Antoine Wilson's "Panorama City"

Antoine Wilson is the author of the novels Panorama City and The Interloper. A contributing editor of the literary quarterly A Public Space, he lives and surfs in Los Angeles.

Here he dreamcasts an adaptation of Panorama City:

Oppen Porter, the narrator of Panorama City, is an open-hearted, bicycle-riding, binocular-toting self-described “slow absorber.” After his father's death, he has to leave his idyllic small-town life in Madera, CA to live with his watchful and sharp-tongued Aunt Liz in Panorama City, CA, a suburb of Los Angeles. He's 27 years old, terribly naïve, and functionally illiterate. He believes that this is his opportunity to become a man of the world.

The real question when casting Oppen is who is (or could be) today's Chauncey Gardner (Being There) or Navin R. Johnson (The Jerk). My money's on Jake Gyllenhaal. He's only 6'0” to Oppen's 6'6”, but his acting chops and finely tuned sense of vulnerability win the day.

Oppen's Aunt Liz, brittle yet well-meaning, set in her ways, will be played brilliantly by Laura Linney. I can see her now, driving from one notary public appointment to another, sitting right up against the steering wheel, hands at 11:55 and 12:05. (Okay, she's only 48, but by the time anyone greenlights this thing, she'll be perfect.)

Oppen's bus-ride friend and genius manqué Paul Renfro will be played by a rumpled Philip Seymour Hoffman. A solid 50/50 blend of delusion and brilliance.

At the Lighthouse Christian Fellowship, charismatic leader Scott Valdez will be played by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, with Mos Def as the perpetual Prodigal Son, JB. Eva Mendes will play the bewitching Maria, an alluring Psychic occupying the space a few doors down from the Lighthouse.

At the Fast Food Place where Oppen gets a job, Kevin Spacey cameos as mustachioed manager Roger Macarona.

Did I mention that Oppen is on what he believes is his deathbed, recording his adventures onto cassettes for the benefit of his unborn son? By his side in the hospital room, his pregnant girlfriend Carmen, a retired prostitute, will be portrayed by a deglammed Rosario Dawson. That spot of casting against type will be sure to yield her a supporting actress nod or two.

Awesome. But I hear the book is better.

Learn more about the book and author at Antoine Wilson's website and Twitter perch.

--Marshal Zeringue

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Dayna Lorentz's "No Safety in Numbers"

In Dayna Lorentz's No Safety in Numbers a strange device is discovered in the air ducts of a busy suburban mall; the entire complex is suddenly locked down. No one can leave. No one knows what is going on.

At first, there's the novelty of being stuck in a mega mall with free food and a gift certificate. But with each passing day, it becomes harder to ignore the dwindling supplies, inadequate information, and mounting panic.

Then people start getting sick.

Here Lorentz shares some suggestions for casting an adaptation of No Safety in Numbers:

I’m a movie person, and this cinematic sensibility informed much of the writing of No Safety in Numbers. Less so in casting my characters, though, than in how I envisioned scenes and thus tried to get them down onto the page. But I did find inspiration for my characters in the movies I loved as a teenager, so here goes!

Marco Carvajal is the character most directly inspired by movie personalities. I see him as a cross between Ralph Macchio in The Karate Kid and Anthony Michael Hall in Weird Science. I love Ralph Macchio’s plucky Danny, though he is much more action-oriented than Marco, who’s made himself invisible to avoid being bullied, or so he hopes. And Anthony Michael Hall’s performance as Gary might be the greatest in 80s film history (though Val Kilmer in Real Genius could give him a run for the title). I love his biting, underdog sarcasm—so does Marco.

Mike Richter is Kiefer Sutherland in anything before he became the All-American hero of 24. No joke, when I was a teen, I found him to be the most terrifying actor. His roles in Stand by Me, The Lost Boys, and Flatliners scared the crap out of me. He’s cold and calculating and a bully, but there’s a depth there, which is kind of the scariest part. That’s Mike all over.

Drew Bonner could be Val Kilmer in the 80s, though a doofy Val Kilmer—he’s good-looking and a total ladies man. Maybe more like Thomas F. Wilson as Biff Tanner in the Back to the Future films. He’s popular and loyal to the point of zealotry, but a total meathead.

I always pictured Shay Dixit as a young Aishwarya Rai, whom I first encountered in Bride & Prejudice, where she played the sensitive and smart older sister—just like Shay. Not only that, but she won Miss World in 1994, and is the most gorgeous woman on the planet, as far as I’m concerned. That captures how just about everyone in the book sees Shay.

Ryan Murphy is part Tom Cruise in All the Right Moves and part River Phoenix in Stand by Me. He’s earnest and tough, though a little lost, just like those guys. And gorgeous. Like them. I will admit to having a huge crush on Tom Cruise, but Tom Cruise from Legend, and River Phoenix from, well, anything.

Lexi Ross could be a teenaged Jada Pinkett Smith, if she’s anything like her character Niobe from The Matrix Reloaded, or maybe Jennifer Hudson, though I’ve only seen her in Dreamgirls. Lexi’s tough and smart and funny, but not traditionally pretty—not exactly a common set of characteristics in an actress.

If we could dye her hair, Ginger Franklin could be Ione Skye as Diane Court in Say Anything…. Ginger is spunky and smart, but also vulnerable and has some major issues with her dad—very Diane Court.

Maddie Flynn is badass and pushy and a little bit scary, so she would be Angelina Jolie as Lisa Rowe in Girl, Interrupted.

I saw the Senator Dorothy “Dotty” Ross as Angela Bassett in Strange Days. I don’t even really remember the film, but something about her stuck in my mind as I was writing.

It would be amazing to see this ensemble together, fighting for their lives in the Shops at Stonecliff. Alas, it can never be—time has passed me by!

Visit Dayna Lorentz's website and blog, and watch the No Safety in Numbers trailer.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Dayna Lorentz & Peter and Kerry.

--Marshal Zeringue

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Mary Stewart Atwell's "Wild Girls"

In Mary Stewart Atwell's Wild Girls, Kate Riordan fears two things as she grows up in the small Appalachian town of Swan River: that she’ll be a frustrated townie forever or that she’ll turn into one of the mysterious and terrifying wild girls, killers who start fires and menace the community. Struggling to better her chances of escaping, Kate attends the posh Swan River Academy and finds herself divided between her hometown—and its dark history—and the realm of privilege and achievement at the Academy. Explosive friendships with Mason, a boy from the wrong side of town, and Willow, a wealthy and popular queen bee from school, are slowly pulling her apart. Kate must decide who she is and where she belongs before she wakes up with cinders at her fingertips.

Here the author dreamcasts a big-screen adaptation of Wild Girls:

I feel really nervous about hearing someone else read my work out loud. There is an audiobook of Wild Girls, by Brilliance Audio, and my plan is to get someone I know to listen to it and then tell me, in detail, how it sounds. I know the reader is a professional and I’m sure that her interpretation is excellent, but the fact remains that the sentences have, to my ear, a certain intonation, a certain rhythm to them. I feel attached to the version I heard in my head as I wrote, and I don’t want to lose it.

Obviously, this would present certain problems were Wild Girls to ever become a film. For a screenwriter, seeing your words interpreted part of the process, and if the process is successful, the actors add something that makes the words different, better, than they are on the page. My husband is a filmmaker, and when he directed his first feature, I saw this happen at close range. Incarnated in the actors, some of the characters were totally different from how he imagined them, and that was a good thing; they gave the dialogue a depth and a texture that it wouldn’t have had otherwise. I like the thought that if I were lucky enough to ever see Wild Girls on the screen, I’d come around to the idea that performance adds something to your work, rather than taking something away from it. Still, my weird anxiety might be the reason why I’ve come up with a chronologically impossible cast here.

I’m going against type here, but I’d like to see the main character, Kate, played by Elle Fanning. Kate is brainy and a little bit awkward, and as far as I know Ms. Fanning has never played that kind of part, but it might be good for her to stretch herself. Though she’s prettier than Kate should be, she looks sensitive and thoughtful, like there’s more going on in her head than she lets on. If she were willing to dye her hair brown and could put on just a tiny bit of an Appalachian accent, she’d be perfect.

I think that Willow, Kate’s friend slash rival slash nemesis, would be best depicted by Claire Danes circa 1993. This may be an obvious choice; Willow is a redhead, and everyone who was watching TV in 1993 will remember Angela Chase’s beautiful red hair in My So-Called Life. Unlike the vulnerable Angela, Willow is a bit of a mean girl, and I think it would be interesting to see the teenage Danes play a character with less angst and more fierceness.

Mason, the object of Kate and Willow’s rivalry, should be played by Taylor Kitsch circa 2006. Mason is a bit smarter than Tim Riggins, but he has the same kind of hickish charm. The self-satisfied sideways smile that he puts on when he’s trying to pick up a girl would be perfect for Mason. I’m actually glad that I didn’t watch Friday Night Lights until after I finished Wild Girls, or I probably would have been tempted to make the character even more Riggins-ish.

Watch the trailer for Wild Girls, read more about Wild Girls, and visit Mary Stewart Atwell's Facebook page and Twitter perch.

The Page 69 Test: Wild Girls.

--Marshal Zeringue

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D. J. McIntosh’s "The Witch of Babylon"

D. J. McIntosh’s The Witch of Babylon has been sold in nineteen countries, was short-listed for the Crime Writers Association Debut Dagger Award, and won a Crime Writers of Canada Arthur Ellis Award for best unpublished novel.

Here she shares some suggestions for director and cast of an adaptation of The Witch of Babylon:

The Witch of Babylon is an antiquity thriller which pretty well signals feature film territory. I love movies and think cinematically as I write. But it’s actually music, a soundtrack, that would most influence the kind of movie The Witch might become and therefore I’d start with the person who would be my dream director – Michael Mann. No one better understands how to make music – contemporary blues/rock/pop - deepen a script and bring out the fear and passion characters feel. His original show, Miami Vice, remains, I think, one of the best TV series ever.

I don’t visualize movie stars when writing a character but it sure is fun to imagine! For my leading man, John Madison, Christian Bale, if you added his softer side, would be perfect. He has dark good looks but with an edge and definitely doesn’t evoke the upright hero figure, so would suit Madison’s penchant for crossing the legal line very well.

Michelle Yeoh would be a great choice for Diane Chen, John’s friend and an aspiring actor, who tells his fortune at the beginning of the novel and ends up fulfilling her own prophecy.

Kristen Stewart, as the former wife of Madison’s best friend, would be an interesting choice for the woman who intrigues him. She has a sultry innocence that suggests secrets held close to her heart and an unpredictable nature.

In the novel, Ari Zakar is a world weary journalist who’s seen too much and yet manages to make people feel as though the sun is shining on a cloudy day whenever he smiles, as he does often. Irish actor Brendan Gleeson who did a magnificent job playing a vulnerable hitman in the movie In Bruges would be perfect for this role.

Learn more about the book and author at D.J. McIntosh's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

The Page 69 Test: The Witch of Babylon.

Writers Read: D.J. McIntosh.

--Marshal Zeringue

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Iris Anthony's "The Ruins of Lace"

Iris Anthony is a pseudonym. The writer behind the name is an award winning author of ten novels.

Here she dreamcasts an adaptation of The Ruins of Lace, her first novel with Sourcebooks:

My novel, The Ruins of Lace, has seven point-of-view characters (one of them a dog), so there are quite a few roles to cast. The story takes place in seventeenth-century France, so part of my casting goal is to achieve the right look, not only in terms of actors having ‘European’ faces but also an aesthetic appropriate to the seventeenth century.

My lacemaker, Katharina Martens, is thirty years old, but she’s been locked away in an abbey making lace from a young age. The actress would have to show her years, but be able to also manifest a youthful, innocent aura. Emily Blunt would fit this role well.

The lacemaker’s sister, Heilwich Martens, is several years older than Katharina and much more care-worn. She’s been working for years to save enough money to buy her sister back from the abbey. The actress playing this part would need to exhibit steadfast loyalty as well as be someone who looks like she could be related to Emily Blunt. Joséphine de Meaux would be perfect.

Lisette Lefort is a nineteen year-old French noblewoman whose childhood indiscretion has brought her family to ruin. The actress for this part would need to almost display the opposite qualities of Katharina. She would need to appear youthful, but also display the debilitating burden that guilt and shame have placed on the character. Clémence Poésy could play this part.

The dog is one of thousands who were used to smuggle lace across the border between Flanders and France. Tradition has it that poodles were used for this purpose. My poodle would need to look a little ragged around the edges and would also have to be apricot-colored.

Denis Boulanger is the border guard who never manages to find any lace in spite of the fact that hundreds of lengths of it probably crossed the border every day. He has a very literal way of viewing the world. I imagine him as having Asperger’s syndrome. This part needs a very intelligent, unassuming actor who can portray a believable awkwardness; I think Freddie Highmore would do a wonderful job with it.

Alexandre Lefort is Lisette’s cousin and would-be suitor. He journeys to Flanders to buy a length of illegal lace in order to extricate the family from the debt they’ve been blackmailed into paying. This character really comes into his own during the course of the book, so the actor would need to be someone who could be easily overlooked but who has an underlying strength of character. Gaspard Ulliel would be a good match.

The Count of Montreau is one of the story’s villains. Lisette describes him as the most beautiful man she’s ever seen so sheer physical beauty is quite important for this role. If this character hadn’t been so marked and wounded by his past, he would be the perfect, distinguished gentleman, but there’s a terrible struggle going on inside of him that he rarely ever gives voice to. This actor won’t be able to just coast by on his good looks, he’ll have to allow some self-loathing to show through. It’s the kind of part that needs the subtle, voiceless sub-texting that Colin Firth is known for; unfortunately Firth doesn’t have the right look. I’m thinking of someone like Jonathan Rhys Meyers or even Ezra Miller (he’d be absolutely perfect if he weren’t so young).

Learn more about the book and author at Iris Anthony's website and blog.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Iris Anthony and Larry.

--Marshal Zeringue

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Howard Pollack's "Marc Blitzstein"

Howard Pollack is John and Rebecca Moores Professor of Music at the University of Houston and author of, among other books, John Alden Carpenter: A Chicago Composer; Aaron Copland: The Life and Work of an Uncommon Man; and George Gershwin: His Life and Work. His latest book is Marc Blitzstein: His Life, His Work, His World.

Here Pollack shares some insight on the stage and screen adaptations of The Cradle Will Rock, words and music by Blitzstein:

The life of the American composer-librettist Marc Blitzstein (1905-1964) had its fair share of drama, from his early years as a piano prodigy and enfant terrible to his turbulent marriage to the brilliant writer Eva Goldbeck, their travels together through Europe (including deportation from Belgium for alleged subversive activities), Eva’s tragically young death from anorexia, the legendary 1937 Broadway premiere of The Cradle Will Rock (for which Blitzstein wrote the words and music), his involvement with Orson Welles, John Houseman, and the Mercury Theatre, his leftist and pro-Soviet activities, his years of service during World War II (including coaching the U.S. Army Negro Chorus and traveling the French countryside collecting Resistance songs in the service of William Wyler’s documentary The True Glory), his homosexual adventures and affairs, his landmark adaptation of Brecht-Weill’s The Threepenny Opera (which helped make “Mack the Knife” one of the great hits of the century), his confrontation with the House on Un-American Activities Committee, and his own tragic death at the hands of three seamen in Martinique in 1964.

The premiere of The Cradle alone has inspired not only the play It’s All True (1999) by Jason Sherman, but two unfilmed screenplays --- Rocking the Cradle (early 1980s) by Ring Lardner Jr. (one of the Hollywood Ten) and The Cradle Will Rock (1984) by Orson Welles (his final screenplay, and dedicated to Blitzstein’s memory) –- along with one script that made it to the screen, namely, Cradle Will Rock (1999), written and directed by Tim Robbins. Whereas Welles contemplated casting the witty, urbane, and irreverent Canadian comedian David Steinberg as Blitzstein, Tim Robbins chose the more soulful Hank Azaria to play the composer. (Robbins also cast, in a small cameo, Susan Heimbeinder as wife Eva.) Welles had the advantage of being able to draw on his friendship with the composer --- who, for all his melancholia, typically came across as gracious, energetic, and, to quote Joan Peyser, “juicy in every way” --- in imagining Steinberg in the part. As for Robbins, it would be interesting to know more about how he made the decisions he did with regard to the casting of Blitzstein and others involved with the original Cradle, including casting Angus Macfadyen as Welles, Cary Elwes as John Houseman, Cherry Jones as Hallie Flanagan, Henry Stram as Hiram Sherman, and John Turturro as essentially Howard Da Silva, although here slightly veiled as Aldo Silvano. Robbins in all likelihood knew that the Italian-sounding Da Silva, who in the years after The Cradle created the role of Jud Fry in Oklahoma! (and who was born Howard Silverblatt), was Jewish, but making the character Italian gave the filmmaker the opportunity to flesh out a fictional subplot in which Turturro/Silvano could enter into conflict with his Mussolini-admiring relatives. Such are the vagaries of theatrical presentations of historical events.

Learn more about Marc Blitzstein at the Oxford University Press website.

--Marshal Zeringue

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Carolee Dean's "Forget Me Not"

Young Adult author Carolee Dean lives in Albuquerque, NM with her husband, teenage daughter, and a boxer named Maya. She works at a local high school as a speech-language pathologist where she finds inspiration from students, hallways, and the ravens who occupy the courtyard when the kids are all in class.

Dean says she envisions all of her books as movies. In fact, she hired a media arts student from UNM to create this book trailer for Forget Me Not that looks a lot like a preview for a film. Here the author dreamcasts an adaptation of her latest novel:

Forget Me Not is a paranormal verse novel exploring cyber-bullying and teen suicide. Sixteen year old Ally Cassell finds herself on an abandoned hallway of Raven Valley High School after compromising photos of her are texted around the school. She spends the day writing in her journal, watching the other students out the window, and wondering how her secret romance with senior football star, Davis Connor, went so terribly wrong.

At the end of the day, she starts to leave the hallway to catch her bus, only to see Davis standing outside with his real girlfriend, Darla. Ally decides to stay on the hallway all night, and the next day when she wakes up, there are dead people on the hallway with her.

If I were allowed to cast the film adaptation, I'd choose Jennifer Lawrence to play Ally Cassell. Lawrence played Katniss Everdeen in the The Hunger Games, the brutal survival tale that pitted teens against each other in a battle to the death - good preparation for Dean's story about high school survival.

For the role of Davis Connor, I'd choose Mark Salling, Noah "Puck" Puckerman, the tough football stud turned choir boy in the television hit Glee.

The role for the most colorful character in Forget Me Not, Elijah McCall, the boy who has loved Ally for years and would do anything to save her from the Hallway, would go to Andrew Garfield of The Amazing Spider-Man fame.

Elijah knows the hallway all to well. He spent some time there after taking a bottle of sleeping pills. Afterward he was sent to a psychiatric hospital and when he came out he spent a month speaking in iambic pentameter. In spite of his own weaknesses and quirks, Elijah is the only one brave enough to try to save Ally, and that role requires a true hero.

Learn more about the book and author at Carolee Dean's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

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