Miguel Carpio

Writing 39B
16 April 2019

RIP: Yellow Wallpaper Adaptation

The Idea
The new adaptation of this piece of literature onto the big screens would be titled ​The
Man in the Wallpaper​. Similar to how ​The Yellow Wallpaper ​as a female gothic touches on the
cultural anxieties of America pertaining to women, the film adaptation will do the same and
focus on topics such as love, marriage, divorce, domestic abuse, and infidelity. The target
demographic for this film would be the vast population of unhappy married women or divorced
women, and of course, the gothic-horror seeking audience.
The adaptation centers on the modern present-day 10 year marriage of a husband, played
by Jake Gyllenhaal, and a wife, played by Jennifer Lawrence. They are unhappy together, but
will not divorce. Longing for someone else to reignite the worn out flame of her love life, the
wife goes out on various one-night-stands with multiple men. One night however, her husband
finds her lying with another man and is subjected to domestic abuse and is forced to stay in the
house. Abused and mentally broken, the woman is desperate for a spark of romance. To her
“luck”, a man in the wallpaper, played by Tom Ellis, reveals himself to her. Despite the
paranormal, she quickly falls in love with his looks and charismatic nature. However, she will
come soon to realize that, in love, there is no such thing as “the one” and that everyone has their
demons. The man in the wallpaper, unfortunately to her, is no different.

The Pitch
SCREENWRITER: Alright so here’s the idea…
(AGENT reads the idea)
AGENT: Okay… I see. You know that we need this film to appeal to a large audience right?
So what makes you think there is a large demographic of unhappy married woman or divorced
woman in the United States?
SCREENWRITER: Well for one thing, I know some women in unhappy marriages. My mother
and wife are one them.
(AGENT laughs)
SCREENWRITER: Jokes aside, there is a growing population of unhappy married women and a
lot of marriages today end up in divorces because of unreal expectations in amongst romantic
relationships.
AGENT: Hm, that makes sense. But what is this talk about idea of “the female-gothic”. How
will this appeal to a broader audience?
SCREENWRITER: You see, nowadays, there is a whole progressive movement regarding
women in society and topics like domestic abuse come up, so people are looking for a film that
will speak about these issues. The gothic genre is keen on the idea of transformation and I
believe this specific genre will allow the film to explore and portray this idea of change in
woman and their role and cultural ideologies in marriage. Also, a vast majority of people want
empowering female roles in film. Young adult Hunger Games-like movies come to mind since
they all have lead female roles, and they did really well in the box office.
AGENT: Is that why you picked Jennifer Lawrence to play the role of the wife? Because you
saw ​Hunger Games​?
(AGENT and SCREENWRITER laugh together)
SCREENWRITER: Well partly, but not necessarily. Women are apparently relating more and
more to Jennifer Lawrence because she is “down-to-earth”, so having an actor on the screen that
an audience can relate to is important. I also chose her because of her great ability to act in a
dramatic role. Her spectacular acting in ​Silver Linings Playbook​ comes to mind.
AGENT: I see. What about Jake Gyllenhaal and Tom Ellis and their roles?
SCREENWRITER: Jake Gyllenhaal, no offense to him, just has a look of crazy in his eyes. His
role in ​Nightcrawler​ comes to mind and gives off the vibe that he is just a violent sociopath and
would be perfect for the role as the husband. Tom Ellis is also an ideal actor for the role as the
man in the wallpaper. His role in ​Lucifer​ as an attractive and charismatic devil is similar to this
one. So overall, what do you think of this idea?

Reflection
I made it so that my screenwriter is a humorous and intelligent person. The screenwriter
is able to make the agent laugh and answer the agent’s questions in high detail. This allows for
the screenwriter to be more convincing to the agent as the screenwriter uses appeals to pathos
(humor) and logos (facts and details). I showed this in my writing by making the screenwriter tell
a joke and being well detailed in his answers to the agent.
When adapting ​The Yellow Wallpaper​, I thought about unhappy marriages and
relationships because I read and heard from media that there is a growing amount of divorces due
to people in unfulfilling marriages. So, I just thought, “Why not make this adaptation about this
topic?” and it just so happens that ​The Yellow Wallpaper​ is a good foundation to this idea. I
believe this is due to the fact that the short story is a genre of the female-gothic and the topic of
unhappy marriages relates to the genre well since the female-gothic concerns itself about
revealing political and cultural insecurities of women in society. I think this is effective in the
sense that the gothic genre has an element of horror and this will allow the film to reveal the
horrors of domestic abuse and broken-hearted marriages. In addition to that, the genre allows for
a sense of romance between the supernatural and physical world that is portrayed in this
adaptation and explore this topic of unfulfilling relationships no matter who the person may be:
ghost or human.