Laura Williams McCaffrey's "Marked"

Laura Williams McCaffrey is author of Marked, Water Shaper, and Alia Waking. She is on faculty at Solstice, an MFA in Creative Writing Program at Pine Manor College, and lives in Vermont with her family. Here the author dreamcasts an adaptation of Marked:

I actually have been asked the question of casting the story before, and I have trouble answering. I suspect this is partially because many movies made from books for children and teens aren't all that good. The ones I like best tend to be odd. A favorite of mine actually is Coraline, which I think has a very cool aesthetic, but I can see how others find it strange. Another of my recent favorite fantasy movies is Mirrormask, which is an odd little Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean project. I guess this is what comes of growing up on The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, and Edward Scissorhands.

Maybe what I’m saying is I’d love something outside-the-box?

When pushed to do a little casting, I find myself looking for actors, in the case of the teens, who have emotional range as well as the ability to perform in the action adventure genre. Marked has action, but its heart is the emotional relationships. With these considerations, I think Amandla Stenberg would make a great Lyla, as would Daisy Ridley, but Ridley would also make a great Hope. For Gill, my picks would be someone like Avan Jogia or Dylan Minnette. Logan Lerman or Tyler Posey could do well as Riverton. When I've considered Ma and Da, I've more than once found myself settling on Maya Rudolph and Chris O’Dowd, who played such a wonderful and authentic-seeming couple in Friends with Kids.

To return to strangeness, I think the graphic novel storyline could be live action, with actors playing Pirate Jackman and Lady Captain, but it might be much cooler as animation in the style of something like Mirrormask, Coraline, or “The Tale of Three Brothers” sequence in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Visit Laura Williams McCaffrey's website.

The Page 69 Test: Marked.

Writers Read: Laura Williams McCaffrey.

--Marshal Zeringue