An Alternate Diversity

Amongst the nibbles we’ve been getting for the book was a request for a treatment of the screenplay for On the Rocks.

Screenplay? Sure, why not? Being an action/adventure story, it certainly lends itself to a visual media and we’d love to see it come to life on the screen, large or small. Although we might someday find ourselves selling the film rights and leaving the creative translation to film in the hands of strangers, we figured it wouldn’t hurt (and it would keep us busy) to go ahead and write a screenplay ourselves. Of course, these are two wildly different formats with numerous deletions, additions and changes needed to tell the same story. To be honest, it’s actually kind of fun.

In the course of “re-writing” the book, we noticed something: The cast is awfully white.

Yeaaaah, sorry about that. It was not a conscious decision, but when you are the beneficiary of White Privilege, I guess you don’t give it much thought. Well, we are not going to go back and re-write the book. The characters we created are who they are. In my heart and mind, they are alive and should not be changed. Besides, despite our descriptions, the characters will look like whatever the individual reader imagines they look like. That is the beauty of a book. But, as for the screenplay… Well, have you heard the Jack Reacher story?

In the novel One Shot by Lee Child, The character Jack Reacher is introduced as being 6'5" tall, weighing between two hundred ten and two hundred fifty pounds with a 50-inch chest. He was played in the film adaptation Jack Reacher by (wait for it) Tom Cruise, who is only 5'7”, and while in excellent physical shape, not quite the NFL linebacker one would picture. Well, I for one loved Tom’s portrayal of the character. Even though he didn’t fit the visual image created by the author, he certainly captured the essence of the character.

Come casting time, could the lead characters in On the Rocks be re-imagined as well? Well, some of them certainly. Others must remain who they are; Natalie, Romanov and Kropatkan are Russians and are expected to be white. Watanabe is Japanese. Arthur, as a highly educated college professor, author and historian, cries out white privilege (although ethnic casting would not be impossible) and Tubwell is the poster boy for white supremacy if not white privilege. Two characters who could be re-imagined would be Banner Lyme and Nikki Oursland. Lyme could easily be cast as African-American. Indeed, the character Will Smith created in Independence Day is very Lyme-like. And don’t think Hollywood would hesitate. In fact, Jamie Foxx and Will Smith were considered for the part of Jack Reacher. A Hispanic actor should not be out of contention either. As for Nikki, I created her as your stock-standard blonde-haired, blue-eyed Manic Pixie Dream Girl (don’t judge me). But as a Siblaskan from the Alaska side of the Date Line, why couldn’t she be Native American? Aleut or Eskimo perhaps. As long she is a young, confident and a (demanded by Hollywood) pretty ass-kicker, raven-black hair could easily replace platinum blonde.

So, as you read On the Rocks (as well you should), feel free to picture Banner Lyme looking like Will Smith (circa 1996) or anyone else. While Doug and I might describe Arthur down to the last dimple, all you have to do is say “Well, I think he looks like Antonio Banderas”. But if Hollywood chooses to actually diversify the cast, well that’s okay by me.

Especially after the checks clear.