Make it a Movie: Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman
In our Make it a Movie section we play the role of movie producers and map out the movie production. Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman, is a super dark, horror filled, adventure story set in the plague ridden Dark Ages of France.
It seems these days the only movies being made by movie studios is comic book adventure movies and horror films. No one would mistake Between Two Fires with a Marvel movie, but it does have many of the adventure story elements and it has plenty of horror. So what I’m trying to say is, someone make this a big budget movie. It just missed out on our top 10 podcast books list, but a book we both enjoyed and would recommend to anyone that could handle a little change of pace. You can check our podcast episode, if interested.
Plot: A drunk priest, a disgraced knight, and young mysterious girl walk into a bar, venture through plague riddled France on their way to see the Pope. Horrors and laughs are abound at every turn.
Production Notes: As far as I can tell there hasn’t been any television or movie updates on this one. It remains a hidden gem… For now. But here at the Buddy Book Club, we speak these things into existence. We’ll help the future production team with casting.
Genre: Horror/Adventure
Logline: The Last of Us + Black Death
Proposed Casting for Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman
Thomas – Thomas would be a great character to play. He’s a foul mouthed, morally questionable, former knight. He’s basically a mix of Billy Bob Thornton from Bad Santa and Bruce Willis (in any of his movies). Or a combination Russell Crowe’s Nice Guys and Gladiator characters, which is why we selected him to play the role. Seems like he’d be a perfect fit for a darker version of Gladiator gone wrong.
Delphine – A somewhat mysterious figure throughout the book who preaches non-violence (although conveniently after violence is needed to save them), and is very Jesus-like (hint-hint). This role needs to be someone that can stand out while sharing the screen with many more boisterous characters but also possess angelic vibes. Thomasin McKenzie, of Jojo Rabbit fame, seems like a great fit. She has a young innocent look but a great overall actress who could stick out in this type of role.
Father Matthieu – In the dark ages of France, an alcoholic priest isn’t that big of a deal. A gay priest, caught in the act is a big deal. Father Matthieu is a kind hearted, pious man (who likes his wine), but has been ostracized by his community before joining up with Thomas and Delphine. He is the perfect third member of this unusual traveling trio. He cuts the tensions a bit and is a great sounding board (and drinking mate) for Thomas. Sam Rockwell just seems like a guy that can balance being both a bit silly but also serious. We may have just cast him in a recent MIAM but, what can we say, he’s a good actor and we’re tying to become his agent.
Plenty of other characters we could have cast but we’ll stick with those for now. Let us know what you think and what roles we’re missing, reach out to us. Or check out our Book Club Episode or Book Club Questions on Between Two Fires. Here is a clip of us discussing our stock ups and downs for the book:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cra8hqys8i4/
