Film Adaptation

I am choosing "The Veldt" as my short story to adapt to film. I am going to keep the same title because I feel a title should reflect a key element in the story but not give away the main point or focus of the story.

I am going to propose that the film version keep all of the same characters. I could see some possible changing of the parents names, however I feel that it is important that their are no other main characters added to this story. I think that focusing on the two adults vs. the two children is one of the things that makes this short story effective. The only other character in short story is Mcclean. He is the only outside influence outside of the inhabitants of the house that this story needs. He provides the story with much needed sanity and it is clear to the reader he is the only one in the story that hasn't been, to some degree, driven insane by the technology of the house.

The setting of the film would need to appear as some time in the near future in rural America. The audience needs to be able to believe that this affect that technology has on the family in the story can to some degree happen to their own family if they allow technology to run their lives. Obviously the story isn't trying to persuade the audience to believe that because of technology their children could kill them, but just that there can be serious consequences for allowing technology to take over their lives. I feel that setting is key to allowing the audience to relate the story to their own lives and that's why rural America is an obvious choice for me.

As for the plot, I love the way this short story is set up. It has a great story line that can be adapted into film, which is one of the reasons I chose this this story. Obviously there needs to be some lengthening of the story to be able to turn it into a full length film. I think that the film should start with the purchasing of the house that eventually leads to the deaths of the parents. Then I think that the time period between the initial purchase and the deaths of the parents will take up the majority of the movie. This portion of the movie will consist of scenes showing the family progressively getting more and more reliant on the house as well as foreshadowing to the last big scene which would be where the actual short story picks up. I plan to virtually go line by line and word by word once the point in the film reaches the first paragraph of the short story.