I would open the film with a dark college dorm room, we see Blue lying awake in bed staring across the room, we cut to her pov as the moon from the window lights up a picture of James Dean on the wall. After a few seconds of cutting back and forth between her and the picture we cut to Hannah Schneider hanging from the orange extension cord, a vo of Blue's is saying the words at the bottom of the 1st page and on the top of the second describing when she found Hannah's body. Then I would have her begin to talk and think about the days when she was young and driving around the cuntry with her father. As she would say each place we would get to see a house or a school or some aspect of her life from that place. Talking about growing up traveling the country with her father would led to talking about her mother, and what happened to her. Photos and memories and of her mother and Blue when she was young was flash on the screen. I vision this as all being things that are running through her head and causing the sleeplessness.
I struggle with where to go from here. Because she runs out of her class room and begins to sit down and write her life story. I would rather see her begin to write it that night, the idea spawning from the memories and the things her father would tell her. I would take Soo-Jin out of the picture completely and have Blue living in a single alone at Harvard, to help add to her distance from everyone else. She could get out of bed turn on her desk lamp and stare at the blank papers and say, (vo), what she does on the bottom of page 10 to 12 in paraphrase.
I am favorable of following the original work as closely as possible, because in a book you must use all of your imagination and senses to bring the story to life, in a film it is presented for you and all you have to do is sit there and watch and listen. If you stray from the original then you are changing the characters and in escense changing the story. Now by no means must you repeat the book word for word, but I want to see the film follow the book. For instance, I would like to see the chapters be shown in the film, not all 36, that would extreme and drawn out, but significant ones, and parts from one could be added to another. I agree with what someone said in class about the chapters being part of a library in her head, I'm not sure who said and I apologize for stealing your idea however I like it.
Obviously I want the audience to understand her past so some stories from the road with her father must be told, however I feel the story gets good when she arrives at St. Galloway. That is where I would like to see the main focus of the story. This way we know how Blue, (and her father), are before she arrives at the school, and how she is changed by Hannah and the Blue Bloods.
As far as a director goes I am not sure who the best would be. Right now I want to say Wes Anderson, but I feel that is only because I just saw Rushmore, and although his style is fantastic and does fit for this type of story, I'm not sure I would like to see him do it. I don't know how to describe it, but you know his style, and thinking about Rushmore, Life Aquatic, and Tenenbaums of the top of my head, I just feel he isn't the best choice. I would like to see certain techniques of his used, such as the way he does introductions, (which would be perfect for the Blue Bloods), or the way he presents the film in sections which fits perfect for this; however I feel it might make it a little to dry, (I really don't know how to explain what I mean and think about it, but I hope someone can understand).
I will comment on more directors and cast members after I have finished my IMDB research...