Could The Lottery Be Translated into a Dystopic YA Film?
Reading it, I enjoyed The Lottery quite a bit, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t remind me of the 2012 dystopia movies I was invested in to an embarrassing degree as a tween; Female protagonist (albeit older than the twenty-something-year-old Hollywood average and married with children) who ~rebels~ against the inhumane living conditions the rest of society seems to be fine living under for some reason. Ceremonies to decide who amongst the laypeople crowd will be sacrificed/exiled/etc. Civil unrest directed initially in-group instead of towards the government/power controlling said inhumane conditions. It’s a stretch, but I kind of feel like it works. So were I tasked with adapting this story into a film, there are some aspects of the early 2010’s tried-and-true YA movie formula I’d have to follow:
First off, the role of Tessie Hutchinson would have to go to Shailene Woodley. Now, I’ve never left a screening of a Shailene Woodley film and thought, “Wow, Shailene Woodley is a good actress!” She’s fine, don’t get me wrong, but she receives this role mainly because she is the YA film it-girl. Is your angsty female protagonist really an angsty female protagonist if her inner-monologue isn’t narrated by Woodley’s inflection-less voice?
The soundtrack would have to have a feature from a dwindling pop musician praying on this movie’s success to launch them back into relevancy. I’m thinking Ellie Goulding. When released as a single, it’d be 100% inescapable for 6 weeks, and pushed as a Girl Power Anthem to be added alongside Taylor Swift and Demi Lovato in the Spotify playlists of 8-year-olds and 30-year-olds alike.
I’d revise the script to be more predictable. Tessie Hutchinson would have to live, stage a revolution, and be forced to choose between two nearly-identical white guys at some point in this film. So Mr. Hutchinson and the Hutchinson children are out. Also, despite said white guys’ nearly-identical status, one of them would have to be just a bit worse somehow, and that’d have to be the man she picks.
So that’s how I imagine the Hollywood adaptation of The Lottery would go. The final product would lose the intended message about society, but it would also, like, kill among middle-schoolers. Also, there’d be a biracial sidekick played by Amandla Stenberg somewhere in there. There always is.
First off, the role of Tessie Hutchinson would have to go to Shailene Woodley. Now, I’ve never left a screening of a Shailene Woodley film and thought, “Wow, Shailene Woodley is a good actress!” She’s fine, don’t get me wrong, but she receives this role mainly because she is the YA film it-girl. Is your angsty female protagonist really an angsty female protagonist if her inner-monologue isn’t narrated by Woodley’s inflection-less voice?
The soundtrack would have to have a feature from a dwindling pop musician praying on this movie’s success to launch them back into relevancy. I’m thinking Ellie Goulding. When released as a single, it’d be 100% inescapable for 6 weeks, and pushed as a Girl Power Anthem to be added alongside Taylor Swift and Demi Lovato in the Spotify playlists of 8-year-olds and 30-year-olds alike.
I’d revise the script to be more predictable. Tessie Hutchinson would have to live, stage a revolution, and be forced to choose between two nearly-identical white guys at some point in this film. So Mr. Hutchinson and the Hutchinson children are out. Also, despite said white guys’ nearly-identical status, one of them would have to be just a bit worse somehow, and that’d have to be the man she picks.
So that’s how I imagine the Hollywood adaptation of The Lottery would go. The final product would lose the intended message about society, but it would also, like, kill among middle-schoolers. Also, there’d be a biracial sidekick played by Amandla Stenberg somewhere in there. There always is.
I laughed so hard while reading this post because of its somewhat scary accuracy. I completely agree with your casting. I would add a weird age or power gap between the white guys that the movie plays off as romantic but through a closer look is just weird. Thank you for this great adaptation.
ReplyDelete"Female protagonist (albeit older than the twenty-something-year-old Hollywood average and married with children) who ~rebels~ against the inhumane living conditions the rest of society seems to be fine living under for some reason. Ceremonies to decide who amongst the laypeople crowd will be sacrificed/exiled/etc. Civil unrest directed initially in-group instead of towards the government/power controlling said inhumane conditions." YES! Fantastic comparison! (I'd add that a key distinction between Tessie Hutchinson and, say, Katniss Everdeen is that Tessie is motivated by a selfish desire for self preservation [she's willing to participate in the lottery until her own family becomes the target, at which point she suggests her adult daughter should had to draw as a member of the family to reduce the risk that Tessie herself will die], while Katniss is motivated by a desire to protect her younger sister.)
ReplyDeleteYour paragraph about the soundtrack--"The soundtrack would have to have a feature from a dwindling pop musician praying on this movie’s success to launch them back into relevancy. I’m thinking Ellie Goulding. When released as a single, it’d be 100% inescapable for 6 weeks, and pushed as a Girl Power Anthem to be added alongside Taylor Swift and Demi Lovato in the Spotify playlists of 8-year-olds and 30-year-olds alike."--had me laughing out loud. You've really captured the early-twenty-first-century zeitgeist.
I both really want this film to be made and really don't. It'd be great to hate-watch, but also probably depressing. (Also, I just read that Elisabeth Moss is playing Shirley Jackson in a new movie, which I hope is more watchable than this fantastically imagined adaptation of "The Lottery.")
- Ms. O'Brien