Here he dreamcasts an adaptation of Eli Harpo's Adventure to the Afterlife, his debut novel:
For Young Eli, I’d cast Jack Gore, who played Timmy Cleary in the ABC sitcom The Kids Are Alright, about an Irish Catholic family with eight sons. Eli’s a freckly redhead, so Gore fits the part. He’d have to play Eli a bit more subdued though. Timmy’s a more mischievous character than the shy, introspective Eli. Gore might also be slightly too old to play Eli, who is 13 going on 14 for most of the book (Gore is 18 or older now). A time machine might have to be involved.Visit Eric Schlich's website.
For College Eli, I’d cast Lucas Hedges (age 27). I like the way this would connect the movie to the film adaptation of Garrard Conley’s memoir, Boy Erased, about surviving gay conversion therapy. Hedges played a fictionalized version of Conley. Kit Connor, who plays Nick Nelson in Netflix’s Heartstopper, would also be a good choice, if he can do a Southern American accent.
For Middle-Aged Eli, I’d cast Jesse Tyler Ferguson (age 48), best known for his role as Mitchell Pritchett on Modern Family. Ferguson might also be a bit too old, but we could age up the middle-aged Eli from mid-thirties to early forties.
I will throw out the caveat that Eli has weight issues in the book (especially as a teenager), so these actors might all be too skinny and have to put on a few pounds.
For Simon Harpo, Eli’s father, I’d be tempted to cast Greg Kinnear. Almost as a joke. Because I love him as the father in Little Miss Sunshine, my favorite family road trip movie of all time. But also because he plays the father in the adaptation of Heaven is for Real, the most famous example of a Heaven tourism book—the Christian genre the novel mocks. Then again, at 60, Kinnear is also likely too old to play Simon, who’s in his 40s.
For Debbie Harpo, Eli’s mother, it’d be fun to cast Christina Hendricks (48), of Mad Men fame, who is about the right age, body type, and hair color, but she’d definitely have to be glammed down. She’d also have to shave her head, since Debbie has cancer for most of the book and is bald from chemo.
For Jake, Eli’s younger brother, I’d cast Iain Armitage, the star of Young Sheldon. Jake is only 6 and Iain is 15, but we’d make it work.
For Abe, Eli’s older brother, I’d cast Montana Jordan (20), the older brother Georgie Cooper on Young Sheldon.
I’m obsessed with the Fellow Travelers miniseries right now, so for the last two main roles I’ll cast Matt Bomer as Charlie Gideon, the famous televangelist who recruits the Harpo family into a scheme to open a Heaven attraction at his Biblical theme park, and Jonathan Bailey as Eli’s future husband, Will. I think Bomer would get a kick out of playing the homophobic televangelist cowboy villain, but he’d have to nail the Texan accent.
Then again, these are all famous to semi-famous actors, so maybe it’d be better to cast a bunch of nobodies or rising stars, so they can really inhabit the characters without the baggage of their past roles.
The Page 69 Test: Eli Harpo's Adventure to the Afterlife.
--Marshal Zeringue
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