Kira Jane Buxton's "Hollow Kingdom"

Kira Jane Buxton's writing has appeared in The New York Times, NewYorker.com, McSweeney’s, The Rumpus, Huffington Post, and more. She calls the tropical utopia of Seattle home and spends her time with three cats, a dog, two crows, a charm of hummingbirds, and a husband.

Here Buxton dreamcasts an adaptation of her debut novel, Hollow Kingdom:

Given that Hollow Kingdom is told from the perspectives of animals, the production would have to be animated (it is interestingly also illegal to film a migrating domestic bird due to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act). As I wrote, I actually hadn’t imagined a particular actor voicing S.T., the foul-mouthed crow and narrator (crowtagonist!). Robert Petkoff does all the voices for Hollow Kingdom’s audiobook perfectly, so I’d be thrilled if he also did the screen adaptation voice of our vociferous crow. I could imagine that based on his brilliant voicing of Rocket the raccoon from Guardians Of The Galaxy that Bradley Cooper would also do an incredible job. Or Steve Buscemi. Kraai is another crow in the novel, the beautiful and regal head of the U.W. Bothell murder. He is described as having “the voice of God or James Earl Jones” (I obviously wasn’t affected by watching The Lion King as a kid at all). Kristen Schaal would make a wonderful Winnie The Poodle, a very spoiled miniature poodle who lives in Bellevue, Washington (and based on a real very spoiled miniature poodle who lives in Berkeley, California). There is an egocentric domestic short-haired tabby named Genghis Cat, and I think he would be voiced beautifully by Jemaine Clement or Benedict Cumberbatch. The Big Yin, Billy Connelly is my dream voice for Angus the narcissistic Highland Cow. And Steve Buscemi could be any character, but he really should be someone. I love Steve Buscemi. It’s exciting to imagine this menagerie galavanting across our screens (and vaguely ironic given that the book has a message about technological addiction.) The TV rights have in fact been optioned by AMC, so we shall see!

Visit Kira Jane Buxton's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Kira Jane Buxton & Ewok.

--Marshal Zeringue