J. Todd Scott's "High White Sun"

J. Todd Scott was born in rural Kentucky and attended college and law school in Virginia, where he set aside an early ambition to write to pursue a career as a federal agent. His assignments have taken him all over the U.S and the world, but a badge and gun never replaced his passion for books and writing. He now resides in the American Southwest, and when he’s not hunting down very bad men, he’s hard at work on his next book.

His debut novel, The Far Empty, was published in 2016.

Here Scott dreamcasts an adaptation of his new novel, High White Sun:

I was asked this question a lot for my first book (The Far Empty), so I guess it’s a good thing a few of the characters carried over to the new one! I didn’t have a specific actor in mind for former deputy, now Sheriff Chris Cherry, but my daughters have always insisted Chris Pratt fits the bill, and I think that works fine. America Reynosa is tough because she’s one of the younger characters in the books, but some actresses I think are fantastic are Aimee Carrero and Eiza Gonzalez. Steven Lang makes an excellent John Wesley Earl (he’ll need some tattoos…okay, a lot of tattoos). I like Richard Madden for Danny Ford (and I also like Game of Thrones!), and although I don’t know exactly where I’d cast them, I’m a huge fan of Ethan Hawke, Michael Shannon, and Viggo Mortensen…I should write them all into the next book.

As for a director, this is something I have given some “serious” thought to, since I love the idea of making films, and often visualize how I’d “shoot” my own book scenes as I write them. There are obviously the “name” directors that everyone knows, but I’ve also followed closely the work of some other directors who might not be as familiar: Taylor Sheridan (Wind River); Scott Cooper, who just did Hostiles; Joe Carnahan, who directed The Grey with Liam Neeson; Andrew Dominik, who directed The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. All these movies have a definite raw, Western vibe to them, which fits my books.

Visit J. Todd Scott's website.

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--Marshal Zeringue