Here’s a question I get quite a lot from readers: will your books ever be made into movies?
The answer, I’m sorry to say, is no. So far, at least, and probably for the forseeable future. Historical movies or TV shows cost an arm and a leg to make: the costumes, the sets, the CGI, the on-site locations. My latest book Daughters of Rome has several chariot racing scenes a la Ben Hur; I shudder to think what the bill would be for all those chariots, horses, and thousands of screaming costumed extras. Unless I turn into George R.R. Martin, I don’t imagine HBO will be burning up my phone line anytime soon with offers to turn Daughters of Rome into a multi-season star-studded no-expenses-spared miniseries.
But a girl can dream. I had a lot of fun last year casting Mistress of Rome as an imaginary movie with the cast of actors I’d have picked if I’d had unlimited control and budget (which no author ever gets). Now that I’m between deadlines, I think I’ll indulge myself and do the same for my second book. Coming soon to a theatre near you: Daughters of Rome, the Oscar-winning blockbuster directed by Ridley Scott!
THE WOMEN
Marcella: The trickiest part to cast, and also the meatiest. My heroine is a voluptuous frustrated schemer who writes histories, and eventually discovers that making history is even more fun than writing about it. For an actress who can play both charming and amoral, I’ll go with Hayley Atwell. She did a lovely job in “Pillars of the Earth,” a pretty brunette with an unexpectedly flinty side.
Cornelia: Marcella’s gentle older sister who goes from ambitious snob to grieving widow to passionate woman. There’s no shortage of actresses who could play her. Natalie Portman? Rose Byrne? Shannyn Sossamon? I settled on Sophia Myles, a gentler sort of beauty with an unexpected quirk of humor.
Lollia: Cousin Lollia is the richest heiress in Rome, a red-haired party girl with a penchant for good gossip and good sex. After seeing “Easy A,” Emma Stone was a no-brainer. She has Lollia’s husky voice and adorable giggle, and an underlying sweetness to give Lollia dignity as she matures into something more than just a party girl.
Diana: strangely, the only actress I can think of to play a seventeen-year-old blond beauty mad for horses and chariot racing is Summer Glau. The former Terminator from “The Sarah Connor Chronicles” is definitely neither seventeen or blond, but she has the beauty, and even more important, she has the quirky absent-minded charm necessary to make Diana’s one-track obsessiveness and utter lack of tact charming instead of irritating.
THE MEN
Piso: Cornelia’s husband is Imperial heir for just five days before a mob hacks him to pieces. Sean Maher would make the most out of this brief part; as Simon in “Firefly” he had the same straitlaced-but-sweet charm.
Drusus: the stalwart bodyguard who saves Cornelia’s life was cast the moment I saw Rome Season 2, and laid eyes on Allen Leech. His Agrippa could be a clone of Drusus–stocky, brave, loyal, and passionate.
Domitian: Marcella’s nineteen-year-old suitor gets another actor from HBO’s “Rome”–Max Pirkis, whose hair-raising depiction of the young Augustus makes him a natural choice for the eerie intelligence and nascent creepiness of this young emperor-to-be.
Thrax: the handsome golden body slave who consoles Lollia between bad marriages. We need at least one tribute to “Spartacus: Blood and Sand,” so let’s go with handsome golden gladiator Jai Courtney.
Llyn: the attractive and taciturn ex-rebel from Britain who scorns Romans and teaches Diana how to drive a chariot. This one was a no-brainer: David Wenham with the same haircut he had in “Lord of the Rings.”
THE EMPERORS
Galba: in a book about the Year of Four Emperors, you can bet Emperor #1 won’t last too long. Michael Hogan will chew the scenery for his fifteen minutes of screen time before the mob gets him, playing grumpy old cheapskate Emperor Galba.
Otho: Galba’s successor couldn’t have been more different; a metrosexual playboy with a witty tongue. Who better than Rupert Everett, the guy who stars in pretty much every Oscar Wilde movie ever made?
Vitellius: Another polar opposite for Emperor #3–a fat sports fan who lived for chariot racing and obscenely huge banquets. Brad Leland played a loudmouth football fanatic in “Friday Night Lights,” and could do it perfectly here. And he’s got the chops to bring out Vitellius’s pathos and dignity as well as the bombast.
No need to cast the fourth emperor in the series, since he doesn’t make a cameo in the book. But previous ruler Nero does in a creepy flashback, and in my mind he’s Philip Seymour Hoffman. He’ll nail Nero’s fussy artistic pretensions and innate craziness in just five minutes of screentime.
SMALL PARTS
Irritating Jessalyn Gilsig from “Glee” for the irritating sister-in-law who gets on everybody’s nerves . . . wrinkled John Noble to play one of Lollia’s more crochety and elderly husbands . . . and one final cameo, the star charioteer who drives for Diana’s arch-rival racing team. Since I’m a Yankee-hating Red Sox fan, and Diana adores the Reds team and hates the Blues team, let’s have the obnoxious-but-talented Blues charioteer be played by the obnoxious-but-talented Derek Jeter.
So, that’s my fantasy cast for my mythical movie of Daughters of Rome. Of course, even if it did end up being made into a movie, I would not have any say in the casting or even the script. J.K. Rowling was able to put her foot down when some producer wanted to re-set Harry Potter in the United States, and George R.R. Martin was invited to help write the screenplay for HBO’s “Game of Thrones”–but most of us writers have no power over what happens to our novels once they’re sold for film. So if Daughters of Rome gets made into a soft-core porn direct-to-video flick about four sisters in nipple caps who practice incest, bondage, and threesomes, don’t blame me.
In the meantime, if you’ve read Daughters of Rome and have your own casting ideas, I’m all ears.
