John Marrs's "The One"

John Marrs is a freelance journalist based in London, England, who has spent the last twenty years interviewing celebrities from the world of television, film and music for national newspapers and magazines. His novels include The Wronged Sons, Welcome To Wherever You Are, and, newly released in the US, The One.

Here Marrs dreamcasts an adaptation of The One:

The One is the story of five men and women who scientifically find their soul mates by being Matched by their DNA. That gives me five lead roles to fill. Growing up in the small working class town of Northampton, England, as a teenager I was obsessed with the escapism of watching American films, and in particular, anything starring the Brat Pack. The Breakfast Club, St Elmo’s Fire, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Pretty In Pink … you name it, I’d have it recorded from it’s television broadcast and on to videotape.

So even though The One is set in the UK in the present day, I’m going to relocate my story to the US, choose five actors I grew up in awe of and retain them at the ages they were at the height of their fame.

One character that readers of The One are quite fascinated by is serial killer Christopher. He has made it his mission to murder 30 people one summer, however, he doesn’t count on falling in love in the middle bloody spree. Christopher is suave, handsome, educated, charming and women adore him. He has 1980s Rob Lowe’s name written all over him. And while I can’t quite recall seeing Rob clad in a black balaclava, brandishing cheesewire and murdering girls he’s been stalking in About Last Night or The Outsiders, there’s a first time for everything.

Character two is Nick. He’s a geeky good guy who’s about to marry his fiancée Sally. But when they take the DNA test, they discover he’s matched with a man. And when he tracks down his muscular, heterosexual supposed-soulmate Alex, so begins an awkward attraction. For their parts, I’m turning to The Breakfast Club and picking Anthony Michael Hall and Emilio Estevez. One’s a nerd, the other is a jock and I think they could play both the physical and mental awkwardness required absolutely perfectly.

Elsewhere, Mandy is in her early thirties and is looking for love. But after a failed marriage and watching her sisters find their Matches, she turns to science to locate her other half. Demi Moore is my pick to play her. Mandy has the joyous naivety of Demi’s character Debbie in About Last Night, and the potential to go off the rails like Jules in St Elmo’s Fire. And at the risk of giving a little of the plot away, she has much in common with Molly in 1990s Ghost.

Next up is Jade – a feisty, gutsy girl whose Match lives on the other side of the world. She takes the bull by the horns and surprises him with a visit – only she learns he’s been lying to her about something pretty huge. Molly Ringwald is my choice here. Anyone who has seen her in just about anything she did on film in the 1980s will know she can play spirited, scrappy, fiery and vulnerable at the drop of a hat.

Finally, there’s Ellie. She’s a strong, work-obsessed woman who runs her own multi-million pound business empire and is shocked to discover she has been Matched with Tim, her complete opposite. He’s a happy-go-lucky, fun kind of guy with little ambition. For this coupling, I’m going to cast Winona Ryder and Christian Slater circa 1989’s Heathers. While Winona’s Veronica wasn’t sassy or gutsy to begin with, by the end, there’s no doubt who was in charge. And as Tim isn’t quite who we think he is, Christian and his ability to out-side eye any of his co-stars off the screen is the perfect way to complete my retro casting.

Learn more about The One, visit John Marrs's website, and follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

Writers Read: John Marrs.

--Marshal Zeringue