Filed under: Non Fiction
Trainspotting
Trainspotting, one of the most iconic films of the last two decades was and still is extremely relevant to the people in the United Kingdom who live in what people describe as the ‘rougher’ areas of town, the lower classes.
However relevant it is, it’s still dated and with how society has evolved since the novel the film was based on was written, it is difficult to make the story work in the more modern world.
Chav culture dominates the scummy areas of Britain it is a great stereotype that this subculture of people are the bulk of drug users. I’d like to work on making Trainspotting more contemporary for right now by building on that stereotype. The film and novel focus of the stories of several young men and their ongoing troubles with poverty, the law, and their greatest vice and pleasure in life; Heroine.
I believe bringing the story to Nottingham and working to make it appeal to a younger audience, to make it more relevant to them, and so that they know it.
Films such KiDULTHOOD/Adulthood and Harry Brown have proved that the chav culture is not something to be ignored in films, with Noel Clarke and actors and musicals like Ben Drew (or Plan B) at the head of this new movement of films that deal with real, local, and increasingly worrying problems. It is nice to lose ourselves in the Hollywood dream, but in the UK these people exist and they need to be made aware of themselves, if nothing else. Which is why I believe grafting the Trainspotting story to a modern and more common setting will help do this.
I’d like to work with elements from both the Novel and the Film, choosing to not simply adapt the piece, but to create a new piece inspired by and in homage to the original. I want to use the same characters and general plot, because it is those two things that are the most important in the piece.
Mark Renton, originally played by Ewan McGregor in the film adaptation, would continue to be the central character and narrator for the piece, however in my rendition of the piece he would be brought down to a younger age. The air or sarcasm and wisdom beyond that of his peers would remain.
The characters would be moved from early to late twenties in Scotland to mid-to-late teens in the midlands. Using schools as a focal point and an actor for the story will not only help people to relate but help keep the story on track. This doesn’t mean that the settings will be limited to the schools, no. Far from it. I aim to use a range of locations for the production, from the school to the backstreets of Nottingham, I want to use the real world to better capture that gritty realism i want to achieve in the piece.
In the end of Trainspotting Renton betrays his friends and takes the money they made in a drug deal to better his own life. Will this be my ending as well? I aim to surprise my audience with something they’d never predict, something that will really hammer home the point of the novel, the film, and my production.
