Kathleen George's "Hideout"

Kathleen George, author of police thrillers, was an Edgar finalist for best novel for The Odds. A trade edition of The Odds was released last month.

Here she develops some ideas for the cast of an adaptation of her new novel, Hideout:

I read the other morning that Tom Cruise is slated to play Lee Child’s 6’5” huge, broad, tough, military, no-nonsense hero, Jack Reacher. After I screwed my head back on, I sat sighing about the possibility of losing characters I love—I mean love—to the screen. It doesn’t happen every time. It happens often. Once they’re changed drastically, are they ever yours again?

Right now, mine are still in my head. I may be poorer, but they’re what I had in mind. Often composites of people I’ve seen or known and you can’t do that in movies.

My new book is Hideout. It features Addie Ward and she’s almost 83, beautiful, earthy, natural. She always dresses with a little dash. She’s willing to climb to her roof to repair it. She keeps a vegetable and flower garden. Dirt doesn’t scare her. Almost nothing does. Most days she has food on the stove or a cake in the oven and though she’s alone, someone might come visiting and she is ready to feed them. Addie is very American. Why do I keep seeing Vanessa Redgrave, Eileen Atkins? Oh, yes, I saw a wonderful actress in The Royal Family. Jenny Sterlin. I looked her up and she’s born in England, too. Well, that tells me something. All these actresses are charming and subtle and my Addie has a lot going on.

Is it possible to clone Aaron Paul from Breaking Bad? He could play both young desperate look-alike brothers, Ryan and Jack Rutter. They were born in England (what is it with me?). They’re pale, thin, angry, desperate.

Actually a Hollywood subagent asked me to cast my last book, The Odds. There were those flickers of interest that, well, disappear after the flicker. Talk about a tough assignment. I’d look up and cast kids to play my four children characters and one year later, they were no longer right for the roles.

But my casting of the series detectives holds. It’s (and has been) Gabriel Byrne or someone who acts like his character on In Treatment. Though I didn’t originally picture Richard Christie like Byrne, the acting is right on target. Brooding, thoughtful, charming, charismatic. For his wife Marina I thought maybe Michelle Forbes or in a stretch Anne Hathaway. She’s beautiful, dark, a diva. For Colleen Greer, Melissa George or Scarlett Johansson. Colleen is very sexy even when she’s working to put a lid on it. Also, she’s smart, tough, determined, workaholic.

I wish I had a role for Aiden Gillen. I’m admiring everything he does in The Wire and Game of Thrones. Oh, and Allison Pill. I think she’s fantastic.

Maybe I’ll write characters based on them.

Learn more about the book and author at Kathleen George's website.

The Page 69 Test: Hideout.

--Marshal Zeringue

Colin Cotterill's "Killed at the Whim of a Hat"

Born in London, Colin Cotterill has worked as teacher in Israel, Australia, the U.S. and Japan before he started training teachers in Thailand. Cotterill and his wife live in a small fishing village on the Gulf of Siam in Southern Thailand. He’s won the Dilys and a CWA Dagger, and has been a finalist for several other awards.

Here he shares some ideas about casting the leads in an adaptation of his new novel, Killed at the Whim of a Hat:

This blog's editor always lumbers me with this MY BOOK THE MOVIE homework knowing full well I’ve exhausted all the bankable Asian actors in Hollywood. So, once again I’ll have to wait for the American version and stick a few white guys in there. Here we go:

Jimm: feisty 35 year-old Thai journalist – Salma Hayek with padding

Granddad Jah: honest traffic cop retired broke and grumpy – Tommy Lee Jones

Arny: Body-building pussy cat –

Mair: matriarch at outset of dementia – Susan Sarandon

Chompoo: effete police lieutenant – Guy Pearce

Ed the Grass Man: weed-wacking love interest – Olando Bloom

And I’d direct it myself because directors make a lot more money than novelists.

Visit Colin Cotterill's website.

The Page 69 Test: Killed at the Whim of a Hat.

--Marshal Zeringue

Carson Morton's "Stealing Mona Lisa"

Carson Morton was born in London, England and moved with his family to the United States when he was eleven. He worked as a professional musician for many years, making an album for United Artists Records with his group Razmataz, and playing with the likes of John Sebastian, Billy Preston, and many others. He is a screenwriter and published playwright, and has worked in television as a consultant and composer.

Here he shares some cast preferences for an adaptation of his new novel, Stealing Mona Lisa:

Stealing Mona Lisa is set in the colorful and romantic Paris of 1911. I definitely see it as a movie with the wonders of CGI doing the heavy lifting when it comes to depicting the City of Lights during the waning years of La Belle Époque. CGI would be an essential tool in bringing to life the dramatic flooding of Paris by the restless River Seine, the setting of the book’s climax. Indeed, the story began life as a screenplay. So here goes:

There is only one person who can play the mysterious mastermind of the scheme to steal The Mona Lisa and sell six copies to six American robber barons. Johnny Depp is the Marquis de Valfierno. To play the real object of his obsession and the “bird in a gilded cage” wife of industrialist Joshua Hart, I’d pick Rosamund Pike. Her humble beauty and acting ability would be a joy to behold. Scarlett Johansson was born to play the beautiful but unpredictable young American pickpocket, Julia Conway (hmm… or perhaps Jennifer Lawrence). As for Émile, the young man whom Valfierno rescued as a street-urchin, Jamie Bell would do quite nicely, thank you. Now we come to the bad guys! For the vicious American robber baron, Joshua Hart, I would go with Tim Curry or even Kevin Spacey. Finally, to play the hapless, desperate Inspector Carnot, I would get down on my knees and beg Paul Giammatti to take the job!

Learn more about the book and author at Carson Morton's website.

The Page 69 Test: Stealing Mona Lisa.

--Marshal Zeringue

John Dalton's "The Inverted Forest"

John Dalton is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and has been awarded fellowships at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts and the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire. His first novel, Heaven Lake, won the Barnes and Noble 2004 Discover Award in fiction and the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Heaven Lake was listed as a best book of the year by Publishers Weekly, The Chicago Tribune and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Dalton is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and is currently a member of the English faculty at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, where he teaches in their MFA Writing Program.

Here he shares some ideas about casting the leads in an adaptation of his new novel, The Inverted Forest:

There are three primary / point of view characters in The Inverted Forest.

First there’s Schuller Kindermann, the seventy-eight-year-old director and founder of Kindermann Forest Summer Camp. Schuller is a fussy, judgmental and mostly foolish man. He’s never had a lover or, for that matter, any strong attraction to another person. As director of a summer camp, he’s frequently exasperated by the counselor’s unwise behavior.

The best actor for the job? The grand and amazing Christopher Plummer.

Second, there’s Wyatt Huddy, age twenty-two, large, physically imposing, a counselor at Kindermann Forest Summer Camp. Wyatt has a condition known as Apert syndrome that distorts his appearance. (The mid-section of the face is underdeveloped. The eyes are set too far apart or a bit uneven.) But the condition doesn’t necessarily mean that the individual is intellectually impaired. This is a complicated and isolating thing for a person to deal with: to appear to the outside world to be intellectually disabled, but inwardly to be as aware and knowing as everyone else. It’s an especially acute dilemma for Wyatt, since he’s serving as a counselor at a summer camp among more than a hundred state hospital patients who are, in fact, mentally disabled.

The best actor for the job? Ryan Gosling (with the help of a skillful make-up artist.)

Harriet Foster, age twenty-seven, camp nurse, the only African American employee at Kindermann Forest. She is the single mother of a bi-racial son, five-year-old James. Harriet is the only one at camp to recognize Wyatt’s condition, the only one whose compassion and loyalty to Wyatt lasts through the years.

The best actor for the job? Kerry Washington (though they’ll have to tone down her intense beauty / glamour so that she’s merely girl-next-door beautiful.)

Learn more about the book and author at John Dalton's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Inverted Forest.

--Marshal Zeringue

Rebecca Cantrell's "A Game of Lies"

Award-winning author Rebecca Cantrell majored in German, Creative Writing, and History at the Freie Universitaet of Berlin and Carnegie Mellon University. Her Hannah Vogel mystery series set in Berlin in the 1930s includes A Trace of Smoke, A Night of Long Knives, and A Game of Lies.

Here she shares some ideas for casting an adaptation of the Hannah Vogel books:

When I think of filming the Hannah Vogel books, I picture them as a feature film or a TV mini-series, something very arty and fun, like Wallander or Foyle's War. In my head, the series is sometimes filmed with an American version, sometimes a British version, and sometimes a German version, all with different actors (it's a busy place, my head).

I'm going to quickly cast the main characters in all three version, and take votes at the end. If none of the choices are perfect, feel free to write in your suggested actor or actress.

Hannah Vogel is strong, compassionate, and sometimes terribly vulnerable. She looks like an Aryan prize (blond hair, blue eyes), a fact that she exploits to slip through the Nazis' defenses.

Boris Krause is a solid, dependable banker who wants to take care of Hannah. He is all grown up, but still smoking hot.

Lars Lang plays a larger role in each book. He starts out as a staunch Nazi, but seems to move toward working to bring down the Nazi government. He's shorter than Boris, with dark hair and eyes.

Here is the Hollywood cast:

Hannah Vogel: Naomi Watts	Boris Krause: Aaron Eckhart	Lars Lang: Edward Norton

The British cast:

Hannah Vogel: Kate Winslet	Boris Krause: Rufus Sewell	Lars Lang: Michael Fassbender

The German cast:

Hannah Vogel: Carice Van Houten	Boris Krause: Sebastian Koch	Lars Lang: Thomas Krettschman

These are pretty much perfect too, except I couldn't find a picture of Sebastian Koch that was the right size where he was clean shaven.

Time for voting! You can vote for those listed above, or choose someone completely different. Who is your favorite? [Comments are open below]

Learn more about the book and author at Rebecca Cantrell's website and blog.

Cantrell majored in German, Creative Writing, and History at the Freie Universitaet of Berlin and Carnegie Mellon University. Her Hannah Vogel mystery series set in Berlin in the 1930s includes A Trace of Smoke and A Night of Long Knives.

The Page 69 Test: A Trace of Smoke.

My Book, The Movie: A Trace of Smoke.

The Page 69 Test: A Game of Lies.

--Marshal Zeringue

Tammy Kaehler's "Dead Man's Switch"

Before trying her hand at fiction, Tammy Kaehler established a career writing marketing materials, feature articles, executive speeches, and technical documentation. A fateful stint in corporate hospitality introduced her to the racing world, which inspired the first Kate Reilly racing mystery. Kaehler works as a technical writer in the Los Angeles area, where she lives with her husband and many cars.

Here she suggests some casting--and location--preferences for an adaptation of Dead Man’s Switch, the debut Kate Reilly racing mystery:

I couldn’t think of real life people as the characters while I was writing Dead Man’s Switch, for fear that would disturb the world I was creating in my mind or have influenced the characters in some way I didn’t want. Since then, I’ve done a little thinking, and I have some ideas—though I’m going to ignore ages and pretend these actors are all the right age for each character….

Christina Ricci as Kate Reilly: up-and-coming racecar driver, 24, small but strong, fair skin and black hair. I think of Kate as a bit more robust than Ricci (I’ve seen her in person and there’s almost nothing to her), but she has the look I picture for Kate, and I think she could portray both Kate’s toughness—required of a woman making her way as a racecar driver—and her vulnerability, fear, and inexperience as she deals with being suspected of murder.

Ryan Reynolds as Stuart Telarday: racing series VP, early thirties, tall, sandy-blond hair, stern. I think Reynolds is a physical match and could play both the cold, uptight aspects and the glimpses of helpful and warm personality that we see. Besides, Reynolds is cute; Stuart has to be cute underneath all that pain in the behind-ness.

Kristen Chenoweth as Holly Wilson: hospitality director for race team, Kate’s best friend, late twenties, flaming redhead, never wrinkled or flustered. Chenoweth is older than Holly, and not a redhead, but she’s the embodiment of the tiny person with an outsized personality I envisioned for the character.

Patrick Dempsey as Mike Munroe: Kate’s co-driver in the Corvette, thirties, goofy but caring, dark, shaggy hair. Dempsey doesn’t have the bear-like presence or demeanor I envisioned for Mike, but he’s got the requisite good-guy nature with a hint of temper underneath. Plus he races cars; there’s got to be a spot for him in this movie!

Lime Rock Park as Lime Rock Park: the racetrack in Northwest Connecticut. The location is as much a character as anyone else in Dead Man’s Switch, and there’s no getting around filming the movie on location. The crew would have a lovely time filming in the gorgeous New England setting.

Learn more about the book and author at Tammy Kaehler's website and blog.

The Page 69 Test: Dead Man’s Switch.

--Marshal Zeringue

Leslie Daniels' "Cleaning Nabokov's House"

Leslie Daniels' stories have appeared in Ploughshares, The Missouri Review, The Florida Review, Gulf Coast, The Santa Monica Review and New Ohio Review. The Shooting Gallery in New York City produced her one-act play. She has been nominated three times for the Pushcart Prize and for the Best of the Associated Writing Programs. From 2005 to 2010, she was the fiction editor for The Green Mountains Review.

Here she shares some ideas for casting a big screen adaptation of her debut novel, Cleaning Nabokov's House:

AAAhhhh you are asking me to casturbate in public! Yikes. OK, I think that the lead actress must be able to be funny, not in a light amusing way, darkly funny, the kind of woman who would make a joke out of anything; humor is her defense. She must also look plausibly down and out. So many of American movie stars are so polished it is hard to believe their lives as anything but enviable. The relationship between the two women would be very fun to act, like Julie & Julia. I think the pairing is key, and one must be older. I could see Susan Sarandon as the agent and Laura Linney as the protagonist. They are both wildly smart and independent, which is a key trait. The guy could be any number of actors, but I happen to love Sam Rockwell, he’s deadpan and sexy and odd. The ex-husband has to be someone who can play super uptight, maybe Stanley Tucci or Titus Welliver? Both are great. No, save Stan Tucci and Titus Welliver for the lawyers, and the ex-husband could be someone that people love to hate: Greg Kinnear, maybe. There are fun cameos for other parts: the mother, the male sex workers, the women sex clients.

My absolute favorite part to cast would be Rudy, the coach, and “a man of a certain age.” I would want Rainn Wilson, he would slay that role. Maybe he could take the part away from Robin Williams? Pass me a martini, I am on a roll.

Learn more about the book and author at Leslie Daniels's website and blog.

The Page 69 Test: Cleaning Nabokov's House.

Writers Read: Leslie Daniels.

--Marshal Zeringue

Melanie Benjamin's "The Autobiography Of Mrs. Tom Thumb"

Melanie Benjamin's historical novels are Alice I Have Been and the recently released The Autobiography Of Mrs. Tom Thumb.

Here she shares some perspective on the difficulties of adapting the new book for the screen and names one director with the vision to just maybe pull it off:

Honestly, I’ve never been able to think of The Autobiography Of Mrs. Tom Thumb in terms of a movie simply because it would be impossible to cast. The kind of dwarfism that General and Mrs. Tom Thumb had is not a kind that is common today; they were miniature people, perfectly formed. Today they would have been given human growth hormones, and while they wouldn’t be quite average-sized, they certainly would be more than three feet tall! However, I admit that sometimes I do allow myself to imagine what Tim Burton could do with this story; his Big Fish, which I love, used CGI to realistically imagine giants and Siamese Twins. I think he could do a wonderful job with Mrs. Tom Thumb.

Learn more about the book and author at Melanie Benjamin's website.

The Page 69 Test: Alice I Have Been.

The Page 69 Test: The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb.

--Marshal Zeringue

Samuel Park's "This Burns My Heart"

Samuel Park is an Assistant Professor of English at Columbia College Chicago. He is a graduate of Stanford and the University of Southern California, where he earned his doctorate in English. He is the author of the novella Shakespeare's Sonnets and the writer-director of the short film of the same name, which was an official selection of numerous domestic and international film festivals.

Here he shares some cast preferences for an adaptation of his new novel, This Burns My Heart:

A bookseller once told me that she found This Burns My Heart to be very cinematic, and I think that’s probably true. When I wrote it, I was inspired not only by literature, but by films based on great novels, like Doctor Zhivago. I try to describe the setting in such a way that the reader can picture the action unfolding in front of her, as if it were all happening right then and there. So if I were to cast a movie version of This Burns My Heart, I’d pick the following actors:

Michelle Yeoh as the heroine Soo-Ja—

Yeoh projects a dignity and fire that would fit my main character Soo-Ja. In both Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Memoirs of a Geisha, Yeoh was cast as the wiser mentor-figure, women ruled by equal parts wisdom and passion. Early in This Burns My Heart, Soo-Ja makes an unfortunate choice with disastrous consequences. But rather than running away from her destiny, Soo-Ja takes it on and forges ahead bravely. Yeoh would give the character gravitas—the kind of inner strength one develops when you fearlessly stride forward, instead of timidly looking back.

Chow-Yun Fat as the hero Yul—

I describe Yul in the novel as a man who has mastered his youthful impulses, a stoic and kind-hearted former soldier who reminds the heroine of soil—firm and reliable. Chow always oozes decency in his performances, and I especially loved his work opposite Jodie Foster in Anna and the King. As the King of Siam, Chow is the essence of high moral character—a man incapable of being hurtful or mean. That’s the key to portraying Yul, the object of my main character’s secret longing.

Gong Li as the villainous Eun-Mee—

As selfish as her name suggests, Eun-Mee causes Soo-Ja no end of grief. Like most strong villains, Eun-Mee actually has a charming side to her and drives much of the narrative. One of the world’s great actresses, Gong was wonderful in Zhang Yimou’s films, in particular, and got to show her campy side in Memoirs of a Geisha, playing the devilish Hatsumomo. While Eun-Mee is not quite as bad as Hatsumomo, she is certainly full of tricks up her sleeve, and Gong would capture not only the character’s badness, but also the internal pain and hurt driving her behavior.

Learn more about the book and author at Samuel Park's website and blog.

The Page 69 Test: This Burns My Heart.

Writers Read: Samuel Park.

--Marshal Zeringue

Brian M. Wiprud's "Ringer"

Brian M. Wiprud's novels include Feelers and Buy Back.

Here he shares some ideas about casting the lead in an adaptation of his new novel, Ringer:

This is a particularly pertinent question to my novel Ringer in as much as the book is written as an ad hoc movie treatment, complete with camera angles and suggestions by the protagonist Morty about who should play himself. Morty fancies himself a Latin lover, and in a cover letter to a film development company he posits that Jimmy Smits or Benjamin Bratt would be good choices, but that Antonio Banderas is probably too old. In a letter from the development company to a superior regarding Morty’s treatment, a producer mentions that Banderas is doing Nasonex Bee voice overs and would probably be cheaper to get for the movie than Bratt. Who do I think would be best for the role? Who am I to argue with my protagonist and a producer? Not to mention, I think it would be pretty hilarious to have Banderas in the role musing on how he thinks Banderas is too old to play himself, or Bratt saying that he is a superior choice to Banderas.

Learn more about the book and author at Brian M. Wiprud's website.

The Page 69 Test: Ringer.

--Marshal Zeringue