Okay, I have film on the brain. I just saw Nanny McPhee and I have a new favorite actress for Grace -- Eliza Bennett. You can see it, can't you?

And I know no one will agree with me, but I think Jason Flemyng would be a great Ulrik.

I'm not sure why I needed to make this post so urgently, at 9 p.m. at night after watching Nanny McPhee. I just did. And now I have.

ETA: Folks, I have NO part in the actual casting choices/ auditioning/ anything having to do with the movie -- that is all in the realm of Unique Features & Warner Bros. The movie option is also the VERY early stages of moviedom, so they're not even looking for actors yet. This is merely a fun post about who I think looks like the characters in my head. In reality, I think a Shiver movie would be best served by plucking some unknown actors out of the woodwork -- folks who can act no matter if they look exactly like my idea of Sam and Grace or not.

**Here ends public service announcement**

Onto the audio book contest. First of all, I clicked on everybody's links and looked at everybody's Sam and Graces. And people. Please! Tom Sturridge is far too edgy to be Sam (although I found the photo of him in a bathtub absolutely hilarious given the circumstances). Sam is an innocent bambi! Anyway. First of all, my picks for Sam and Grace.

For Grace, I'd always thought Dakota Blue Richards, because she'll be the perfect age. But then one of the Very Clever Commentors suggested Rachel Hurd Wood and I thought OH! WAY BETTER GRACE! I like her because she's pretty in a very approachable, plausible, non-Hollywood sort of way, and looks like she could take werewolves in stride.

Dakota Blue Richards (yes, I KNOW she's too young here):
Rachel Hurd Wood:

For Sam, it was harder, because I don't think of him as Hollywood-handsome. In SHIVER, I think I describe him as having a nose a girl couldn't pull off and floppy black hair. And I think I mentioned his heavy lidded eyes. I'm very big on the heavy-lidded eyes for him. Oh, and fuzzy eyebrows. So at first, I was sort of thinking Lee Pace, who is way too old (sorry, Lee, I still think you're very pretty. Just not jailbait age):


then I thought Jim Sturgess from Across the Universe captured Sam's Beatlesesque image, but still too old (again, no offense, Jim, your version of "Girl" still makes me want to remove layers of clothing):

And then I realized that if I made the easy leap from actor to rock star, I was golden. Because I think Alex Turner from the Arctic Monkeys is terribly Sam-like to me. See?
Example 2:
Example 3:




You're feeling it, right? Alex, call my agent . . . oh yeah, and don't get any older, okay?

ETA 8/29/09:

Okay, I have film on the brain. I just saw Nanny McPhee and I have a new favorite actress for Grace -- Eliza Bennett. You can see it, can't you?

And I know no one will agree with me, but I think Jason Flemyng would be a great Ulrik.

I'm not sure why I needed to edit this post so urgently, at 9 p.m. at night after watching Nanny McPhee. I just did. And now I have.

Anyway. The randomly generated winner of the audio book (only one, there were 48 comments and slightly fewer than that entries) was wandren -- shoot me an email!