Monday, December 20, 2010

Libby Hellmann's "Set the Night on Fire"

Libby Fischer Hellmann's crime fiction thrillers include An Eye For Murder, A Picture Of Guilt, An Image Of Death, A Shot To Die For, Easy Innocence, and Doubleback.

Here she shares some casting ideas for an adaptation of her latest novel, Set the Night on Fire:
As some of you may know, I studied film in graduate school, worked on a couple of features, and settled into the life of an industrial film/video producer before I started writing novels. So I’ve always approached novel writing like a film-maker. I can’t write a scene without imagining it edited and printed, complete with pans, dolly shots, close-ups, and dressed sets.

Set the Night on Fire was (and is) a film-maker’s dream: a wealth of colorful characters, locations, and, in the portion that goes back to the late Sixties, opportunities to recreate what came before. Frankly, while writing the book, I was more concerned with getting the Chicago settings right than the characters. I obsessed over the apartment/commune the characters inhabited in Old Town, the way Marshall Field’s would have looked, a community hospital on the North Side, Maxwell Street. I hope I’ve done them all justice.

But now comes the fun part. There are more characters in this novel than in some of my others, and some of them are portrayed both as young idealists in the Sixties, as well as more mature adults in the present. I haven’t chosen them all, but here’s what I have so far.

Lila Hilliard: My protagonist. A ‘30s professional financial manager.
In the present: definitely Natalie Portman

Casey Hilliard: Her father.
In the present: Robin Williams

Dar Gantner:
In the present: George Clooney (of course)
In the past: Ryan Gosling

Alix Kerr:
In the past: Emma Watson or Sarah Carter. Maybe Naomi Watts

Teddy:
In the past: Patrick Dempsey
In the present: John Slattery

Rain:
In the past: Lindsay Lohan
In the present: Ashley Judd

Aunt Val:
In the present: Elizabeth Perkins

Wow! What a cast! I can’t wait!
Watch the video trailer for Set the Night on Fire.

Visit Libby Fischer Hellmann's website and group blog, The Outfit.

My Book, The Movie: A Shot To Die For.

My Book, The Movie: Easy Innocence.

--Marshal Zeringue