Today, I’m excited to welcome back Marc Turner to Bookwraiths!  Mr. Turner has been mesmerizing his fans for several years with his sweeping, epic fantasy series, The Chronicles of the Exile, which keeps building upon itself; the latest installment, Red Tide, the best yet.  Instead of answering my questions this time around, Marc will be addressing something all his fans wonder: Whom would he cast in the role of his characters if his books were ever made into films.

So, without any further ado, I’ll turn the floor over to Marc Turner.

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CHARACTERS WHO ARE CHARACTERS

by

MARC TURNER

I’ve been asked on a few occasions whom I would cast in the role of my characters if my books were ever made into films. The first time was by the guy who narrates my audiobooks for Audible – the excellent Oliver Wyman. Oliver wasn’t asking because he intended to do impressions of anyone, but because he thought a list of actors would be helpful for inspiration. He asked the same question recently for my latest book, Red Tide, and it ended up proving a difficult exercise, but ultimately an informative one.

Have any of you seen the film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves? I watched it when it came out in 1991, and unfortunately I thought it was pretty forgettable. Only two things about it stayed with me. The first was the fact that when Robin Hood returned from the Crusades, he came ashore at Dover, then travelled to Nottingham via Hadrian’s Wall – thereby adding the small matter of 350 miles to his journey. The second, and most important, was the disparity (for me) in the performances of the two lead actors, Kevin Costner as Robin Hood and the sadly departed Alan Rickman as the Sheriff of Nottingham.

Rickman is one of my favourite actors. He won a BAFTA for his performance in Prince of Thieves. Years later, he admitted to going behind the backs of the film’s scriptwriters and rewriting some of his lines with the help of friends (and the blessing of his director). His Sheriff of Nottingham was delightfully wicked and thoroughly entertaining. Costner’s Robin Hood, by contrast, was a let-down. When I think of Robin Hood, I picture a Han Solo figure in tights. I imagine swashbuckling action, impudent charm and witty one-liners. Instead, due to a script that Rickman himself called “terrible”, the Robin Hood in Prince of Thieves spent most of the film trying to make a plank of wood look animated.

Characters are the building blocks of any good film – or book. The events of a story, no matter how dramatic, won’t touch us in a major way unless we care about the characters, and our feelings for those people stay in our memories long after the clever plot twists have faded. Readers want characters that are out of the ordinary. Characters that are . . . characters, if you will. But how does a writer know if his or her characters are sufficiently engaging? Well, you could start by asking which actors would be best suited to play them in a film. If your answer is Alan Rickman (playing the Sherriff of Nottingham), give yourself a pat on the head and get back to work. If, on the other hand, the answer is Kevin Costner (playing Robin Hood), I think your character may require further attention.

So which actors did I choose for my latest book, Red Tide? To give a couple of examples, I have a mage called Hex who I thought should be played by Heath Ledger (also sadly departed), reprising his role of the Joker in The Dark Knight. I also have a criminal leader called Tia who I believe would be a good fit for Margot Robbie playing Harley Quinn from Suicide Squad. I’m looking forward to seeing – or rather hearing – what Oliver Wyman makes of them, and of my other characters too.

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About the Author:

MARC TURNER was born in Toronto, Canada, but grew up in England. He graduated from Lincoln College, Oxford University, in 1996 with a BA (Hons) in Law, and subsequently worked at a top-ten law firm in London. After more than ten years in the legal profession he gave in to his lifelong writing addiction and now works full time as a writer. Red Tide is his first latest novel.

For more on Marc’s life and works, visit him: Website, Twitter or Blog.

Purchase the books at Amazon.