Gary Corby's "The Ionia Sanction"

Gary Corby is a novelist and former systems programmer at Microsoft. He lives in Australia with his wife and two daughters.

Corby's debut novel is The Pericles Commission.

Here he writes about the actors he could see playing his characters in an adaptation of his new novel, The Ionia Sanction:

The Ionia Sanction is the story of Nicolaos, the only investigating agent in classical Athens, as he searches for stolen information that threatens the safety of Athens. One man has already died trying to protect the secret, another died trying to recover it. Now it's up to Nico to hunt it down, wherever it might be.

About half of the people in my stories are real people, the other half being figments of my demented imagination. So forthwith, I'll cast the major characters!

My wife tells me that Orlando Bloom would be perfect for my hero, Nicolaos. She also tells me that she's willing to take on the role of his girlfriend Diotima.

For Asia, the girl-slave who proves to be quite a handful, we'll have Chloe Moretz. She starred in Kick Ass; the movie was terrible, but she's the right age, and I like the promo shot of her holding a massive, silenced pistol.

For Themistocles, the strategic genius who saved Greece from the Persians, and then defected to the hated enemy, we'll have Laurence Olivier, firstly because it probably takes one genius to play another, and secondly because it would take an amazing actor to portray someone as deep and multi-layered as Themistocles.

For Mnesiptolema, the hardcase daughter of Themistocles, we'll have Helena Bonham Carter, because she dresses up well as a zombie. No, there are no zombies in this story, but if there were, Mnesiptolema would be one.

For Salaminia, the most famous warship of the ancient world, we'll use Olympia [photo left]. There's a good reason for that. Olympia is the world's only remaining trireme, so it's not like we've got a lot of choice. But in fact Olympia was built to ancient specs and probably looks exactly like the original triremes used to.

Barzanes, the devoutly religious and clinically cruel Persian agent, is a tough one to cast. Here's his first appearance: "A man stood there, a Persian, with the nose of a hawk and expressionless eyes under hair that was black as Hades." And later: "He wore a simple, unadorned tunic and no jewelry or display of any kind, yet stood out at this table of well dressed officers and overdressed civilians. The ringleted beard, the curled, black hair, the piercing dark eyes and the hawk-like nose gave him the air of a predator." After a lot of thought, I'm going with Jack Gwillim. Who, you ask? Well, he played King Aeetes in the original Jason and the Argonauts. A fitting finale for my cast.

Learn more about the book and author at Gary Corby's blog.

--Marshal Zeringue

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B. Kent Anderson's "Cold Glory"

B. Kent Anderson is a journalist and broadcaster. A graduate of the University of Central Oklahoma, he is currently a features writer for the Southwestern Publishing group of magazines. He lives with his three sons in Oklahoma City.

Here Anderson shares some suggestions about who should play the leads in an adaptation of his new novel, Cold Glory:

Now that Cold Glory has finally hit bookshelves, I’ve been asked at least a dozen times in the last two weeks about actors for the ever-elusive (and at this point, hypothetical) film of the story.

I honestly don’t write novels with an actor or actress in mind, but have found myself considering the possibilities in the last couple of weeks. My two series characters are college professor Nick Journey and federal investigator/researcher (and part-time concert pianist) Meg Tolman.

Journey is a middle-aged former ballplayer, now a professor at a small college in Oklahoma. He’s also a single father of a son with autism. He’s a little overweight, has high blood pressure and cholesterol. He’s not an indestructible action hero, so leading men like George Clooney and Tom Cruise, though being around the right age (early/mid forties) are out. I found myself leaning toward Sean Penn (though he is a few years old for the character). As he has aged, Penn has developed a bit of a weathered look that would serve Nick Journey well, I think. I have in mind Penn’s role as a weary, understated Secret Service agent in The Interpreter a few years ago, as being the type of look and feel that would be most appealing in Journey.

My fiancée said, “No, no, no!” when I mentioned Penn. She prefers Matt Damon, and I said, “No, no, no! I can’t have Jason Bourne as my college professor.” But she correctly pointed out that Damon has aged a few years since his Bourne Trilogy days, and after looking up a few photos, I can actually see it. Put some rumpled khakis on him and he could also be my Nick Journey. (Perhaps he and Penn could fight it out for the role?)

My female lead, Meg Tolman, is a five-foot-one, tough-talking fireball of a woman with short blond hair and a serious attitude. She also plays Rachmaninov with all the beauty and sensitivity of any top-notch professional pianist. I was at a total loss for an actress in her early thirties to play Tolman, but again my fiancée intervened and suggested Claire Danes. I’ve never seen any of Danes’s films (I don’t get out much, you see), but as soon as I pulled up her photos on Google, I did something of a double take and said, “That’s Meg Tolman!” She brings the right combination of toughness and refinement that could bring Tolman to life on film.

Learn more about Cold Glory at B. Kent Anderson's website and blog.

--Marshal Zeringue

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Paul Doiron’s "Trespasser"

Paul Doiron’s first novel, The Poacher’s Son, won the Barry Award and the Strand Critics Award for Best First Mystery of 2010. His second book in his Mike Bowditch series of rural crime novels is Trespasser, which was called “a masterpiece of high-octane narrative” by Booklist and was an Independent Booksellers Association bestseller.

Here he writes about the actors he could imagine playing Maine Game Warden Mike Bowditch and some of the other principal characters in Trespasser:

The first thing I should do is quote my film agent who says that, in his experience, novelists are poor casting agents for their own books.

Having said that, I’ll take a stab anyway. Mike Bowditch should be a great character for an actor to play—he’s brave and intelligent but impetuous and haunted by violence, both his own and others’—but Hollywood seems to have a dearth of promising male actors under the age of twenty-five (which is Mike’s age in this book). For that reason, I’d probably go with someone a little older like Ryan Gosling, who has the acting chops and has shown an inclination recently to play more physical roles. I haven’t seen enough of Charlie Hunnam’s work, but his performance on Sons of Anarchy has intrigued me.

Mike’s girlfriend Sarah is earnest and beautiful, but deliberately a bit bland—she comes from money and can’t imagine being the wife of an underpaid warden living in the back of beyond. Their relationship is based more on their physical attraction than either will admit. For a long time I pictured January Jones in the role. Scarlett Johansson certainly has the animal magnetism to keep Mike from recognizing how little else they have in common. But there are so many great you female actors working now, it would be hard to go wrong.

In Trespasser a rape and killing take place that resembles an incident from seven years earlier, which means that the man already convicted was either railroaded or that a copy-cat is on the loose. The convict, Erland Jefferts, is a highly charismatic guy who has attracted a cadre of defenders (some attracted to his cause by his looks). I think an actor who projects uncomplicated likability, like Ryan Reynolds, might be right for that part.

Jefferts’ chief advocate and public spokesman is a bluff, blunt New Yorker. Dustin Hoffman would have a ball.

Another important character in the book is a slightly menacing Maine State Trooper. He’s a big and beefy guy who doesn’t quite strike Mike as being what he appears to be. One actor who came to mind recently was Josh Holloway, who played Sawyer on Lost, provided he could drop the Southern twang.

Mike’s supervisor, Sergeant Kathy Frost, is fortyish, smart, witty, and profane which leaves a single choice—Sandra Bullock.

I’ve always thought the plum role in my books is the retired Game Warden Pilot Charley Stevens. Charley is wise and folksy, not conventionally educated but the smartest man in any room he enters. He’s also a daredevil in the air, the best woodsman alive, and a bit of a boy at heart. You’d think any number of great male actors would enjoy playing him: Gene Hackman, Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones. (Please no Maine accents.) One unconventional choice would be Harrison Ford who would get to bring character traits from his roles as Han Solo and John Book (from Witness) to a unique character in his sixties.

Learn more about Paul Doiron at his website and blog.

The Page 69 Test: The Poacher's Son.

--Marshal Zeringue

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Stephen Beachy's "boneyard"

Stephen Beachy is the author of the novels The Whistling Song and Distortion, as well as the twinned novellas Some Phantom/No Time Flat. His writing has appeared in BOMB, The New York Times Magazine, Chicago Review, Best Gay American Fiction, New York magazine and elsewhere. Raised by an ex-Amish father in Iowa, he now lives in California and teaches at the University of San Francisco.

Here he shares some casting ideas for an adaptation of his new novel, boneyard:

If they make boneyard into a movie, Justin Bieber would probably have to play the disturbed Amish boy at its center, Jake Yoder. He looks like a disturbed Amish boy, doesn't he? He doesn't really look like Jake, who has darker hair and bluer eyes and inappropriate affect, but we could work around that. I'm also a character in my book, and so is the editor, Judith Owsley Brown - we write battling footnotes that interpret Jake Yoder's text. Judith would definitely have to be played by Naomi Watts, who can do that kind of mildly uptight but morally concerned thing quite well, and who's just so brilliant there isn't much she can't do. I would like to be played by Barbara Hershey in male drag. Ever since I saw Barbara get raped by an invisible entity in The Entity I've felt an odd kinship with her, as I often feel as if something invisible and malevolent is touching me inappropriately. Maybe it's just a metaphor for capitalism or technology, but since boneyard deals with entities, abuse, horror and malevolent psychologists, her presence would add some rich meta-layers.

Learn more about the book and author at Stephen Beachy's website; view the boneyard trailer.

--Marshal Zeringue

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Alan Lazar's "Roam"

Alan Lazar is a platinum-selling musician/composer whose career began in his native South Africa. He lives in Los Angeles, where he has composed music for more than 30 films and TV shows.

Here he shares some ideas for casting an adaptation of Roam, his first novel:

The hero of Roam is a dog, half-beagle and half-poodle. So, no conventional movie stars need apply. In Marley and Me, I believe the dog was an incredible composite of fourteen real dogs and some CGI. If Roam is a live-action film I guess it would be something similar. Alternatively Roam might be a fully animated film. I’m a huge fan of pretty much all the Pixar movies, and I’d love for Roam to be made over there. Up and Toy Story 3 both got my tear ducts pumping. They handle dramatic subject matter with such a beautiful touch.

If Roam is live action, we’d need to cast the main human character, a beautiful concert pianist named Katey. She’s the original owner, or Great Love, of Nelson, our hero dog. The agent selling the movie rights asked for a couple of names for Katey, and I came up with Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, Anne Hathaway and Kirsten Dunst. All would be great choices.

Thatcher is a truck driver Nelson spends some quality time with, and he’s one of the favorite characters of many who’ve read the book. I somehow imagine Jeff Bridges in the role, one of my favorite actors. I just loved him in Crazy Heart recently. He’s a little old for the role, though, as Thatcher’s only 40, but they managed to shave off a lot of years in Tron, so maybe…

Another of Nelson’s owners is Jake, and his son Oliver. He’s Latino. Benjamin Bratt could be good in this role, although I would love for Guillermo del Toro to play it. If Mario Lopez took himself a bit more seriously, he could also be good, as he’s likely to be the right age by the time the movie might get made.

Learn more about the book and author at Alan Lazar's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

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D. E. Meredith's "The Devil's Ribbon"

D.E. Meredith read English at Cambridge, then ran the press office and the land mines campaign for the Red Cross, travelling extensively to Bosnia, Afghanistan and Rwanda during the conflicts. She worked as a consultant on media relations for Greenpeace and other worthy causes before embarking on "The Hatton and Roumande Mysteries" series for St Martin's Press (Devoured, October 2010, The Devil's Ribbon, October 2011).

For an adaptation of Hatton and Roumande’s latest adventure, here's who Meredith would cast:

Professor Adolphus Hatton. Ed Norton is the right look to play Hatton in that he’s svelte, pale, in need of a good meal and a good woman – I’m thinking Ed Norton in The Painted Veil not The Incredible Hulk. Norton projects a keen intellect and the fastidiousness of an over-achiever. He has an intensity about him which is right for Hatton and I can imagine him doing that “Repressed English Gent” bit brilliantly when he first meets Sorcha. Norton has a strong moral compass, a great sense of right and wrong and this quality is key to Adolphus Hatton. Norton would also capture that troubled side of Hatton, the non-believer, the cutting edge scientist, someone who is pushing up against convention.

Albert Roumande. Javier Bardem is quintessential Roumande, but he’d have to lose the Spanish accent and do a French one. Roumande is a great bear of a man, swarthy and has enormous presence and so does Bardem. Roumande, as Chief Diener (that’s Chief Morgue Assistant) quickly established himself as a father like presence in the morgue. He’s always first to give emotional support to Hatton, to the new assistant, Patrice who’s like one of his children to him. He’s not afraid to show his feelings and Roumande also has a strong sense of right and wrong. He’s believes in people, in ideas and is very passionate. Bardem would be fabulous in this role and win over the ladies, as Roumande seems to be doing!

Inspector Jeremiah Grey. It has to be Michael Sheen. He’s such a versatile actor and we haven’t seen him in a high camp role yet and I’d like to. Jeremiah Grey is a mixed up guy. He’s Welsh, low church, from a poor background but smothers himself in cologne, carries an ivory tipped revolver, is a serious morphine user and is altogether “flamboyant”. His sexuality is hidden, questionable, but we know he loves to dress up in finery and I think Sheen would pull off the camp side of Jeremiah Grey, together with that steely ambition and the sadistic cruelty, simmering just below the surface, very well indeed.

Sorcha McCarthy. Carey Mulligan. Still waters run deep. Sorcha McCarthy is the young woman left behind after her much older husband is murdered. She lives in a beautiful white house on Highgate Hill. She’s married into what the Irish called a “West Brit” family but later reveals she has a poor background. She left Ireland because her dead husband (an Irish MP) had to work in Westminster for the British. We know that Hatton falls head over heels in love the minute he sees her, but it’s not just because she’s exquisite. She’s educated, intense, distracted and seems very interested in Hatton’s work. Lose her trademark bob, give her a long black wig and Carey Mulligan’s perfect. How could Hatton resist such girlish charms? And Mulligan has an intensity about her, a wistfulness. She would make a perfect Sorcha.

And finally, I’d like Eddie Marsan as Mr Tescalini. He’s a wonderful British actor. Perfect for a Victoriana villain, and Stephen Rea has to be Father O’Brian. He’s Irish anyway and would do a brilliantly brooding politico like the Nationalist priest in The Devil’s Ribbon.

So, if anyone reading this blog has contacts with any of the above (especially Norton and Bardem) tell them lunch is on me. They are the perfect team for Hatton and Roumande. And the series isn’t optioned yet, so what exactly are they waiting for?

Learn more about the book and author at Denise Meredith's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Devil's Ribbon.

--Marshal Zeringue

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Tyler McMahon's "How the Mistakes Were Made"

Tyler McMahon received his MFA in fiction from Boise State University. His stories have appeared in Threepenny Review, Sycamore Review, and Surfer’s Journal, among others, and he has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He is a professor of fiction at Hawaii Pacific University.

If an adaptation were produced of How the Mistakes Were Made, McMahon's debut novel, here are his ideas for cast and director:

How the Mistakes Were Made is primarily the story of Laura Loss—a veteran punk rocker who is now blamed for the demise of the grunge band that she helped to form. The book is kind of a fake memoir, which tells Laura’s side of the story. In a sense, it is her defense. The casting for Laura’s part would be the most crucial. Visually speaking, she’s pale, with dark hair and a cynical intensity.

A great writer and filmmaker named J. Reuben Appelman produced a trailer for the book. Early in the process, he asked me what Hollywood actress she most resembled. Without hesitation, I told him that I pictured her as a mid-90’s Winona Ryder. He ended up casting the amazing Abisha Uhl—lead singer of the band Sick of Sarah—in the trailer and she did an amazing job. If someone were to make a movie of it today, certainly Natalie Portman comes to mind; some readers have mentioned that. I could definitely see Anne Hathaway in the role, especially based on her performance in Rachel Getting Married.

The other two band members would be more difficult. I’d like it if they looked young. Sean is visually lankier and darker—more quiet and awkward. His character makes me think of a What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?-era Johnny Depp, or Leonardo DiCaprio around the time of The Basketball Diaries.

Nathan is shorter and more solid. I picture him as generally a grounded and unflappable physical presence. Ewan McGregor definitely has the right energy for it. A young Val Kilmer could have pulled it off as well.

It would be hard to think of any rock-related film without thinking of Cameron Crowe as a possible director. He’s been fearless about putting music center stage on the silver screen—something that other directors shy away from. The fact that the book is set in the Pacific Northwest, however, also brings Gus Van Sant to mind. I greatly admire his attention to marginalized subcultures as well as to teenage life, and would love to see what he could do with the story.

View the trailer for How the Mistakes Were Made, and learn more about the book and author at Tyler McMahon's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

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