Adam Christopher's "Made to Kill"

Adam Christopher is a novelist and comic writer, and award-winning editor.

The author of Made to Kill, volume 1 in The LA Trilogy, Christopher is co-writer of The Shield for Dark Circle Comics and author of the official tie-in novels novels based on the hit CBS television show Elementary.

Born in New Zealand, Christopher has lived in Great Britain since 2006.

Here he dreamcasts an adaptation of Made to Kill:

The characters in Made to Kill can be divided into two groups – the speaking parts, and the extras. Set in Hollywood, 1965, the book drops the names of a lot of stars, but most of them appear silently at the periphery of scenes, looking moody and evil and possessed by… well, that’s a spoiler.

The two main characters pose an interesting problem. Raymond Electromatic is a robot, six feet ten of bronzed steel with a face that looks human, but is immobile. While he is a Philip Marlowe-type, I’d actually like to see—or perhaps, hear—Andre Braugher behind the metal mask.

Ada is even harder to cast, as she’s just a voice—a little older, smoky, husky. Kathleen Turner or Christine Baranski would do nicely. She’s actually based, rather loosely, on Anne Francis, who starred as private eye Honey West in the ABC TV show of the same name in the mid-1960s. Although only thirty-five at the time—perhaps a little younger than Ada should really sound—she is perfect in my mind.

Emma Stone as Eva McLuckie, elfin movie starlet in trouble. With a 60s bob haircut and enough black eyeliner to make her look like a princess from ancient Egypt, she’s perfect.

Tom Hardy (with a big beard) as Charles David. I’m serious. Hardy can do moody very well, and he actually grew some impressively scary facial hair a few years ago.

Brad Pitt as Fresco Peterman. I’m a fan of Pitt, and I love his slightly vague, slightly addled performance as Tyler Durden in Fight Club. This is exactly what Fresco Peterman needs to be—he’s the biggest and handsomest movie star in town, prone to smiling a lot. People think he’s a little dim, when he is anything but.

Chip Rockwell is another oddity—as a movie producer, we see him briefly in Brisk Money, the prequel novelette to Made to Kill. But in the main book, he’s reduced to something far less than human. If we assume that the movie of Made to Kill will roll some of Brisk Money into the plot, then I’d like Alan Alda to have a cameo as the ill-fated Rockwell.

Peter Capaldi as the desperate Soviet scientist, Dr Vitaly Bobrov. It’s all in the eyebrows.

David Duchovny as Special Agent Touch Daley. Now, this might be a bit of a cliché, but Touch Daley is a mix of Fox Mulder, Dale Cooper, and the younger Rust Colhe. Pour Duchovny into a sharp black suit and give him a natty hat, and he’s the man on Ray’s trail.

The other characters in Made to Kill are cameos—of them all, I think only Rico Spillane actually has any dialogue (let’s cast John Stamos in that role). So here’s my wishlist for the rest:

Elizabeth Michell as Alaska Gray, Emma Watson as Millicent Olivier, Vinnie Jones as Bob Thatcher, Taraji P. Henson as Shiera Shane, and Henry Czerny as Parker Silverwood.

Visit Adam Christopher's website, blog, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

The Page 69 Test: Made to Kill.

--Marshal Zeringue

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