The entry begins:Throughout the course of writing the Timothy Wilde trilogy, I’ve been compelled to cudgel my underdeveloped brains when creative and imaginative folks ask me which actors I would pick to play the lead characters, and what the film version of The Fatal Flame or its prequels would look like. My books are historical thrillers that deal with darkness, dirt, and death—though I assure my potential readers there are also plentiful lewd jokes.Learn more about the book and author at Lyndsay Faye's website.
In any event, I know exactly what The Fatal Flame’s film version would look like—it would be Gangs of New York but with a grim Batman-esque palette, touches of the Warner Brothers’ version of Sherlock Holmes’s madcap and unabashed humor, and stark Coen brothers’ levels of bleak dust. As for casting The Fatal Flame, however, that is another matter entirely, because Timothy and Valentine Wilde live so large in my head.
Let’s get some of the easier casting out of the way first: have you seen Ripper Street? MyAnna Buring plays the sly, capable, ruthless-but-still-sympathetic brothel madam, and every time she smirks just so, I know she’d make a fantastic Silkie Marsh. Madam Marsh is a sociopath, but a real charmer nevertheless, and I can’t picture anyone worming her way into the highest levels of Tammany intrigue.
Chief of Police George Washington Matsell was literally a larger than life figure—over three hundred pounds, with a dogged, dour countenance that couldn’t quite mask his reserves of humor and fortitude. There are few character actors who could convey the power he wielded, nor the fact that he always sought to...[read on]
The Page 69 Test: The Gods of Gotham.
The Page 69 Test: Seven for a Secret.
My Book, The Movie: The Fatal Flame.
--Marshal Zeringue
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