Nolan Chase's "A Lonesome Place for Dying"

Nolan Chase lives and works in the Pacific Northwest.

A Lonesome Place for Dying is his first book featuring Ethan Brand.

Here Chase shares some ideas for the above-the-line talent for an adaptation of the novel:

Clint Eastwood is my favorite director—no other American filmmaker better embodies what Keats called ‘negative capability;’ in films like Bird, Mystic River, Honkytonk Man, The Bridges of Madison Country, The Outlaw Josey Wales, and Unforgiven of course, he’s able to tell stories about complex personalities without putting his hand on the scale. He’d direct the hell out of A Lonesome Place for Dying.

As for Ethan Brand, the small-town chief of police and former Marine, a younger Clint might be great—or Scott Eastwood, who was very good in a film called The Outpost—but Jon Bernthal would be my pick. He brings depth to his roles, yet there’s part of him at remove from the world, watching it. Ethan is heroic at times, vulnerable at others, and something of a damaged romantic. I think Bernthal can portray the same qualities.

For Brenda Lee Page, the department’s senior officer and Ethan’s very literal-minded rival for the top job, Vera Farmiga or Indira Varma would be great.

Visit Nolan Chase's website.

Writers Read: Nolan Chase.

The Page 69 Test: A Lonesome Place for Dying.

--Marshal Zeringue