Post 4: Adapting Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

I believe that in order to make a successful adaption for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, you would need to make sure these things are included in the film;

• The grandfather's past needs to be accurately portrayed in the film in some kind of flashback that resembles the letters he writes in the book. Also putting these letters in somewhat of an order, as one segment in the movie rather than having them scattered throughout like the book does- I found this very hard to understand who the letter was addressed to especially when the grandma wrote a letter and attached a letter inside of that letter (letterception!).
• This is important because throughout the book, we read these letters that the grandfather writes and we learn about his past and how he lost his words. As a reader, we can start to develop an emotional connection to him and we want things to turn out alright for him. Although he plays such a small role within Oskar's father and Oskar’s life, in the end, Oskar does join up with the grandfather even though he is still unaware that the renter is of relation to him.
• I would cut the scene involving Oskar acting in Hamlet. Although this was an amusing scene featuring all of the Black's he had met sitting in the audience, as well as his intense and graphic description of beating a fellow actor- it would just take time up in the movie that could be better focused on some other scene. This scene in the book is also very focused within Oskar’s thoughts and not very much dialogue so it would be more work to come up with a dialogue that would suit this scene.
• Oskar is the narrator of the book and having this in a film would obviously be very boring to an audience if they had to listen to a voice over the entire movie. I suggest giving Oskar some sort of outlet to express his inner thoughts and feelings because in the book, they were very apparent and actually made the book very interesting. This could be done in a variety of ways, maybe a journal or adding another companion. Mr. Black does come in to join Oskar's journey but this is only towards the middle-end of the book. Having him join earlier could be beneficial rather than pairing Oskar up with some made up character that doesn't follow the book. It would be quite tricky but I feel that as a film producer, having Oskar’s thoughts cut out would really take away from the character and only leave the audience to interpretations of who he is rather than getting the full feel of him.

(Also he isn't wearing white! What's up with that Hollywood?!)