Hope Tarr's "Twelve Nights"

Hope Tarr is the award-winning author of a dozen books (and counting) including Twelve Nights (Harlequin, December 2009).

Here she shares some thoughts about the major cast in a cinematic adaptation of Twelve Nights:

Ah, the thought of seeing one’s humble novel played out upon the Silver Screen, what writer hasn’t fantasized about that glittering, fantastical moment, including bringing one’s fictional hero (and sometimes heroine) to life by casting honest to goodness actors to play their parts?

Callum Fraser, the hero of my Scottish Medieval Blaze, Twelve Nights, is the classic romance hero, a raven-haired warrior and rogue with abs of steel, and a sexy, penetrating gaze that can see straight through to a woman’s soul, not to mention her…unmentionables. Who better to serve as a role model-cum-muse than the “Dark Knight” himself, multi-talented actor, Christian Bale?

His most un-heroic mommy-shoving episode aside, Bale is hands-down “hawt” not to mention one of the few child actors in Hollywood (Empire of the Sun) to ace consistent box office wonder-dom as a grown-up.

For my heroine, Alys, several possibilities pop to mind, including me in a blond wig. Okay, only kidding…sort of.

Nubile young blondes aren’t exactly in short supply in Tinsel Town, not now, not ever, so casting my petite, blue-eyed, golden-haired heroine comes off as something of a cakewalk. Still, I’m especially keen on Kristen Bell. Slender and slight, the about to turn thirty-year-old has the right physicality for sure. Though she played the self-absorbed TV star bitch goddess in Forgetting Sarah Marshall with admirable aplomb, her upcoming performance in When in Rome reveals a softer, more vulnerable side very much in line with Alys’s gentle if ultimately courageous personality.

As for secondary characters, I keep seeing Nicole Kidman as Brianna MacLeod, Alys’s friend and the heroine of the prequel, Bound to Please. Kidman movies are, admittedly, a hit or miss for me—Australia, really, what was she thinking? Still, roles such as depressive author, Virginia Woolf in The Hours reveal that the tall red-haired Aussie has wracked up sufficient maturity and yes, gravitas to pull off the part of my alpha female laird.

Christian, Kristen, Nicole, the ball’s in your court, babes. Have your “people” contact my “people” and let’s get this party started. Or check out my web site and, as they say, make me an offer. ;)

Look for Hope Tarr's The Tutor in August 2010 and her novella, “Tomorrow’s Destiny” in a Harlequin Victorian Christmas anthology with bestselling authors, Betina Krahn and Jacquie D’Alessandro coming December 2010. In the meantime, please visit her website and blog.

--Marshal Zeringue