Here they share some ideas about cast and director for adaptations of the series:Though we both truly loved The Hunger Games, Snow White and the Huntsman, and the bevy of other movies out about earnest female characters kicking evil-doer butt this year, as writers we yearn for something a little more ironic and twisted. After all, we were in high school during the reign of Heathers. Our cynical minds ache for humor and darkness.Learn more about The White Glove War, and visit the websites of Katie Crouch and Grady Hendrix.
Our dream is to see both The Magnolia League and its sequel, The White Glove War, made into awesome, smart black comedies with heart. We're thinking a Heathers-meets-Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil film. So, while sharing a pitcher of southern sweet tea spiked with the teeniest bit of hooch, we did all the hard work and came up with the perfect cast.
The books are about Alex, who moves to Savannah, Georgia after her mother dies in a terrible car accident. She's forced to live with her grandmother, Dorothy, a beautiful, ageless, very rich and powerful Southern lady who heads a women's society that rules Savannah with weapons-grade perfect manners, and hoodoo, the distinctive Georgia version of voodoo.
The books have three trios of characters at their hearts: the three evil grandmothers - who are perfect roles for femme fatales of a certain age - their three granddaughters, and Dr. Buzzard, the conjure man, and his two children.
For Dorothy, Alex’s grandmother, well, who does icy and unforgiving like Demi Moore? Besides, don’t we all think that she probably sold her soul to a hoodoo doctor in order to stay hot forever?
For the other two evil grandmothers, let’s get Sharon Stone and Michelle Pfeiffer. Who better to personify brittle Southern ladyhood than the woman who tried to kill Michael Douglas with an ice pick and Catwoman?
Chloë Moretz would be an awesome Alex. She's just a fantastic actress. Alex has to transform from a hippie pot farmer to a (reluctant) Southern belle, and Moretz has done everything from Martin Scorsese’s Hugo to Martin Lawrence’s Big Momma’s House 2... and did anyone catch her on 30 Rock? She’s got range.
Alex’s two best friends, Hayes and Madison, need careful casting, as they are the respective stars of the sequels. Whenever we pictured Hayes, we thought of Blake Lively, but she's too old now (producers, why didn’t you call earlier?). Elle Fanning (Super 8, We Bought a Zoo) would be perfect, and besides, she’s originally from Georgia so we’re keeping it local.
Madison gets all the best lines and is the kind of girl who says what everyone else is thinking, only with more profanity, so let’s give Selena Gomez a chance to kick some onscreen butt. Besides, we need a Texan for a part this big.
And last, but not least, there’s the ageless conjure man, Dr. Buzzard, his conflicted (but mostly good) son, Sam, and his not-very-conflicted (and mostly evil) daughter, Sina. Dr. Buzzard should be Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland) because he doesn’t get to play evil often enough. We also want Amandla Stenberg (Rue in Hunger Games) to play Sina. Why Stenberg? Because she was one of the best things in The Hunger Games and she deserved more screen time. Sam needs to be played by Mos Def, because we’ve noticed a direct relation between the amount of Mos Def in a movie and how awesome it is. Ben Harper would also work, because Katie has loved him savagely for fifteen years.
Hollywood, we’ll make a deal with you. We’ll get working on a third Magnolia League book, if you guys get working on the first Magnolia League movie. Michael Lehmann, you directed Heathers, yes? Tear yourself away from those naked True Blood bodies and get to work!
--Marshal Zeringue
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