CHOSEN ADAPTATION

What She Wants

What is it?
Jennifer's Body is a 2009 American supernatural horror black comedy film written by Diablo
Cody and directed by Karyn Kusama. The main character is a demonically possessed high
school girl who kills and feeds off her male classmates to stay pretty, the other main
character is her best friend who is trying to stop her. 

Suitability for new medium:

Because the movie is set in high school and has opportunities for more content it would fit
into a series. It would be filmed in England, with around 2-4 main characters. The film could
take a different turn in the series, focusing more on Jennifer’s experience as the demon as
well as Needy’s experience of trying to stop her, with an added dynamic of Needy being out
of the know for a while longer to build suspense and make the story long enough. If the
story focuses on Jennifer more it could give the entire story a new perspective and meaning,
as the original focuses more on revenge. The supernatural could be more explored with the
longer time, as the ritual itself and what happens could have a more important and
recurring role in the story instead of just being the catalyst for the beginning.

Possible Opportunities/Constraints:
I’d need to get the rights to turn the movie into a series. The movie heavily relies on the
premise of murder, fighting, and the supernatural, which a small budget may not be able to
handle, most of the murder scenes would need to be implicated. A lot of it is set in a high
school, and we could use the college for this. The movie is set in America, so the
atmosphere that is normally in America would need to be adapted. In the original, a lot of
the plot revolves around a landmark in their town, not having this landmark gives an
opportunity to rework and extend the lore of the supernatural while also referencing the
original. Because of the small budget we may not be able to include a lot of the CGI that is
needed, which would hinder the story. Also, the locations that are in the movie would be
hard to find or replicate which could make the film harder to make.

Target Audience:
The target audience would probably be girls in the ages of teens to young adults, ranging
from 16-25, from E to C1 in the spending category, teens would like the show as high school
dramas tend to be marketed towards teenagers who watch shows like Riverdale or teen
wolf, both shows with supernatural aspects. And adults who previously watched Jennifer's
body would watch the series as many people are fans of the original cult-branded film.
Because the target audience, half would spend most of their income on bills and essentials
as they are adults with responsibilities, whilst the other half would spend their income on
food, make-up, or non essentials. All of the target audience would shop at high street shops
like Primark or Topshop.

Budget:
I would spend my budget on good actors and realistic locations as well as special and
practical effects, based on the BBC drama guidelines I would need a 500-630k an hour
budget. My show fits the BBC guidelines for drama 3 as it will have a high production value,
which is needed to make things like the murders and bodies look realistic instead of
laughable, with known talent that aren’t amateurs so that the performances can be emotive
and not leave the show feeling fake,  and also because the show has many locations e.g.,
abandoned houses, buildings, churches and locations with biblical undertones, a similar
show to this is Riverdale as they had a similar budget in their first season.

Audience Profiles: 
Anna
Anna is a 17-year-old college student who lives in Warrington. She lives with her
Mum, Dad, and 15-year-old sister, Mia. In her spare time, she skates and paints. She
enjoys going to concerts and finding new music. Her favourite drink is diet Pepsi, and
she loves chocolate and sweets. For her health, she takes ballet classes. 
When Anna has finished college, she plans to go to university and study physical education. Anna
shops at shops like Primark and Topshop. Anna works a part time job at Asda, which puts her in the E
category of the spending profile. Her family rarely go on holiday, and when they do it’s within the
UK. Shannon spends most of her income on clothes, accessories and miscellaneous items. She
watches tv shows like I Am Not Okay With This and Stranger Things. Anna loves the original
Jennifer’s body because she says it explores toxic friendship between women without it being a dig
at the stereotypical ‘cattiness’ that women are supposed to have.
Shannon
Shannon is a 16 year old college student who lives in Warrington. She lives with her
Mum, Step-Dad, 20 year old other brother, Stevie, and her two Labradors. In her
spare time, she interacts with the Little Mix, (a girl group) fandom, where she runs an
active fan page, she is also in the Police Cadets. When Shannon has finished college,
she plans to go to do a police apprenticeship and then join the forces. Shannon shops
at shops like Primark and Topshop. Shannon works a part time job at Superdrug,
which puts her in the E category of the spending profile. Her family rarely go on
holiday, and when they do it’s within the UK. Shannon spends most of her income on beauty
products and Little Mix merch. 
Her favourite TV show is Riverdale, as she can relate to characters in the show, this falls in line with
uses and gratifications theory of personal identity. Her favourite film is harry potter, this is used as a
diversion because she feels like she can get lost in it. Shannon said she likes Jennifer’s Body because
it shows how most serial killers are always assumed to be men and women can get away much
easier just because they’re women.

Copyright/Ownership/Permission for Adaptations

Fox Atomic Dune Entertainment has the rights to Jennifer’s body so I would need to get the
rights from them to adapt the script so that it’s not copyright. I wouldn’t need any copyright
permission for the script, because I’d be writing it myself. There isn’t a theme tune or a song
that is directly connected to Jennifer’s Body that I would need permission for as the movie
didn’t have either.
KEY SCENES
Beginning: Episode 1 -
 Needy wakes up to a faint knocking sound coming from downstairs, it stops as soon as she
sits up, she checks her phone and sees it’s 3am. Assuming that Jennifer has already returned
home from her date, she calls her name and turns only to see she’s not in the bed, or even
the room. Needy sees there is no sign of her returning and then she picks up her phone and
calls Jen. The phone rings for a while and then hangs up, going to her Jen’s answerphone.
The knocking starts again. She’s hesitant to go but just thinks it’s Jennifer coming back late
from the concert, she walks down the stairs and swings the door open making some
comment about how being sorry for falling asleep and leaving the door locked, but she trails
off upon seeing that there’s no one at the door. Curious, Needy steps out the door, she
turns to the side of her house in case Jennifer had tried to go through the back door and
calls her name but just before she can finish it something grabs her, wrapping an arm
around her waist and putting a hand over her mouth and nose. Needy starts screaming for
help, and unable to breath, attempts to pull the hand from over her mouth, whoever has
grabbed her is unbelievably strong, the hand over her mouth is wet, and when she pulls her
own hand away, her hand is covered in blood. She screams louder and begins to cry when
suddenly she is dropped onto the floor, she gasps for breath and attempts to scramble away
only to realise whatever grabbed her is now gone, she quickly runs into her house in fear of
it returning but as she’s getting up slips on the wet soil and tries to catch herself, she does,
but notices she’s looking at one of Jennifer’s shoes abandoned in front of her, dirty, and
covered in blood.
Middle: Episode 4 – 
After investigating the murders and noticing a pattern, Needy, thinking she knows where the
next body is going to be found, goes to the abandoned pool house at the top of the hill. She
finds Jennifer’s scarf on the way up and panics thinking Jennifer will be the next victim. She
runs into the building, avoiding all the plants and ivy that have overgrown it. While walking,
Needy hears weird noises that she can’t describe or recognise and follows them into the
back of the pool house, she walks into the back but a wet plant brushes her shoulder and
she jumps and drops her flashlight, she picks it up, expecting to continue following the
sound when she can’t hear it anymore. It’s silent as she looks around when suddenly her
light catches movement, she moves closer, and screams when she sees her best friend,
Jennifer, crouched over her friend from class, eating his freshly dead corpse. Her scream
attracts the attention of Jennifer, who is suddenly up and screaming at her like a banshee,
her jaw is unhinged and she is moving unnaturally fast. Needy attempts to run but Jennifer
tackles her, she starts crying and begging for her life while Jennifer, now straddling Needy,
just stares. Needy attempts to squirm away, but it’s in vain as Jennifer is too strong. Jen
unhinges her jaw even wider than before and backs up ready to bite, but as she lunges
forward she suddenly stops. Needy stills, hoping that she won’t irritate her any further.
Jennifer’s hand slowly moves to the necklace on Needy’s neck, the half of her best friend
necklace the pair share, she holds it in her hand for a second, observing it, before harshly
dropping it back onto Needy’s chest and standing up. Needy scrambles up and watches in
horror, as Jennifer casually strolls out of the building, leaving a crying Needy balled up 10
feet away from a dead body.
End: Episode 8  –
Needy chases Jennifer to a multi-storey car park, when she gets there, Jennifer begins
taunting her. Needy, not knowing where the echoes are coming from, attempts to maintain
her composure, taunting back instead of crumbling like she normally would. In an attempt
to bait her out, Needy begins talking about how pathetic it is that she’s hiding, saying she’s
supposed to be the ‘amazing Jennifer’ knowing she’s at her weakest due to not eating.
Jennifer’s taunts get quieter and quieter, until Needy suggests that she stopped Jennifer
from eating Chip, her boyfriend, because she needed to drop a few pounds. Enraged,
Jennifer comes out from behind a pillar and throws Needy against a wall. Not breaking,
Needy scrambles back up to her feet, calling Jennifer a bitch and ranting about how she was
always a bad friend, possessed or not. Jennifer laughs and tells her she’s being dramatic and
tells her to grab a tampon, implying that she’s just being hormonal. Jennifer, noticing that
Needy was in pain, begins laughing and talking about how even at her weakest she was
better than Needy’s strongest, even before she died. Needy waits for Jennifer to get close
before asking how she managed to stop her before, Jennifer raises her arm in order to strike
her but Needy slips out and runs away, hiding behind a pillar. We see Needy attempting to
silently catch her breath and Jennifer checking pillars far behind her in the same shot.
Jennifer calls out, asking who’s pathetic now, Needy calls back before running to another
pillar, saying she’s allowed to run from a flesh-eating demon who killed her boyfriend.
Jennifer, who was chased out before Chip bled out is surprised at his death, and when she
says ‘he died?’ We see Needy’s face change, hoping for a second that she was feeling some
sort of remorse. Her face changes again when Jennifer calls out ‘What a waste’. Needy
snaps. She sees the stake she dropped when she was thrown and quickly picks it up,
charging at Jennifer with it brandished, Jennifer quickly turns around and whacks her to the
floor again, she turns around and pins down one of Needy’s arm, but with the other Needy
grabs the necklace of Jennifer’s neck and throws it next to the window, Jennifer’s face drops
and it’s hard to tell whether its mocking or genuine. Jennifer gets up and goes to the
necklace, picking it up and holding it in her hand, she turns to Needy, about to say
something along the lines of ‘I thought we were besties’ but as she’s turning Needy is
already up and stood in front of her. She punches Jennifer in the face and immediately kicks
her as hard as she can, Jennifer smashes through the window and falls to her seeming
death. Catching her breath, needy runs down to try and find Jen’s body, but all she see’s is
Jennifer’s glass covered shoe.