Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Wendy Trimboli & Alicia Zaloga's "The Resurrectionist of Caligo"

Wendy Trimboli has never met a dense 19th century novel she didn't love, is blithely attracted to broken characters with downtrodden histories, and enjoys voluntarily running up mountains.

Alicia Zaloga believes reverse harems are absolutely charming, is completely suckered by impossibly competent protagonists, and fondly feeds an addiction to Korean dramas.

And yet, somehow they write books together ... most recently, The Resurrectionist of Caligo.

Here the authors dreamcast an adaptation of the novel:
This exercise provoked quite the discussion wherein we realized that neither of us had actors in our head when writing, nor did we find it easy to conjure them. Alicia only wished to cast the antagonists; Wendy discussed specific energy and clusters of emotions rather than any particular “look.” Nonetheless, we narrowed in on our cast, primarily focusing on the main players of the first two chapters, and though the actors don’t at all match the actual ages of the characters they’re playing, we’ll rely on the miracles of time-spanning magic.

For Roger, we’d have to go with James McAvoy. He has the intensity and emotional range, and we think he could lend this flawed character the right amount of empathy, too.

For Sibylla, Romola Garai. She’s got that lovely ability to show a warm depth behind her eyes while coming across as sometimes sweet, sometimes neurotic, and can also turn on the theatrics when necessary, which for our princess who wants to do the right thing, is always forcing a smile, and generally hides away her inner world would be a perfect match.

For Harrod, Richard Armitage. Have you seen him in North and South? That is all.

For Ada, aka “GhostofMary”, we’d want a young actor with a lot of weird, dark vibe. The first candidate who comes to mind is the talented dancer Maddie Zeigler known from Sia’s music videos. She channels a certain charming grotesque energy that would certainly “set the boys screaming” (as she says) if they saw her dancing on the tomb of Sir Bentley Morris in Greyanchor Necropolis.
Visit Wendy Trimboli and Alicia Zaloga's website.

--Marshal Zeringue