Ismée Williams's "Water in May"

Ismée Williams is the author of Water in May, a pediatric cardiologist who trained and practiced for 15 years at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City, the daughter of a Cuban immigrant partially raised by her abuelos, and the mother of three daughters, all of which have helped her to understand the many Maris she has met along the way.

Here Williams dreamcasts an adaptation of Water in May:

I’ve fantasized about Water in May becoming a movie since I started writing it! In fact, I pictured Reese Witherspoon as Helen, the woman Mari shares a hospital experience with, from the very beginning. She would do an amazing job playing the mother of a baby in distress. And I always hoped she would like the book since I once saw her say that if she couldn’t be an actor she would be a pediatric cardiologist (look up Reese Witherspoon, Vogue’s 73 questions video).

For Dr. Love, my vote would be Scott Eastwood. He’s the right age (early 30s) and has that dreamy look to him (along with the blue eyes), yet he is serious enough to make you respect him as a physician.

My main character’s boyfriend, Bertie, is somewhat of a jokester and has a carefree way about him, yet he is also tragically wounded by the circumstances of the novel. I’m envisioning someone like a young Merlin Santana, the late Dominican-American actor who played Rudy Huxtable’s boyfriend on The Cosby Show, among other roles in his short lifetime. He’d have been perfect.

And now for Mari’s girl crew: The role of loud and flamboyant best friend, Yaz, would have to go to a teen version of Dania Ramirez, known for her work in The Sopranos, Entourage, and Devious Maids. Julissa Bermudez, from Empire Girls, would play Teri well, with her innocent schoolgirl looks, but again she would have to be younger. For the role of Heavenly, the statuesque beauty who always has boys panting after her, Zoe Saldana would be my choice.

Mari’s abuela could be played by Iris Peynado, who is Dominican, or even Rosie Perez, who is actually Puerto Rican, though it would have had to have been when they were in their mid-40’s.

My main character, Mari, would be the tough one to cast. Sharlene Taule could play Mari because her skin is light enough to pass for white in certain situations, as Mari’s skin is. But honestly, for all of these younger roles my dream would be for scouts to go to Washington Heights or Santo Domingo and find up and coming talent. It would be incredible to have an unknown play Mari and have this be her breakout role.

Visit Ismée Williams's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Ismée Amiel Williams & Rowan.

--Marshal Zeringue

Jacob Stone's "Crazed"

Jacob Stone is the byline chosen by award-winning author Dave Zeltserman for his new Morris Brick series of serial-killer thrillers. His crime, mystery and horror fiction has won top praise and has been translated into six languages. His novels Small Crimes and Pariah were both named by the Washington Post as best books of the year. Small Crimes topped National Public Radio's list of best crime and mystery novels of 2008 and is being made into a feature film.

Here Zeltserman dreamcasts an adaptation of Crazed, the second Morris Black thriller:

I get to cheat a bit with this since Crazed is the second book of my Morris Brick crime thriller series, and I already provided my dream cast for the first book, Deranged.

Major characters who appear in both Crazed and Deranged:

Morris Brick, my ex-LAPD homicide detective and serial killer hunter, is tough, smart, and relentless, and Jason Isaacs showed from the Showtime series Brotherhood showed that he could play all that brilliantly, plus he physically looks like my Morris.

Evangeline Lilly would be a good choice to play Natalie Brick, Morris’s beautiful and charming wife.

Sheila Proops, the wheelchair-bound serial killer who escaped prosecution from Deranged and is back in Crazed. Elizabeth Banks would be a good choice, although she'd need a lot of makeup and prosthetics to play my twisted (both physically and emotionally) Sheila.

Philip Stonehedge, a method actor who forces himself into the investigation, and for most of the book acts as Morris’s sidekick, is the easiest role to cast—Ryan Gosling. In the third Morris Brick thriller, Malicious, there’s a running joke where the killer is described by witnesses as either the actor Philip Stonehedge or Ryan Gosling.

Scarlett Johansson would be a good fit for Annie Walsh, the tough, no-nonsense, and very attractive LAPD Detective who works with Morris and his team.

Morris’s team is made up of three former LAPD homicide detectives: Dennis Polk, a wiseass, Fred Lemmon, who takes it as part of his job to keep Polk in line, and Charlie Bogle, Morris’ right-hand man. Michael Rapaport would be perfect as Polk, Matthew Rhys as Lemmon, and Jon Hamm (who has a bigger role in future books, as well as showing some inner demons) as Bogle.

Finally, to complete the cast, we need to find a lovable and clownish bull terrier to play Morris’s dog, Parker.

Now for the two starring characters unique to Crazed:

Chris Evans would be playing against type to be cast as the serial killer Griffin Bolling, but I think he'd be a fun choice for the role, even though Bolling is quite a piece of work.

Josh Gad would make a perfect Perlmutter--a desperate wannabe filmmaker who catches on to what Sheila and Griffin are up to, and tries to deal himself into the action.

Simon Helberg would be pitch perfect to play Perlmutter's nemesis Bloom.

We'd also need the right fat, orange tabby to play Perlmutter's cat, Orson.

Visit Dave Zeltserman's website.

My Book, The Movie: Deranged.

--Marshal Zeringue

Cora Harrison's "Beyond Absolution"

Cora Harrison published twenty-six children's books before turning to adult novels with the "Mara" series of Celtic historical mysteries set in 16th century Ireland.

Here she dreamcasts an adaptation of her latest novel, Beyond Absolution, the third book in the Reverend Mother Mystery Series:

I had no hesitation here. I have immediately chosen Angela Lansbury to star in the movie of my book.

The main character in Beyond Absolution is an elderly Reverend Mother, superior of an order of nuns whose main task is to provide an education for the children of the poor. Cork city in the south of Ireland was, at that time, a place where terrible poverty and dreadful slums co-existed with wealth and splendid houses, built by the merchant princes on the hills well outside the filth and fog that envelope the city and its slums.

The Reverend Mother is by birth and upbringing one of the merchant princes’ class, but all her sympathies and her life’s work lie among the poor of Cork. She is no saint, though and possesses a sharp sarcastic tongue and a shrewd judgement of people and their weaknesses, whether they are among the privileged or the destitute of Cork.

I’ve had fun writing this character – somehow I never hesitate. Her opinions flow from my finger tips to the screen, her occasional sarcasm, her compassion, her interest in her pupils, her overwhelming desire to help the children, her boredom with excessive piety, her impatience with the bishop and his opinions. I can just see and hear Angela Lansbury in the part. And I hope that the long summers she has spent in southern Ireland would give her an interest in bringing the character of a Cork nun to the screen.

Visit Cora Harrison's website.

My Book, The Movie: Cross of Vengeance.

--Marshal Zeringue

Michael Gregorio's "Lone Wolf"

Michael Gregorio is the pen name of Michael G. Jacob and Daniela De Gregorio. Best known for their Hanno Stiffeniis series, featuring a Prussian magistrate in a country invaded by Napoleon and the French, they have more recently launched a contemporary series set in Italy, where they live. The Seb Cangio novels follow the exploits of a forest ranger as he combats Mafia infiltration of the unspoilt national park in Umbria where he works.

Here the authors share the transcript from their (dream) pitch meeting with United Artists about adapting their latest novel, the third in the series, Lone Wolf, for the big screen:

Imagine: United Artists and us.

UA: These stories haven’t been adapted for the big screen?

US: Unbelievable, isn’t it? A mystery on every page, a dead body in every chapter, a climax that will blast the viewer out of his seat…

UA: His seat? Don’t tell me this is a guy film.

US: No, no, it’s got everything. Violence, sure, but love, devotion to duty, animals…

UA: No dogs die, do they? No horses? Nothing like that?

US: Only the thugs die. Quite a lot of them, actually. But it’s all good fun, plenty of action with a capital A and a serious investment in top quality tomato sauce.

UA: Now that is a good sponsor angle. Yeah, show the can… the can of sauce, I mean, in all the kitchen scenes.

US: We use Mutti Polpa at home and recommend it highly. Five stars, big lumps, great splatter…

UA: Mutti, Parma… you don’t say? (He’s making a note of the name). I’ll check it out. Now, tell me this. How do you see this movie playing out? Gimme a sketch.

US: Well, there’ll be trees, lots of trees, ’cause the hero is a park ranger. Oh yeah, and mountains, too, ’cause it’s set in Umbria…

UA: What’s Umbria?

US: It’s a place in Italy. It’s full of mountains, forests, full of wolves. That’s what the park ranger does, he protects the wolves…

UA: The wolves don’t die, do they? We have this thing with Animal Protection.

US: No, no, the wolves don’t die. The wolves are just an allegory…

UA: Allegheny? I thought you said Italy?

US: The wolves are a symbol. They’re cruel, but, well, that’s Nature, isn’t it? It’s the two-legged wolves we’re interested in…

UA: Wolves with two legs? You mean like walking wolves? Werewolves?

US: We mean criminals, people who behave like wolves, worse than wolves…

UA: Okay, so we got wolves and criminals, a dumb park ranger. What else?

US: There’s London, too, the seamy Soho underworld…

UA: We can film those scenes right here in New York, cut back on costs.

US: And there’s the ’Ndrangheta…

UA: The what?

US: The mafia from Calabria, the most dangerous criminal organisation in the world.

UA: Winslow’s already worked that angle. Slaughter on every page.

US: Our slaughter starts on page three…

UA: And the first two pages?

US: Magic, witchcraft, a pinch of historical backstory.

UA: What about a director? You got any thoughts on that?

US: Well, our vote goes to Mel. He’s been through this kind of thing before – oceans of blood, nastiness unchained, and a wild natural setting with eclipses of the sun and sudden downpours – we’ve seen Apocalypto twenty or thirty times, it’s one of our favourite movies.

UA: We’re talking big money here. So, what about the stars?

US: Well, there are two lead women…

UA: Two? That’s throwing money away. Could we cut it back to one? We got Scarlett, Cameron, Ashley, take your pick. Male leads are two a penny, so let’s play safe with Leonardo. Di Caprio. Italian-sounding, right? He should know how to handle this ’Ndrangheta angle… Okay, time’s up. I’ll get back to you on this. Have a great day!

As you may have realised, films and filmstars are not our thing. So, we’ll just have to wait for a producer with his cheque book and chosen camera buff to come along and finally do what Justice demands: make Lone Wolf into the blockbuster movie it deserves to be!

Visit Michael Gregorio's website and blog.

The Page 69 Test: Lone Wolf.

--Marshal Zeringue

Lisa Berne's "The Laird Takes a Bride"

Lisa Berne read her first Georgette Heyer book at fourteen, and was instantly captivated. Later, she was a graduate student, a teacher, and a grant writer — and is now an author of historical romance.

Here she dreamcasts an adaptation of her latest novel, The Laird Takes a Bride:

I’m really bad at this sort of question, so really, the best I can do is to mention a film — and the actors — that influenced my thinking in The Laird Takes a Bride: the charming and deeply felt Leap Year. (Although, tangentially, in the interest of validating my taste, I feel obliged to add that I loathe the scene toward the end in which the protagonists carry on an extremely personal conversation in front of an interested crowd; such pointless contrivances are almost as annoying as the ones that take place in the rain. Case in point: Four Weddings and a Funeral.)

What drew me creatively to Leap Year is how the characters, winsomely portrayed by Amy Adams and Matthew Goode, are initially so shut off to each other — how enmeshed they are in their own damaged pasts. Both of my protagonists in The Laird Takes a Bride suffer from the same snare; their trajectories in this way mirror the other’s. They struggle to free themselves — to learn how to freely love — even as they resist their deepening connection.

So. Yeah. Matthew Goode and Amy Adams. With fetching Scottish accents. Could totally work.

Visit Lisa Berne's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Peter J. Marina's "Down and Out in New Orleans"

Peter Marina is a New Orleans native and Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse.

Here he tags the actor who should play him in an adaptation of his new book, Down and Out in New Orleans: Transgressive Living in the Informal Economy--and sketches a scenario of the imaginary film:

If the book were made into a movie, Aidan Turner would play my role as lead actor. People sometimes confuse me for him in public, and he plays transgressive characters that lead debacherous, downright mischievous lives. The main character of Down and Out in New Orleans had to become transgressive to conduct the research into similarly transgressive lives. For a director, Paul Thomas Anderson, excels with large ensemble casts and uses lots of wide angle shots which would really show off NOLA and make the city itself a character in the film.

Peter Marina lives down and out in New Orleans reproducing, as closely as possible, the conditions Orwell faced in Down and Out in Paris and London in late 1920s Paris. Marina’s film tells the story of post-Katrina New Orleans and its culture of creative degenerates, vagabonds, artists, hustlers, transients, grifters, intellectuals, musicians, druggies, skells, gutter punks, goths, occultists, and existentialists who exist beneath the radar in the city of New Orleans.

Marina does not merely study the city’s fringes. He lives on them. He doesn’t merely interview the city’s new bohemians. He lives among them, lives as one of them. He doesn’t settle for examining the city’s modern underbelly. He creeps and crawls through it – sometimes on his hands and knees, working menial jobs, scrounging for enough to eat, living among the urban tribes – indeed, becoming part of them – and hoping to survive.

He walks on glass as “Cuban Pete the Clown” pantomimes on the streets outside the Superdome before Saints games, busks poetry on Frenchmen Street, bartends on Bourbon Street, cleans Air B&B apartments in Faubourg Marigny, trips with occultists in Barataria swamps, breaks into New Orleans’ aboveground cemeteries for underground Satanic rituals, attends informal burlesque shows, helps perform a marriage ceremony for homeless travelers, sleeps in down-and-out homeless shelters and squats in the many abandoned buildings of hurricane Katrina, shares life with gutter punks and down-and-out urban dwellers, dances in the streets of second-line parades, shares New Orleans culture with the black Mardi Gras Indians, and even sells pot for a few extra dollars.

The movie centers on the cast of characters Marina encounters on his various adventures throughout New Orleans traversing social life with many of the city’s urban tribes and subcultures. He finds Tim the Gold Man searching for relief at the end of a beer while somehow achieving semi-celebrity status. Marina discovers a colorful cast of characters such as Cubs the Poet writing for tourists, Eric Odditorium swallowing swords, and Stumps the Clown swinging a bowling ball through hooks in his ears, all attempting to stake their claim in the world. Marina penetrates into the three dimensions of Shannon’s life as she moves from peacefully writing poetry of French orgasms to frantically whipping tourists on the streets to hopping freight trains in a quest to reach the summit of life’s experiences. He shares adventures with occultists as they enter swamps and hop cemeteries to engage in supernatural rituals that empower and make meaning to their world. Marina encounters the world of buskers as they perform on the streets of New Orleans as well as gutter punks and homeless politically motivated youths who squat in the city’s many abandoned houses.

Marina travels with brass-band musicians blowing their trumpets making money from tourists while also keeping the culture of the city defiantly alive. He marches with the Mardi Gras Indians in their second-lines as they sing about spy boys while chanting Iko unday Jockomo feeno and dances with brass bands screaming “Fuck the po-po” with their middle fingers raised, speaking truth to power about police brutality. Marina witnesses community resident Vance Vaucresson getting the okey dokey from urban planners and city elites – like Pres Kabacoff, or the Robert Moses of New Orleans – hell-bent on transforming the culture of New Orleans into a personal means of profit.

In this pursuit of discovery, Marina unlocks a world where urban residents show their human agency and engage in new forms of transgression to find creative cultural solutions to collectively experienced structural contradictions posed in our late stage of modernity.

Visit Peter Marina's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Temple Mathews's "Bad Girl Gone"

Temple Mathews, a graduate of the University of Washington and a producer at the American Film Institute, has written dozens of half-hour animation TV episodes and several animated and live action features and direct-to-DVD and video films. His credits include the Walt Disney animated feature films Return to Neverland and The Little Mermaid 2 and the MGM feature film Picture This!

Here Mathews shares some thoughts on casting an adaptation of his new novel, Bad Girl Gone:

The movie of my book would feature a young actress, Jennifer Lawrence would have been perfect a few years back, same with Natalie Portman.

As with the cast of Twilight, when we make the movie (Iggy Azalea is producing and optioned the book) we will have the joy of bringing new faces to the screen.

Visit Temple Mathews's website.

The Page 69 Test: Bad Girl Gone.

--Marshal Zeringue

Robin Merrow MacCready's "A Lie For A Lie"

Robin Merrow MacCready is the author of Buried, recipient of the Edgar Award for Best YA novel. She teaches reading and writing to middle school students, and lives in Maine with her family.

Here she dreamcasts an adaptation of her latest YA novel, A Lie for a Lie:

I see my books in vivid scenes, like a film, and they serve as my guides while I write, so this was a fun exercise. Also, music sets the mood, so think Led Zeppelin for the island scenes since it plays a part in the book.

First off, the setting for A Lie For A Lie is an important character and the Maine Coast is the star; think rocky coves and points jutting into the ocean, sandy beaches, and squawking seagulls. The island that inspired this story was a real location when I was a teen, but it's barely there now, due to the storms and high tides that have eroded it down to a rocky strip barely walkable at low tide.

Kendra, the main character in A Lie For A Lie, is a teen that survived a scary boat accident. She’s close to breaking out of her protective shell, so an actress that can play both lows and highs is important. I like Hailee Steinfeld for Kendra. She’s smart and sensitive and I loved her in The Edge of Seventeen.

Bo is one of Kendra’s childhood friends. I saw Bo as Douglas Smith before I knew who he was and it took a lot of googling before I remembered what I saw him in. He's is known for playing the son in Big Love, but he’s older now. Back then he was a bit geeky and now he’s playing Marcus Isaacson on the upcoming series, The Alienist. Like those two different roles, Bo has grown out of his role as Kendra’s BFF’s brother and hopes to be her boyfriend.

Jenn is Bo’s sister and Kendra’s best friend. She's short and intense. I’ve always seen her as a young Rashida Jones, or maybe Tara Lynne Barr from Casual.

Bad boy Will is played by Jack DePew, who is Jasper Landry in The Fosters. From the beginning of the story, Will had a bad boy sneer and messy blond hair. Ryan Hansen was a look alike that I kept in my head mind when I was writing him. He played Dick Casablancas in Veronica Mars.

Dad is Patrick Wilson or Scott Foley. He’s a great dad, but overly tuned in to his flirty and charming side. He uses it in social situations and lawyering.

Mom is damaged, both physically (though she hides her scars) and emotionally. I see Mom as Vera Farmiga or Peggy Lipton in her Twin Peaks era.

This exercise has gotten me thinking of my work in progress, which is set in the mid-19th century and is filled with mysterious characters. Off to cast that one!

Visit Robin Merrow MacCready's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eric Brown's "Murder Take Three"

Eric Brown began writing when he was fifteen and sold his first short story to Interzone in 1986. He has won the British Science Fiction Award twice for his short stories, and his novel Helix Wars was shortlisted for the 2012 Philip K. Dick award. He has published sixty books, and his latest include the crime novel Murder Take Three, and the short story collection Microcosms, with Tony Ballantyne. His novel Binary System is due out in Autumn. He has also written a dozen books for children and over a hundred and forty short stories. He writes a regular science fiction review column for the Guardian newspaper and lives in Cockburnspath, Scotland.

Here Brown dreamcasts an adaptation of Murder Take Three:

In my recently released crime mystery, Murder Take Three – the fourth book in the Langham and Dupré series, set in the mid-fifties, Donald Langham has just started work at Ralph Ryland’s detective agency, and his first client is the American movie star Suzie Reynard. Reynard and company are shooting a murder mystery film at Marling Hall, a four hundred year old Elizabethan manor house in the depths of the Norfolk countryside. She wants Langham to investigate threats made to the film’s director, Douglas Dennison, and she invites him up for the weekend to investigate. Langham thinks her worries rather nebulous, but relishes a weekend with his fiancée Maria Dupré in an old country house.

However, the break proves rather less relaxing than anticipated. He meets the cast, the director, and the owners of Marling Hall, the crippled war hero Edward Marling and his long-suffering wife Cynthia – along with his old friend the scriptwriter Terrence Ambler. Langham soon discovers that the cast and associates are seething with hatred and jealousy, and a weekend in the country soon turns into a longer stay as Suzie Reynard is found shot dead in the trailer of the director Douglas Rennison.

What follows is a murder mystery replete with intrigue, red herrings, false leads – as well as further murders – as Langham, ably assisted by his fiancée Maria Dupré and the detective Ralph Ryland, work through the convoluted clues to track down the merciless killer.

As to who might play the lead roles in the film of my book… That’s a fascinating question, and one I’ve never really considered until now.

Donald Langham is a mild-mannered, droll, pipe-smoking thriller-writer when he isn’t working part-time as a private detective. He’s tall, dark, and handsome (well, his fiancée Maria thinks so), and I can easily see Simon Mangan (who starred in the UK-US TV series Episodes), taking this part.

Maria Dupré, his dark, sultry soon-to-be-wife, who assist Langham in solving this crime and others with her intelligence and human insight, is in her early thirties and French. She is also his literary agent. The British actor Gemma Arterton (who starred in the film Tamara Drewe, among many others) would be ideal for the part, or perhaps even Catherine Zeta-Jones.

There’s only one actor on earth who could play Langham’s weaselly sidekick Ralph Ryland, and that’s the American actor Steve Buscemi – if he could do a Cockney accent, that is.

The actress Suzie Reynard, under-confident and rather neurotic, and very much in love with father-figure Douglas Dennsion, is thirty, small, pretty and blonde – I see someone like a young Goldie Hawn taking the role.

The tough-cynical movie director Doug Dennsion, late fifties and a overweight: how about the Scottish actor James Cosmo who plays Jeor Mormont in Game of Thrones?

Visit Eric Brown's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Josh Dean's "The Taking of K-129"

Josh Dean is a magazine journalist and author based in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.

Here he dreamcasts an adaptation of his new book, The Taking of K-129: How the CIA Used Howard Hughes to Steal a Russian Sub in the Most Daring Covert Operation in History:

When you do narrative journalism, it’s pretty common for people to say, in reaction to a story, “Hey, that should be a movie.” But I’ve never experienced that to the degree that I have with this project. It is the very definition of truth is stranger the fiction — the true story of how the CIA used Howard Hughes to provide cover for the attempted theft of a nuclear missile submarine, by creating the illusion that the world’s most eccentric mogul was going to mine the ocean floor for rare earth minerals. I’d conservatively estimate that 100% of people who’ve talked to me about it have suggested it be a movie, and I’ve taken to describing it, in Hollywood short-hand, as “James Cameron’s Argo.”

Anyway, the good news is that Hughes doesn’t ever appear on screen, so I don’t really have to cast him. He can be some deep breathing on a phone. The bad news is that it’s a sprawling, epic story that covers 6 years and includes the participation of hundreds of people. Maybe it should be a TV series? But that’s not the challenge here. The book really focuses most on four characters: Curtis Crooke, John Graham, John Paragosky, and Walt Lloyd. The first two are engineers, the second two are spies.

Let’s start with Crooke. I think of him as the 1960s version of a Silicon Valley hotshot. He was a clever engineer with a brash personality who worked for a big company but didn’t really care to abide by traditions. He drove a Ferrari, put his feet up on the desk during meetings and had absolutely no qualms about taking a nap during the workday, with the door open. That sounds like so many actors, but the one who stands out (and is age appropriate) is Robert Downey Jr. He plays smart and funny. He’s very likable. And he’s dashing, which I like to think Curtis was at the time.

John Graham was a brilliant naval engineer. A reformed alcoholic who nearly lost his family in middle-age then went sober, redeemed himself, and helped imagine some of the most spectacular ships ever designed — including the mind-blowing Hughes Glomar Explorer. Graham was a tough boss, but fair. He was highly educated (via MIT) but also an autodidact who did some of his best designing on napkins. He was a loyal husband but loved to flirt with waitresses. And every man who worked for him had tremendous respect. Put some glasses on any number of leading men and it would work, but the guy needs to be slightly intimidating, so I’m going with Ed Harris here. He can command room, but also disarm one when necessary.

Walt Lloyd ran the cover operation. Lloyd was a career CIA man who helped create the model for covert operations in his long-time role within the Agency’s security apparatus. He is sharp, straight-laced, and utterly unflappable, with a fondness for the efficacy of profanity when a point needs to be made. He recruited people to pretend to be mining the ocean without telling them that they were pretending. He commands respect, but not via fear. I met him in his 80s, so it’s hard for me to picture what Walt was like in middle-age, but I think Hollywood would probably cast someone like Tom Hanks here. Hanks feels a little soft to me. I picture a younger Robert Redford. Who is that today? In a pinch, Josh Brolin could probably pull it off.

That leaves John Parangosky, Azorian’s mastermind. This CIA science and technology lifer was a cypher to many people on the program. Most knew him only as JP or Mr P, if they knew him at all. He was a lifelong bachelor with a love for finer things, especially opera and French food, which he ate often, typically alone at one of a couple of Washington DC fine dining restaurants. He wore a uniform - dark suit, dark shoes, white shirt - and slicked back hair. He was thick, but not fat. Man, Philip Seymour Hoffman would have been perfect. I imagine JP to have a slight undercurrent of menace, mostly as a posture, and PSH could project that in spades. Since that’s not an option, I’m really struggling here. Can we put some weight on Leonardo DiCaprio? I guess we can. Okay, it’s Leo!

If you’re wondering (fairly), where are the women? Well, there weren’t any. This was the 60s and 70s, when things like engineering and espionage were almost entirely male dominated. The only women in the book are wives and daughters, plus one (very influential) secretary. I wish that weren’t the case, but I can’t rewrite history either.

Visit Josh Dean's website.

--Marshal Zeringue