Adapting The Da Vinci Code

If you try and adapt The Da Vinci Code into a movie, you will run into many problems. You will have to keep the heart-pounding action while having the suspense that makes the book so great. One of the scenes that you must keep in order to make the movie great is the killing of Jacques Sauniere. In this scene a mystery man is inside of the Louvre Museum in Paris trying to find Jacques. Little do people know that Jacques is one of the last protectors of a very important secret. Jacques is shot by the mystery man and is left to die. He has no escape and nobody to tell his secret. So he decides to leave a series of clues so that his secret is not lost forever. This is an important scene because its the beggining of the book and it sets the stage for the rest of the book. If the beginning is bad then people will assume that the whole book is going to be bad. This is also the beginning of the main storyline. In this scene Jacques leaves clues for Sophie and Robert so they can keep his secret safe. Another scene you would have to have in the movie is when Robert and Sophie try to escape the Louvre Museum.  This is important because this is the beginning of Sophie and Robert's friensdship. They have to work together to unlock the secret behind the the clues and escape the Louvre. The reason thst they have to escape the Louvre is Robert is the prime suspect of the mureder of Jacques. Sophie is a cryptologist with the french polica and believe Robert is innocent. The last scene that the must put into the movie is when they find out the Theabing is the Teacher. Throughout the book Teabing had been helping Robert and Sophie search for the Grail. Nobody whould have thought that Teabing would betray Robert and Sophie like that. It was completely unexpected.

Two things that you could cut from the movie are the two minor characters, Remy and the Bishop. You wouldnt need Remy because all he does is help Teabing get around and eventually gets murdered. In the book he helps Silas escape from Robert and Sophie but eventually Silas and Remy both get murdered. You wouldnt need the Bishop because he doesnt do anything until the end of the book. All he does it murder Remy and take orders from the Teacher (Teabing).

Locked in Room

Locked inside
 

When you think of the book Room, what do you think of? Jack? Old Nick? The first thing most people think of is the Room. Now there’s a way for fans of the book to experience life in a small, cramped room. Now in this limited time camp, you can be locked in a room, identical to the one in the book, for 3 days. You would be provided food and water while you are in Room. You will be able to experience the pain and anguish that the characters had to live through for 7 years. You can also go and visit the hospital where Jack and Ma were kept once they escaped. While at the hospital, you can see where Jack and Ma slept and where they ate. This is a great way to connct with the events and characters in the book. By visiting these areas, you can get a sense of the danger Jack and Ma were in throughout the whole book.

            Origin of the idea

In the book Room by Emma Donoghue, a woman is kidnapped and held in a shed that had been modified to be a prison cell. The walls are unbreakable. The door has a four digit code that only Old Nick, the person that kidnapped her, knows. Even the skylight is made out a material that couldn’t be broke even with a bomb. The woman gets raped by Old Nick almost every night. She later finds out that she is pregnant. Old Nick dosen’t want to risk her running away, so they have the baby in the room. She names the baby boy Jack. Every Sunday, Jack and Ma can ask for a treat called the Sundaytreat. Old Nick provides them with food, but if they want something like candy, they have to ask for it on Sunday. They only get one treat per week. For example, when Jack turned five they asked for five candles for their Sunday treat.  Jack said “You should ask for candles for Sundaytreat” (Page 21). Some mornings when Jack wakes up, Ma stays in bed all day. Jack calls this being “away”. Ma  does this when things are getting stressful in Room. Could you imagine being locked in a Room with a five year old and not knowing how you are going to survive the next day? People think their day’s are stressful! As the weeks keep on going, Jack starts to get more curious about Room. He starts asking questions about how they got there and who Old Nick is. Ma has to answer these questions but some of them she doesn’t have an answer for. After a while Ma gets tired of answering questions about the Outside and decides to try and escape. Their plan is simple, pretend Jack is dead and wrap him up in the carpet so Old Nick dosen’t see he is really alive. Jack has some reservations about this. He says “ Let’s do this tommorow” (page 91). He was worried that Old Nick would find out he is faking and would hurt him and Ma. As the car slowed down, Jack made a run for it. He unwrapped himself and jumped out of the truck. Old Nick saw him and started to run after him. Jack saw a man walking his dog and immedualy ran to him. If it wasn’t for that man, Old Nick would have caught him and took him back to Room. When the police finally found the room, they got Ma and took them to the Police Station. After the police station they went to a hospital, where they got treatment for their cuts and emotional abuse. As the day’s continue, Jack learns the hardships of being in the outside world. He dosen’t understand what boundries are so he does some crazy things.When Jack and his grandma are shopping, Jack recognizes a book he had in Room. He puts it in his backpack and walks out of the store. The alarms go off and they take the book out of his backpack. He gets upset because he thinks the book was his. After a while in the hospital, Jack and Ma get their own apartment with assisted living because they aren’t ready to live by themselves just yet. The book ends on a good note when Jack and Ma get their apartment and start living a normal life.

The Connection

I think this a great idea because it allows people who haven’t gone throught this, which hopefully is no one, to see what its like to be trapped in a room. When I read this book I could imagine this happening, but I couldn’t imagine what it wold be like for me. It also lets people get a better understnading of the suroundings Jack and Ma were in. You can actually see the cork tile floors. You can actually see the indestructible skylight. You can actually see the door with the four didgit code. Without this experience, you wouldn’t be able to have a full undestanding of what it was like. Also by adding the hospital to the mix, you can see where Jack and Ma got help for their physical and mental problems.

 My ideas for Room

What is a book? Post #2

A book is a place where your imagination can run free. A book allows you to imagine things that can’t happen in real life. When you are reading a book you are a whole new person. You can think of yourself as an astronaut or a princess, it doesn’t matter. I agree with Joe Meno that “ a book is actually a place, a place where we, as readers, still have the chance to engage in active imagining, translating word into image, connecting these images to memories, dreams and larger ideas.” Books are like art. They allow to seeing something and interpret it in your own way. Without books we wouldn’t be able to imagine life through another person’s eyes like we can do with books. I disagree with Victor LaValle’s idea that books are “No more divine than a toaster.” Books are something magical. I know a lot of people say that E-Readers are way better because it less to carry but that ruins the magic of books. Books were made for people to carry. Also when you read off and E-reader, you lose the smell of books. Books have that musty smell to them that makes you wonder where they came from. It just adds to the mystery of books. E-Readers smell like they came straight from a factory.  I think that if you don’t read a book on paperback or hardback, you shouldn’t read books at all. I’m the kind of person that likes to go along with tradition or reading books made out of paper.