If Little Star was a film...how would the characters differ?

[danielma]

I'm going to extend on from another post on this board, the "At What Point Did you Loose Sympathy for T & T" thread...because I think this is kind of interesting.

The question is pretty simple. If Little Star were to be made into a film (I kinda hope that one day it might happen), would the characters of Teresa and Theres be completely re-tooled? Would a general audience be able to gravitate to this story as a film and would that result in the main characters being re-tooled?

Lets look at Let the Right One In for a moment. As much as I love the hell out of that film, it is hard to deny that the characters were slightly re-tooled from their appearance in the book. Film Eli has far more of an old soul quality to her where as Book Eli I would say is a little more childish (at times). Same thing happened with Oskar, Book Oskar is (I think) somewhat of a much stranger outcast in the book...to be honest, I think that film Oskar was toned down just slightly from his Book counterpart...and I think that this was somewhat done to maybe make Oskar appear a little more sympathetic or likeable to the audience...sure, its still the essence of Oskar but I think it is slightly toned down.

This got me thinking about Little Star and the response to Teresa and Theres within the "Sympathy" thread. As I've said in that thread, I felt more so a weird sense of Empathy then I did Sympathy for them...but it seems there are some people who do find these characters fascinating yet repulsive in their actions. And it got me thinking about a film version and as to whether that would fly with a general audience.

Would these characters work in a film as they are described on the page or would they have to be retooled in order to give the audience some measure of sympathy to cling too??? Personally, I wouldn't want these characters to be toned down because I think that's what is absolutely fascinating about them and in many ways compelling...I shouldn't be rooting, engaged, or compelled by these girls, but I am. Even if their actions are repulsive

BUT, would that fly for say a Mainstream Audience? Or would these characters be re-tooled for said hypothetical film version?

[a_contemplative_life]

I think Theres is so weird that it would be hard to change her very much without really changing the storyline. Teresa could be made a bit more sympathetic by highlighting the bullying and ostracizing that she underwent.