Louise Penny's "A Fatal Grace"

Louise Penny's first Three Pines mystery, Still Life, won the Arthur Ellis Award from the Crime Writers of Canada and the New Blood Dagger from the British Crime Writers' Association. In the United States, it received the Dilys Award for the book that the members of the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association most enjoyed selling over the past year. It was named one of the Kirkus Reviews' top ten mysteries of 2006 and received the most votes for the best mystery of the year from the online community DorothyL. The Cruellest Month, the third novel in the series, is out now in the U.K. and Canada and scheduled for release in the U.S. in early 2008.

I asked Penny what a film adaptation of the Three Pines novels might look like. Her reply:

What a great question, though a hard one to answer, since I never ever sit on planes imagining various stars thanking me for the luminous characters, the sparkling dialogue, the thrilling plot. I never practice my Academy Award speech or congratulate George Clooney on his Oscar win, playing Chief Inspector Armand Gamache. (An egregious miscasting I originally protested, but upon seeing the rushes I came to appreciate he understood the depth and compassion of Gamache. I eventually apologized to Mr. Clooney over an intimate dinner.) I never imagine the private jets landing at my village airport (built especially for them) to take me to P. Diddy’s yacht in St Tropez or having to lie to JK Rowling because she just won’t let the whole rivalry thing go and accept it really doesn’t matter that I’ve made way more money than her. After all, it is unfair to compare my Chief Inspector Gamache to a boy wizard. But really, some people.

However, as a personal favor to Marshal, I’ve agreed to this stretch.

The pivotal role in the Three Pines series, and certainly in A Fatal Grace, is Chief Inspector Gamache, a man in his mid-fifties, large and comfortable. His body speaks of engrossing reads by the fireplace, of café au laits and croissants, and quiet walks through Parc Mont Royal with his beloved wife and dog. His power comes from his stillness, his calm, his great presence. When he walks into a room people know the leader has arrived. He is kind, content and compassionate.

So you can see how George Clooney might be miscasting. Actually, while I was writing it I had two actors, or perhaps more characters, in mind. One was Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean Luc Picard. But the main imagine and feeling I had for Gamache was Lorne Greene, as Ben Cartwright.

So, I’d cast the late Lorne Greene. Of living actors I might, oddly enough, cast Kelsey Grammer. I know, it seems improbable, but he has an unexpected presence, as well as a smart sense of humor.

For Clara Morrow, a struggling artist and the main female character I’d cast Jennifer Saunders from Ab Fab. For her husband Peter, a deeply conflicted, brilliant artist I’d go with John Travolta – though he might make a great Gamache too. He probably shouldn’t play both roles, though.

Actually, I think Travolta would make a fantastic Ruth Zardo – an embittered, insightful poet. Winner of every major poetry prize and a real piece of work. She says what she thinks, and what she thinks is invariably uncharitable. Her saving grace is a sense of humor and an insight into herself. She knows how screwed up she is.

For Myrna, the retired psychologist from Montreal who now runs the New and Used Bookstore in Three Pines, I’d cast Oprah. (my new best friend, who begged for the part, even sending her private jet, not realizing I now have my own. Bought JK Rowling’s, during her now infamous and ill-fated hanger sale.)

A Fatal Grace also features three elderly women, the Three Graces, who hold a strange sway over the peaceful village. I’d cast Helen Hayes, Mildred Natwick (both of Snoop Sisters fame) and John Travolta. Or Eve Arden. If forced to use living actors I’d go for Elaine Stritch, Ginette Reno (in makeup) and Elizabeth Taylor (without).

For Olivier and Gabri, the wonderful owners of the Bistro and the B&B – who else but Ben Affleck and Matt Damon?

It’s gonna be big. It’s gonna be bigger than big!

Read more about Louise Penny and her books at her website.

The Page 69 Test: Still Life.

--Marshal Zeringue

Whitney Gaskell's "Mommy Tracked"

Whitney Gaskell is the author of five novels including Testing Kate, to which she applied the Page 69 Test earlier this year.

Her latest novel is Mommy Tracked, which Publishers Weekly praised as a "sparkling example of 'mom lit'."

Gaskell took the novel through the "My Book, The Movie" exercise and came up with these casting ideas for a film adaptation:

The great thing about being able to fantasy cast the movie for my new book, Mommy Tracked, is that there are four protagonists and four love interests. That means there’s lots of room for all of my favorite actors!

So here’s my perfect cast for Mommy Tracked:

For Anna, who’s trying to figure out if she can balance a personal life with all of the demands of single motherhood ... it would have to be Reese Witherspoon. She brings so much talent and charm to every movie she’s in. I can’t think of anyone better to play likeable, down-to-earth Anna.

Noah, the owner of a local wine store who has a rocky record when it comes to relationships ... Patrick Dempsey. It wouldn’t be hard to understand why Anna would ditch her no dating policy for him!

Juliet, the workaholic lawyer who contemplates having an affair with her boss ... the coolly elegant Gwyneth Paltrow. She’d perfectly capture Juliet’s inner turmoil as her successful career causes tension at home.

Patrick, Juliet’s stay-at-home husband ... Mark Ruffalo, who would bring strength to the role of the domesticated dad. Plus, I’d love to see him opposite Gwyneth Paltrow in a movie; I think they’d have amazing chemistry.

Grace, the stay-at-home mom who’s obsessed with losing her baby weight ... the funny and charismatic Toni Collette. She’d keep the audience rooting for Grace, even while she diets her way into health problems.

Louis, Grace’s husband ... Ben Stiller. He’s funny as hell, and his grounded sex appeal would be a great match for Grace.

Chloe, new mom and part-time kleptomaniac ... Anne Hathaway. She has a vulnerable quality that reminds me of Chloe, who becomes overwhelmed with the challenges of a new baby and a husband who doesn’t want to grow up.

James, Chloe’s husband and the new dad with a Peter Pan complex ... Topher Grace from In Good Company. He has an exuberant personality that would make James likeable even as he screws up time after time.

So there’s my dream cast. Any takers out there in Hollywood?

Read an excerpt from Mommy Tracked and learn more about the book and author at Whitney Gaskell's website.

The Page 69 Test: Testing Kate.

--Marshal Zeringue

Claire Cameron's "The Line Painter"

Claire Cameron was born in 1973 and grew up in Toronto. She studied history at Queen’s University and then worked as an instructor for Outward Bound, teaching mountaineering, climbing and whitewater rafting in Oregon. Moving to London in 1999, she founded Shift Media, a consultancy with clients including the BBC, McGraw-Hill and Oxford University Press. Cameron now lives in Toronto with her husband and son.

Here she explains both the relationship between the movies and her writing process and who she would like to play the main characters in The Line Painter, her first novel.

It's not hard for me to think of The Line Painter as a movie, because it was a film before it became a book.

When I write, I play a movie in my head. I stare at the wall while my characters mark their spots and rehearse their lines. I watch each scene on small screens that I store on the inside of my eyelids.

Translating the film in my head into a novel involves selecting small details that will bring the story to life on the written page. Instead of watching a character smoke, I describe how his fingers grip a cigarette. Rather than pan across a magnificent sunset, I focus on the one moment when the rim of the sun dips down.

This to say, I've thought a lot about who might play my characters.

I'd want Sarah Polley to play the main character, Carrie. After her boyfriend dies, she takes off on a road trip across Canada and her car breaks down in the middle of the night. I need a strong actress to portray a risk-taker who has a hunger for life, but also show the mix of emotions that are part of grieving. Polley's combination of intelligence and fragility would be perfect.

Joaquin Phoenix should play the male lead. Frank is the guy who paints the lines on the highway. He rescues Carrie from the roadside. Phoenix can morph into someone who wears his past on his sleeve. He can also evoke compassion from an audience. That mix is what I need in an actor, someone who looks like trouble from the outside, who somehow draws you in.

Polley and Phoenix would be an odd couple together, which is perfect for Carrie and Frank. The screen tests would tell, but I bet they would have a certain chemistry that would make them irresistible to watch.

Read an excerpt from The Line Painter and learn more about the novel.

Visit Claire Cameron's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Catherine Ryan Hyde's "Love in the Present Tense"

Catherine Ryan Hyde is the author of: the novels Funerals for Horses, Pay it Forward, Electric God, Walter’s Purple Heart, and Love in the Present Tense; a collection of short fiction, Earthquake Weather; and the Young Adult novels, Becoming Chloe and The Year of My Miraculous Reappearance.

Here she shares her thoughts about casting for the adaptations for her books, with particular reference to Love in the Present Tense:

If they made one of my books into a movie, who would I want to see cast in the major roles? An unusually dicey question in my case. Or so it seems to me. Dicey because they did make one of my books (Pay It Forward) into a movie. And I certainly would not have chosen Kevin Spacey for the role of the African American Vietnam vet. That was a surprise.

Electric God is well on its way to film, but I see no such issues hovering around it, so I’ll just wait and see what they do.

Potentially next in line would be Love in the Present Tense. Here it gets interesting and dicey all over again.

In Love in the Present Tense, we have three major characters: Mitch, a white guy; Pearl, who is half black and half Korean; and her son Leonard, who is one quarter black and one quarter Korean, and whose father is an Italian cop.

So far we have a hardcover and paperback edition of the work in which Leonard is thoughtfully depicted in the cover art. His face doesn’t show, but the color of his skin is just about the way Mitch described it in the book: coffee just the way Mitch takes it (with a generous splash of half and half). Then there’s the UK edition (it hit the bestseller list in the UK due to its selection for a major TV book club) and the large print edition. And on these covers, Leonard is a white boy.

Sounds like I’m not answering the question, but I swear I am. Just in a roundabout way.

I don’t care who they get to play Mitch. Someone like Jake Gyllenhaal would be lovely, but I’m flexible. I just don’t want them to cast a white girl as Pearl, and a white boy as Leonard.

Maybe they will, and maybe they’ll say, “We just thought it didn’t matter. That it wasn’t important to the story.” Well, here’s a question. If it doesn’t matter, why can’t these characters be something other than white for a change?

When asked, I many times repeated that the casting of Kevin Spacey was done simply because of what it meant to get Kevin Spacey. In other words, all economics. Certainly economics plays the lead in every Hollywood movie. But it doesn’t account for two editions of Love in the Present Tense depicting Leonard as a white boy. If it happens again, I’m not going to say it’s something other than … I won’t say racist, because it’s such a powerful and ugly word. It implies hate. I don’t think the people who whiten my characters are full of hate. I just think that, on a level they don’t even know exists, they like white better. So I’ll say … Eurocentrist. I won’t go in front of groups or out in the press and claim it’s anything other than Eurocentrism. Because I’ll no longer believe it.

So, that’s my answer. Actors of color. I don’t care which ones. I only ask that they not have blonde hair and blue eyes. Many of my characters don’t. Because many people in the world around me don’t.

And, you know what? It does matter. It matters to the story and it matters to me.

So, Hollywood. Consider yourself challenged to create coffee-colored Leonard. What do you say?

Visit Catherine Ryan Hyde's official website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Victor Gischler's "Shotgun Opera"

Victor Gischler is the author of four hard-boiled crime novels. His debut novel Gun Monkeys was nominated for the Edgar Award. His work has been translated into Italian, French, Spanish and Japanese. He earned a Ph.D. in English at the University of Southern Mississippi. His fifth novel, Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse, is due out in June 2008 by the Touchstone/Fireside imprint of Simon & Schuster.

In March 2007 he applied the Page 69 Test to Shotgun Opera. Now he has taken the novel through the "My Book, The Movie" exercise and has come up with these ideas for a film adaptation:

I forget who said it, but somebody remarked Shotgun Opera would make a cool John Woo film. I guess I don’t have any problem with that. Shotgun Opera certainly has enough action. And it might have been excellent author J.D. Rhoades who said it reminded him of those Transporter films. That would be cool too. All of my novels have a cool dose of action, but it was Shotgun most of all that I wanted to have a “nonstop” feel, and so the above comparisons seem pretty good to me. If you took John Woo and a healthy pinch of that Robert Rodriguez quirkiness, I think you’d have it.

The protagonist of the book is a fellow named Mike Foley. Mike is in hiding now from him past life when he and his brothers hired out as freelance guns for the mob. Mike is in his mid-sixties, and I think Gabriel Byrne would be perfect for the part if he’d let the makeup artists age him by 10-12 years. I think he’d nail the part.

Casting the Three Sisters would be crucial and tricky. Nikki Enders (the oldest sister) needs to be somebody athletically kick-ass and in her mid-thirties. Hilary Swank? Hmmmmm. Maybe. Eva Longoria might make a good Middle Sister, and Baby sister needs to be some fierce-eyed, seventeen-year-old punk newcomer.

And let’s not forget our carnival freaks. I’m not sure who should play Jack Sprat, but his Alligator-wrestling wife should definitely be played by wrestler Joanie Laurer.

I suppose most authors think their novels would make pretty good films. I’m no different. My first novel Gun Monkeys is currently under option and The Pistol Poets has been optioned previously. There are some folks looking at Suicide Squeeze right now. But so far not a lot of film interest in Shotgun Opera. I think it’s a screenplay waiting to happen.

Visit Victor Gischler's Blogpocalypse.

The Page 69 Test: Shotgun Opera.

--Marshal Zeringue

Matt Beynon Rees' "The Collaborator of Bethlehem"

Matt Beynon Rees is an award-winning foreign correspondent and author of the nonfiction work Cain's Field: Faith, Fratricide, and Fear in the Middle East.

His debut novel, The Collaborator of Bethlehem, is the first in a series about Palestinian sleuth Omar Yussef. Rees lives in Jerusalem.

Here he explains the origins of the story, the problems (and opportunities) with adapting the novel for the screen, and speculates about who might play his protagonist:

The spark for my novel The Collaborator of Bethlehem was my friendship with a Palestinian in late middle-age who lives in the Dehaisha Refugee Camp, a southern neighborhood of Bethlehem. I admired this man deeply for his integrity and decency, despite the violence engulfing his community during the intifada. But I also found him to be extraordinarily prickly. He would become angry at me for my misunderstandings of Palestinian life, for my friendships with others whom he didn't trust, or simply for not having to undergo the same humiliations that were a daily source of pain to him. I made considerable allowances for the pressures under which he lived and enjoyed his wonderful insights and great humor, but even so it was difficult to face his occasional wrath.

On a break from covering the intifada for Time Magazine, in a hotel room in Rome, I decided to turn my friend into Omar Yussef, the schoolteacher forced to turn detective in a lawless Bethlehem. It struck me that instead of feeling hurt by my friend's outbursts, I could view them as research. Omar made it possible for me to grow even closer to my friend.

When I wrote the book, I always had this friend's image, voice and thinking in my mind. I didn't need to place an actor in the role of Omar Yussef -- though I believe that's a good technique for writers seeking to make their characters concrete in their own heads. I always had this friend -- and other friends on whom the main characters are based -- before me.

But as soon as the book sold to Soho Press in the U.S., people began to ask, "Who'll play the lead in the movie version?"

Of course, it depends on just who buys the movie rights. It strikes me that it isn't likely to be a big studio, because even though the book isn't political I think big studios would be put off simply by the fact that it's about the Palestinians. That makes it unlikely that Al Pacino will play Omar -- though his ability to be both raging and soft would make him terrific for the role. I doubt the movie will be made in Arabic and, in any case, the best Arabic crossover actor, Omar Sharif, is now a little too old for Omar. (I'd expect it to be filmed in the Middle East, of course -- though Bethlehem might be too sensitive a location, because some local institutions get it in the neck in my book.) Most likely, it'll be made by a smaller production company, perhaps in a co-production stretching across many European (financing) borders.

My pick would be Bruno Ganz, the great Swiss actor. Omar has to demonstrate a wide range of emotions, from the sympathetic relationship he has with his granddaughter to the prickliness of his friendship with Bethlehem's police chief to the bravery and aggression with which he confronts the lawless gunmen of the town. Ganz could handle that. If you've seen him as the sensitive waiter in the wonderful Italian love story Bread and Tulips or as Adolf Hitler in his final days in Downfall, you'll know what I mean about Ganz's range.

He also seems to speak just about every European tongue, so whoever finances the movie can ask him to play Omar in their language. Whether he's shooting in Tunisia or Turkey.

Read more about the novel at Matt Beynon Rees' website and his blog.

The Page 69 Test: The Collaborator of Bethlehem.

--Marshal Zeringue

Jennifer Crusie & Bob Mayer's "Agnes and the Hitman"

Bob Mayer is the New York Times bestselling author of over 35 books, both fiction and non-fiction.

Two of his more recent books -- Don’t Look Down and Agnes and the Hitman -- were written with Jennifer Crusie.

Here Mayer explains how he and Crusie use the movies to aid their collaboration:

When Jenny Crusie and I co-write, we start with two characters. The hero and the heroine. Because we're 600 miles apart we have to help each other with the characters. So we end up picking actors and actresses to be the templates for our characters so the other person can visualize them. And not just the name, but the role they were in, because that means a lot too. So for Don’t Look Down, Jenny picked Lucy Lawless to play Lucy Armstrong, her heroine. I used Kurt Russell in the movie Soldier. For Agnes and the Hitman, Jenny picked Selma Blair and I used George Clooney from the movie The Peacemaker.

Read an excerpt from Agnes and the Hitman and an excerpt from Don’t Look Down, and learn more about the books at Jenny Crusie's website and Bob Mayer's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Elisabeth Ladenson's "Proust’s Lesbianism"

Elisabeth Ladenson is Associate Professor of French and Comparative Literature at Columbia University.

Earlier this year she applied the Page 69 Test to her latest book, Dirt for Art's Sake: Books on Trial from Madame Bovary to Lolita.

Here she sketches the story behind the film adaptation of her first book, Proust’s Lesbianism:

I have always been amazed that Hollywood had not until now recognized the tremendous cinematic potential of academic literary criticism. Luckily, Marshal Zeringue has now rectified this by selling Miramax an adaptation of my first book, Proust’s Lesbianism. And as though Marshal’s screenplay were not compelling enough, he has convinced them to sign Kevin Spacey for the part of Marcel Proust. Spacey spends much of the action looking through a keyhole taking notes as Albertine (Keira Knightley) and Andrée (Christina Ricci), go at it in a luxurious Belle Époque brothel. He then returns to his cork-lined room to write volumes 5, 6 and 7 of his great novel. In the meantime, the action is framed by the reminiscences of a middle-aged academic (Kathy Bates) as she recalls her attempts to get her first book published so as not to lose her job at a prominent state university founded by Thomas Jefferson (Nick Nolte, reprising this role in a cameo).

If this film does as well as predicted, the sky’s the limit for film adaptations of academic monographs. Who has not dreamt of a movie version of Derrida’s Of Grammatology, to name only the most obvious example?

Read more about Proust’s Lesbianism at the publisher's website.

The Page 69 Test: Dirt for Art's Sake.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Andrew Jackson and the Politics of Martial Law"

Matthew Warshauer is Associate Professor of History at Central Connecticut State University and author of Andrew Jackson and the Politics of Martial Law: Nationalism, Civil Liberties, and Partisanship.

His subject is already featured on the $20 bill and presides over Jackson Square in my hometown, so who would Warshauer cast in a film adaption of his book?

I’ve given a lot of thought to who could possibly play Andrew Jackson, especially in a military role and one that involved the first time that civil liberties were ever suspended in the United States. The difficulty is that the Battle of New Orleans involved such amazing contrasts, relating to both Jackson and what his various decisions generated in the city. On the one hand, he achieved a military success never paralleled in the young nation’s history. On the other, he utilized decidedly unconstitutional means in order to secure that victory. Moreover, he never lost a night of sleep in making such a decision. There have been a couple of movies on the Battle of New Orleans, the most well known of which was The Buccaneer, which starred both Yul Brynner, as the pirate Jean Lafitte, and Charlton Heston as Jackson. Produced way back in 1958, it had all the classic elements of a nationalist tale of heroism and challenge. It certainly did not portray Jackson as much less than the towering hero.

Here is the difficulty in adding my book, Andrew Jackson and the Politics of Martial Law, which addresses the duality of Jackson’s image; both his heroism and despotism. One of the big issues related to Jacksonian scholarship is Jackson’s character. Some historians think he was unhinged. I agree that Jackson could be brutal and quite willing to resort to violence, but I do not agree that he was a nutcase.

In considering who could play Jackson for a movie rendition of my book, I had to consider someone who could portray Jackson’s intensity and amazing magnetism, and also his intolerance for those who attempted to thwart his will, as well as his ability to explode into tirades. There is only one choice to play the role: Al Pacino. He’s got it all. Consider his role in Scent of a Woman. Viewers both loved and loathed him for his unique, complex, and oftentimes mean spiritedness. At the bottom, however, viewers came away with the sense that he did have something to offer, a quality and conviction that mattered, a devotion to some greater principle. This was most certainly Jackson. Pacino will have to work on a little Tennessee Southern twang, and perhaps stand on a soap box for height, but that can certainly be worked out. -- Without question, Al Pacino is the man.

Read more about Andrew Jackson and the Politics of Martial Law at the publisher's website.

Matthew Warshauer is also the author of the forthcoming Andrew Jackson: First Men, America’s Presidents. His articles have appeared in Tennessee Historical Quarterly, Connecticut History, Louisiana History, and New York History.

The Page 69 Test: Andrew Jackson and the Politics of Martial Law.

--Marshal Zeringue

Rick Mofina's "A Perfect Grave"

Rick Mofina's third book in the acclaimed Jason Wade series, A Perfect Grave, releases today.

Here he explains which talented (and bankable) actor he'd like to see in the lead role of the film adaptation of his novel:

Sure, I admit I have often cast a movie version of my books. It's fun to play around. Actually, I always pictured Ethan Hawke in the role of Jason Wade, a crime reporter with the Seattle Mirror, who is the lead in my newer series. It debuted with The Dying Hour, which was named a finalist for 2006 Thriller Award by the International Thriller Writers. It was followed by Every Fear and A Perfect Grave, released September 2007.

Wade is loner who grew up in the shadow of a brewery in a blue-collar neighborhood. His old man, Henry Wade, is an alcoholic who crawled into a bottle after Jason's mom walked out on them years earlier when Jason was just a kid.

Henry Wade let go of life to take a job in a brewery, haunted by an incident that happened a life time ago when he was a rookie Seattle cop. He never revealed his dark secret to Jason, who refused to be dragged down with his old man as he battled his demons.

Jason instead pursues his dream, putting himself through community college driving a forklift while freelancing crime stories. He eventually beats the odds, and several arrogant wealthy interns from big schools, to land a staff reporter covering crime at the Mirror.

Ethan Hawke, has the still-waters-run-deep, persona to capture Jason. He has the dark, quiet intensity I see in Jason. Hawke's mind-blowing Oscar-nominated job supporting Denzel Washington in Training Day did it for me.

Jason's gritty, edgy, but honest, hard-working, afraid at times, but the kind of guy who just will not give up. He learns from the mistakes he makes along the way to becoming what he is: An every day hero who does not consider himself a hero. A kind of Springsteen-esque street warrior.

Jason first saves himself from what should have been a dead-end life, then he works on rescuing his old man.

For the role of Henry Wade, I always thought of two guys. Nick Nolte, or Harvey Keitel. Each has the presence, weight and depth to play a man whose spirit died in single-life changing instant that haunts him. An incident he cannot disclose or discuss it. One so painful it has to be numbed by alcohol.

To see Hawke and either, Nolte or Keitel, take my story from the page to the screen would be very cool.

In addition to the Jason Wade series, Mofina's novels include Be Mine, If Angels Fall, Cold Fear, No Way Back, and Blood of Others, which won an Ellis award for Best Novel. He won a second Ellis award for his short story “Lightning Rider” in the anthology Murder in Vegas.

The Page 69 Test: Every Fear.

Visit Rick Mofina's website.

--Marshal Zeringue