Nina Darnton's "The Perfect Mother"

A journalist for thirty years, Nina Darnton wrote her first novel, An African Affair three years ago.

Here she dreamcasts an adaptation of her recently released second novel, The Perfect Mother:

This is always fun. It is not completely pie-in-the-sky, though perhaps it mostly is, because Susan Tarr, a screenwriter who lives in LA, and I have written a screenplay based on the book. It is currently making the rounds and who knows, maybe we will be lucky enough to actually be doing this exercise for real one day.

For now though, let’s dream. The most important characters to cast are, of course, Jennifer, the mother, Emma, the daughter, Roberto, the Spanish detective, and Mark, the husband. Let’s look at each of them.

Jennifer: Cate Blanchett, because she is wonderful and can do anything, or Claire Danes because she has an edge that Jennifer should have, or maybe Charlize Theron.

Emma: Chloë Grace Moretz, Dakota Fanning or Emma Watson.

Roberto: This one is easy: Javier Bardem (I thought of him when I wrote the book) or Gael Garcia Bernal (another person I thought of as I was writing.)

Mark: Bradley Cooper, Clive Owen or Ethan Hawke.

Okay, now all I can say is from my keypad to God’s ear…

Visit Nina Darnton's website.

--Marshal Zeringue