Highlights from China Mieville's interview at i09

China Mieville answered several questions about his detective novel The City and The City.

Maps of The City and The City exist:

I did indeed draw them: three maps in fact. One the physical outlines of streets, then two maps that folded down on tape-hinges, drawn on tracing paper, with the environs of Beszel marked on one with lines in red running in one diagonal direction, and on the other Ul Qoma, in the other direction, in green, so when they were both overlaid I could see the separate areas and the overlap - the crosshatching.

His vision for the movie version:

Casting? I've had my idle ruminations. My own feeling is that it should be filmed, were it to be so, as absolutely simply as possible. Camera angles focusing on one architectural style in one city, a few fleeting glimpses of foreign passers by; other angles on other styles in the other; and in Breach a long, slow, 'Vertigo'-style panning in and pulling back, so that both styles come into shot at the same time. Keep the (effing) CGI out of it. Keep it super simple.

I think Csanyi is excellent, but a smidge young for Borlú. Honestly I don't know. If we're playing fantasy casting, I might as well go for people I'd like to meet, so let's say Brad Pitt (haggarded up a bit), Christian Bale as Dhatt, and the utterly incomparable Kenneth Cranham as Ashil. Then I can persuade Cranham to be King Rat, as well.

*Buy The City & The City at Amazon.