The House of the Scorpion. Novel by Nancy Farmer.

It’s a kid’s coming of age story, except that this kid (Matt) happens to live in a dystopian future plagued by many political and social problems that stem from today’s society and is the clone of the dictator of a new country between Mexico and the US that uses prisoners-turned-zombies to harvest opium, and he has to survive a large number of characters with unknown sinister plots against him and environments that are not very conducive to life.

Why I would like to see it done:

I have a thing for dystopia and I must have read this book like at least every year since the first time I read it at age 10. Not even sure what the age recommendation on this book is, but it had a lot of drugs and zombies and child abuse in it so I’m guessing over age 10 but because I was allowed to read 1984 when I was 9, which is straight up awkward sex and torture, I guess it was safe giving me The House of the Scorpion. And I turned out okay.

And The House of the Scorpion is a book that is exciting and fairly easy for people to understand but still explores issues that pertain to our present society. Most similar modern novels like Uglies or The Hunger Games etc.. just think of a random problem to afflict society with and then write about it.

But back on the subject: I love this book so much. Seriously. And a movie would be a great way to bring the story to more people. Plus who doesn’t love movies set in a dystopian future?

Finally, I just think the story lends itself well to a movie.

Why I should be the one to do it:

I think it would be good to make a movie adaptation of a more substantial and definitely darker ‘young adult’ book. I would probably go a step farther from ‘it would work as a movie’ and say that, if done right, a lot could be added to the story, like generally smoothing it out and adding definition. Simply because the story is the story of a character with a lot of the plot hinged on his own inner feelings and developments (not to mention he refuses to speak for several chapters of the book) I feel it would be best to have the main character as a narrator. Plus it makes the mood a little lighter.

And I would make it ridiculously long (like 3 hours long) because not only do I think it would be necessary to include EVERYTHING that happened in the book in order to truly convey the essence and meaning of the story, but I also think that longer movies just tend to be more of an experience than shorter ones, because they can actually separate you from reality.

Plus sequels are bullshit. Unless the story is exceedingly long and/or detailed, (LOTR, Star Wars, etc..) just get that shit over with. I don’t want to be waiting forever and dealing with inconsistencies just so you can make a few more buck off of me.

Also I think of myself as a kind of a one-person fandom for this book. I’ve never seen anyone online talking about it, (outside the reader reviews section of various book sites) probably because it’s a few years old, and I would love to geek out with people

Things I would enjoy creating/designing:

 I would love to design all of those futuristic vehicles and locations for the later end of the book, when everything seems like a weird mixture of traditional mexico and and some kind of sci-fi wasteland. And designing the heavy machinery and large krill tanks in a sad landscape and I mean it is set like 200 years in the future so I think I could go a little crazy.

I would fucking LOVE to draw the boneyard with all the precariously balanced giant whale bones and then the bats flying around. Plus there’s the strangely fantasy-like soulless yet beautiful scenery in the beginning of the book, like the poppy fields and the elegant estate with peacocks roaming around and opulent interiors and beautiful gardens.

It would definitely make for some great images.

Things I would change: (if anything)

The ending seems a little rushed and some of the characters need to be pinned down a little more and maybe given traits less similar to each other. I think that would be something I would tweak, maybe even adding some length to the plot or shortening things like time spent in certain places to make up for it, then adding a big climax point to make it go down easier. you know, smooth it out.

So think about it, movie industry. It would be a pretty good movie.