April Henry's "Girl, Stolen"

April Henry is the New York Times bestselling author of many acclaimed mysteries for adults and young adults, including the YA novel The Night She Disappeared and the thriller Face of Betrayal, co-authored with Lis Wiehl.

Here she dreamcasts an adaptation of her YA novel, Girl, Stolen:

Girl, Stolen would make a great movie. With no CGI, the budget would be pretty reasonable, and it offers two strong roles for young actors looking to expand their skills.

Girl, Stolen is about sixteen-year-old Cheyenne Wilder. Sick, she is resting in the back of her car while her step-mom fills her prescription at the pharmacy. Her step-mom leaves the keys in the ignition in case Cheyenne gets cold. Cheyenne's doesn't just have pneumonia. She's also blind from an accident three years ago that killed her mom and left Cheyenne feeling vulnerable and weak. When she hears a car door slam and the engine turn over, Cheyenne realizes that someone is stealing the car--with her inside!

Griffin didn't mean to kidnap Cheyenne. All he wanted to do was steal a car to take home to his dad who runs a chop shop. Cheyenne begs them to let her go, since she can't tell the police what they look like. But once Roy finds out that Cheyenne’s father is the president of a powerful corporation, everything changes—now there’s a reason to keep her. Can Cheyenne survive this nightmare? And if she does, at what price?

The role of Cheyenne Wilder would be great for any young actress looking for a stretch role. One actress who would have no trouble carrying it off is Hailee Steinfeld. She played Mattie Ross in 2010's remake of True Grit. I think she would do a wonderful job playing a blind girl who learns that she is stronger than she thinks.

Charlie McDermott plays Axl on the TV show The Middle, but I think of how well he played a confused and angry teen in the movie Frozen River. He would make an excellent Griffin.

Norman Reedus makes such a great backwoods baddy in The Walking Dead - he would be perfect in the role of Griffin's dad Roy. Roy isn't above turning his son's mistake to his own advantage - and a potential payout of millions of dollars.

Learn more about the book and author at April Henry's website and blog.

--Marshal Zeringue

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Tiffany Baker's "The Gilly Salt Sisters"

Tiffany Baker is the author of the New York Times bestselling The Little Giant of Aberdeen County and the newly released The Gilly Salt Sisters.

Here she shares some ideas for casting a big screen adaptation of the new novel:

I think The Gilly Salt Sisters would look gorgeous on film—all those ocean shots, and think what someone could do with the setting of the salt marsh on Cape Cod. The heart of the story is the relationship between the two sisters. Jo is all grit and determination. The actress who played her would have to have a bit of a rough edge. Maybe someone like Holly Hunter? Claire is the opposite: flighty, snobby, frail on the outside but steely in her core. Also, she’s a redhead. Someone pointed out that the cover of my book, which is supposed to be a portrait of Claire, looks like a young Nicole Kidman, and that is actually spot-on casting. And then there’s Dee, the young girl who’s pregnant by Claire’s husband. She’s sort of like a puppy. She’s young and rushes into things without knowing what she’s getting into. She’s not dumb, exactly, but she’s not very sophisticated. Someone like Amanda Bynes, maybe, who has such a great physicality about her? The really important thing, I think, would be to see how all three women interact, since they all end up together on the salt farm. Three women who all have a history with the same man cooped up together—what could go possibly go wrong? The answer: Plenty!

Learn more about the author and her work at Tiffany Baker's website.

Writers Read: Tiffany Baker.

The Page 69 Test:  The Gilly Salt Sisters.

--Marshal Zeringue

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Peter Behrens's "The O'Briens"

Peter Behrens is the author of The O'Briens and The Law of Dreams (which received Canada’s Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction and was published around the world to wide acclaim) and Night Driving, a collection of short stories. His stories and essays have appeared in many publications, including The Atlantic and Tin House. Honors he has received include a Wallace Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University’s Creative Writing Program.

Here he dreamcasts an adaptation of The O'Briens:

The protagonist of The O'Briens is Joe O'Brien, a poor boy who grows up in the backwoods of Canada, determined to take care of everyone in his family except himself (he doesn't know how to.) He makes a fortune building railroads in the West and becomes a paterfamilias and patriarch but once every couple of years ducks out of his life and catches a night train to NYC, where he holes up in a hotel suite at The Pierre and drinks himself to a stupor. He marries a brilliant and beautiful woman, Iseult, in Venice Beach, 1912; their marriage spans most of a century. They raise children, and lose children to the war (WWII) , and struggle always against native loneliness. I want Matt Damon to play powerful tormented Joe, in the movie. Johnny Depp to play his brilliant, troubled fighter ace brother, Grattan. Naomi Watts or Uma Thurman to play wise, questioning, passionate Iseult Wilkins O'Brien. Emma Watson to play their daughter, Margo; Hunter Parrish to play their fighter pilot son, Mike.

Read more about the novel and author at Peter Behrens' website.

The Page 69 Test: The Law of Dreams.

My Book, The Movie: The Law of Dreams.

Writers Read: Peter Behrens.

--Marshal Zeringue

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Deborah Grabien's "Uncle John's Band"

Deborah Grabien is the author of the JP Kinkaid Chronicles, including the newly released Uncle John's Band.

Here she shares some ideas for casting an adaptation of the series:

Show me a fiction writer anywhere in the western world who claims they haven’t cast the film version of their work, and I’ll show you a writer I don’t think I believe. I’m not personally big on popular culture these days – since everything from writing to cooking to singing has become a form of competition, the only TV I watch regularly are BBC America’s Top Gear, weather shows like Stormchasers, and hockey games (which are supposed to be competition) – but I’ve cast my latest book. Hell, I’ve cast the entire series, because the Kinkaid Chronicles are now at eight books and counting.

These are books about adults, growing up emotionally to match their actual ages in the muffling, surreal world of rock stardom. They do adult things. When we meet them in Rock & Roll Never Forgets, it’s June 2005 and John Kinkaid is mid-fiftyish. Bree Godwin is eleven years his junior. So, casting them was easy: Ralph Fiennes or (a solid choice, all things considered) Rick Springfield as JP. I was spoiled for choice for Bree, but my personal choices boiled down to Rene Russo, Susan Sarandon or Famke Janssen. My only drawback with Sarandon is her height – Bree is a big girl, five-ten or thereabouts and curvy. Still, she has everything else that character needs.

Something interesting happened along the way – as the characters aged, so did the actors. And they aged into just the way I see the characters seven years after the series began.

So I’m sticking with my original choices. All I ask is, let me write the screenplay.

Learn more about the books and author at Deborah Grabien's website.

The Page 69 Test: While My Guitar Gently Weeps.

--Marshal Zeringue

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James Thompson's "Helsinki White"

James Thompson is an established author in Finland. His novel, Snow Angels, the first in the Inspector Vaara series, was released in the U.S. by Putnam and marked his entrance into the international crime fiction scene. Booklist named it one of the ten best debut crime novels of 2010, and it was nominated for the Edgar, Anthony, and Strand Critics awards. His second Vaara novel, Lucifer’s Tears, released in March, 2011, earned starred reviews from all quarters, and was named one the best novels of the year by Kirkus.

When the third book in the series, Helsinki White, was released last month, Thompson replied to a query about casting an adaptation of the novels:

Good question, since the film rights for the first three books in my Inspector Vaara series have been optioned, and the fourth soon will be. The first novel is a murder mystery set in Kittilä, a small town in the Arctic Circle in Finnish Lapland, next to the ski resort, Levi. The next two books take place in Finland, are centered in Helsinki, but include the city of Turku and the islands of Åland as settings. One might think of it as a Millenium Trilogy-type project, but set in Finland rather than Sweden (note: same type of project, but not storytelling. My writing style and Larsson’s have little in common).

The great challenge for actors taking the leading roles is language. As is becoming increasingly common practice, the language that would naturally be spoken by the characters is spoken in the film. Finns speak more languages than any nationality on the planet, with an average of four. The most commonly spoken, after Finnish, are Swedish (a second national language), English, and Russian. The series protagonist, Kari Vaari, speaks all of these fluently, with the exception of his Russian, which is weak.

Kari, a policeman, is married to an American named Kate. She hasn’t lived in Finland long enough to learn to speak the language, which is notoriously difficult, and so Kari and Kate speak English with each other. In the rest of his life, Kari speaks Finnish. I’m co-screenwriter, by the way, and I’m sure we can write it in such a way that the actor playing Kari need only speak those two languages, although in the book, he speaks a few words of Russian and Swedish.

I must admit that I’m almost completely out of touch with American pop culture, having not lived there for fourteen years, and watch few Hollywood films. Except for major stars, I know little about what actors are currently famous, or what their skills are. George Clooney demonstrated his ability to learn and act in foreign languages in Syriana. Matt Damon did the same in The Bourne Identity. I think either would do well in the role of Kari Vaara.

I read in a Finnish newspaper that Matt Damon stated he has Finnish ancestry, would like to find a worthwhile project here, and make an extended stay to learn about his roots. My agent contacted his agent, but I’ve had no reply. However, given his talents and motivations, it seems to me that playing Vaara in Snow Angels and the following films would suit Damon very well.

Learn more about the book and author at James Thompson's website and blog.

The Page 69 Test: Snow Angels.

The Page 69 Test: Helsinki White.

Writers Read: James Thompson.

--Marshal Zeringue

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Michael Norman's "Skeleton Picnic"

Michael Norman is a Salt Lake City mystery author who has written four novels. His Sam Kincaid novels include The Commission and Silent Witness. His mysteries featuring Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Law Enforcement Ranger J.D. Books include On Deadly Ground and his new novel, Skeleton Picnic. Norman’s books are published by the Poisoned Pen Press in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Here he identifies some possible actors and directors for a movie adaptation of his J.D. Books mystery, Skeleton Picnic.

Skeleton Picnic tells the story of Rolly and Abigail Rogers, a prominent and well respected southern Utah couple who reside near the Arizona border. Despite their reputation as pillars of the community, the Rogers also happen to be notorious pot hunters who illegally gather and sell ancient Anasazi and Fremont Indian antiquities. On their first pot hunting trip of the spring season, the couple disappears into the desert wilderness without a trace. Suspecting foul play, local Sheriff Charley Sutter calls on BLM Law Enforcement Ranger and former Denver Police Department Robbery/Homicide detective, J.D. Books for help.

Like many writers, I never think about movie casting while writing the story—afterward, maybe. Recently, however, while doing an author event for a local library, I was asked which actors I would choose in the movie version of the J.D. Books novels. At the time, I dodged the question but later began to think about it. I settled on the following main characters.

Recognizing that the J.D. Books mysteries are really contemporary westerns set in the desert southwest, I knew I wanted rugged actors who had played similar roles. For the character of Kane County Sheriff Charley Sutter, the pick was easy, and in fact, a toss-up between two actors. I can envision either Ed Harris who gave wonderful performances as lawman Virgil Cole in Robert B. Parker’s Appaloosa, Resolution, and Brimstone, or Academy award winner Chris Cooper. Cooper first came to my attention playing opposite Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones in the wonderful mini-series, Lonesome Dove. Cooper played Sheriff July Johnson. Duvall would have made a great Charley Sutter had he been a bit younger.

I had a more difficult time trying to decide who to cast in the lead role of BLM Law Enforcement Ranger J.D. Books. I knew I wanted a rugged, action oriented actor who would be convincing as a cop carrying plenty of baggage. In the end, I decided on two possibilities and here they are in order of preference: Timothy Olyphant from Justified or Josh Brolin (No Country for Old Men and many others).

As for directors, my first choice would be Clint Eastwood followed by Utah’s own Robert Redford.

Yikes. This could be a very expensive movie.

Learn more about the book and author at Michael Norman's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

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Katherine Govier's "The Printmaker's Daughter"

Katherine Govier is the author of nine novels and three short story collections. Her novel Creation, about John James Audubon in Labrador, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year in 2003.

Govier's fiction and non-fiction has appeared in the United Kingdom, the United States, and throughout the Commonwealth, and in translation in Holland, Italy, Turkey, and Slovenia. She is the winner of Canada's Marian Engel Award for a woman writer (1997) and the Toronto Book Award (1992).

Here she shares some ideas for casting a big screen adaptation of her most recent novel, The Printmaker's Daughter:

I would like Margaret Cho to play Oei, the daughter of the great Japanese printmaker, Hokusai. She's divorced, she is not considered beautiful (which, in 19th century Japan, when to be beautiful was a woman's first obligation, was a big problem) and she has a sour demeanor and a sharp tongue.

I know Margaret is not Japanese. She's Korean, and sort of Chinese, as she says on her blog. But she's so perfect to play this woman artist with a surreal imagination who defies all the expectations of women except one-- she's dutiful to her father.

Now who could play Hokusai, that genius trickster, old by 40 and ageless until he dies at 89? Ken Watanabe? Yes, that would be good.

Learn more about the book and author at Katherine Govier's website.

Writers Read: Katherine Govier.

--Marshal Zeringue

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