Parts 1-3 Pacing & Necessities

I am very concerned about the pace that the film will take, as far as plot events and character exposition go. The reason I say so is because we meet Hannah for the first time (besides what we learn initially about her death) in ch. 5 and this is relatively quick considering the novel is 36 chapters. There are a lot of crucial elements that must be incorporated from chapters 1-5 and I feel the film shouldn't rush this exposition of her past (her mothers death, verduga, etc.) because they will becomes key visual queues for the audience by the end of the film. If anything, the amount of onscreen time for the events of Blue and the bluebloods should definitely be hastened, because this is where the novel tends to get thick. The excursion to France can also have some fat trimmed, but it must be visually emphatic as far as Blue's alleged encounter with Verduga and also when she walks in on the conversation that her father and his friend try to hide from her. Lastly, I feel that the stage where Blue begins piecing the Nightwatchmen conspiracy together must be elaborated on, because in the book she begins doing so in chapter 30, and if this time frame were mimicked in the film, the audience would certainly have the feeling of a rug being pulled out from underneath them. Blue won't be able to just throw herself into this tangent as she has done in the novel, rather it should be prolonged so that the visual story queues from earlier in the film may be cleverly alluded to.

That is all from me for now. More later on the characters and some interesting stuff I found on the web about the novel.

Oh, for those of you who haven't, take some time and check out the official site for Marisha Pessl, it is all based around Special Topics in Calamity Physics. It is pretty interactive and interesting to say the least. Here it is: http://www.calamityphysics.com/main.htm