Laurie Frankel
  • Books
    • One Two Three
    • This Is How It Always Is
    • Goodbye For Now
    • The Atlas of Love
  • About
  • bits & pieces
  • Book Clubs
  • Contact
  • Paris 2023
  • Books
    • One Two Three
    • This Is How It Always Is
    • Goodbye For Now
    • The Atlas of Love
  • About
  • bits & pieces
  • Book Clubs
  • Contact
  • Paris 2023

Makin' a Mov(i)e

8/20/2012

 
I've been getting a lot of questions about the movie of Goodbye For Now. And I've been more or less evading them, not because it's not a good question (it is!) but because a) said movie may or may not ever happen and I don't want to jinx it. And b) the movie is not my project. Some wonderful, talented, enthusiastic, lovely people are at work on it. Here's a little film they did previously. Maybe you heard of it.
It's not my place to tell their tales about Goodbye For Now. That said, the details I know are exciting, promising, and the whole idea of one day seeing one's book turned into a movie...well, it's totally thrilling.


The thing everyone wants to know is who I would cast in the lead roles, also a good question, but not one I can answer. Again, actual real people have been floated as possibilities, and now I can't get them out of my mind, nor do I want to hurt anyone's feelings or piss anyone off. Also, I can name like four actors off the top of my head. But really it's this: when I write, I'm not picturing people. Which is weird. My characters become so real to me that they speak for themselves. They demand things I never intend and am sometimes even reluctant to grant them. But can I see what they look like? I cannot. They exist someplace that's not visual for me. Generally, sight is considered our strongest, most relied on sense. When I write, I feel like I use it very little. Sometimes it's because it's telling not showing. Sometimes it's because it's one of the things I find very distracting and distancing when I read (Don't tell me what it looks like. I have a very clear picture in my head of what it looks like, thank you very much, and when you tell me I'm wrong, I just pisses me off.) But mostly it's this: I don't know what these people look like. Not really. If I ran into them on the street, I wouldn't recognize them. Pretty amazing for folks who spend hours upon hours whispering in my ear. It's kind of awesome actually.

Anyway, to solve the "who would you cast?" problem, I've chosen dead actors to be in my would-be movie. Since the book is about recreating and reanimating dead people based on their archival footage, casting the movie with dead actors seems actually just about perfect. Here is a blog piece where I wrote about this for the lovely Marshal Zeringue.

I'd take this cast (Philadelphia Story) straight up:
Jimmy Stewart as Sam (you can picture Jimmy Stewart as a computer genius, right?), Katharine Hepburn as Meredith, Cary Grant as Dash? Yes please.

I also like Paul Newman, circa right about here...
​...for Sam's dad. (Or circa right about anywhere for anything at all.)

Anyone have other thoughts? Casts you'd like to see? Living actors you'd like to suggest for the (fingers crossed) film version of Goodbye For Now?

Comments are closed.

    About The Author

    Laurie Frankel writes novels (reads novels, teaches other people to write novels, raises a small person who reads and would like someday to write novels) in Seattle, Washington where she lives on a nearly vertical hill from which she can watch three different bridges while she's staring out her windows between words. She's originally from Maryland and makes good soup.

    Archives

    July 2020
    November 2017
    June 2017
    December 2016
    August 2016
    May 2014
    April 2014
    November 2013
    July 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012

    Categories

    All
    Banned Books
    Baseball
    Book Covers
    Books
    Family
    Feminism
    Food
    Gay Marriage
    Independent Bookstores
    Kindergarten
    Language
    LGBTQ
    Love
    Movies
    Music
    Passover
    Politics
    Reading
    Teaching
    Technology
    Travel
    Writing

    RSS Feed

    Very occasionally, when there's news or bookclub specials or travel or offers or invitations, I'd love to let you know. (All your info will be kept private and never shared, of course.)

Subscribe to Newsletter
  • Books
    • One Two Three
    • This Is How It Always Is
    • Goodbye For Now
    • The Atlas of Love
  • About
  • bits & pieces
  • Book Clubs
  • Contact
  • Paris 2023