Make it a Movie: Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney
In our Make it a Movie section we play the role of movie producers and map out the movie production. Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney, is a another page-turning psychological thriller, that would make for a interesting movie or tv adaptation. We covered the book on our podcast and did some fun book club questions as well if you’re interested.
Spoilers ahead… Rock Paper Scissors may one of the tougher books to make into a movie because 1) Capturing what Prosopagnosia is like for Adam visually may be a bit difficult 2) The big twist is that the letters are from Robin, so showing flashbacks with a different woman may be a bit difficult. We would recommend telling the story in three parts first through the eyes of Adam (with him narrating). We get to understand his infliction and get to see how the story progresses through his eyes. Next the story shifts to Amelia narrating and what we believe to be Amelia and Adam’s back story (covered in the letters), but the twist at the end is it’s actually been Robin’s story the whole time. Lastly once the twist has been revealed we shift to Robin narrating and see what has really been happening all along. This will keep the suspense and twist plausible for the watcher, just like the book did for the reader.
Plot: Nothing better than a romantic anniversary weekend away right? For their 10th anniversary, Adam and Ameila win a weekend away to snow packed Scotland, at a 1-star AirBnB. No phones, food, or warmth. Only real positive is that they have their trusted dog, Bob, with them. Well, that is until he goes missing everything starts to unravel.
Production Notes: According to the most recent Variety update (in April 2021), Rock Paper Scissors was optioned by Netflix. The book is not being made into a movie but rather a six-part series for Netflix. Alice Feeney’s Instagram still has states” ROCK PAPER SCISSORS coming to Netflix soon.” So our guess/hope is that nothing has changed but we haven’t heard any casting news, so we’ll help with that.
Genre: Thriller/Mystery
Logline: The Lodge + Memento
Proposed Casting for Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney
Adam – Adam’s character is a bit of an enigma. On the one hand he is a confident, charismatic screenwriter, who can work a room (despite not being able to read the faces he’s looking at). On the other hand he has a dark disturbing past and is haunted by his childhood. Collin Ferrell was the first actor that came to mind for Adam. I think he’s criminally underrated as an actor, who could easily pull off both sides of Adam. This is the type of role that would have you falling in love with him, despite the fact that Adam is a pretty terrible person.
Amelia – By the end of the book all of the characters are hateable, but none more than Amelia. A deceptive, manipulative, schemer who turns out to have a disturbing past as well. I’ll be honest, I just can’t get over the fact that she hid Adam’s cell phone so he had nothing to do for an 8 hour car ride. Of all the things she’s guilty of, that may be the worst. Casting Rosamund Pike in any of these thriller roles at this point, is a give away as she plays the dark manipulative characters so well. But if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it (speaking of broken, Fracture is a great under rated movie that I first saw her in). So she’s getting the nod as we work to put together an all-star psychological thriller cast.
Robin – Rosamund Pike could play either of these roles, but the key for the Robin casting is someone that looks somewhat similar to Amelia and potentially just as unstable. The ending of the book made you really question Robin’s mental state, so it’ll be interesting how they portray that in the series. For this role we’ll keep the all Irish/British cast going and go with Kate Winslet. She has shown she can pretty much play any role so casting her as an ex that holds an 11 year grudge? Eazy peazy lemon squeezy.
Henry Winters – Last but not least is the wild card in this book, Henry Winters. My guess in a movie/series he would end up playing a much larger role, because of the reveal and family connection discovered at the end of the book. For this part Anthony Hopkins made a lot of sense. He’s naturally an intimidating, intelligent, father type figure, who seems like he would have an extravagant desk in his home. (He also happens to be in the movie Fracture as well).
Let us know what you think of who we casted and what roles we’re missing, reach out to us. Or Check out our book club Podcast or Rock Paper Scissors Book Club Questions.
