I recently saw a neat post shared on Instagram asking who authors would cast as their leads. Having been involved in castings for several projects this one is a fun one for me, well fun and daunting.
I actually did this 10 years ago for the book when I first wrote it and I thought the only way to make it was a campy kind of horror movie. It had a more Buffy The Vampire Slayer feel to it, so the initial cast was a little...CW-ish. Nothing wrong with that. I have some deep love for so many of those shows, but I think now if brought to the screen it really has more of a place somewhere like FX or Netflix. The ability to be a little more grounded and let the book(s) breathe like that need to. 3-4 seasons at 10 hour-long episodes. Tell the full story from start to finish.
This also won’t be casting. It will be more of a who I would like to see read for the part. Not everyone who you think is perfect works out and sometimes people who you don’t expect end up being perfect.
Here are some of my criteria for casting this project.
I will be treating this like a series. So I am casting for season one. The first season will encompass the first book. The entire book series takes place over several years. So I will be looking for actors and actresses that can play a wider age range. My characters are adults from the outset, but the ability to play a little younger wouldn’t be a bad thing to explore some of the things in the book as actual flashbacks on screen.
For the most part, I would like lesser-known actors in the cast, but as you can see I have several who are well-known names at this point. (And at least one that I am certain will be a much larger name in the future.) At some point in the future, once the book has been out for a bit I will revisit this post and highlight some of the things that I think make these good choices. But for now, at the risk of spoiling things, I will just leave you with visual representations of the characters/actors.
Roller Derby Vampire Girl - Season 1
Dream Casting
Regina
Ariana Debose
Grayson
Chris McCarrell
Veronica
Saoirse Ronan
Tabitha
Sasha Lane
Orbache
Nick Robinson
Bambi
Kat Dennings
***Disclaimer*** None of these actors have expressed interest in a filmed version of the book. Nor have any studios. But, it would be cool if they did.