Corey Redekop's "Husk"

Corey Redekop has been many things: actor, waiter, disc jockey, cameraman, editor, lawyer (almost), and now the fabled trifecta of publicist/librarian/author. His debut novel, Shelf Monkey, is either a work of insane genius or an intolerable left-wing screed, depending on which review you read. Stunningly handsome, supremely talented, superbly gifted at hyperbole, Redekop abides in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

Here the author shares some ideas for casting an adaptation of his latest novel, Husk:

I hate to specify certain body types of actors, as I really don’t like casting based on appearance. But my hero Sheldon gradually rots away to nothing, especially in the third act, so I reluctantly have to insist that the actor portraying him be relatively slim in build. It just isn’t feasible to use an actor with a larger frame, unless we shell out tonnes of money for CGI, and no one wants that.

Sheldon would be an excellent part for either Jay Baruchel or Topher Grace. Both are relatively slight, and both have unique comedic timing that I think would help accentuate the ridiculousness of the situation. Husk is a comedy, despite the gallons of viscera I spread about the pages. But there’s a dramatic side to much of the proceedings, so my final answer would have to be Joseph Gordon Levitt. I hated 3rd Rock from the Sun, but since then, he’s proved himself one of the best actors out there. Watch Brick and see if I’m wrong. He’s bulking up a bit lately, and he’s a touch young for the role, but we could get around that.

For Duane, Sheldon’s awkward paramour, that’s where we go with the pretty. Duane is a C-list Disney television actor, but we cannot cast exactly that way, as we want actual acting, i.e. no Saved by the Bell pretending to act allowed. Ugh. We could try Channing Tatum, who’s proved himself a bit heftier as an actor than we previously believed, or Zac Efron (but he might be too pretty). I’d almost say Taylor Lautner, but I’m so far unconvinced that there is anything there.

Rowan, Sheldon’s agent, needs a woman who can play practically sociopathic. She needs to be a force unto herself, a woman who completely gets her own way through any means necessary. I’d like to go with unexpected casting on this, so Daryl Hannah or Demi Moore would be my picks.

And without giving too much away, Lambertus Dixon, the astonishingly old gentleman whose part in the novel shall remain spoiler-free here, would have been a perfect role for the late great William Hickey. He wouldn’t have needed a spot of makeup. I’m tempted to try R. Lee Ermey, who would need a little aging, but as this is a zombie novel, I’m going to go old-school and cast Christopher Lee. Because everything goes better with Christopher Lee.

And Doctor Rhodes, the surgeon with the impossible-to-place accent? Gary Oldman. Have at it, sir! Chew scenery with abandon!

Read more about the novel and author at the Shelf Monkey blog and Corey Redekop's website.

The Page 99 Test: Shelf Monkey.

My Book, The Movie: Shelf Monkey.

--Marshal Zeringue

Yona Zeldis McDonough's "A Wedding in Great Neck"

Yona Zeldis McDonough is the author of the novels A Wedding in Great Neck, Breaking the Bank, In Dahlia's Wake, and The Four Temperaments, as well as nineteen books for children. She is also the editor of two essay collections and is the Fiction Editor at Lilith magazine. Her award-winning short fiction, articles, and essays have been published in anthologies and in numerous national magazines and newspapers. She lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her husband, two children and three very yappy Pomeranians.

Here she dreamcasts an adaptation of A Wedding in Great Neck:

I think my new novel A Wedding in Great Neck, would make an ideal movie because it is so tightly focused: it takes place in a single day and pretty much in a single setting. There are four generations represented and five differing points of view. For the mother of bride, Betsy, I would love to see Meryl Streep because I think she lends such presence and depth to any film she is in. The bride herself could be beautifully played by Anne Hathaway whose dark grace would be perfect for the role. The older sister, Gretchen, is a less clear to me. Perhaps Julianne Moore’s quirky and offbeat charm would make her a good candidate. There is also an 80+ grandmother in this novel—for that role, I’d like to see Barbra Streisand (with plenty of age-adding make up) because I think she has the feistiness necessary to play the part. I’d love to see a young Lindsay Lohan, back in the day, for the troubled teen-aged daughter, Justine. And Lincoln, the accidental hero of the story, could be nicely played by Jeff Bridges or Michael Douglas.

Learn more about the author and her work at Yona Zeldis McDonough's website.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Yona Zeldis McDonough & Queenie, Willa and Holden.

The Page 69 Test: A Wedding in Great Neck.

Writers Read: Yona Zeldis McDonough.

--Marshal Zeringue

Stephen R. Bown's "The Last Viking"

Stephen R. Bown is the author of several critically acclaimed, award-winning books on the history of exploration, science, and ideas. His latest book, The Last Viking: The Life of Roald Amundsen, covers the incredible exploits of the famous Norwegian explorer who was the first to reach the South Pole on skis and dog sled, the first to sail the Northwest Passage, and the first to fly over the North Pole.

Here he shares some observations about adapting The Last Viking for the big screen:

People often say to me "That story is incredible - why doesn't someone make a documentary or a movie about it." I usually brush it off politely, because I know the story to be too complex or to require too much back-story to be make any sense to someone who hadn't already read the book. This is often the problem with non-fiction; the story, or parts of it, might be incredible but to remain true to the known facts you can't just adjust the story for length or dramatic impact, or make characters more admirable or likeable.

My latest book The Last Viking was no exception. Roald Amundsen is chiefly known for beating the British Robert Falcon Scott to the South Pole in 1911. But in a remarkable career that spanned decades he also sailed the famed and feared Northwest Passage, sailed the Northeast Passage and then turned to airplanes when he couldn’t get his ship through the ice to the North Pole. Then he died mysteriously when his bi-plane disappeared into a fog bank on a rescue mission for another Polar explorer in 1928. I discovered hundreds of interviews, profiles and articles in the New York Times archives that revealed an entirely new aspect of his personality and showed that he was a famous celebrity in the United States for at least ten years before he died. He travelled the country delivering amusing and exciting slide lectures to audiences that included the political and cultural elite and was frequently in the news. How do you put all that into a 2 hour film?

Amazingly, I recently read that a major Hollywood movie is being planned featuring Amundsen, but focussing on only one of his dramatic adventures. The Race to the South Pole, according to various sources, is being produced by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck for Warner Brothers with Casey Affleck set to play the role of Robert Falcon Scott. No word yet on who will play Amundsen.

While The Race to the South Pole is not based on my book The Last Viking, which is only just published, as an author who has spent the past two years researching Amundsen's life I can hope that the portrayal of Amundsen is not as the dour, ruthless and dastardly foil to a heroic Scott, as he is sometimes stereotyped by Scott admirers. Certainly he was single-minded - or goal oriented as we say these days - when he was on an expedition. But afterward on the lecture circuit he was a charming and amusing eccentric, a great storyteller with many admirers, particularly in the US.

I suppose I will have to wait and see. Of course I'm open to consultation!

Learn more about the book and author at Stephen R. Bown's website and Facebook page.

--Marshal Zeringue

Michelle Cooper's "The FitzOsbornes at War"

Michelle Cooper's novels include The Rage of Sheep and The Montmaray Journals trilogy.

Here she dreamcasts an adaptation of her latest novel, The FitzOsbornes at War:

The FitzOsbornes at War is the final novel in the Montmaray Journals trilogy. The royal family of Montmaray fled their remote island kingdom in 1937 when the Nazis attacked. But now that war has come to England and the rest of the world – nowhere is safe.

When I began writing this series, I envisaged Prince Toby, the charming but indolent heir to the Montmaravian throne, as a young Jude Law. I now have a few readers who are convinced that Sam Claflin would be ideal for the role of Toby. However, as I haven’t seen any of Sam Claflin’s performances, I think I’ll go with Bradley James, because he can do a posh British accent and knows how to handle a sword.

Toby’s enigmatic cousin Simon needs to be played by someone tall, dark and broodingly handsome – perhaps Ben Barnes or Matthew Goode.

Princess Veronica, Toby’s other cousin, is a fiery intellectual who speaks Spanish. She can be played by a young Penélope Cruz. (I’m assuming that I have access to a time-travelling machine here.) Veronica’s journalist friend Daniel would be ably portrayed by Mathew Baynton, who is both adorably geeky and highly experienced at playing characters from previous historical eras. (I’ve been watching a lot of Horrible Histories lately.)

For the FitzOsbornes’ friend Julia, who is a glamorous London socialite turned ambulance driver, I’m thinking Emily Blunt, an actress who can convey both strength and vulnerability. Her brother Rupert could be played by a young James McAvoy. Their uncle, Colonel Stanley-Ross, has a mysterious job in the Secret Service. He can be played by Samuel West, who did such an excellent job of being a spy in Foyle’s War and Cambridge Spies.

Helen Mirren can take on the role of Aunt Charlotte, the FitzOsbornes’ imperious aunt, with Helena Bonham Carter as Barnes, her devoted maid.

And finally, Princess Sophia, my narrator, should be played by either Saoirse Ronan or a young Romola Garai. However, I suspect our film’s budget will have blown out by now, so we’ll probably have to use an unknown young British actress – who will, of course, be catapulted into international fame and fortune when the film of The FitzOsbornes at War is an enormous success!

Learn more about the book and author at Michelle Cooper's website.

Writers Read: Michelle Cooper (May 2011).

Writers Read: Michelle Cooper.

--Marshal Zeringue

Amanda Bennett's "The Cost of Hope"

Amanda Bennett's books include In Memoriam (1997, with Terence B. Foley), The Man Who Stayed Behind (1993, with Sidney Rittenberg), The Death of the Organization Man (1990), and the recently released memoir, The Cost of Hope.

Here Bennett shares some suggestions for casting an adaptation of The Cost of Hope:

The most important characters to cast in The Cost of Hope are Terence, and me. The book is the story of our stormy relationship, and what we became, and especially what his illness brought to our lives. It’s about how the two of us met in a China so long ago the capital was still called Peking, of how we fought like street dogs, got married, raised a family, how I became an investigative journalist and he became a professor and we moved all around the country and then he got cancer and together we fought it and then he died. It sounds like a movie script, but it was our life. After he died, I went back and got all the records and re-interviewed the doctors and everyone who took care of us and tried to make sense of the choices we had all made.

Our life was full of movies. We loved film noir. He loved madcap comedy. (I hated it). The movies we watched were full of prototypes for the dueling-couples-in-love motif. How about Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier in the 1940 Pride and Prejudice? We must have watched It Happened One Night a dozen times so I could see Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable. I can’t help returning to the 1940s and ‘50s in thinking about casting Terence. He was elegant, given to bow ties and well-cut charcoal suits so I think Cary Grant. His Midwestern sense of right and wrong, and righteous ire at the forces of evil suggest Jimmy Stewart. But he was also hilarious, so maybe this would be a good serious dramatic part for Robin Williams or Jack Black.

As for me honestly, I’d say if I were God the only right thing to do would be to resurrect Ingrid Bergman to play me. Not because I’m anything like Ingrid Bergman, but just because I’d like that.

Since my teens I’ve banned the use of the word “perky” in any description of me. The fact that decades later, I still have to threaten harsh actions to enforce this ban suggests a consideration of Meg Ryan or Sally Field.

The book spans 25 years of our life, from my early 30s to mid-50s as I change from an obnoxiously mouthy opinionated, stubborn foreign-correspondent girlfriend in China to, 20 years later, a devoted wife who throws her entire being into trying to save her husband’s life. Maybe Anne Hathaway’s career trajectory, from hem-tripping would-be royalty in The Princess Diaries to hollow-eyed, drug-addicted harridan in Rachel Getting Married would mean she could make the journey along with me.

Sometimes when my friends ask who I’d like to see play me, I say Janeane Garofalo. They laugh, of course, but then a few of them pause and say… hmmmmm. So maybe there could be a version that stars both her and Jack Black. That might help the case I make to people that even though this is a book about a guy who gets cancer and dies, it’s actually a pretty funny story.

Visit the official The Cost of Hope website and Facebook page.

See--Amanda Bennett's five best tales of stormy couples.

--Marshal Zeringue

Dan Josefson's "That’s Not a Feeling"

Dan Josefson has an MFA from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and lives in Brooklyn. He has received a Fulbright research grant and a Schaeffer Award from the International Institute of Modern Letters.

Here he dreamcasts That’s Not a Feeling, his first novel:

That’s Not a Feeling is set on the grounds of a strange, therapeutic boarding school named Roaring Orchards, where things are slowly coming apart at the seams. There are lots and lots of characters, but I’ll try to cast only the most important of them.

The narrator, Benjamin, is a bit of a cipher: he observes, and reports, and quietly seethes. Sometimes not so quietly. Initially I was thinking of a young Bud Court for this role, but I think Paul Dano might be a better choice. Benjamin’s friend Tidbit is smart, unpredictable, and only marginally honest. I could see Lena Dunham playing her really well. Another of Benjamin’s friends, Andrew Pudding, is a very funny and somewhat sad character. I’d love to see Jonah Hill in that role.

As for the administrators of Roaring Orchards, there’s Doris, the assistant director and Aubrey, the headmaster. Kathy Bates would be terrific as Doris. Aubrey is the most difficult to cast, and the most fun for me to think about. He is charming, fierce, unhinged, fragile, and brilliant, all at the same time. I considered Orson Welles, Al Pacino, and Dustin Hoffman, and while they’d all be great (I particularly like when Dustin Hoffman gets angry on screen), my choice is Klaus Kinski. Even at Kinski’s most gentle, he held a hint of menace that threatened to erupt at the slightest provocation. And while I’m dreaming, Louis Malle would direct.

Learn more about the book and author at Dan Josefson's website.

The Page 69 Test: That's Not a Feeling.

--Marshal Zeringue

Simon Read's "Human Game"

Simon Read was an award-winning journalist before he became a nonfiction author.  His books include In the Dark and War of Words.

Here he shares some suggestions for cast and director of an adaptation of his latest book, Human Game: The True Story of the 'Great Escape' Murders and the Hunt for the Gestapo Gunmen:

Naturally, my opinion is biased, but I think Human Game would make an interesting film in that the book is a non-fiction follow up to the events depicted in the 1963 Steve McQueen classic The Great Escape. The movie, of course, ends with fifty of the recaptured POWs being gunned down by the Gestapo. Human Game details the three-year manhunt by the Royal Air Force to track down the Gestapo gunmen responsible for the murders.

The story’s central character is Frank McKenna, a 38-year-old Squadron Leader charged with bringing the killers to justice. In civilian life, McKenna had been a detective with the Blackpool police, so he was already a skilled investigator by the time he arrived in Germany to start the hunt in September 1945. I think Christian Bale would make a great McKenna. McKenna took an obsessive approach to his work, something I feel Bale does with his acting. For Wing Commander Wilfred Bowes, McKenna’s blunt and tough-minded superior, Clive Owen would fit the bill nicely.

In the book, captured war criminals are interrogated in the London Cage, a mansion in the British capital that was turned into a holding facility for wanted Nazis. In charge of the London Cage was Lt. Colonel A. O. Scotland. He was your typical tough, stiff-upper lip type. I can easily picture Hugh Laurie in the role. Scotland, a seasoned interrogator, cared little for what others thought of his methods. It’s an attitude Laurie portrayed brilliantly during eight seasons of House. I should also add that being British, I’ve been a fan of Laurie’s for years—long before he played television’s coolest doctor.

The question of director is a good one. My three favorite directors are Ridley Scott, Michael Mann, and Christopher Nolan (although I love the Dark Knight movies, Insomnia is my favorite Nolan movie). Scott’s films are often a blend of fantastic characterization, great action, and stylish aesthetics. Black Rain has long been one of my favorite crime dramas. Mann’s movies are great, as he also takes his time fleshing out the characters. You get a great sense of who the individuals on screen really are. Nolan’s films have a very cool style to them. I’d be happy for any one of these three gents to work behind the camera on Human Game—of course, I wouldn’t mind Spielberg or Eastwood, either!

Learn more about the author and his work at Simon Read's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pauls Toutonghi's "Evel Knievel Days"

Pauls Toutonghi is a first-generation American. He has been awarded a Pushcart Prize, and his writing has appeared in Sports Illustrated, Zoetrope, One Story, and the Boston Review.

His first novel, Red Weather, came out from Random House in 2006. It was translated into Latvian and German — and received good reviews in periodicals across the country, including The New York Times, The Seattle Times, The Chicago Tribune, and The San Francisco Chronicle.

Here Toutonghi dreamcasts an adaptation of his latest novel, Evel Knievel Days:

The idea that your book could be made into a film is worrisome. What if the actors replace the images you have in mind of the characters, themselves? Will your imagination be forever compromised and invaded -- colonized by a Hollywood Studio?

For many thousands of dollars, however? Well, let's just say I'm open to negotiation.

I think I'll start with The Ghost of William Andrews Clark. To say that I patterned him after "The Stranger" in The Big Lebowski -- the narrator character played by Sam Elliott -- would be an understatement. In fact, I watched The Big Lebowski three or four times during the process of writing the book. The voice of the narrator of that film kept popping into my imagination, persistently, and so: A character was born.

For Khosi himself, I love the actor Rami Malek. He played the gay next door neighbor in The War at Home -- a short lived sitcom that was on Fox in the middle of the last decade. I thought he was terrific -- a blend of comic and serious -- and could pull off Khosi's numerous quirks.

For the father -- I've been a fan, for a long time, of the comedian Dean Obeidallah. He's a little young to play Akram, I think -- but maybe add some grey to his hair -- and add a few wrinkles: Instant middle age!

And the mother. Ah, the mother. I love Amy Adams. But who doesn't? Kate Winslet would be terrific in the way I imagined the character -- resilient, tough, but still fragile -- and sardonically funny.

The idea that my work could be transformed into images on a giant screen. What an incredible thing. Sitting here, thinking of it, I have to wonder how film is changing writing. Because it must be. In a few hundred years, probably, they'll know what happened.

Learn more about the book and author at Pauls Toutonghi's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Joanna Nadin's "Paradise"

Joanna Nadin is a bestselling British author of middle grade, teen and YA fiction, a speechwriter, and a former Special Advisor to the Prime Minister.

Here she shares her ideas for the casting and director for an adaptation of her latest YA novel, Paradise:

I spent way too many hours watching teen movies, and more still stealing actors to people the worlds I’m creating, and yet Paradise was one of the first in which the heroine – Billie Paradise – wasn’t written with Thora Birch, or Julia Stiles on pause and rewind in my head. I spent a long time looking for my Billie, the girl who inherits a house and moves from London to Cornwall to find a new life, and her own past. Sixteen years old, she is skinny, gawky; has that too-tall awkwardness of someone who hasn’t quite grown into their limbs yet; she is pale, ethereal, has a goth or emo otherness about her. I found her in the hunch-shouldered gait of a rain-soaked schoolgirl on a gloomy Tuesday in Bath, but I could as easily have plundered Kristen Stewart as my blueprint. There’s a strangeness about her beauty, an odd Britishness about her: an antidote to LA’s cookie cutter blondes. Ten years ago I’d have picked Rebecca Hall. Twenty: Claire Danes.

Danny, the hero-of-sorts, is older, eighteen. And like all my leading men, he was stolen from a book I read as a teenager: Pennington’s Seventeenth Summer by KM Peyton; a book that engendered in me a taste for the misunderstood, the moody, and, always, the musical. It was Pennington who sowed the seed for my obsession with Christian Slater in Heathers, and for Jared Leto as Jordan Catalano in My So-Called Life. Like Angela, I loved the way he leaned, like the world was too much. Today’s Penningtons and Jordans, and hence Dannys, are Robert Pattinson, Ed Westwick, Tom Hardy, though if you dirtied Penn Badgley up a bit, he might make the grade.

As for directors, despite my proud ownership of the entire John Hughes back catalogue, I am and will always be an Indie Kid at heart. So I would pretty much throw myself at the feet of Sarah Polley (Take this Waltz) or Derek Cianfrance (Blue Valentine).

Visit Joanna Nadin's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Jayne Amelia Larson's "Driving the Saudis"

Jayne Amelia Larson is an actress and independent film producer based in Los Angeles, and has also been an occasional chauffeur between gigs. She has degrees from Cornell University and from Harvard University’s American Repertory Theatre Institute. Her one-woman show, Driving the Saudis, has been performed in Memphis, Ithaca, Boston, Roanoke, and Vienna (Austria), and won Best Solo Show at the 2010 New York Fringe Festival.

Here she shares some ideas for casting an adaptation of her new book, Driving the Saudis: A Chauffeur's Tale of the World's Richest Princesses (plus their servants, nannies, and one royal hairdresser):

It’s looking likely that Driving the Saudis will be made into a TV series instead of a movie but if I were to imagine it as a feature film or on TV, I’d hope to see someone like Emily Blunt play the lead character – which is based on me since the book is nonfiction memoir – because she’s way prettier, smarter, and funnier than me. And I think she’s a really talented actress and comedienne. The agency that is repping the project has also suggested Judy Greer and Minnie Driver, and I think they are also great choices.

The romantic interest in the book, Mr. Rumi (who appears only a few times but is still ever present) should be someone tall, dark and handsome but also exotic. I think the hot new French actor, Omar Sy, who just starred in the blockbuster, The Intouchables, would be super because he’s so sexy but funny too.

The Lebanese nanny, Malikah, a warm, kind and generous woman who I grew to care for very much, should be played by the lovely actress Shohreh Aghdashloo who is actually from Iran but plays characters from all over the world very convincingly with a lot of heart and integrity. You may remember her from 24 or “X-Men”, but she was also brilliant in The Stoning of Soraya M. The young Princess Rajiya, who is such a spirited and willful adolescent, could be played by the terrific young actress from Modern Family, Sarah Hyland, who is such a terrible but beautiful handful on that show. Since the teenager Princess Soraya cannot be played by a very young Audrey Hepburn (and she really did look and behave like her), then perhaps Victoria Justice would be right as she seems so pretty and sweet, and I love the video with her singing "Baby It’s Cold Outside" with Leon Thomas III.

Mila Kunis would be perfect as Princess Basmah, so haughty, beautiful, and dismissive. Salma Hayek should play Princess Zaahira because she is stunning and naturally princess-like, and she’s got great acting chops. My friend from acting grad school, Faran Tahir, who was so devastating in Ironman and Star Trek, should play the Saudi colonel. He’s a hottie and totally intimidating at the same time.

I’d cast Robert Knott, my writer/director/actor friend and good times/bad times buddy (Appaloosa, Pollock) as one of the head security personnel, probably Stu, but he’d have to hits the weights and beef up a little for the part. Then, for all the ancillary characters, I would cast my actor friends who are very talented, one and all, and regularly in dire need of work.

Visit the Driving the Saudis website.

--Marshal Zeringue