Stephen Emond's "Bright Lights, Dark Nights"

Stephen Emond is the creator of the Emo Boy comic series, two illustrated young adult novels, Happyface and Winter Town, and Steverino, a comic strip that ran in his local Connecticut newspaper.

Here Emond shares some ideas about casting an adaptation of his new novel, Bright Lights, Dark Nights:

Casting a movie for Bright Lights would be so difficult! I’m drawing a blank on who could play Walter. It feels like there’s a definite “type” for the white, awkward male lead. Freddie Highmore, Logan Lerman, etc. There was a guy, Jack Carpenter that we talked to when working on an Emo Boy movie that would be good if he isn’t too old. Maybe even Nick Jonas? For Naomi, I see people on TV all the time that would fit but I can’t think of their names! Vanessa Morgan is one. There’s a singer named Justine Skye that would be great. A young Nia Long or Janet Jackson? Jason Mills I did picture someone for, the rapper Tyler the Creator. Likewise I imagined Dean Norris (“Uncle Hank” from Breaking Bad) when I wrote Walter’s father. For Lester, maybe John Boyega, soon to be of Star Wars fame?

For the soundtrack, I’d go for a combo of Jon Brion, Tyler the Creator, and Babyface.

Visit Stephen Emond's website.

The Page 69 Test: Bright Lights, Dark Nights.

--Marshal Zeringue