Lincoln Mitchell's "Three Years Our Mayor"

Lincoln Mitchell is an instructor in the School of International and Public Affairs and the political science department at Columbia University. He has written numerous books, scholarly articles, and opinion columns on American politics, foreign policy, the history and politics of San Francisco, and baseball. In addition to his academic interests, Mitchell has worked in domestic political campaigns and on foreign policy projects in dozens of countries, particularly in the former Soviet Union. Mitchell earned his BA from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and his PhD from Columbia University. He lives in New York and San Francisco.

Mitchell's new book is Three Years Our Mayor: George Moscone and the Making of Modern San Francisco.

Here the author dreamcasts the lead for an adaptation of Three Years Our Mayor:

I do not have a deep knowledge of film or of actors, so rather than try to cast my whole book, Three Years Our Mayor: George Moscone and the Making of Modern San Francisco, I will focus simply on who would play the lead role, that of George Moscone. When thinking about who might play Moscone in a film version of my biography of him two things come to mind.

First, Moscone has been played on film before. In the 2008 biopic of Harvey Milk titled simply Milk, Moscone was paid played by Victor Garber. Garber is a fine actor, but in that film Moscone was peripheral to the story, so could be played by a character actor. Howeer, for a movie about Moscone, Garber is not the right guy.

Second, the question of who might play George Moscone is fun to answer because he could, and should, be played by a real movie star. Moscone had a career, and life, that calls for star treatment. He was a young man from modest background who was became All-City basketball player in high school and went on to a successful career in politics, was a bit of womanizer and, according to many who knew him, had movie star looks and charisma. Additionally, his life ended in horrific but nonetheless cinematic circumstances.

Moscone died when I was a child and although I remember the day he died and how upset many, but not everybody, I knew was, I never met the man, so it is tough for me to have a real sense of what movie star should portray him on film. However, it happened that while I was mulling over this question, I had the opportunity to have breakfast with a friend who is a bit older than me and knew Moscone quite well, having worked with him for many years. We talked about it and he agreed that a real movie star should play Moscone.

Based on our conversation and my own limited knowledge of film, for the movie of George Moscone's life, I would cast Brad Pitt in the leading role. Pitt is a good-looking leading man type and can pull off the kind of grace, athleticism, charisma and complexity that Moscone had. I had briefly entertained the idea of Jason Segal as well. The role would be a more serious than many of Segal’s role, but I think he has the versatility to play Moscone. He is also a handsome guy with a friendly and casual air about him that would help. Additionally, Segal is Jewish, and there is a long tradition of Jews and Italian Americans portraying each other in film.

On balance, either Pitt or Segal would be fine, but filling out the rest of the cast is beyond my ken.

Visit Lincoln Mitchell's website.

The Page 99 Test: San Francisco Year Zero.

The Page 99 Test: The Giants and Their City.

The Page 99 Test: Three Years Our Mayor.

Writers Read: Lincoln A. Mitchell.

--Marshal Zeringue