I’ve casted my novels before (see Dreamcasting the Lenticular). It helps me establish and differentiate mannerisms and speech patterns between different characters. Plus it’s a lot of fun imagining who might play the characters I create in a movie or TV adaptation. And the cast for End-Times is particularly glorious.
Markusz Zielinski
Tom Hiddleston
A casual observer would opine that Markusz thinks a lot of himself. It’s an observation Markusz would agree with while pointing out that such high self-regard was entirely justified as he is not only a proven (and verified) mathematical genius but was instrumental in developing the only known method of saving the universe. The same observer would also note that Markusz loves his wife Helena deeply. Markusz would again agree. She makes him a better person.
Sylfe Cachand
Clémence Poésy
Sylfe, like her younger sister Yvette, were born through parthenogenesis. Her mother told her at an early age to, ‘respect herself and not be boring’. She’s determined not to be the stereotypical head of a Paradisan company (she heads up SolEng SA, which specialises in stellar engineering for M-Worlds), or stereotypical anything for that matter. She has a deep understanding of stellar physics, a keen head for business and anyone who crosses her will live to regret it. But other than that, anything goes. The average and normal bores her – in herself as much as in others.
Helena Murchadh
Tuppence Middleton
A brilliant applied mathematician, physicist and engineer, Helena rose quicky through the ranks of the M-Worlds Cooperative Sciences and Technology Organisation to become Chief Engineer for the CSTO Task Force on the Effect. Noted for her significant work in identifying the anisotropic nexus of Effect events, she also works closely with Markusz Zielinski, who she fell in love with, despite his ability to piss off everyone else on the Task Force. She was the only one to see his potential and it was their collaboration which laid the foundations for the annulus.
Ernes Fontaneau
John Noble
Patri of one of the oldest Great Paradisan Families, Fontaneau is – to Sylfe’s way of thinking – a dangerous sociopath. Our same casual observer who had such a mixed opinion of Markusz Zielinski, would instead by completely drawn in by Fontaneau’s apparent affable and warm demeanour. But our observer would be a fool – and in some degree of danger having let his guard down around this man. Again according to Sylfe, who probably knows him best of all, Fontaneau wouldn’t know a genuine emotion if it bit him. He is cold, calculating and more than a little dead inside. He may convince you a particular course of action is for the greater good, but really everything he does is for the furtherance of himself alone and if you happen to be in the way, well… it’s been nice knowing you.
Hugo Denantes
Paul Giamatti
If Fontaneau is a threat hidden in plain sight, Denantes is just – obviously – a threat. Youngest son of the Great Paradisan Family of Denantes, he’s lucky to have escaped being disowned, his peccadillos and excesses are so disgusting. Instead, he’s been sent to represent the family business, Fabrika SA, as part of the Redout Project. This is probably a bad thing for everyone involved (and whatever remains of humanity).
Marthe Firmin
Clare Perkins
Mayor of the planet Garia, Firmin has seen her entire society sidelined by the initiation of the Redout Project and her people’s culture and public spaces knocked down and reshaped by an overwhelming torrent of incomers. She’s angry and resentful, but she’s biding her time. There is a disaster coming and her all-consuming focus is in making sure her people, above all the others languishing on Redout, are safest of all.
Kelan Teel
Charles Dance
A mediocre scientist – if you listen to Markusz – but at heart – and according to Helena who knows him best of all – a political animal with all the survival instincts of a rat. Teel has been chief scientist of the CSTO Task Force on the Effect for the last eighteen years (mainly because no-one else wanted a job that seemed doomed to failure), but like any rat, he’s determined to carve out a niche to survive in, no matter where he ends up, and screw anyone else.