Lets Talk Movies Sort Of

Let’s talk movies… sort of.

Okay, let’s actually talk movie deals and taking books to the silver screen.  A thing that authors get asked a lot is, “Why don’t you make your book into a movie?”  Ah, if only it were that easy.  There is, of course, a lovely complement contained in that question.  The reader is saying, “Hey, I think your book would make a great movie,” and that’s a nice thing for any author to hear.  But trust me, if it were in the author’s power to turn their book into a movie, well, you’d see a lot more original content in theaters and a lot less sequels.

Unfortunately, movie deals aren’t up to the author as most of us don’t have the thirty or so million dollars an average production takes to get started (fun fact – most of us actually still work day jobs!).  Oh, we can pitch to our heart’s content at various studios (there’s a whole subset of agents that handle those kinds of rights), but much like breaking into publishing in the first place, it’s a long and uphill battle to get to the option stage (where a studio purchases the film rights for the work).  And from there, it’s still not only not-guaranteed that things will find their way to production, it’s not even particularly likely.  And, if through some Hollywood sorcery, alignment of the stars, and just blind luck, you make it through filming, there’s still no guarantees of the movie ever being released.

Of course, that doesn’t stop any of us from dreaming.  Writers are, at their very core, dreamers of one sort or another.  Very few people get published without first facing a stream of rejection letters (or emails these days) from agents and publishers.  I used to wallpaper my bathroom with them.  If we let little things like impossible odds stop us, we’d never keep chasing those dreams.  So, it’s fun to think about a movie being made.  And it’s fun to dream about the ideal cast (another thing, by the way, that the author gets no say in… they have whole casting departments for that sort of thing).

So, without further ado, here’s my ideal cast for the main characters in Re-Coil:

• Carter Langston. Langston is meant to be a sort of everyman, but with a bit of an edge.  He needs to be a grimy, blue-collar sort, the type who’s not afraid to get his hands dirty.  Vin Diesel comes to mind, though (apologies to Diesel) he might be getting a bit too… seasoned… for the role.  For some reason, John Boyega comes to mind, too, though I don’t know that Finn was exactly “edgy.”  Still, I think he’d do a great job.
• Shay Chan. This is a tricky one, because Chan really needs to be cast twice.  Once in the male coil that she spends most of her time in and once in the coil that is more her true image of herself.  For the male coil, definitely something in a Hemsworth.  Maybe more a Liam than a Chris.  Someone leonine.  For the female, Brenda Song or Lana Condor come to mind.  Tiny, but powerful.
• Someone who can pull off being polite and a badass at the same time?  Keanu Reeves is, of course, a no brainer, but I also like Jeffrey Donovan.  Hearkens back to my obsession with Burn Notice.  I think either would make an excellent urbane killing machine.

There you have it… a bit of a reminder that despite all our wishes, authors don’t get to dictate if a movie gets made alongside my “dream cast” for Re-Coil should the fates align and powers that be determine a movie be brought forth.  I’m not exactly holding my breath, but hey, dreamers gotta dream.  If you want to read the book, though, no breath holding needed.  Re-Coil releases March 3^rd.