Gary Corby's "Sacred Games"

Gary Corby is a novelist and former systems programmer at Microsoft. He lives in Australia with his wife and two daughters.

Here he dreamcasts an adaptation of his new novel, Sacred Games:

Thanks for having me here at My Book, The Movie. My mission: to declare a cast for my book Sacred Games, a murder mystery set at the ancient Olympics of 460BC.

My hero is Nicolaos, a young man of classical Athens who's inventing the job of investigator as he goes. There are lots of options for casting Nico. At the moment I'd like to go with Martin Freeman, who plays Dr Watson in the most recent Sherlock Holmes series from the BBC. Freeman's an excellent actor, I think he might be the best Watson ever. There's more of Watson than Holmes in my detective, so Freeman would be a great pick.

If my detective is the Watson, you're probably wondering who is the Holmes? Let me introduce you to Diotima...

My heroine is the incredibly intelligent Diotima. She is Nico's wife and/or fiancee, depending on who you ask. For Diotima I think we must have Barbara Feldon, who you might know better as Agent 99 from Get Smart. I feel that if Diotima and Agent 99 could get together, they'd have quite a bit in common.

The Spartan investigator Markos works with Nico and Diotima. I think we'll have Sam Worthington.

King Pleistarchus of Sparta makes an appearance. He's the son of the Leonidas who led the 300 at Thermopylae. I think we'll have Russell Crowe for him.

Dame Judi Dench is available now that her gig as M in James Bond is over. Dame Judi would be the perfect Queen Gorgo of Sparta. Gorgo was the mother of Pleistarchus; she was a recognized genius and one seriously badass player in international politics.

For Pindar, the great praise singer, I want the excellent David McCallum. He was the Russian agent in The Man from UNCLE, and these days is Ducky in NCIS. A very great actor.

I better stop or I'll cast the entire book....

Learn more about the book and author at Gary Corby's blog.

The Page 69 Test: The Pericles Commission.

Writers Read: Gary Corby (November 2010).

My Book, The Movie: The Pericles Commission.

My Book, The Movie: The Ionia Sanction.

Writers Read: Gary Corby (November 2011).

The Page 69 Test: The Ionia Sanction.

The Page 69 Test: Sacred Games.

Writers Read: Gary Corby.

--Marshal Zeringue