"Rollback," the movie

Science fiction writer Robert J. Sawyer, winner of Best Novel Hugo and Nebula Awards, has a brand new novel -- Rollback -- in bookstores this week.

At "My Book, The Movie" the author shares some casting ideas for a film adaptation of the novel.

His entry opens:

Rollback is a novel about rejuvenation, and so contains an interesting casting challenge. At the beginning of the book, the main character, Don Halifax, is 87 years old, but as the story progresses he ends up having his body rolled back to the way it was when he was just 25.

After offering some ideas about how to cast this role -- and how not to cast it -- Sawyer turns to the other lead:

The other lead role is Sarah Halifax, Don's wife. She's an astronomer who, in her youth, decoded the first-ever radio signal received by aliens; as the novel opens, a reply to the message she sent them is finally received. She's the one who was really supposed to get the rollback -- Don was just along for the ride -- but the process fails for her while succeeding for him, and the tragedy of that tests their marriage to the limit.

Read the entire entry on Rollback, the movie to see who Sawyer would cast.

Visit Robert Sawyer's website and blog, and read an excerpt from Rollback.

--Marshal Zeringue