Alex White's "A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe"

Alex White was born and raised in the American south. He takes photos, writes music, and spends hours on YouTube watching other people blacksmith. He values challenging and subversive writing, but he’ll settle for a good time.

White lives in the shadow of Huntsville, Alabama’s rockets with his wife, son, two dogs and a cat named Grim. Favored pastimes include Legos and racecars. He takes his whiskey neat and his espresso black.

Here the author dreamcasts an adaptation of his new novel, A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe:

I am sad/happy to say that A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe would cost many millions of dollars to produce as a film. Sad, because that makes it a difficult prospect. Happy, because that means I'd probably get a ton of money for the rights, and become a nerd legend.

My book has two powerful female leads: Nilah Brio, the queen of the race track and Boots Elsworth, a salty con artist.

For Nilah Brio, I'd pick Zendaya or Zazie Beetz, because both of them could easily represent the posh coldness and razor sharp with Nilah can deliver. Nilah is young at the start of the book, 18 or 19, highly-competitive and mean as hell. She's close to claiming the Driver's Crown in the Pan-Galactic Racing Federation, and her monomaniacal focus is the only thing that can deliver such a victory. We'd need an actor with a lot of intensity.

For Boots Elsworth, I'd like to see Robin Wright. After House of Cards and Wonder Woman, I'm completely convinced that she could pull off the anger and disillusionment so central to Boots's character. Boots is a war vet, from a losing side, and she's lost everything important to her. In response, she's turned to a life of swindling, drinking and general malaise.

Despite the fact that these characters both start the book as... well... assholes, they learn and grow together, becoming whole people again. There's a lot of subtlety required for these performances, which is why I only want the best actors for those roles. That, and it's going to be a blockbuster film, so the leads had better be big names!

Visit Alex White's website.

--Marshal Zeringue