Girl Talk: The Girl Most Likely on the big screen

Girl Talk: The Girl Most Likely on the big screen

A film version of Rebecca Sparrow's debut novel, The Girl Most Likely, was at the top of GWAS' recent list of Books That Should Most Definitely Be Adapted for the Big Screen, so news brought to light by Sparrow herself of the film's progress (and its website!) for her Sunday Mail column readers brought us much delight. To wit:

"My first novel, The Girl Most Likely, is the story of Rachel Hill, a travel writer who goes to Vegas and marries her American boyfriend in secret only to wind up broke, unemployed, working as a nanny and living back in her childhood bedroom at her parents’ house in Kenmore. By complete coincidence I was a travel writer who secretly married her American boyfriend in Las Vegas only to wind up broke, unemployed, working as a nanny and living back in my childhood bedroom at my parents’ house in Chapel Hill. It is fiction after all.


But if you think it’s a little weird to write about your real life in a novel, imagine what a freak-out it is when someone wants to turn that semi-autobiographical novel into a movie. Imagine the head spin when names like Isla Fisher and Jessica Marais are being bandied about to play the lead. The lead who is based on you.  Could Jessica Marais really play a character based on me?  She’s tiny. I look like I ate Jessica Marais.  Perhaps she could play my left thigh.


Anyway.  The good news is that screenwriter and producer Ken Wallace is keen to have fans of the book involved in the production.  What does that mean? It means if you want to follow the project, have your voice heard or be considered for casting, join the Facebook page for updates and register your interest at www.thegirlmostlikelyfilm.com


Now for the bad news (I’m hiding under the desk while I type this bit).  At this stage, the film may not be shot in Brisbane.


“Of course we’d love to film in Brisbane but financing dictates many of our locational decisions so we have to keep an open mind. Could Rachel be a Sydney-sider? I don’t know. Would that be bad thing?” Ken says to me over email.


ARE YOU MAD? I scream back at the computer screen.  This could be Praise all over again.


If you’d like to see the movie shot in Brisbane, do me a favour and go online. Tell Ken what you think.


So, there you have it. GWAS is tickled pink. Sparrow is one of those kind, generous and nurturing women – who's given me more time and leg-ups than any other mentor – who uses her talent for good purposes (like raising money for causes close to her heart) and has a fan base from 16 to 60-year-olds, so it's in this spirit that I hope she is equally blessed with a Box Office hit.

I'm lucky enough to be joining Rebecca at a Speaker's Ink event next Thursday (International Women's Day), where we'll be sharing our insights into all things media with a , and again at The Ultimate Girlie High Tea (an offshoot of Writers on Rafts) she's planning to raise money for the floods.

Girl With a Satchel