Saturday, February 20, 2010

Graham Brown's "Black Rain," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: Black Rain by Graham Brown.

The entry begins:
What a great idea this blog is. What writer hasn’t cast their movie a hundred times in their own heads?

First, a little about the plot. Black Rain is a techno-thriller that takes place in the jungle. It meshes the actual Mayan creation legend with a race for elements that could bring about working cold fusion and provide the energy source of the 21st century.

The characters include Danielle Laidlaw, the young, attractive team leader, thrust into the spotlight when her mentor is called back to Washington D.C. An ex-CIA mercenary who goes by the name of Hawker. Unlike most “rogue cops,” Hawker played by his own rules and got burned. He’s now a fugitive and a pariah, hired only because he is expendable. He’s ready to let go of any moral compunction if it means getting back to the world’s good graces. The third main character is a university professor named McCarter. He’s grieving from the loss of his wife after a long battle with cancer and joins the team despite its seemingly absurd goals, just to get away from himself.

So who to play these characters? They’re somewhat archetypical, but I think I’ve taken a fresh angle on all them. The readers will have to be the judge of that.

In many ways, Danielle is the main character, and the most difficult to cast. She has to come across as smart, formidable. That’s far more important than her being beautiful, on the other hand if we can cover all the bases… Angelina Jolie would work, the character is roughly thirty, attractive and forced to be manipulative to get what she’s after. And she’s smart. Whatever some people think about Angelina, she’s definitely smart, stunning and if can be manipulative if she needs to be: a force to be reckoned with, I like that. But if she wasn’t available...[read on]
Read an excerpt from Black Rain, and learn more about the book and author at Graham Brown's website and blog.

Graham Brown is a former pilot, lawyer and executive at a small health care company. He lives in Tucson, Arizona, where he is currently at work on his second novel, a sequel to the recently released Black Rain.

My Book, The Movie: Black Rain.

--Marshal Zeringue