Duane Swierczynski's "The Blonde"

At least one reviewer has suggested that the smart money in Hollywood should snap up Duane Swierczynski's The Blonde and adapt it for the big screen.

Here the author speculates about which actors might best portray the characters in his novel:

I didn't have any specific actors in mind when writing The Blonde -- in fact, I think that's a recipe for disaster. Instead of allowing your character to develop his/her own voice and personality, you risk having them all sound like Samuel L. Jackson. Because that's who I could cast in every single role of every single novel or story I've written: Samuel L. Jackson.

I don't even know what my characters look like. I know what makes them tick, but if I try to imagine them, they're kind of vague blurs. I don't like when novelists overdo with character detail; I'd rather imagine my own version.

That said ... if there ever is big-screen version of The Blonde, and Samuel L. Jackson isn't available, here's who I could see playing the three major roles:

"The Blonde": You'd need someone who's beautiful with the potential for being badass. Michelle Monaghan (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) comes to mind, as does Melissa George, who played Lauren Reed in season three of Alias.

Jack Eisley: Here, you need an everyman who can get knocked around, make some mistakes, and still be likeable. Maybe John Krasinski from The Office, or John Cusack. Dark Horse candidate: Paddy Considine, who was incredibly menacing in Dead Man's Shoes, but looks like a fun-loving goof when he's out of character.

Kowalski: Okay, I lied. There is only one choice: Samuel L. Jackson.

Read more about The Blonde, including an excerpt, at the St. Martin's Minotaur website and at Duane Swierczynski's Secret Dead Blog.

--Marshal Zeringue

Wendy French's "Full of It"

Wendy French's novels are sMothering, Going Coastal, After the Rice, and the recently-released Full of It.

Here she sketches the plot of the new novel, then explores the casting for a possible film adaptation:

The plot of Full of It is as follows:

Lauren Peterson has a brand new life, but no idea what to do with it.

After calling off her engagement, she's single for the first time in years and ready to take on the world. Instead, she discovers that starting over isn't all it's cracked up to be.

When a spinster aunt she barely remembers bequeaths her a house in Portland, Oregon, Lauren intends to fix it up and flip it for a tidy profit. However, her big mouth (which is always a step ahead of her brain) has other ideas, and before she knows it, she's moving in.

As Lauren takes on the task of making the house into home, she discovers plenty of surprises and colorful neighbors to shake things up. From faulty wiring and a new sinkhole in the living room, to the salty curmudgeon next door, Lauren's new life is heading in unexpected directions. Her friends and family think she's making a grave mistake, but for the first time ever, it might not be Lauren's mouth, but her heart that will finally come out ahead.
____________

When writing, I see the characters and action taking place in my head, sometimes with a soundtrack, so the concept of a movie adaptation certainly has appeal. If I were to cast Full of It, I might do it a little like this:

Lauren

This is my fourth novel and, strangely enough, if I imagine an actress playing any of my narrators, I always think of Eliza Dushku. She seems to be able to balance sarcasm and vulnerability very well, which would be a nice fit for Lauren. Other choices would be Julia Stiles, Rachel McAdams or Zooey Deschanel, all of whom can cover the sarcastic angle and can also play frazzled when necessary, which is important.

Patty Melt

As the kooky next door neighbor with a bit of an edge, I'd love to see someone like Kathy Bates (though she's too young) or Gena Rowlands. There's brassiness to the character, as well as tenderness, and I think Ms. Rowlands would be excellent.

Ethan

The love interest/taxidermist is on the sensitive side and I picture someone like Henry Thomas (of E.T. fame), Ryan Gosling or an Orlando Bloom-esque fellow. A gentle guy who can come through in the crunch.

Thomas

He's only five and I can't think of any actors in his age group, but he's a bit of a sweet smartypants, like Jonathan Lipnicki in Jerry Maguire. An unknown little guy would be nice.

Rachel

I can see Lauren's beautiful best friend, who is a bit distant at times, being played by Claire Danes.

The transition to film may never happen, but it sure is entertaining to think about the possibilities....

Read more about Full of It at Wendy French's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Tobias Buckell's "Ragamuffin"

Here is a synopsis of Tobias Buckell's new novel Ragamuffin:

The Benevolent Satrapy rule an empire of forty-eight worlds, linked by thousands of wormholes strung throughout the galaxy. Human beings, while technically “free,” mostly skulk around the fringes of the Satrapy, struggling to get by. The secretive alien Satraps tightly restrict the technological development of the species under their control. Entire worlds have been placed under interdiction, cut off from the rest of the universe.

Descended from the islanders of lost Earth, the Ragamuffins are pirates and smugglers, plying the lonely spaceways around a dead wormhole. For years, the Satraps have tolerated the Raga, but no longer. Now they have embarked on a campaign of extermination, determined to wipe out the unruly humans once and for all.

But one runaway woman may complicate their plans. Combat enabled, Nashara is more machine than flesh, and she carries inside her a doomsday weapon that could reduce the entire galaxy to chaos. A hunted fugitive, she just wants to get home before she’s forced to destroy civilization — and herself.

Who does the author see carrying his story in a possible film adaptation? Buckell's take:

Casting one's novel as if a movie, what author hasn't done this? One of the problems I face is that I'm writing science fiction adventure with Caribbean characters and background, and I don't know many big actors in the field who do the dialect well. That being said one of the first short stories I ever published featured Pepper, a character in both my first novel Crystal Rain and in this book, Ragamuffin. I had a strong image of Pepper in my head, so imagine my surprise when I got cable access and saw him on screen. It was on the show Andromeda, and the actor Keith Hamilton Cobb playing Tyr Anasazi was very, very close in both poise, look, and action to Pepper. A mixed race sci fi action hero with some very, very questionable morals. He could do that. In my dream career my books get picked up to be made into movies and Keith gets cast as Pepper in all his trenchcoat, dreadlocked, ass-kicking glory. If no Keith, then Vin Diesel with dreadlocks.

Ragamuffin is the story of Nashara, a woman more cyborg than human, who is hunted down by some pretty tough aliens as she tries to find a home. I think I would cast either Angela Basset (from her bodyguard role in Strange Days) or Jada Pinkett Smith. I think both of them have that tough confidence Nashara has throughout the book.

John deBrun always left me wondering who could do him justice, but I think I'd imagine Obba Babatunde managing this role. His character pieces always impress me. For John's son, Noah Gray-Cabe in a few years would be perfect for that role.

The crazy crew of the ship Queen Mohmbasa Nashara puts her lot in with as she is chased from world to world. Morgan Freeman for the captain Jamar Sinjin-Smith, Ziggy Marley or Gary Dourdan for Ijjy, and for Sean I'd go with Dwayne Johnson (the Rock) or Michael Clarke Duncan.

Read more about Ragamuffin and its predecessor, Crystal Rain, at Tobias Buckell's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ben Tanzer's "Lucky Man"

Ben Tanzer's debut novel Lucky Man hit bookstores in March.

Here's the author on who might tell his story on the big screen:

If they make my new book Lucky Man into a film, I'd like to think it will be reminiscent of those movies where a new group of young actors seems to emerge fully formed on the scene - like Diner or The Outsiders, and that Diane Lane will be so excited about the writing after she sees it, that she will finally return one of my calls.

That said, let's start with the actors, and it really is mostly actors, because the story follow four friends - Gabe, Jake, Louie, and Sammy - during their waning days of high school through their first few years out of college. They struggle with substance abuse, anger, sex, and adultery. They go on road trips and listen to the Grateful Dead. They don't or can't communicate with their fathers. And when not enjoying cocaine fueled bouts of deer strangulation, they make sense of the world by deconstructing The Greatest American Hero.

So, who then? Gabe is beautiful and confused, a young god, and I'm picturing Channing Tatum. You can skip She's the Man, though I do love Amanda Bynes and picture her as Sammy's girlfriend Tara, but go see A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints and you'll know what I'm saying is true. Shia LaBeouf is super hot right now, but we need him as Sammy, funny and removed, insecure and always observing, he's our guy. Louie is the stoner, lover, Deadhead, and I'm thinking Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I know you agree, but if you have any doubt see Mysterious Skin. Brilliant. Jake is Gabe's best friend, and he's so angry, and drinks too much, but still kind of charming, and I'm liking Emile Hirsh in this role, he's got the right glint in his eye.

I would have one requirement for all the characters before filming - study River Phoenix in Running on Empty. There have been many great actors who portrayed teenagers in ways I loved - Sean Penn in Bad Boys for example, and that's the prison movie with Esai Morales, not the Will Smith/Martin Lawrence joint - but everything I want them to know about playing these characters is in his performance in this movie - sensitive, smart, funny, conflicted, and struggling, always struggling to make sense of what's going on inside his head.

There are a lot of directors I could see running with this, but it is important to find someone who could recognize the humor that's constantly fighting for air time with the bleakness permeating much of the story. I think Larry Clark or Gregg Araki would be great, and Sofia Coppola for sure, but my top three would be Gus Van Sant, if he could recapture the My Own Private Idaho vibe, Noah Baumbach, if you have seen The Squid and the Whale you know why, and Todd Field, because between In the Bedroom and Little Children whatever he's on to I want to be part of it.

Finally, and if it's okay, we need to talk music for a moment. The Grateful Dead for sure, but there's some period music that's just key - The Violent Femmes, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, U2, The Ramones, Blondie, Pink Floyd, and Billy Joel, the original angry young man. Also, as doable some current bands that tell the kinds of stories that these characters know, or want to know - The Hold Steady, hands down, but Ike Reilly and The Assassination as well, and then Be Your Own Pet or Avail for when we need some noise, and with this movie we will definitely need some noise.

Visit Ben Tanzer's blog and MySpace page, and read more about Lucky Man at the publisher's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Gregg Hurwitz's "The Crime Writer"

Gregg Hurwitz is the critically acclaimed, #1 L.A. Times bestselling author of The Tower, Minutes to Burn, Do No Harm, The Kill Clause, The Program, Troubleshooter, Last Shot, and, new this month, The Crime Writer.

From the book flap of The Crime Writer:

Drew Danner, a crime novelist with a house off L.A.’s storied Mulholland Drive, awakens in a hospital bed with a scar on his head and no memory of being found convulsing over his ex-fiancée’s body the previous night. He was discovered holding a knife, her blood beneath his nails. He himself doesn’t know whether he’s guilty or innocent. To reconstruct the story, the writer must now become the protagonist, searching the corridors of his life and the city he loves.

Soon Drew closes in on clues he may or may not have left for himself, and as another young woman is similarly murdered he has to ask difficult questions not of others but of himself.

So who does the author imagine playing Drew Danner in a film adaptation of The Crime Writer? Hurwitz:

I don’t write with actors in mind — ever. I’ve found when conversation turns to casting, whether hypothetical or actual, that I’m at the biggest disadvantage in the room. Because no one really fits the bill. The character is the character already, with his own look and sound. But what I’ve found, once ideas are tossed around and the list narrows, is that surprising candidates are often the best fits. The Crime Writer (my latest) features a protagonist who is, of course, a crime writer, and he’s pretty sharp, and a bit of a smart-ass. That leaves us a pretty good range. George Clooney? John Cusack? Matt Damon? Or do you play up the toughness, and seek out someone like a Colin Farrell? Rewrite him as black and choose Denzel Washington? Cast to type, or pick someone looking to cross genre, like Owen Wilson? The only two things I’m sure of are: The choices are endless. And you’d know as well as I.

Visit Gregg Hurwitz's website to learn more about The Crime Writer.

--Marshal Zeringue

Simon Read's "In the Dark"

True-crime author Simon Read accepted the challenge of casting his latest book, In the Dark: The True Story of the Blackout Ripper, as a movie.

About the book:

While the Luftwaffe bombed London and its citizens fled underground, a killer emerged from the shadows to satisfy his inner darkness…

In February 1942, a woman was found strangled in a London air raid shelter. Chief Superintendent Frederick Cherrill, head of Scotland Yard's revolutionary fingerprint division, knew just how well the wartime blackout concealed crime. But this was a brutal, senseless killing with few clues, no apparent motive - and no sign of the terror to come.

He seemed so decent, cheerful and normal…

The nightly air raids had darkened London's neon dazzle but not its urge to live it up. With death a daily possibility, drinks and sex were everywhere. But one man had other urges. Over a five-day period, he murdered with a lightning-fast ferocity that stunned and baffled investigators. Dubbed "The Blackout Ripper," he left few clues in his bloody wake - until a slip-up revealed his true identity, and shocked a city that thought it had seen it all.

Here is author on the adaptation:

I must admit, I have long dreamed of seeing one of my books adapted for the Silver Screen. I’ve always thought In the Dark, the true story of Scotland Yard’s hunt for a Jack-the-Ripper-like serial killer in 1940s London, would make phenomenal movie fodder! While I was writing book, I did cast some actors in the role of the story’s various characters.

I first saw Daniel Craig in Layer Cake, long before he breathed new life into 007. There’s a subtle menace about him that I think would be ideal for the role of serial killer Frederick Cummins, who was unquestionably suave when it came to the ladies. Another top contender for the role would have to be Christian Bale, who is closer to Cummins in terms of both age and physical appearance. In the end, of course, I’d be happy if either one of these great actors tackled the role.

For Scotland Yard Chief Superintendent Fred Cherrill, I had Michael Caine in mind while writing the book. The man can do no wrong on screen. Whatever the role, he always delivers. Although Cherrill was born in a quaint English village, I picture him in my head as being Cockney in attitude — though I don’t know why. To that end, I think Caine would bring a personality that was both classy and street smart to the character. It’s for the same reason I think British television actor David Jason would also be great in the role. In the States, Jason is best known for his portrayal as Inspector Jack Frost in the A Touch of Frost series that ran on A&E. But if you’ve never seen him as the brilliant Del Boy in Only Fools and Horses, you’re truly missing out.

For famed pathologist Bernard Spilsbury, I’d have to go with Anthony Hopkins for the simple reason I can’t think of anyone else I’d want to play him. Now, if I got to handpick a director, I’d go with Michael Mann. With the exception of last year’s pointless Miami Vice, I’ve loved everything Mann has done. He never rushes a film. He takes the time to build both the story and the characters, and he imbues his pictures with a gritty realism. I think In the Dark would prosper in his hands.

So, if anyone in Hollywood is reading this and agrees with my choices, please feel free to contact me, or my film agent. Cheers!

Visit Simon Read's website and his blog, and read an excerpt from In the Dark.

The Page 69 Test: In the Dark.

--Marshal Zeringue

Judy Clemens's "Till the Cows Come Home"

Judy Clemens's Till the Cows Come Home was a 2005 Anthony Award Nominee for Best First Novel and 2005 Agatha Award Nominee for Best First Novel.

Now, with her fourth "Stella Crown" mystery on the way, Clemens speculated about which actors might star in a film adaptation of Till the Cows Come Home:

When Marshal asked me to write a blog about my Stella Crown series, giving thought to what actors I would choose for the movie, I had to laugh. Which one of us authors doesn’t dream of our book hitting the big screen? Or even the little screen, these days. Seems like television gets as much play as theaters anymore.

Till the Cows Come Home, the first book in my series, introduced the protagonist – a twenty-nine year old female dairy farmer and HOG enthusiast. She is edgy, brittle, and somewhat foul-mouthed, but also has more likable traits, such as loyalty, honesty, and a solid work ethic. People have often asked me who I’d cast in her role, and the actresses that come to mind are ones who have dared to play characters with a harder personality – people like Hilary Swank or Charlize Theron. I wouldn’t want a “soft” version of Stella, and these are women I think would be up to the task.

A few of the supporting characters deserve some thought, too, when considering casting. Nick Hathaway, Stella’s love interest (well, one of them!) is a blond, blue-eyed Virginian with “teeth as white as milk.” A few of my friends (and my husband) are convinced they were the catalyst for this character, and those who are actors want to play him. I, however, think Matthew McConaughey would fit the role to a T. He can do the “gorgeous guy with a soul” rather well.

I had a hard time thinking of someone for Abe Granger, Stella’s one-time love interest but actual best friend. He is handsome, but more in the guy-next-door kind of way. A younger version of Matthew Broderick would be perfect. Or a bit older version of the kid on the Mac commercials who’s now in that Die Hard movie with Bruce Willis and played Warren on Ed. Perhaps someone can give a better suggestion. Most movie stars tend to be dreamboats, and it’s difficult to come up with someone who’s good-looking in a more approachable way.

It’s fun to think about casting the characters, but I know it’s pretty much a dream. Should the book ever get sold to Hollywood I realize I would lose complete control of it. They’d probably cast some model-type with big boobs as Stella, and Abe would become just as much of a heartthrob as Nick, making a love triangle of immense proportions. They’d also most likely change most of the storyline and add a few characters I’d never imagine.

But you know, I suppose that would be okay. I’ll take the advice of some other authors I’ve met who say, “Take the money and run.” For the money they pay for movie options, I could run a long, long way.

Visit Judy Clemens's website and her blog, and read an excerpt from Till the Cows Come Home.

--Marshal Zeringue

Kelley Armstrong's "Exit Strategy"

Exit Strategy, the first of Kelley Armstrong's "Nadia Stafford" series, debuts in July.

Here's the lead-in to the story, from the publisher:

Regulars at Nadia’s nature lodge don’t ask what she does in the off-season. And that’s a good thing. If she told them, she’d have to kill them. She’s a hit woman for a Mafia family. Tough and self-sufficient, Nadia doesn’t owe anyone any explanations. But that doesn’t mean she always works alone. One of her contacts has recruited her in the hunt for a ruthlessly efficient serial killer cutting a swath of terror across the country. The assassin is far too skilled to be an amateur — and the precision of the killings is bringing the Feds much too close to the hit man community for comfort.

To put an end to the murders, Nadia will have to turn herself from predator to prey as she employs every trick she knows to find the killer. Before the killer finds her…

So who might the author see carrying her story to the big screen? Kelley Armstrong:

Ah, the “casting game.” One of the first contests I ran on my website was a fantasy casting for my first novel, Bitten. At the time, Warner Bros had optioned it, and Angelina Jolie was signed to star. The project died in development, but it was fun while it lasted.

One thing I learned from that experience was that any casting choice (even hypothetical!) is bound to be controversial among readers. There were lengthy and heated debates on my discussion board about the suitability of Ms. Jolie to the role. At the time, I avoided any prodding to pick my own choices, but for this new novel, I’m going to have some fun and play the game.

Exit Strategy is a crime novel about a contract killer for the Mob who is persuaded to join a small group of her colleagues tracking down a hitman who appears to have turned serial killer.

Nadia Stafford

I’m going to pick Evangeline Lilly from Lost for my main character. It might be just the show setting, but she has that fresh, outdoorsy look that fits my wilderness-lodge-proprietor protagonist. On Lost, Lilly does a good job of playing a character who seems very normal, likable and friendly, but harbours a dark past. That fits Nadia. She isn’t “playing” the sociable, friendly lodge hostess. That’s one side of her. The other is a deeply damaged ex-cop whose past caused her to snap and kill a suspect. Now, to keep her lodge afloat, she’s a contract killer for a small New York mob family … and it’s a job that satisfies more than her need for cash.

Jack

For Nadia’s mentor, I’m going with Gabriel Byrne. He’s got the basic look, and he’s Irish, like my mysterious, monosyllabic hitman. He’s a bit older than Jack, but in Hollywood terms, that’s not big an issue as it would be with a female character. Jack is a true professional killer, and I’ve seen Bryne in several criminal roles, which probably influences my choice. Like Nadia, Jack shift between dangerous and disarmingly normal with ease, and I think Bryne could do that easily.

Evelyn

Ah, Evelyn. My retired hitwoman. Jack’s former mentor, she’s an invaluable resource and she knows it, offering her skills to get closer to Nadia — the “project” Jack stole from her. I’m going to pick Helen Mirren for Evelyn. She doesn’t physically resemble my image of the character, but having seen her play a no-nonsense woman in a man’s profession (Prime Suspect) she’d be an excellent Evelyn.

Director

I’m tempted by Quentin Tarantino. I’m a huge fan of his early work and he’s always good with edgy female characters. But this wouldn’t be his kind of story, and if he took it, he’d turn it into something that suited him better. I’m not a writer who would expect the movie version to be a literal translation of her story. It has to be an interpretation better suited for the big screen. But I’d like it to be recognizable as my story, and Tarantino works with original ideas, not adaptations.

Read more about Exit Strategy at Kelley Armstrong's website and read the first three chapters online.

--Marshal Zeringue

Matt Haig's "The Dead Fathers Club"

Matt Haig is the author of a new novel for young readers Shadow Forest (in the U.K.; Samuel Blink and the Forbidden Forest in the U.S.) and two novels for adults: The Last Family in England, which tells the story of Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1 with the protagonists as dogs, and The Dead Fathers Club, which is based on Hamlet and is a "hilarious and touching novel narrated by an eleven-year old boy who is visited by his father’s ghost."

While The Dead Fathers Club may well be coming to a cineplex near you in the not too distant future, Haig was good enough to share his thoughts on who might direct and star in such a film:

Okay, well this is a little tricky as the book is already optioned by David Heyman’s Heyday Productions, and I have supreme confidence that David knows far better than I do the kind of movie it would make.

But I’m pretty sure every writer daydreams about how what once existed solely inside their own head could be projected onto the screen, and I’m no exception.

The tricky thing with The Dead Fathers Club is how to do the ghost of the father, whether just to have him standing there free from any special effects, or to actually give him a transparent hologram feel which would be closer to Philip’s description of him as ‘pale and see through like the ghosts at the Haunted Mansion in Disney World’ with ‘blood running down from his hair’.

The ghost experiences great terror though, when it flickers out, and I always pictured these moments as being like those anguished portraits by Francis Bacon of screaming Popes – ‘flickering and screaming but with the volume down’.

As for the setting it would be great if it could be filmed where it is actually based, in the market town of Newark-on-Trent in Nottinghamshire, England, where I grew up. It’s a strange town, which looks quite pretty and historic, but which I considered to be the seventh circle of Hell as a teenager. It would be a vengeful kind of fun to see my interpretation of the place up on the screen.

Lee Hall, of Billy Elliot fame, would be the perfect screenwriter, and I would be confident he could get inside Philip’s mind.

As for directors, that’s difficult. I was extremely flattered and dumbstruck when I found out Stephen Daldry had not only read but had also enjoyed the book. He’d be great. But there are so many directors I love, and there are probably at least thirty out there who could do it justice.

Now, for my fantasy cast. Well, the perfect Philip would be an unknown 11-year-old, who wouldn’t make the audience think of any other movies he’s been in. And as for the apparently slimy Uncle Alan I’ve said before that Ray Winstone is how I view him, physically, but Tom Wilkinson, from In the Bedroom and loads of other films (one of my all-time favourite actors) would be an equal top choice.

The ghost would have to be someone who can do ‘blank’ very well. A Kevin Spacey-type, but with an English accent. Ben Kingsley twenty years ago would have been perfect.

Philip’s mum would be someone quite attractive but who wasn’t afraid to look haggard, so Charlize Theron or her British equivalent.

And in the Dead Fathers Club there’s also a film within the book. It’s called The Murder of Gonzago, the same title as the play within Hamlet, and it stars Joaquin Phoenix, Mel Gibson and Tobey Maguire, for the different connotations these actors have. (Joaquin Phoenix reprising his Gladiator role; Mel Gibson because he once played Hamlet in a movie; and Tobey Maguire because Philip is obsessed with Spiderman).

But I think to get all three of them just to be in one scene might be stretching the budget, even a fantasy budget, a little too far.

Visit Matt Haig's website and MySpace page.

The Page 69 Test: The Dead Fathers Club.

--Marshal Zeringue

Scott Reynolds Nelson's "Steel Drivin' Man"

Scott Reynolds Nelson's Steel Drivin' Man: John Henry, the Untold Story of an American Legend has won much acclaim and multiple book awards.

Here Nelson develops some casting ideas for a feature film adaptation of his book:

The John Henry that worked alongside a steam drill between 1871 and 1873 was five feet 1 and 1/4th inches tall. It seems impossible, but it turns out that short stature was a necessary attribute for tunnel drivers. I could see Ving Rhames in the role, of course, but that would be the John Henry of myth, the powerful steel drivin’ man that emerged by the 1920s. Given that John Henry was a convict and quite young, we can’t assume that he had Rhames’s build. While neither actor is that short, I could see the actors Andre Braugher (of Gideon’s Crossing but also the movie Get on the Bus) or D.B. Woodside (who was the President Palmer in 24 and Principal Robin Wood in Buffy the Vampire Slayer). Both have the dramatic range to appear wounded, angry, and tragically courageous. What would motivate a man to engage in a contest with a steam drill? Certainly he could have been forced to, but there would also have to be a little hubris and perhaps the understanding that his victory might make him the subject of a hundred folk songs.

Who could play Polly Ann, the woman, a convict herself perhaps, who drove steel after John Henry died? I imagine her as light-skinned, blue-eyed, and a good dramatic actor. Theresa Randle (of Girl 6 fame) or Rosario Dawson (of Sin City and Men in Black II) would be terrific I think.

As for Lieutenant Burd, the man with the hole in his forehead who put John Henry in prison on what appeared to be trumped-up charges? It would have to be a high-energy, but controlled and slightly disturbed character: Eric Stoltz, perhaps (remembering Pulp Fiction and The House of Mirth) or even Kiefer Sutherland.

I have always seen Harvey Keitel in my mind when I think of Major C.R. Mason, the ex-Confederate contractor who drove the workers back into the tunnels after the nitroglycerin blasts. A reporter described Mason as “a short, stout, firmly built man, with a head like a Senator’s, plain of dress, direct and brief of speech, with that undeniable air of ease that comes to a man who has acquired all he knows from experience….” To me, that sounds like Harvey Keitel, a man who plays ruthless, unpolished characters.

Collis Potter Huntington, the man who made a second fortune from John Henry’s tunneling would have to be withdrawn, intense, smug, and entirely unprincipled. It would be a good dramatic role for Steve Martin, who resembles him very slightly, though a more obvious choice would be Philip Seymour Hoffman (who starred in Capote and was Reverend Veasey in Cold Mountain).

My students at William & Mary have told me that if I were to appear in the film discovering the postcard that led to John Henry’s burial place that I would have to be played by Will Ferrell who the students say looks like me. I can’t see the resemblance myself.

A lot of folks have suggested that the story of John Henry as I’ve reconstructed it is structured like a movie. After I won the National Award for Fine Arts, I heard that one of the judges, Joyce Carol Oates, thought that the story was so moving and dramatically paced that I should give up history and become a novelist. If only I could! While I like thinking about character and motivation, I cannot plot the way a novelist can. I think the strangest, most horrible and beautiful plots come from actual events. That makes history the best place for me. I will keep my day job.

Who would direct the film? Spike Lee would be a great choice, as would Brian De Palma. But what do I know? I’m only a historian.

Learn more about Steel Drivin' Man at the Oxford University Press website.

The Page 69 Test: Steel Drivin' Man.

--Marshal Zeringue