Bridget Siegel's "Domestic Affairs"

Bridget Siegel, author of Domestic Affairs: A Campaign Novel, has worked on political campaigns at the local, state, and national levels. A graduate of Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, she is now an actor, writer, and political consultant. She lives in New York City.

Here Siegel dreamcasts an adaptation of Domestic Affairs:

I imagine every author pictures their novel making it to the big screen. Add on my lifelong dream of being an actress and you have got yourself one heck of a daydreaming author. And while my self-recording of the audiobook proved it can be performed as a one woman play, I think we can all agree that's a show better left undone. In the real world I'd get a casting director extraordinaire like Dani Super but in my oft visited dream world here's my wish list...

(I know I picked more than one for some, but I figured if I'm going to dream I might as well go all out, and well, I did narrow each category down from the 20 I started off with.)

Screenwriters - Shonda Rhimes and Aaron Sorkin. Any politico's dream screenwriters. A mix of The Newsroom and Scandal? Need I say more?


Directors - Rob Reiner, in my eyes he's what classics are made of, and Ben Affleck, because he's got a rom-com classic in him, I just know it.


Governor Landon Taylor (the politician with more charm than he -- or anyone around him -- needs) Ben Affleck. He's a little young for it but he gets the politics and I know he could rock some hot, wavy hair. Though I definitely would not be upset if we wound up with Don Cheadle or George Clooney.


Aubrey Taylor (the not so nice Southern Belle wife) -- Elizabeth Banks. Who could resist Avery Jessup with a southern accent? Or Sanaa Lathan who could definitely do a secretly mean but universally loved soon to be First Lady.

Jacob (the loyal and quippy sidekick) -- Andrew Garfield, who could definitely do the nerdy, cool thing.


Olivia (the girl who falls for the politician) -- I'm going for stars on the rise here. I just filmed a movie with Amanda Setton and Renée Felice Smith and I think either of them would be amazing in the role.


As for me, of course, I'd jump in to any of the supporting roles, for which I'd surely win an Oscar. And ... scene.

© 2013 Bridget Siegel, author of Domestic Affairs: A Campaign Novel

Learn more about the book and author at Bridget Siegel's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

--Marshal Zeringue

David Walton's "Quintessence"

David Walton won the 2008 Philip K. Dick Award for his debut novel, Terminal Mind.

Here he dreamcasts an adaptation of his latest novel, Quintessence:

I will assume, for the sake of argument, that I have godlike casting power, that the proposed Quintessence movie is expected to be so popular that there are no budget limits, and that any actor would jump at the chance to get a part.

For Christopher Sinclair, the alchemist and explorer obsessed with immortality, the choice is easy: Russell Crowe. Crowe can play any role well, but this is just the sort of character he does perfectly: intelligent, tormented, fixated on an impossible goal. Sinclair drives the plot of the story, and whether he's a hero or a villain is not always easy to decide.

Stephen Parris is a physician whose son has died, despite his best efforts to save him, driving him to perform secret human dissections to understand the body. He's British, aristocratic, and capable of obsession in his own right. For Parris, I nominate Hugh Jackman -- think of his role in The Prestige rather than X-Men.

Finally, there's Parris’s teenage daughter, Catherine: strong-willed, clever, independent, and longing to redefine the role society has cast for her. I have a lot more trouble with this one, since it would necessarily need to be someone young, and thus not very well known yet. Someone with the intensity Jennifer Lawrence showed in The Hunger Games, only younger. And British.

In all, though I doubt it will ever be made, I think Quintessence would make a great movie: beautiful locales, action on the open water, period costumes, giant sea monsters, loathsome villains, and young romance. Sounds like a blockbuster to me!

Learn more about the book and author at David Walton's website.

Writers Read: David Walton.

The Page 69 Test: Quintessence.

--Marshal Zeringue

David Farber's "Everybody Ought to Be Rich"

David Farber is Professor of History at Temple University. He is the author of The Rise and Fall of Modern American Conservatism; Taken Hostage: The Iran Hostage Crisis and America's First Encounter with Radical Islam; and Sloan Rules: Alfred P. Sloan and the Triumph of General Motors.

Here he dreamcasts an adaptation of his new book, Everybody Ought to Be Rich: The Life and Times of John J. Raskob, Capitalist:

My man, John Raskob, couldn’t sit still. He ran through life reinventing himself every few years. He got bored easily. He had a prodigious gift for numbers and for risk-taking. He started off as a newsie in the little Erie Canal support town, Lockport (the very same place Fitzgerald has Dick Diver land after his alcoholic fall from grace), and ended up managing the DuPont Company and General Motors. He was a famous—then infamous—King of the Bull Market during the Jazz Age. He thought up the Empire State Building, built it, and owned most it. He was a devout Catholic and was made a Knight of Malta by Pope Pius. He had thirteen children but after he became very rich he enjoyed the life of a New York City boulevardier, far from his wife and family.

Raskob’s mid-life adventure in politics, I think, is the chapter of his life best fitted to silver screendom. And, alas, my protagonist would play the part of the heavy. In 1928, Raskob managed the presidential campaign of his fellow Irish-Catholic, New York Governor Al Smith. After Smith lost to Hoover, Raskob stayed on as chairman of the Democratic National Committee. He wanted to make the Democrats the party of Big Business. Naturally, he worked hard to deny Franklin Roosevelt the 1932 nomination. That’s the background to our picture show.

In 1934, Raskob decided to lead the charge against the New Deal. With a bevy of other extraordinarily wealthy men, featuring his best friend Pierre du Pont and a who’s who of Brass Hat industrialists, Raskob founded and organized the American Liberty League. For two years the League mounted the largest reactionary political campaign the United States had ever seen. It was a war between the forces of Big Money and New Deal Liberalism. Roosevelt relished the fight. As he stoutly proclaimed to rapturous applause during his 1936 campaign: “I should like to have it said of my first Administration that in it the forces of selfishness and of lust for power met their match. I should like to have it said of my second administration that in it these forces have met their master.” Guess who wins this fight? The stakes for the future of the nation could not have been higher.

Starring:

Al Pacino as John Jakob Raskob

Bill Murray (he already has the cigarette holder) as Franklin Roosevelt

Jeremy Irons as Pierre du Pont

Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin

Learn more about Everybody Ought to Be Rich at the Oxford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Everybody Ought to Be Rich.

--Marshal Zeringue

Brad Tyer's "Opportunity, Montana"

Brad Tyer has worked as an editor at the Missoula Independent and the Texas Observer. His writing has appeared in Outside, High Country News, the New York Times Book Review, the Houston Chronicle, the Drake, Texas Monthly, No Depression, and the Dallas Morning News. He's been awarded a Knight-Wallace Fellowship, a Fund for Investigative Journalism grant, and a Fishtrap writing residency.

Tyer's new book is Opportunity, Montana: Big Copper, Bad Water, and the Burial of an American Landscape.

Here the author dreamcasts an adaptation of Opportunity, Montana:

Here's the fun of this exercise for me: Opportunity, Montana: Big Copper, Bad Water, and the Burial of an American Landscape will never be a movie. The book's murders are entirely tangential, and fish are the only ones having any sex. The story traverses 10,000 years, and it doesn't always go in order. I had when I wrote it and have now no cinematic ambition or expectation for the book. It's a story I think is best told in book form. If I'd wanted to make a movie, I'd have made a movie.

But let's say  Terrence Malick directs it, all maddeningly ponderous long shots of landscape and weather. I see Montana's three 19th century Copper Kings, who took their fortunes and left the state with a ring of poison, as a tense Steve Buscemi, a fat Jack Black (in a serious turn), and The Big Bang Theory's Jim Parsons.

Joel Chavez, the engineer rebuilding a river destroyed by 100 years of mining, is totally Cheech Marin. The environmentalist who takes down a dam is Zero Dark Thirty's Jessica Chastain. The conscience of Opportunity, Montana—George Niland—strikes me as particularly Edward James Olmosesqe. Dennis Washington, the yachting multibillionaire who's fashioned an ecosystem into a funnel of cash, is definitely  Robert Redford.

Then there's the memoir part, me and my deceased dad, Bob. Glen Campbell should play Bob. And I'm going with Jason Bateman for me. Not because he looks or sounds or acts anything like me, but because I'm pretty sure nobody especially loathes Jason Bateman.

The book's most important character, though, is the state of Montana itself. Unlike certain other films purportedly set in Montana (I'm looking at you, Legends of the Fall), Opportunity will be filmed—though of course it will never be filmed—in Montana.

Learn more about the book and author at Brad Tyer's website and the Opportunity, Montana blog.

--Marshal Zeringue

Bob Harris's "The International Bank of Bob"

Bob Harris's books include Who Hates Whom (2007), a pocket guide to global conflict; Beyond Caprica (2010), a mock travel guide to the 12 colonies of the Caprica/Battlestar Galactica universe; Prisoner of Trebekistan (2006), a memoir of 13 Jeopardy! games over 10 years; and the recently released The International Bank of Bob: Connecting Our Worlds One $25 Kiva Loan at a Time.

Here he dreamcasts an adaptation of The International Bank of Bob:

The Bank of Bob is a memoir, so you're asking who should play me. My vanity is so happy it's almost vibrating.

Ideally: Matt Damon, because he's already involved in poverty alleviation, or possibly Brad Pitt, given his charity toward New Orleans in the wake of Katrina.

More accurately: Paul Giamatti, because he is formed in the shape of a writer. Second choice: the Michelin Man.

Learn more about the book and author at Bob Harris's website.

The Page 69 Test: Bob Harris's Prisoner of Trebekistan.

Writers Read: Bob Harris.

The Page 99 Test: The International Bank of Bob.

--Marshal Zeringue

Joanna Hershon's "A Dual Inheritance"

Joanna Hershon is the author of Swimming, The Outside of August, and The German Bride. Her writing has appeared in One Story, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Post Road, the literary anthology Brooklyn Was Mine, and was shortlisted for the 2007 O. Henry Prize Stories.

Here she shares some ideas for the cast of an adaptation of her new novel, A Dual Inheritance:

A Dual Inheritance spans about 50 years, which is always a challenge for a movie, though some wonderful films (Iris with Kate Winslet and Judi Dench) comes to mind) solve the casting issues brilliantly. I never write with a movie actor in mind, nor do I think about the book as a film while I’m writing. I’m also a film lover and I used to act, so I take my casting seriously!

When we meet the three main characters they are seniors at Harvard. There are honestly no current actors that spring to mind for a young Ed Cantowitz, but maybe Andrew Garfield? Shia LeBeouf? I’m sure there are some amazing “unknowns” who’d be perfect; a younger Liev Schreiber would have been good; maybe he could still pull it off. For a young Hugh Shipley, I see Alexander Skarsgård. I was dazzled by his performance in Lars Von Trier’s apocalyptic Melancholia. As the young Helen Shipley? Maybe Mia Wasikowska? Kirsten Dunst?

For Ed’s father, Murray Cantowitz, Fred Ward could be perfect. I’ve always had a thing for him.

Dustin Hoffman could be good as older Ed, I’d love to see Sam Shepard play an older Hugh. Meryl Streep is for sure the older Helen but I’d also love to see the actress Laila Robins, who I’ve admired in various roles, including Dr. Paul Weston’s (Gabriel Byrne’s) first girlfriend on In Treatment.

Rebecca (Ed’s daughter) has to age as well, and I think Natalie Portman could carry off playing her from a teenager to a woman in her late thirties. Vivi (Ed’s Daughter) has the same acting demands and could be played beautifully by Jemima Kirke.

This is a sweeping saga and heavily populated, so there are many fun casting opportunities but these characters are the heart of the story. I’d love to hear what other readers come up with.

Learn more about the author and her work at Joanna Hershon's website.

The Page 69 Test: The German Bride.

My Book, The Movie: The German Bride.

Writers Read: Joanna Hershon.

The Page 69 Test: A Dual Inheritance.

--Marshal Zeringue

Dennis Palumbo's "Night Terrors"

Formerly a Hollywood screenwriter (My Favorite Year; Welcome Back, Kotter, etc.), Dennis Palumbo is now a licensed psychotherapist and author of Writing From the Inside Out. As a fiction writer, his short stories have appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, The Strand, Written By and elsewhere, and are collected in From Crime to Crime.

Palumbo is also the author of the Daniel Rinaldi series of mysteries. The debut novel was Mirror Image, followed by Fever Dream, and the newly released Night Terrors.

Here he dreamcasts an adaptation of the series:

After writing three books in my Daniel Rinaldi series, I have a pretty good feel for the continuing characters who populate my “mean streets” of Pittsburgh.

My lead character, Dr. Daniel Rinaldi, is an Italian-American psychologist who was born and raised in the Steel City (okay, so he wasn’t exactly a stretch!). He’s passionate about his work treating crime victims, is stubborn and opinionated, and has a snarky sense of humor. He’s also a former amateur boxer (Golden Gloves, Pan Am Games), so casting him for a film isn’t easy. I could see Anthony LaPaglia playing Rinaldi, or one of Hollywood’s “usual suspects” like Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman or Russell Crowe, though I really like Viggo Mortensen. I admired the intelligence, intensity and humor that he brought to his portrayal of Freud in the recent film, A Dangerous Method. I figure, if Mortensen was good enough to play the father of psychoanalysis, he’s good enough to play Dan Rinaldi.

For Noah Frye, a paranoid schizophrenic and Rinaldi’s best friend, I think it’s a toss-up between Zach Galifianakis and Jonah Hill. Both are fine comic actors with just the right amount of pathos and lunacy in their eyes.

For Eleanor Lowrey, the beautiful Pittsburgh PD homicide detective whose relationship with Rinaldi goes from professional to personal, I like either Kerry Washington (from Django Unchained and the TV series Scandal) or award-winning actress Viola Davis (Doubt, The Help, etc.)

In Night Terrors, Daniel Rinaldi is asked to treat Lyle Barnes, a whip-smart, arrogant retired FBI profiler suffering from agonizing, debilitating nocturnal visions. I could definitely see character actor David Strathairn (the Bourne movies, Good Night and Good Luck, etc.) as Barnes, though either Jeremy Irons or Sam Elliott would make fine choices, too.

Finally, as the gruff, seen-it-all veteran police sergeant Harry Polk, I’d be happy with either Dennis Farina or Michael Chiklis. Though the perfect choice would be one of my all-time favorite character actors, the late, great Jack Warden. If you remember him in The Verdict, you also recall that he stole every scene he was in!

Well, that’s my cast list. Now the next thing I need to see and hear is the words “Coming to a theater near you...”

Learn more about the book and author at Dennis Palumbo's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Amy Sue Nathan's "The Glass Wives"

Amy Sue Nathan lives and writes near Chicago where she hosts the popular blog, Women's Fiction Writers. She has published articles in Huffington Post, Chicago Tribune and New York Times Online among many others. Nathan is the proud mom of a son and a daughter in college, and a willing servant to two rambunctious rescued dogs.

Here the author dreamcasts an adaptation of The Glass Wives, her debut novel:

When I was writing The Glass Wives I pictured only two characters—Andie MacDowell as the protagonist’s best friend Laney because they both have long curly hair, and George Clooney as Sandy, because it’s easy to picture George Clooney for any reason.

But the main characters, Evie and Nicole, those images came to me after the book was finished and I was onto writing the next, and only randomly as I saw different actors in movies or on TV. I see Sandra Bullock as Evie and  Drew Barrymore as Nicole. Bullock has the serious/comedic quality I think Evie possesses, and after I saw an interview with Barrymore as a new mom, I knew that she would be perfect for Nicole.

I see Diane Lane as Beth, and it’s her voice and classy demeanor that cinched that for me. Now if I could only get any of them to agree with me!

Learn more about the book and author at Amy Sue Nathan's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Amy Sue Nathan & Mitzi and Lizzie.

--Marshal Zeringue

JoeAnn Hart's "Float"

JoeAnn Hart lives in Gloucester, Massachusetts, America's oldest seaport, where fishing regulations, the health of the ocean, and the natural beauty of the world are the daily topics of wonder and concern. She is the author of the novels Addled, a social satire that intertwines animal rights with the politics of food, and the recently released Float.

Here she dreamcasts an adaptation of Float:

A few months ago I participated in The Next Big Thing Project, a web-based chain letter where a writer is tapped to answer some questions on what they’re working on and then posts it on their blog, tapping a few other writers to answer those same questions on theirs. One of the questions was: Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition? My novel, Float, a work of eco-fiction, is set in coastal Maine. The protagonist is Duncan Leland, who is separated from his wife Cora, his anchor. Financially, he is underwater with his business, a fish waste processing plant, and emotionally, well, he’s living back at home with his mother, who hasn’t left the house in ten years. That sums up his mental state. The plot is driven by jellyfish and plastics in the ocean. This is who I envisioned playing these characters back in the fall:

“Colin Farrell for Duncan; Minnie Driver for Cora; Meryl Streep for his crazy mom. Phillip Seymour Hoffman for Osbert, the mysterious financier, and Frances McDormand for Josefa, the seagull rescue character. Will Ferrell for Slocum, the slightly deranged chef.”

Sorry, Colin, love ya, but you’re getting the ax. It was a total miscast. Nothing personal, it’s just showbiz. The part of Duncan is going to Hugh Jackman. Jackman’s got the goofiness for Duncan, as well as the necessary gravitas. Minnie Driver is still my choice for Cora, because I saw Driver in The Riches series with Eddie Izzard and I think she makes a great aggrieved wife without being pathetic. What a cute couple she and Jackman will make! Colin, even you have to agree that’s true.

If Hoffman, McDormand and Ferrell are tied up in other productions, then we wait until they’re free. No substitutions. But if we’re in a pinch, Candice Bergen can substitute for Streep. I forgot to cast Nod, Duncan’s brother. Poor Nod. I say it goes to Casey Affleck, who is used to playing the other brother. Another key player I forgot about was Annuncia, the Green Fish activist at Duncan’s company. Kirstie Alley gets that one hands down. Don’t lose any more weight just yet, Kirstie!

Chandu, the Newfoundland dog, the same breed as Nana in Peter Pan, will be played by a shelter dog, who will be dramatically rescued just hours before being euthanatized and there will just happen to be the crew of “The Making of Float, the Movie” filming this tender moment. Chandu will go on to be one of the great canine stars of all time, and after a lengthy career at Disney, will retire to my house.

Learn more about the book and author at JoeAnn Hart's website, blog, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: JoeAnn Hart and Daisy.

The Page 69 Test: Float.

--Marshal Zeringue

Hallie Ephron's "There Was an Old Woman"

Hallie Ephron made a splash writing suspense with Never Tell a Lie published by HarperCollins in 2009. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly called it “stunning” and a “deliciously creepy tale of obsession.” USA Today: “You can imagine Hitchcock curling up with this one.” It was nominated for multiple awards, including the Mary Higgins Clark Award, and was adapted for film as And Baby Will Fall for the Lifetime Movie Network.

Here Ephron dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, There Was an Old Woman:

There Was an Old Woman is about two women. Thirty-something Evie Ferrante who is a hipster New York museum curator, and Evie's mother's 91-year-old neighbor, Mina Yetner, a retired bookkeeper who once worked in the Empire State Building.

Each of their worlds is coming apart. Acerbic, opinionated, resilient Mina is terrified that she's not so slowly losing her mind. Evie has been dragged home to deal with her alcoholic mother who's been hospitalized -- again. But this time, the usually tidy home where Evie grew up has turned into a hoarder's nest, and Evie's mother was never a hoarder.

Mina and Evie form a bond of friendship across a gap two generations wide, and it's that bond that keeps them both sane.

Here's my dream cast:
Mina Yetner: Julie Harris (remember, The Belle of Amherst?)
Evie Ferrante: Jennifer Garner

Can't you just see them side by side?

Learn more about the book and author at Hallie Ephron's website and blog.

The Page 69 Test: Never Tell A Lie.

Writers Read: Hallie Ephron (April 2011).

--Marshal Zeringue