CoTU adaptation rough draft
 
 
 
written by
 
 
Victoria Eason
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
INT. A HOME OFFICE - EVENING
Cole, a white male in his early to mid twenties with short,
brown hair wearing a brown hoodie and black sweatpants, is at
his desktop working on his virtual world in a game that works
as both a rip-off and advancement to Minecraft.
On the desktop screen a dark gray and dark blue landscape can
be seen. He's adding mountains world under a cloudy grey sky
with a click of his mouse and keyboard.
With the sound of keyboard buttons and the mouse being
pressed pixelated mountains begin to raise from the foggy
dark colored ground.
One mountain raises already with a snowy peak while two
others raise near it but are significantly smaller and
simplistic compared to the bigger, grander mountain.
Cole sits back in his chair to admire his work for a moment,
putting his hands behind his head. He looks satisfied for a
moment then suddenly frowns.
He leans forward to get to his mouse and keyboard. You can't
see what he's doing exactly on the computer but he is moving
his mouse around and begins typing.
The sound of the front door opening can be heard followed by
footsteps. We hear Cole's girlfriend, Juniper call out to
him.
Juniper is a woman in the same age range as Cole. She has sun
kissed skin and long straight colored hair. Her hair color
being a yellow-orange-ish color that becomes more orange as
her hair goes down. Despite her lavish hair she was wearing
rather boring clothing, a plain white button shirt and a long
gray skirt with black shoes.
Juniper leaves her bag on the empty coat rake near the door.
JUNIPER
Cole, I'm home!
Cole doesn't reply, still focus on the screen in front of him
while typing.
Juniper pokes her head in the office to face Cole.
JUNIPER (CONT'D)
I said I'm home.
Cole glances at her then back to the computer
 2.

COLE
Oh, hey. Didn't hear you come in.
Juniper enters the office
JUNIPER
You never hear me.
COLE
That's not true, we're talking
right now and I hear you just find.
JUNIPER
This doesn't count! I'm only
pointing it out.
Cole doesn't see what the problem is, the confusion is
visible on his face as his expression drops to a frown.
COLE
Oh.
Juniper huffs as she walks out.
Cole slowly turns back around to his computer. He doesn't
touch anything, just stares at the screen. Whether he's
zoning out or thinking of something related to his game or
girlfriend is unsure. It could be neither.
Eventually Cole starts typing again in silence.
CUT TO BLACK.

INT. A HOME OFFICE - THE NEXT DAY

Cole is still at his computer working on his virtual world.
Right now he's using the mouse to point and click on dark
grassy areas to where he wants his trees placed.
Once Cole clicks on the desired area a tree grows in it's
place, fast forwarding through the stages of a tree's life
until it is fully grown and bloomed, giving the grass around
it shade. The same goes for any other trees he places.
When Cole finishes with the tree placement he opens the code
box and begins typing. What he types cannot be read.
Two pixelated deer, one male with long extravagant antlers
and the other a beautiful brown and white female, pop up on
the screen.
There's an animation of the deer sniffing each other gently,
a heart appears over their heads.
 3.

COLE
Awh, they're in love...
The two deer scampered off into the forest side by side.
Cole watches them run off until they could no longer be seen.
He sits there for a moment. Something in his mind clicks but
he doesn't know what it is or what it is trying to tell him.
COLE (CONT'D)
I'm going to figure this out
eventually..it's on the tip of my
tongue....CHILDREN! Wait, they make
those on their own..
Cole sits back in his seat, a hand on his chin as he thinks
for the missing link.
COLE (CONT'D)
I'll think of it later.
He leans forward towards the computer. That's when he
realized how barren the forest was. He grabbed his mouse and
began clicking around empty spaces on the ground, allowing
empty text boxes to appear. He began typing a simple line of
code into the boxes.
Once he presses the 'Enter' key on his keyboard a bush
appears. He drags his arrow over the line of code to copy it
and begins pasting in the other blank text boxes.
Cole goes back to the first box to open a second text box on
the bush; this is were he inserts the berry options and goes
around choosing what bush should have berries and what type
of berry.
COLE (CONT'D)
Do raspberries grow on bushes? I
feel like they do but if they don't
I'll feel like an idiot forever...
Cole gets distracted by his phone screen silently lighting
up. He picks it up to see a text message from Juniper.
JUNIPER
I have a three day weekend coming
up. We should do something !
Cole stares at his phone while he thinks of a response.
He gets distracted by a notification on his computer alerting
him that his two deer from earlier had children, earning him
both an achievement and a upgrade as an reward.
 4.

Cole quickly puts his phone down to interact with the

achievement, excited to see what his new upgrade was. He
completely forgets about the text message.

INT. HOME OFFICE - LATER THAT DAY.

Cole has added more to his world. More elaborate trees, and
berry bushes.
Animals such as deer and squirrels can be seen scurrying
around in the background.
Cole is now in the process of using his upgrade reward, the
waterfall feature. He's trying to figure out where he should
put the water by moving his mouse around vacant areas in the
forest but is not clicking anything.
COLE
Should it be a lake? Or...should it
be a river?
Juniper walks into the office to see Cole playing his game
with great attention to detail.
JUNIPER
Don't you ever take a break from
that thing?
Cole jumps in his seat from the sound of her voice. He
frantically turns around in his chair to face her.
COLE
What happened!?
JUNIPER
You're always on that computer and
it takes up all your time!
COLE
But it's just- I don't know- It's
something I like to do!
JUNIPER
More than spending time with me?
COLE
Well uh what about now? How was
work yesterday?
Juniper shakes her head
 5.

JUNIPER
No, I want to talk over dinner
tomorrow night. I want us to go out
to with no phones unless it's
important. Until then you can enjoy
your stupid computer.
COLE
You're off tomorrow?
JUNIPER
Yes, I'm off! I told you already!
COLE
When? I think I would remember
that.
JUNIPER
I told you TODAY!
Juniper storms out of the room leaving Cole alone with his
computer.
With a sigh Cole turns back to his computer. He stares at the
screen for a moment while he tries to remember what he was
doing.
Cole decides to check his phone before he forgets again, this
is where he sees Juniper's text from early about her three
day weekend and sighs.
COLE
She's going to leave me at this
rate...
Cole leans forward towards his computer ready to get back to
work on his waterfall but every time he thinks he found a
good spot his mind drifts elsewhere and he freezes while
staring at the monitor.
Cole abruptly leans back in his chair with another
exasperated sigh. He leans his back and groans before leaning
forward towards his desk.
COLE (CONT'D)
If i don't do this know I'll
forget...
Cole goes to the save menu of the game and clicks on the
'save and quit' button. Once the program closes he goes to
his internet browser where he types 'local restaurants' in
the search bar.
FADE TO BLACK.
 6.

INT. A RESTAURANT - NIGHT

Cole and Juniper are lead to a booth. They sit across from
each other and are handed their menus. They take the time to
read through before closing the menus while they wait for the
waitress.
COLE
So...how was work yesterday?
JUNIPER
Honestly? Once I think about it, it
wasn't that bad. Better than most
days.
COLE
Tell me about it.
JUNIPER
For one, Stacy wasn't there so I
felt like I could relax while I
worked.
Cole nodded along
COLE
Any day without Stacy is a good
day.
JUNIPER
But there was a ton of papers to
get through, papers to print, paper
to shred. The shredder got jammed
and my piece of crap computer kept
freezing up. We had to wait forever
while the guys looked for a new ink
cartridge for the printer. I'm sick
of the computers at work.
While Juniper talks Cole feels his phone vibrate in his
pocket. He looks up to see Juniper looking outside for a
moment. He pulls out his phone to see it was the program to
his game notifying him for an achievement he earned. Juniper
catches him looking at his phone.
JUNIPER (CONT'D)
That better be work.
Cole flinches.
COLE
It is. Sorry, let me turn off my
phone.
 7.

Cole deletes the the notification then shuts his phone off
completely. He puts his phone back in his pocket.
COLE (CONT'D)
I heard you and I agree. A break
from technology can good. What's
the point of computers if they
don't work right half the time?
Juniper nods her head in agreement.

MONTAGE
1.Cole and Juniper talk and laugh over dinner.
2.After dinner they leave the restaurant and get in Cole's
car. He drives them to the movie theater.
3.They sit in the back of the theater and cuddle next to each
other while watching the film.
4.When the movie is over they go to Dave and Buster's where
they order drinks and play video games late into the night.
5.Juniper watches Cole do all the playing while she drinks.
6.Exhausted from their night out Cole drives them home.
7.They climb in bed without taking off their clothes, only
kicking off their shoes.

END OF MONTAGE

INT BEDROOM - NIGHT

As Juniper falls asleep Cole pulls out his phone to turn it
on.
He reads the achievement for reaching 100 hours of game play.
He doesn't know if he should be proud or ashamed.
For now he puts the phone back on the nightstand for the
night.
 
COLE
I love you
 8.

JUNIPER
I love you too.
FADE TO BLACK.

INT. HOME OFFICE - MORNING

The first Cole does when he wakes up roughly around 8 am he
goes to the office.
He carefully closes the door behind himself to not alert
Juniper then sits at his desk, turning on his computer.
Cole opens the game but doesn't click beyond the starting
menu; he stares at it.
COLE
You did say a break could be
good...
Cole moves his mouse towards the bottom of his computer
screen to click on the calendar and began dragging his mouse
over the dates.
COLE (CONT'D)
I can't do only weekends and
Juniper would want me to cook after
work some days so not a lot of
weekdays either...
Cole closes the calendar to go back to staring at the
starting menu.
COLE (CONT'D)
Screw it, I'll take a break for a
couple of weeks and see how I feel.
Cole goes to the icon of the game at the bottom of the screen
to both close it out and remove it from his taskbar. He does
the same to the icon on his desktop page, not deleting the
game off the computer but removing the sight of it.
Next Cole goes back to his bedroom to tiptoe around the bed
to not wake Juniper to get his phone.
Once he gets his phone there's a close up of him going to the
folder where the game app was where he deletes it.
Once the deed is done he puts his phone down on the
nightstand gently.
 9.

He takes one more look at Juniper before he goes to the

closet to change out of his clothes.
FADE TO BLACK.