Turner Gable Kahn's "The Dirty Version"

Turner Gable Kahn grew up in the extra-hold-hairspray ribbon of sunshine between the Everglades and the Atlantic’s best beach. Her higher education took place along the banks of the Schuylkill, and then the Hudson. She commuted endlessly across the East River in the blood, sweat and tears of a design career, before leaving her heart on Victoria Harbor’s dance floors and the South China Sea’s cliff hikes. She now writes in the bright heat near the Singapore Strait during the school year; in the summer she greets the sunset with her family, on a back deck overlooking the Puget Sound.

Here Kahn dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, The Dirty Version:

The Dirty Version is a contemporary feminist romance set between South Florida and Hollywood. It follows Tash, a sharp-tongued novelist whose surprise-hit dystopian book is being adapted for a TV series. But when the rights end up in the hands of a swaggering action director who insists the story needs to be “sexed up,” Tash is assigned to collaborate with a Hollywood intimacy coordinator to write brand-new steamy scenes. The twist? She’s furious about the rewrite. And even more furious about the fact that her new creative partner—Caleb—is thoughtful, patient, and suspiciously good at his job.

It’s an enemies-to-lovers, slow burn about power, intimacy, trust, and the behind-the-scenes tensions of storytelling.

If the book were adapted for screen, I’d want a cast that could capture the intelligence and emotional undercurrents as much as the romantic tension.

For Tash, I would absolutely love to see Geraldine Viswanathan in the role. Tash is guarded and intense, fiercely loyal, and allergic to being underestimated. Geraldine is brilliant and could bring all of that, with nuance and humor.

For Caleb, I picture someone quietly magnetic—someone who doesn’t need to perform authority, but has it. Callum Turner could bring a calm, grounded energy to the role, with just enough edge to hold his own. David Corenswet would be another fantastic fit—handsome, yes, but also capable of playing the kind of emotional intelligence that makes Caleb so compelling. He’s sexy because he listens. Because he respects her. Because he reads the room. Caleb is the unicorn book boyfriend, and either of them could pull it off.

And if I could pick any director? Emerald Fennell, without question. Promising Young Woman proved she can explore power and performance through a bold, unapologetically feminine lens. I think she’d bring the exact right tension to this story—gorgeous aesthetics, emotional stakes, and a sharp sense of where desire meets danger. She’d know when to hold the camera on a look, a silence, a shift in the room. Ultimately, The Dirty Version is about what happens when two people are forced to collaborate—creatively, emotionally, intimately—and how writing new scenes for a fictional story starts to change their real ones. It’s about boundaries, attraction, and what it means to trust someone with your voice.

If it ever makes it to screen, I hope it feels like a slow-burn kiss you didn’t see coming—but now can’t stop thinking about.

Visit Turner Gable Kahn's website.

Q&A with Turner Gable Kahn.

--Marshal Zeringue