Helene Stapinski began her career at her hometown newspaper, The Jersey Journal. She is the author of the memoirs Five-Finger Discount: A Crooked Family History and Baby Plays Around: A Love Affair, with Music. Her essays have appeared in several anthologies, most recently, Drinking Diaries: Women Serve Their Stories Straight Up. Stapinski has also written extensively for The New York Times, for Travel & Leisure, Food & Wine, Salon, Real Simple, New York magazine and dozens of other newspapers, magazines and blogs. She’s been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered, The Today Show and as a performer with The Moth main stage.Here Stapinski dreamcasts an adaptation of her new book, Murder In Matera: A True Story of Passion, Family, and Forgiveness in Southern Italy:
There are two killer (pun intended) roles for women in Murder in Matera. Marisa Tomei would have to play me, the crazy mom traveling back and forth to Southern Italy to uncover the family murder. And Isabella Rossellini would play Vita, my great great grandmother, who escaped to America from the town of Bernalda after the murder in the 1800s, leaving her husband, Francesco behind.Visit Helene Stapinski's website.
Oscar Isaac, with his sad, dark eyes, would have to play the young Francesco because I love Oscar Isaac and want to meet him and have dinner with him. If Sophia Loren were a little younger, she'd be perfect to play Vita. She's one of my favorite actresses and her films were actually an inspiration when writing Murder in Matera, particularly Gold of Naples. A must see if you have any interest in Southern Italy.
Someone from the Coppola clan would direct since most of the story takes place in their ancestral village of Bernalda, where Francis recently opened a luxury hotel. And it would be filmed on site. Bernalda is achingly beautiful and in desperate need of a film industry cash infusion. Its neighbor, Matera, has been used as a stand in for countless Biblical films because it resembles Jerusalem. (Ben Hur, The Omen, Passion of the Christ).
Writers Read: Helene Stapinski.
--Marshal Zeringue
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