Here she shares some casting ideas for an adaptation of her latest novel, Set the Night on Fire: As some of you may know, I studied film in graduate school, worked on a couple of features, and settled into the life of an industrial film/video producer before I started writing novels. So I’ve always approached novel writing like a film-maker. I can’t write a scene without imagining it edited and printed, complete with pans, dolly shots, close-ups, and dressed sets.Watch the video trailer for Set the Night on Fire.
Set the Night on Fire was (and is) a film-maker’s dream: a wealth of colorful characters, locations, and, in the portion that goes back to the late Sixties, opportunities to recreate what came before. Frankly, while writing the book, I was more concerned with getting the Chicago settings right than the characters. I obsessed over the apartment/commune the characters inhabited in Old Town, the way Marshall Field’s would have looked, a community hospital on the North Side, Maxwell Street. I hope I’ve done them all justice.
But now comes the fun part. There are more characters in this novel than in some of my others, and some of them are portrayed both as young idealists in the Sixties, as well as more mature adults in the present. I haven’t chosen them all, but here’s what I have so far.
Lila Hilliard: My protagonist. A ‘30s professional financial manager.
In the present: definitely Natalie Portman
Casey Hilliard: Her father.
In the present: Robin Williams
Dar Gantner:
In the present: George Clooney (of course)
In the past: Ryan Gosling
Alix Kerr:
In the past: Emma Watson or Sarah Carter. Maybe Naomi Watts
Teddy:
In the past: Patrick Dempsey
In the present: John Slattery
Rain:
In the past: Lindsay Lohan
In the present: Ashley Judd
Aunt Val:
In the present: Elizabeth Perkins
Wow! What a cast! I can’t wait!
Visit Libby Fischer Hellmann's website and group blog, The Outfit.
My Book, The Movie: A Shot To Die For.
My Book, The Movie: Easy Innocence.
--Marshal Zeringue
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