Michelle Gable is the author of the New York Times and USA Today bestselling novel The Paris Apartment.Here she dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, I'll See You in Paris:
At book signings people often ask who I’d cast in my novels. It’s a tough, unanswerable question because I don’t think of my characters in that way. And I don’t expect them to end up on screen! To find the ideal roster for I’ll See You in Paris, I enlisted the help of friends. This cast turned out pretty solid!Visit Michelle Gable's website.
Gladys Deacon, the Duchess of Marlborough, was a real-life spitfire and is the cornerstone of I’ll See You in Paris. Many considered her the most captivating—and smartest—woman of her time. She was also a bit crazy. This would be the most complex role. It’s almost impossible to balance beauty and intelligence with mental instability, and the fact Gladys lived well into her nineties. Almost impossible because Ellen Burstyn would be as fierce as the Duchess.
The real Duchess disappeared from her palace in the 1930s and turned up in the English countryside in the 1970s at almost a century old. In my novel, a young woman named Pru has lost her fiancé in the Vietnam War and answers an advertisement to serve as helpmeet to a cultured older woman. Although “cultured” is a stretch, given the firearms, dilapidated, Grey Gardens-style manse, and the packs of spaniels roaming the grounds. Skyler Samuels of Scream Queens and American Horror Story would make the perfect wide-eyed, waifish, angelic Pru.
Then there is Win Seton, the wannabe biographer and failed writer who comes to Banbury, England to write about the Duchess. He also hopes to romance Pru, if he doesn’t irreversibly bungle their friendship first. Win is British, handsome, cheeky and older than Pru and Jude Law is the first person who came to mind to play him.
Wrapped around the tale of Win, Pru, and the Duchess is a modern-day storyline, taking place in the weeks following 9/11. In this we have a somewhat uptight former lawyer named Laurel, whom Hope Davis would brilliantly portray. Laurel’s daughter Annie is a smart but insecure recent college graduate without any professional prospects. I can picture Allison Williams embodying Annie, who experiences the most growth throughout the novel.
Thank you for the chance to dream about I’ll See You in Paris: The Movie. And thanks to my friends for helping me with the cast. I think we nailed it.
The Page 69 Test: A Paris Apartment.
My Book, The Movie: A Paris Apartment.
The Page 69 Test: I'll See You in Paris.
--Marshal Zeringue