I adapted "A Deadly Education" into a screenplay!
Heyhey! I adapted "A Deadly Education" into a (fanfiction-)screenplay! This is what it could´ve looked like if the novel were turned into a movie!
Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1U7H5mi9O-x2voWPklmKWZvw56pT0pXSo/view
Naturally I faced several hurdles during the process and needed to implement a few changes into the overall flow of the story, since shaping a novel into a different medium isn´t a simple matter of copy and paste. Regardless, I hope it´s an enjoyable read for everyone who craves more content from that incredibly world Naomi crafted. Further down I will try to explain what changes I felt I had to make and why. So please don´t hurl your "A la mort!"-curses at me just yet! (Of course, none of these changes are meant to criticize the source material in any way!)
The changes I implemented:
- The Scholomance: A windowless, sunless dungeon without any possibility of outside shots or anything at all that shows the viewer, where we even are. There´s no "BAM - this is Hogwarts!"-moment, no transitional shots to show outside seasons, no day-night circle to convey that time has passed between scenes - which makes it hard to convey it as a feasible location for a movie. So I had to be a little creative and depict the different locations within the Scholomance as distinct as possible. For example, I invented a firing range where students can practice their spells. Another way to show what the Scholomance even looks like were some animated blueprints that I used at several points in the story.
- El as a protagonist/Worldbuilding: El is already a junior, making her a notoriously difficult protagonist to work with since she already knows all the rules of the Scholomance. Plus, the way the book is written, most of the entire worldbuilding happens as lengthy, extremely subjective and biased monologue inside El´s mind. Theres little info conveyed through dialogue, which are in turn interpreted by El over the course of several pages. So I had 2 options: 1. Add an off screen-narrator to make El´s inner monologue audible to the viewer (which I decided not to) or 2. make El more talkative and give her more people to talk to. In order to achieve this, I invented a freshman called Zera (=someone who needs things explained to her) who befriends El and thus allows for some expository dialogue. Zera is doomed, of course, yet her presence alters several events during the first third of the story, straying away from the book as a consequence
- The concept of magic: I pictured magic powers like emotions. Naturally hard to control and heavily influenced by the current mood you are in. As a teenager, nothing is harder to control or understand than your own emotions. For example, when El conjures a blue light orb as a personal torchlight, it flickers whenever El is startled. In turn, when El is furious with rage, her spells become fatal
- New Finale plus new final Boss: Possibly the biggest and most controversial change. I extended the original finale and added a new super boss to allow El and Orion their dramatic, climactic moment in the graduation hall. (Yes, I borrowed an idea from the second book for that very sequence.) Plus I invented a new mal acting as a final boss. Since maw-mouths loose their status as an insurmountable threat halfway through the story (after the library-incident), I had to come up with a different threat, something so imposing and terrifying that you need only peek at it to understand it´s the most devastating and powerful creature in the entire wizard world. (I effectively snubbed Patience and Fortitude for this. I decided a mindless, fleshy blob without intent, purpose or conscience doesn´t make for a good final boss in any case.)
- Maleficaria: I generally struggled with the concept of maleficaria since I had the feeling that fantasy CGI-creatures possibly aren´t very terrifying to look at. So for the graduation hall finale I dropped the concept of mals entirely. Instead I needed something that appears uniquely terrifying for every viewer - which left only zombies or insects. I chose giant insects after rewatching that infamous insect-pit scene from Peter Jacksons King Kong movie and used it as inspiration for the graduation hall finale
- Jack Westing: Given how many times Jack is mentioned throughout the entire trilogy, I felt he was dispatched of rather quickly and underwhelming. In my script, El and Jack have a proper fight scene. Every tale needs a strong villain and I used Jack as the villain of the first half of the story. But in order to have him really work as a villain, you first need to SEE him do evil things. (That´s why, in the same vain, Ophelia would need heavy changing in the third book. She´s made to be the most evil character in the series, yet you do not witness her do a single evil thing in the entire trilogy!) In my script, Jack gets the opportunity to act as a truly evil maleficer in a 1vs1 with El. For the second half of the story I needed another strong villain - who is revealed via a surprising twist during the endgame
- Added Liesel: Why, of course! An (emotionally) intelligent, sharp, authoritarian character, on par with El in many regards. She only appears in the final 20 pages of the script, but she dominates most scenes where she appears in. Plus she´s German, like me! Which leads me to the next point:
- Writing in a different language than your own is HARD! I certainly fumbled many descriptions and I most certainly wasn´t able to convey as much subtext in certain dialogues as I liked to, especially in that scene where- *whine* *complain* *cheap excuses* ...
- POV fight sequences: As a personal gimmick I wrote most action sequences as POV-scenes. Picture the scene switching into first person mode as though it becomes an ego-shooter, with El´s hands and magic acting as her weapons. If executed well, this allows for incredibly cool looking and immersive action-sequences
- Easter eggs: I hid/used some easter eggs regarding other magic-related media that inspired or influenced me, mostly videogames like Elden Ring or Forspoken or even Dragon Ball
TLDR: Slighty different first act, an extended new finale, a few new characters plus some alterations regarding the flow of the story here and there - still I tried to capture the atmosphere and the unique traits and personalities of Naomi´s characters. She did an incredibly job with her Scholomance saga and I hope that someday we will be able to see it on the big screen!