Michael Wiley’s "The Last Striptease"

Michael Wiley’s The Last Striptease (St. Martin’s Press) received the Best First Novel award from the Private Eye Writers of American and St. Martin’s in 2007 as was nominated for a Shamus in the same category in 2008. His Bad Kitty Lounge is forthcoming.

Here he shares some casting ideas for a screen adaptation of The Last Striptease:

I wrote The Last Striptease with the big screen in mind but didn’t think about real actors until I’d finished.

My private detective, Joe Kozmarski, is a six-foot-tall Polish-American in his mid-forties. He looks sort of like Rod Blagojevich but with abs and a haircut. One of the other characters, who’s trying to flirt with him, sees in him “a little of Robert De Niro and a lot of Bill Murray.” But De Niro and Murray have too much sheen – and Blagojevich is probably going to jail – so, given the chance, I would cast Russell Crowe as Joe. Joe is a lifelong Chicagoan and he’s constantly making and sometimes overcoming mistakes. Crowe grew up in New Zealand and Australia, but he got arrested in New York for throwing a telephone at a man – which is something that Joe might do (in fact, he more or less does do in Bad Kitty Lounge).

For Joe’s ex-wife Corrine, I don’t know ... why not Sandra Bullock? Penélope Cruz, with a nine-millimeter pistol in her shoulder holster, would do well as Joe’s friend and would-be lover Lucinda Juarez. Or Salma Hayek – Joe’s not picky. Val Kilmer would make a fine Lieutenant Bill Gubman, if he’s willing to shave his head. For Bob Piedras, the lead suspect, we’ve got to get Rob Lowe, or else I’m walking out on the production.

Read an excerpt from The Last Striptease, and learn more about the book and author at Michael Wiley's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Last Striptease.

--Marshal Zeringue