Garret Freymann-Weyr's "French Ducks in Venice"

Garret Freymann-Weyr (née Weyr) was born and raised in New York City. She inexplicably went to college in North Carolina (UNC-Chapel Hill) and, just as inexplicably, got an MFA in film (NYU). She now lives in North Carolina with her husband. She has written five books for young adults, one of which, somewhat inexplicably, won a Printz honor. Her work has been sold to countries including the Netherlands, Germany, Japan, and China. Her new book, French Ducks in Venice, is a picture book for a younger audience.

Here she shares some casting ideas for an adaptation of French Ducks in Venice:

This feels a little like Fantasy Football for book geeks, so I’m super thrilled to play. Writing a picture book is like being the groom at a wedding – you play a vital role, but you are also irrelevant.

So being an imaginary casting director is a job promotion....

Our story, such as it is, concerns two ducks, Georges and Cecile, who must cope with the fact that their parental figures (a magical dressmaker, Polina Panova, and an equally magical filmmaker, Sebastian Sterling) have split. Sebastian Sterling goes away one morning, never to return. Polina, as result, is sad, which enrages Georges, who wishes to comfort his beautiful mother figure. He goes on a quest for a perfect present and brings her some magical light.

I may have overdone the whole magical element in this description to the point that if you read this far, you want to throw up in your mouth a little, but it works as a story ... you will have to trust me on this.

On to the casting.

Because two of the main characters are ducks, this would probably involve some kind of animation or voice work but, given this is a game of pretend, I’m going to stick with actors whose face or personalities remind me of my characters. Since I based both Polina Panova and Sebastian Sterling on my beautiful, talented, and mysterious sister who is a 1st A.D. and a director, I have to pick Sandra Bullock for Polina. Whenever someone who has worked with ‘Sandy,’ meets my sister, she has to hear about how much they look alike. Jon Hamm for Sebastian Sterling because Hamm looks like he knows how to think (critical for a filmmaker) and also sort of looks like the guy you just know is going to be a jerk, which Sebastian is. Hugh Laurie (from Blackadder and Jeeves, not House) for Georges, because they share an eager desire to please in spite of not understanding how. Emma Thompson for Cecile because ... well, does anyone ever need to explain Emma Thompson?

Okay, back to my real life. Thanks for asking me to play.

Visit Garret Freymann-Weyr's website and view the video trailer for French Ducks in Venice.

--Marshal Zeringue

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Nick Drake's "Egypt: The Book of Chaos"

Nick Drake's critically acclaimed novel Nefertiti was shortlisted for the Crime Writers’ Association Ellis Peters Historical Crime Award; his Tutankhamun was a Publishers Weekly top 100 books selection. He has published two award-winning collections of poetry, and his play Success was performed at the National Theatre in London, where he is a literary associate. Drake's screenplays include the critically acclaimed Romulus, My Father (starring Eric Bana), which won Best Film at the Australian Film Awards in 2007.

Here he writes about the actor he'd like to see play the lead in an adaptation of his latest novel, Egypt: The Book of Chaos:

Rahotep, the detective at the heart of Egypt (and its two predecessors), is a man who feels at home in the rough backstreets of Thebes, but spend much of his time in the extraordinary elite world of the Palace and high government. As a detective, he's someone who just looks at a crime scene, to see what is there that should not be, and what is not there that should be. He's also someone who understands the labyrinth of the human heart. I'd love someone like Eric Bana to play him - charismatic, complex, with an edge of danger and an emotional depth and feeling for the dark poetry of the soul of things. Bana is an incredibly gifted actor with a powerful presence; I often had him in mind while I was writing.

Learn more about the book and author at Nick Drake's website.

The Page 69 Test: Egypt: The Book of Chaos.

--Marshal Zeringue

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Kristine Louise Haugen's "Richard Bentley"

What made the classical scholar Richard Bentley deserve to be so viciously skewered by two of the literary giants of his day—Jonathan Swift in the Battle of the Books and Alexander Pope in the Dunciad? The answer, according to Kristine Haugen in her new biography, Richard Bentley: Poetry and Enlightenment: he had the temerity to bring classical study out of the scholar’s closet and into the drawing rooms of polite society.

Here Haugen shares some insights about casting the biopic adapted from her book:

Unfortunately for Bentley, his personality and persona resembled those of Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood (2007). The tone of his writings was aggressive and peremptory, not to say bullying, toward his readers. His treatment of his underlings in Cambridge University was so vile that he was repeatedly sued, eventually stripped of his degrees, and finally ejected from the mastership of Trinity College.

But it was in the actual contents of Bentley's literary scholarship that his violent disposition emerged most clearly. His greatest notoriety rests on his work as a textual critic — that is, deciding whether the traditional words in a text are correct. Here, Bentley slashed and burned gleefully, whether his target was the lyric poet Horace, the playwright Terence, or the very recently departed John Milton. Bentley attacked not only authors but the idea of authorship itself: he might accurately have said, with Day-Lewis' egregious oilman Daniel Plainview,

"I have a competition in me. I want no one else to succeed. I hate most people."

This ruthless and combative Bentley is what's revealed to us by a wide-ranging crane shot, if you will. But a close-up of Bentley in the act of working shows us a different character, less alarming but still wonderfully strange: someone like John Cusack in High Fidelity (2000). Blessed and cursed with a photographic memory, drawn like a moth to the making of lists, and openly obsessive-compulsive, Bentley loved poetry as passionately as Rob Gordon loved LPs. In fact, he couldn't stop talking about it. By common consensus, it's rare to read Bentley and believe everything he says — but it's impossible not to learn something new.

It's true that unlike the terminal cuteness of Cusack, Bentley's perverse charm carries him only so far with us. Above all, his fixation with the "right" and "wrong" words is no longer attractive. But in other respects, he was one of the most appealing literary readers of his time. Here are the top five reasons.

5. Rejecting Aristotle's stale and abstract literary theories, Bentley insisted on directly encountering and judging the words of a poem.

4. He was endlessly fascinated with poetic form, above all poetic meter.

3. Unlike many predecessors, he worked to mount systematic arguments wherever he could, drawing readers in rather than repelling them with disconnected details.

2. Nearly the most important of all, Bentley aimed to bring serious research in the humanities before a wider public — a goal that remains capitally important today.

1. In a word, Bentley is our ancestor; to a degree, even, Bentley is us.

Learn more about Richard Bentley at the Harvard University Press website.

Kristine Louise Haugen is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at The California Institute of Technology.

--Marshal Zeringue

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J.J. Murphy's "Algonquin Round Table Mysteries"

J.J. Murphy, an award-winning health care writer in Pennsylvania, has also been a long-time Dorothy Parker fan.

She started writing The Algonquin Round Table Mysteries after the birth of twin daughters, as an escape from toddler television.

Here she shares some thoughts on adapting the series for the cinema:

Who could play the infamous Dorothy Parker and the members of the Algonquin Round Table in a movie? Fortunately or unfortunately, these were real people. So their appearances are already a matter of record.

Also, I’m going to cheat...I have my own poll on my website, so I’ll let the readers decide. Here’s how they voted:

Dorothy Parker. She was a petite, brown-haired, sharp-tongued young woman [photo left]. So the candidates for this role include Emily Blunt (with 9% of the votes), Rachel McAdams (with 10%), Ellen Page (15%), and Anne Hathaway (18%). But the winner is...Christina Ricci, with almost half (47%) of the votes.

Interestingly, write-in candidates include Helena Bonham-Carter, Selma Blair and even Lady Gaga (now that would make an interesting movie!)

Robert Benchley. He was a slender fellow with an oval face and a carefree, mischievous smile. Actors for this role include Jason Segel (with 5% of the votes), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (with 14%), James McAvoy (21%), and Edward Norton (24%). But the winner is...Ryan Gosling with more than one-third (37%) of the votes.

William Faulkner, as a young unknown, shows up in the first book, Murder Your Darlings. That’s a tough one to cast, and wasn’t up for a vote. Faulkner was a soulful, thoughtful man but with obvious weaknesses. Perhaps Michael Cera?

Harry Houdini, in the sunset of his career, appears in the second book, You Might As Well Die. Who could play an older version of this intense magician? Harvey Keitel played Houdini in a movie in 1997, so let’s bring him back for another go-round.

Casting an imaginary movie is a great game to play. But hopefully Hollywood will make the actual movie...someday. I’ll bring the popcorn!

Learn more about the books and author at J.J. Murphy's website and Facebook page.

--Marshal Zeringue

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Tim Riley's "Lennon: The Man, the Myth, the Music"

NPR critic Tim Riley is the author of Tell Me Why: A Beatles Commentary (Knopf/Vintage 1988); Hard Rain: A Dylan Commentary (Knopf/Vintage1992, Da Capo 1999); Madonna: Illustrated (Hyperion 1992); Fever: How Rock'N'Roll Transformed Gender In America (St. Martin's/Picador 2005).

Here he writes about the above-the-line talent for an adaptation of his latest book, Lennon: The Man, The Myth, The Music:

This is easy: Brad Pitt has been talking about doing Lennon for a couple years, and he would be both box office and a fascinating entry to the Lennon sweepstakes. My favorite Lennon so far is Ian Hart in The Hours and Times, but those who underrate Pitt should watch The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. The role calls for a combustible mix of hilarity and doom.

Cameron Crowe should direct, obviously. Yoko: much harder to cast, but I'd vote for Cate Blanchett. She's a chameleon with a vast sense of humorous ennui. Ryan Reynolds as Paul McCartney, Christopher Plummer as George Martin, Adam Lambert as George Harrison, Jack Black as Allen Klein, Fozzie the Bear as Ringo Starr, Scarlett Johansson or Angelina Jolie as Julia Stanley Lennon, Wally Cox as Brian Epstein, and Maggie Smith as Aunt Mimi -- in this movie she gets to... kill John's dog Sally.

Learn more about the book and author at Tim Riley's website.

Lennon: The Man, The Myth, The Music is on the Christian Science Monitor's list of the five best books on John Lennon.

--Marshal Zeringue

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Kameron Hurley's "Bel Dame Apocrypha"

Kameron Hurley currently hacks out a living as a marketing and advertising writer in Ohio. Her personal and professional exploits have taken her all around the world. She spent much of her roaring 20′s traveling, pretending to learn how to box, and trying not to die spectacularly. Along the way, she justified her nomadic lifestyle by picking up degrees in history from the University of Alaska and the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal.

Here she shares some ideas for casting adaptations of the first two volumes of the Bel Dame Apocrypha:

Oh, the God’s War and Infidel movies… the bloodiest, most bad-ass piece of awesome you have ever seen, combining the ragtag mercenary team dynamics of Firefly with the lovely brutality of The 300, all marinated in some of the most terrifying female combat scenes… well, ever.

I can just picture it now…

Primary Recurring Characters:

Nyx. Most folks are likely thinking Michelle Rodriguez for this part, and I won’t lie that the Michelle from Girlfight with a really glorious tan could be an epic Nyx. She is, however, a tad short, and I’m not sure she’d have the physical stopping power Nyx needs. I have yet to find another mainstream actress I think could pull off this role, though.

Rhys. He may not have the acting chops for it yet, but Isaiah Mustafa is still my first pick as the beautiful, devout magician Nyx signs for her team. I do know he’s a little too tall to actually go toe-to-toe with Nyx (especially if Rodriguez was cast), so Taye Diggs or Donald Glover might have to work.

Infidel Supporting Cast:

Suha. Who doesn’t want to give Gina Torres another awesome SF role, this time as a former drug addict and war vet with a stomach for torture? But let’s not discount the epic Angela Basset from Strange Days, either. The last ten years have given her a very nice edge that would work great for Suha.

Eshe. At just 14, Eshe is difficult to cast. It’d need to be somebody young, intense, and not anything special to look at. That’s a tough kid to find in Hollywood these days.

Inaya. There are a few different ways Inaya could go. A too-pretty, half-breed, closeted shapeshifter struggling with her responsibilities as a mother and as a rebel operative? Could easily go to another Firefly alum, Morena Baccarin or Zuleikha Robinson, who could totally hold her own with Nyx.

Khos. I’m in for Vin Diesel playing Khos. Mainly because it would encourage him to actually get this film made between iterations of The Fast & The Furious and the latest installation of Riddick. Also, bazillions of women everywhere seem to think Khos is Really Hot and should get more screen time. Barring that, I could see Jason Momoa don blond dreadlocks and make angry faces at Nyx.

God’s War Supporting Cast:

Taite. I was pleased folks seemed to like Taite, the crackerjack communications hacker, even if he didn’t get a lot of screen time. Easy pick for this one is Dani Pudi.

Anneke. The most strangely motivated of the bunch, I’ve seen a couple stellar contenders. Small, dark, intense, and a little bit mad, Anneke could probably be played by somebody like Tannishtha Chatterjee.

Learn more about the books and author at Kameron Hurley's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

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Caragh O'Brien's "Birthmarked"

Since earning a master’s in writing at Johns Hopkins University, Caragh O'Brien has been a high school teacher, a published author of romance novels, and now a novelist for teens. Her first young adult novel, Birthmarked, was a Junior Library Guild Selection, a YALSA Best Book for Young Adults, and on the ALA Amelia Bloomer list.

Here she shares some thoughts on adapting Birthmarked for the big screen:

I’m often asked if Birthmarked will be a movie, but the chances of it being picked up are so slim that it’s like imagining the book being chosen by an astronaut to take along to the moon. I’ve been perfectly happy knowing it exists exclusively as a novel.

That said, I’ll take a wild stab at one name. I like the imagination, humor, and sensitivity of Drew Barrymore’s work with Ever After, 50 First Dates, and Whip It, and I have this secret feeling that if she were the producer, she’d understand Gaia Stone and do a wonderful job with the project.

I’d be curious to see what a costume designer would do with the clothes and hats, and it would be fun to see sets that could capture both the primitive life outside the wall and the wealthier society within.

For actors, I’d like the teenage roles to be played by actors who are truly the right ages and not older. I’d prefer they be incredibly good actors, but also unknown, so we can watch them without superimposing our impressions of previous rolls upon them. Getting someone with the right eyes for Leon would be tricky.

Most important, I would wish for the film to be made by happy, driven people who work impossibly hard and love what they do. That’s what I imagine for Birthmarked as a film.

Learn more about the book and author at Caragh O'Brien's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

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