Film Adaptation Proposal

So for "The Lottery", I haven't made a lot of changes but have put some thought into how it could be made into a longer film.

Title:

I'm going to keep the original title because it gives the illusion of having a happy moment sooner or later in the movie instead of the true spin at the end. The title also doesn't give away any clues as to the story or to the end of it. The title is very ominous of the story.

Characters:

Although I don't know exactly who is going to play who yet, I do know who needs to be a major character and who needs to just be a minor character from the story. The major characters will have a short story of how their day of the lottery happens.

The major roles, I believe, are -

• Joe Summers
• Old Man Warner
• Tessie Hutchinson
• Mrs. Delacroix
• Bill Hutchinson
• Bill Jr., Nancy, and Davie Hutchinson

Setting:

The setting isn't mentioned in the story so that choice is up to me but it will still be placed in a small village where everyone knows everyone and isn't in a big city or around big cities. It will be set in the earlier 1900's simply because this wouldn't happen in the end half of the century. I don't want to specify a specific year but do want to end up choosing a specific decade or time period that will be identifiable through the clothes worn.

Plot/Conflict:

I want to set up the movie to be similar to the movie Crash where there are lots of several little stories and plots that lead up to the big picture in the end. As I said before, most of the major characters will have their own preview of the day and their daily activities of what happens on June 27. Could also include a flashback to the very first lottery and how exactly it came to be instead of just jumping into it. And instead of abruptly ending with Tessie getting stoned, we could add a little at the end of how the village goes on the next day and what happens then but just as a little recap and nothing big.

Irony:

Points of the story that portray irony which I want to include and hopefully convey very well are:

• Tessie Hutchinson being late to the lottery
• Old Man Warner bragging about making it through 77 lotteries
• And in general of how the people communicate with each other and how they look at one another with a kind of fear in their eyes.

Symbolism:

Some points of symbolism I hope to convey are:

• The little boys picking up tiny rocks/pebbles at the beginning of the short story.
• The description and vision of the black box where the names are pulled from every year since the very first lottery.
• The way the date is the same every year for the lottery.
• And how the rituals have changed in the past couple of years from when the lottery first started and how it seems to be more lenient from the past.