Robin Epstein's "HEAR"

Robin Epstein is a writer, runner, professor and astronaut* (*in her own mind). Beginning her career as a comic and television writer, Epstein was lucky enough to become head writer and on-air sidekick for a teen girl game show called Clued In, where she was known as "Guru Robin," an embarrassing nickname she's unable to shake. Her young adult novel, God Is In the Pancakes, was an official selection of the 2012 New York State Reading Association (NYSRA) Charlotte Award Master List. She's written for the New York Times, Marie Claire, Glamour, as well as other publications. A contributor to This American Life on NPR, she also writes video games and books for TV shows on the Disney Channel. Epstein attended Princeton University, got her MFA from Columbia University, and teaches at NYU.

Here Epstein dreamcasts an adaptation of her latest novel, HEAR:

Early in the writing of HEAR (when it was originally called E.S.P.U.), I saw a brilliant young actress in a film called Winter’s Bone, and I was certain this young woman would make the perfect Kass, my heroine. That turned out to be a 19-year-old Jennifer Lawrence, and apparently I wasn’t the only one who thought she had some acting chops!

Since JLaw might actually be too old for the role (unusual since I generally find her too young for the parts she now plays), I’d love to see Elle Fanning star as Kass. For the four other young leads, I’d suggest Utkarsh Ambudkar for the sly and sexy Pankaj, Selena Gomez or Kiernan Shipka as the brooding, tarot card reading Mara, Ansel Elgort as the troubled, tech-savant Dan, and Evan Bird for the hot and dangerous Alex.

For Uncle Brian, the professor and leader of the HEAR lab, though I make him a man in his 80s in the book, in the film version I’ll age him down and would be very happy to give that part to Benedict Cumberbatch.

Visit Robin Epstein's website.

The Page 69 Test: HEAR.

--Marshal Zeringue

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