Diane Janes is a full time author, who lives and writes in the English Lake District. Prior to be accepted for publication she was shortlisted twice for the Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger and her first novel The Pull of the Moon was a finalist for the John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger in 2010.
Here she shares some ideas for casting a big screen adaptation of her latest novel, Why Didn’t You Come for Me?:
Why Didn’t You Come For Me? is set mainly in the English Lake District which contains some of Britain’s most beautiful scenery (remember Miss Potter?) so in theory it should be a movie maker’s dream. Other scenes include a real life castle in Scotland and a west country seaside village. All these locations are well off the beaten track, thereby avoiding problems with crowds and extraneous noise – just in case any movie maker out there happens to be thinking about picking up the option…An ideal cast? Ralph Fiennes would make a good Marcus, I think and Aidan Turner would do a good cameo as Jo’s first husband Dominic. (Aidan Turner would also do a fantastic job with Danny, one of the leading characters in my first novel The Pull of the Moon.)
I occasionally daydream of Zach Braff directing a film version of Long Drive Home. Braff grew up in South Orange, New Jersey, which is where I live and where the book is set. I thought he had such a perfectly light touch in his only movie, Garden State, not to mention an inspired performance. Natalie Portman was a revelation, too. 
I don’t think about casting when I’m creating characters. More often than not, they’re an amalgam of people I actually know. However, after A Conflict of Interest was finished, and there was some movie interest, I couldn’t help but wonder who could bring the characters to life. I think that Michael Ohlig is perhaps the most complicated of the book’s characters, and so I’d like to see a very talented actor in the role. Someone who can portray what I see as Ohlig’s swashbuckling nature, as well as a vulnerability. Maybe Harrison Ford, or Jeff Bridges or Pierce Brosnan?As for the protagonist, Alex Miller, perhaps it’s my and Alex’s love of Batman that would have me cast Christian Bale, but he combines the intelligence and conflict that I was going for with Alex. A similar mix of intelligence and beauty is necessary for the female leads — Abby Sloan and Elizabeth Miller. For Abby — Rachel McAdams? Elizabeth is an artist, so I’d want someone with a creative flair, but she’s also a serious person. I was a big Lost fan — Evangeline Lilly?
