Post #4: Adapting Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Individual blog post (30 points)

Post 4: Adapting Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Imagine that you are tasked by a major studio with adapting your book.  What are the 3 most

important decisions you would need to make as director in order to create a successful

adaptation?  Explain what the decision is, then explain why it is so important.  Options you

could consider:

In adapting the book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close one of the most important decisions that you would have to make is choosing what adaptation makes the most sense. I think the one that makes the most sense is a movie. Not just because it has already been made into a movie and I think that since they picked it I should too. I think that it should because it is the one that makes the most sense. I personally have not seen the movie so I don't have anything to bias my decision. Although a musical or TV show would be cool I don't think it is logical because of how he travels all throughout New York, you wouldn't be able to put that on a stage. You could adapt it but it would be hard because of the immensity of New York and how far he travels. I also don't think a TV show would be logical because there isn't enough of the book to make it into a TV show. Its not a series, and its not over 1,000 pages long. There is an idea to where ever he went there could be a new episode but even though that is a good idea there is not enough information in the book to make it happen. At most it would just be a chapter and even then there would have to be a lot of information substituted in and I really don't like when people make things up about books that don't belong. That is why I think movie is the best choice because it keeps true to the book and it easily captures all of New York.

Another important decision that would need to be made in the adaptation of this book in to a film is keeping essential scenes. I think that all of the scenes where Oskar is traveling New York should be kept. Another important scene that I think should be kept are all of the scenes with his grandma and grandpa. As much as the story is about Oskar and his journey the story of his grandma and grandpa are just as important. They tell the story that make Oskar's dad and eventually Oskar and I think that is very important.

The last important decision that I would make in adapting this book into a movie is that the whole time that the grandpa and grandma are telling their stories, it is all in writing and you can't really do that on a screen so you would have to figure out how you would change the written stories of his family into film. I think that you could focus on the grandma/grandpa writing and then zoom into their writing but it turns into film. And they could act out their stories and things like that.