who despised him in the 1920s agreed had the kind of rare charisma that robbed rooms of oxygen when he entered them.

Hector’s first great love, Brinke Devlin is a bit trickier to pin down. As Louise Brooks is no longer available, I lean toward another actress who was nearly as often in my mind’s-eye as I wrote the novel, fellow Columbus, Ohio native Alana De La Garza, probably best known for her work on Law & Order. Brinke, a smalltown Ohio girl who is a couple of years older than Hector, worldlier and a longtime expatriate amidst the capitals of Europe, requires the kind of American yet exotic presence Ms. De La Garza embodies.

In a prior piece for this site regarding my third Lassiter novel, Print the Legend, I mentioned my love for the films of Alan Rudolph, particularly his movies Trouble in Mind and The Moderns. The latter is set in 1925 Paris and features many of the same historical figures who appear in One True Sentence. The Moderns left a profound mark on me as a moviegoer and certainly affected my own sense of 1920s Paris. (I even crept a few mentions of characters from The Moderns into Lassiter #2, the surrealist-art focused thriller Toros & Torsos).

If I was in the position to “Zanuck” this sucker, I’d have Alan Rudolph directing — pushing these gifted actors through the labyrinthine dark of the One True Sentence plot, all of it set against a soundtrack composed by Mark Isham.

Learn more about the author and his work at Craig McDonald's website and blog.

Read "The Story Behind the Story: One True Sentence, by Craig McDonald" at The Rap Sheet.

The Page 69 Test: One True Sentence.

Writers Read: Craig McDonald.

--Marshal Zeringue

Read more »

{[['']]}

Thelma Adams's "Playdate"

Thelma Adams has been Us Weekly’s film critic since 2000, after six years reviewing at the New York Post. She has written for Marie Claire, the New York Times, Cosmopolitan and Self.

Here she shares some casting ideas for an adaptation of her new novel, Playdate:

Inspired by the upcoming Academy Awards, I’m casting my book from current Oscar nominees. Playdate began with a simple movie pitch: Shampoo meets Mr. Mom. Clearly, Warren Beatty and Michael Keaton have aged out of playing my stay-at-home-dad (SAHD) protagonist. And the book has grown well beyond its one-sentence premise, so that each character, male and female, child and adult, became their own ornery being.

Cast Lance, the SAHD, and the rest of the book falls into place. This modern, easy-going dad loves his daughter Belle, is trying to father another child with his distracted wife Darlene, and has Tantric sex with Wren, the wife of Darlene’s business partner Alec. See Mark Ruffalo in The Kids Are All Right as the charming sperm donor trying to wiggle his way in to his biological children’s nuclear family after a lifetime of casual sex, and there are the seeds of Lance.

What about Lance’s Tantric sex partner? At the New York Film Critics Circle Awards last month, I heard Michelle Williams tell a story on her friend Ruffalo, as she was presenting him with his best supporting actor award. She described going to visit him with her daughter Matilda, and how he scooped up child’s vomit from the backseat of a car – and it wasn’t even his child! I knew I found my Wren. There’s a glowy beauty to Williams, a passive quality, and a maturity born of being a mother and weathering tragedy. I’d love to see how she and Ruffalo fit together.

Lance’s wife Darlene is tougher. She was the toughest character in the book to write. I had to convey to readers why Lance might cheat, and still make him sympathetic. In so doing, Darlene suffered. She was too brittle at first; I hard to warm her back up. That took at least two revisions. If you see Amy Adams in the brilliant indie sisterhood movie Sunshine Cleaning, opposite Emily Blunt, you’d see Darlene, a mother and entrepreneur that’s hooked on a better future who only in the end understands the great gifts she has in the present.

Alec, the yuppie businessman, was always based on Alec Baldwin: “He was a tall, broad-shouldered Baby Boomer originally from Massapequa, Long Island, who knew how to fill a booth, the eldest brother in an Irish Catholic, Kennedy-worshipping family of boys and thus more used to leading than to being held accountable.” But Baldwin has done this role before; he got a Golden Globe but isn’t in the Oscar race. I believe Colin Firth could take this part and make him irresistibly smarmy, playing against Firth’s recent type as the nice guy, the wounded romantic lead.

To finish up, Jennifer Lawrence of Winter’s Bone could play the tattooed, trouble-making babysitter Julia, who catches Wren and Lance together and makes her own play for the SAHD. As for eleven-year-old Belle, the beauty at the center of the book, trying to make sense of the uneasy undercurrents in her home, it’s too early to cast her. Child actors age out so swiftly – at one time it could have been Anna Paquin, or Keisha Castle-Hughes. And, although True Grit’s Hailee Steinfeld would have worked even three years ago, at 15, she’s already over the hill for this part.

One thing’s for sure: Playdate is ready for its close-up.

Learn more about the book and author at Thelma Adams' website.

The Page 69 Test: Playdate.

--Marshal Zeringue

Read more »

{[['']]}

Kelli Stanley's "The Curse-Maker"

Kelli Stanley is the author of last year's acclaimed City of Dragons.

Her debut book, Nox Dormienda (2008), was a Writer’s Digest Notable Debut, won the Bruce Alexander Memorial Historical Mystery Award, and was a Macavity Award finalist.

Here she plays casting director for an adaptation of her new novel, The Curse-Maker, the sequel to Nox Dormienda:

I’d love to see my books made into film … what author (except maybe J.D. Salinger) wouldn’t?

For The Curse-Maker, I’d stick to the idea that Romans are voiced by Americans and native Britons by, of course, the British. This turns the mid-Atlantic accent tradition on its head, but is eminently more suitable for the voice of Roman noir.

Now then … who to play Arcturus?

If this were the Golden Age of Hollywood, no problem—I’d try to get William Holden at 35. He’s the epitome of tall, dark and classically handsome, but also sensitive and sarcastic—some of Arcturus’ prime characteristics.

We’re not in the Golden Age of Hollywood, however … and the only actors who can fit the bill—to my mind—aren’t American. If we follow the Holden prototype, Hugh Jackman would work. And I could be very happy with a blond Arcturus were Daniel Craig to step into his toga. Russell Crowe could play anything at any age and make me happy.

As for Gwyna … well, again, we’re looking at a cross between Grace Kelly and Lana Turner. She’s younger than Arcturus, smart, brave, and headstrong. Scarlett Johansson would bring good things to the role, but I’d prefer Naomi Watts about ten years ago. Intelligence and a kind of royal deportment are two of Gwyna’s strongest traits, and a younger Naomi could have captured both brilliantly.

Of the secondary characters, I’d cast Jennifer Connelly or Nicole Kidman as Sulpicia, Kevin Durand as Draco, George Clooney as Philo, Kathy Bates as Materna, and Mark Strong as Papirius … with Robert Downey, Jr. as Faro the Great.

It’s a fantasy, after all—so why not an all-star cast?

Read an excerpt from The Curse-Maker, and learn more about the novel and author at Kelli Stanley's website and blog.

My Book, The Movie: Nox Dormienda.

Coffee with a Canine: Kelli Stanley & Bertie.

The Page 69 Test: The Curse-Maker.

--Marshal Zeringue

Read more »

{[['']]}

Ellen Byerrum's "Shot Through Velvet"

Ellen Byerrum writes the Crime of Fashion mysteries, which are set in Washington DC, The City Fashion Forgot, and feature reporter Lacey Smithsonian. Shot Through Velvet, the just-published seventh book in the series, takes Lacey on assignment to a velvet factory in southern Virginia on its last day of operation.

Here Byerrum shares her experience with casting adaptations of the Crime of Fashion mysteries:

The dream cast for the movie? Ahhh. Contemplating the possibility of having our books made for the silver screen is something writers love to indulge in, if only in our daydreams. But I don’t think about movies much these days because first, I’m in the middle of writing my next mystery, and second, two of my Crime of Fashion Mysteries were already made into films, which aired during the summer of 2009 on the Lifetime Movie Network. Killer Hair and Hostile Makeover were also tossed into the schedule once last year, but I had no advance notice to alert people.

A dream cast? I had a great cast for the TV movies, including Maggie Lawson as my Washington DC reporter Lacey Smithsonian; and Victor Webster, who played her love interest Vic Donovan. Some people claimed he was too handsome to play Vic, which is preposterous. How could anyone be too handsome?

However, when I write, I don’t usually think about actors playing my characters. I have a pretty clear idea of who they are, what they look like, and how they respond. I don’t want to be limited by writing with a specific actor in mind. It’s too easy to get stuck on a particular actor’s range and personality—and limitations. I want my characters to be free to keep surprising me, and they do.

With one exception: Harlan Wiedemeyer, the “death & dismemberment beat” reporter in my books. Harlan features in my latest book Shot Through Velvet (just released!), when he and Lacey discover a dead body together. Harlan is short and chubby and adores doughnuts, and his grisly reporting beat, full of bizarre and deadly news stories. I would love to see him played by Wally Shawn, the actor and playwright. You might remember him as the teacher in Clueless, and he was a standout in such films as The Princess Bride and My Dinner With Andre. As Harlan Wiedemeyer, chubby crusader for truth and justice (and all the doughnuts he can eat), Wally Shawn would be comic perfection.

Visit Ellen Byerrum's website and blog.

Writers Read: Ellen Byerrum.

--Marshal Zeringue

Read more »

{[['']]}