Samantha Silva's "Sometime This Century"

Samantha Silva is an author and screenwriter based in Idaho. Over her career, she’s sold film projects to Paramount, Universal, and New Line Cinema.

Sometime This Century is her third novel, following Love and Fury: A Novel of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mr. Dickens and His Carol, her debut.

Here Silva dreamcasts an adaptation of Sometime This Century:

Sometime This Century is a swoon-worthy love story wrapped in a time-travel rom-com that finds my bookish, Jane-Austen loving, wannabe writer heroine, Annabel Blake, transported to the Regency era where she might just have everything she’s ever wished for, including the attentions of the dashing Henry Leighton D’Evercy. But when she and her companions—her party-girl-slash-influencer sister Cassie and ex-boyfriend Billy—find themselves trapped in the year 1815 and have to figure out how to make a life there, the stakes couldn't be higher.

Funnily, the novel began life as a screenplay 25 years ago, so I’ve had lots of time to think about who might play these roles. Having cut my teeth as a screenwriter, I tend to cast as I go, usually with someone in mind, at least as a type. That said, most of the actors on my dream list have aged out of the roles! The conversations with my twenty-something daughter (resident casting director) start with, “Who’s the young Rachel McAdams. The next Elle Fanning? Is there a Colin Firth I should know about?”

The heroine of Sometime This Century is Annabel Blake, a 22-year-old lit-nerd who’s always felt she was born in the wrong century. Her skin is untouched by sun or ink and she might just be wearing vintage Laura Ashley with a pair of ballet flats. Fina Strazza, the Tony-nominated star of John Proctor is the Villain, would be right at home in the Regency world of Annabel's beloved Jane Austen. And she looks like a young Jennifer Ehle, star of the beloved BBC Pride & Prejudice, to boot!

I like Kiernan Shipka for Annabel’s older sister, Cassie Blake, who’s more of a mean girl grown up in a crop-top and cargo pants. She lives life on her own terms, no apologies: think Charlie XCX’s “brat girl summer.” Shipka definitely has Annabel Blake energy too, but I think she could go both ways.

Both Nolan White and Corbin Drew Ross from The Outsiders musical have loads of Billy Bronson energy. He’s Cassie’s ex-boyfriend and loyal sidekick for her travel vlog. A skater dude who hasn’t had to grow up, he’s secure enough in his own masculinity to get Cassie’s matcha and hold her purse, and deep down quite a gentle soul.

For Annabel’s brooding Darcy-like love interest in the Regency world—Henry Leighton D’Evercy—I like Harris Dickinson, who looks just the right amount of noble and aloof while being achingly handsome. And then there’s Leo Woodall who can do no wrong. I’d love to see him brood and be slightly thrown off his game by Annabel, while being an utterly English gentleman who yearns to escape the constraints of his own life, while he’s sworn to uphold them.

Everyone in my dream cast can handle the comedy (sometimes on the broad side) and bring heart to the roles when things take a serious turn. I see the three time-travelers at ease in the modern world but becoming more vivid and self-aware as they try to make their way in the world of Regency England.

Visit Samantha Silva's website.

Q&A with Samantha Silva.

The Page 69 Test: Sometime This Century.

Writers Read: Samantha Silva.

--Marshal Zeringue