FILM ADAPTATION FRIDAY: The Foxhole Court by Nora Sakavic

It’s round two of Film Adaptation Friday, the series I started last week. If you missed that, be sure to read it right here. If this is you’re first time here – this is a blog series I started in which I discuss what my perfect adaptation for various books would look like.  Last week I did Six of Crows and this week we’re doing The Foxhole Court! This was requested to me a couple times and I am more than happy to deliver the goods since you all KNOW I love this series. Also, I just finished rereading the first book so it’s fresh in my mind! Anyway this is gonna be a long one so STRAP IN.

standard disclaimer: This series is just for fun and I obviously have no involvement in film or anything like that. The casting will be totally just a dream cast situation and therefore not everything I wish will / could possibly happen. Just !! This isn’t gonna be That Deep okay. ALSO, A SPOILER WARNING FOR THE FOXHOLE COURT SERIES Though I will try to keep spoils to a minimum.

THE BASICS:

Format: TV Series. So I thought about a movie for The Foxhole Court but I’m 100% sure a TV series would work better. One thing I love about the books is the really long character and romance arcs that develop across all three books and I think that type of arc lends itself best to a tv adaptation rather than film. Also, if it was a series there could potentially be seasons after the ending of the book, about the new team that Neil captains.  I also think I would like this live action. I have seen suggestions it be animated, which would be fun, but I think it’d work better live action to really capture the exy scenes.

One thing I would really, really think would be cool to see with The Foxhole Court is a make it like a web series. Similar to Skam, except maybe longer clips. Lots of The Foxhole Court’s action is broken down into specific scenes and moments. At least in the first book, whichI just read it’s something like this: “Now I have class then I’m meeting for training at 3pm”, “I need to meet at 9pm with the upperclassmen”, “our game is at 7pm”. I think taking these sorts of time slots and actually uploading the clips live time would be super fun, and would lend itself to the sport aesthetic since watching sports is a lot of sitting down at a certain time to do it. Maybe this sounds too wild, but I think it’d be really fun. Also, The Foxhole Court has lots of ongoing elements of plot which are confusing because they’re never adequately explained until the end. The web series helps to conceal and keep information from viewers. It’s something Skam did really well since the clips were only ever in one characters point of view but it was implied action existed outside the clip. The Foxhole Court is from Neil’s perspective and the fact he A: doesn’t know most of the teams secrets and B: they don’t know his, super lends itself to this web series format.

Director & Distributor: Okay, I would love to see Netflix on this. I can’t think of any distributor that could do it better. Hulu tends to be a *little* too serious but Netlix has some good teen shows that find that balance between serious and kind of ridiculous like The Foxhole Court.

I had the hardest time deciding on this because there is a few options for me. Teen Wolf’s developer Jeff Davis stood out to me because the lacrosse scenes are Ideal and want I want for the Exy scenes. On the other, everyone cites Yuri On Ice as a show similar to The Foxhole Court’s concept which is true and I’d love a kind of narration similar to what Yuri has so Sayo Yamamoto who directed that is an option. Than, of course, Julie Andem came to mind since she did Skam and I’m set on the web series idea, but honestly I don’t like what she did with some plot lines (ie. the sexual assault one) in Skam and that makes me nervous. I also think the show really should have a gay man direct it if possible, because I think not only would it add some more nuance to the relationship, it’s also important the perspectives of the community come through. Some gay directors I can see doing good with this are John Krokidas (Kill Your Darlings) and Jeff Davis as mentioned earlier.

So I’m not really sure who I would choose myself, Jeff Davis is probably the top of my list but also, I’m not sure?

Poster: This is my mock up poster. I actually kinda like this. I tried to incorporate something sports related at first but that wasn’t working and didn’t seem serious enough so instead I thought about portraying identity. A large portion of the series revolves around the fact Neil is on the run and presents as multiple people. People being not what they seem is a large theme of the book so I tried to incorporate that into this poster by giving the “fracturing lines” through Neil’s (or that could be Kevin I suppose) image. Anyway, I think it looked kind of cool and a matching character set of all of them would be NEAT

 

FAN CASTS:

So if this was a show I gotta say, I’d definitely want actors who actually look like athletes. It’s so hard to find fancasts for people who have both the face and the body to play them because they’re all supposed to be strong and muscular but I did my bEST okay.

Neil Josten → Froy Gutierrez

Listen. Froy has read the series and literally tweeted multiple times implying he would like to play Neil if this ever happened GIVE THE MAN WHAT HE WANTS. Honestly he looks a lot like a pictured Neil and he looks great in orange so I’m here for it.

 

Conor Doherty → Andrew & Aaron Minyard

The Twinyards are the hardest to choose in the whole cast. I don’t know why they’re hard to capture. Dane DeHane is popular because of his role in Kill Your Darlings and In Therapy and I agree with that, but Conor Doherty looks younger and more how I imagined. So I chose him, but maybe with Dane DeHanes attitude.

 

Nicky Hemmick → Callum Stoddart

I don’t know why but he gives me Nicky vibes. I think it’s the hair. He’s a model so he doesn’t have lots of photos but I like what there is out there. I also really like Diego Bonata as Nicky but I like that Callum looks a little more the right age (he’s 22)

 

Line Brems → Allison Reynolds

I love this fancast so much. Something about Line Brems face gives me massive Allison Reynolds vibes, I think it’s the kinda sharp and pouty look. I’ve seen Hayley Kiyoko suggested a lot too and I could be down for that too. Line Brems just gives me all the glamorous but badass energy though.

 

Aiyana Lewis → Dan Wilds

I think this is one of the more popular Dan fancasts but I don’t care because I love it. She looks so similar to how I imagine Dan in my head, maybe her hairs just a little longer than I imagine but STILL.

 

 

Laurence Coke → Kevin Day

RIDE OR DIE KEVIN. I love Laurence Coke for Kevin so much, he looks like I imagined Kevin plus he actually has an athlete looking body. Kevin Day is supposed to be really attractive and Laurence Coke is and just his whole LOOK and energy screams Kevin to me.

 

Reece King → Matt Boyd

Another popular fancast but I can’t see Matt as anyone else. When I read the books I imagine Reece King. He has the soft bubbly energy Matt has, and he’s tall enough. Also, Reece used to have hair that stuck up a lot and that is what Matt has. When I try to picture anyone else but I can’t do it.

 

Karen Yeung → Renee Walker

Karen Yeung is adorable and reminds me of Renee a lot. When I saw her picture come up as a suggested Renee ages ago I was like YES. Sometimes I cast her as other people but then always come back here. She just reminds me of how I picture Renee SO MUCH.

THINGS I WANNA SEE:

• NARRATION. Not too much, but I would kind of like to see some narration from Neil. You’re in his head the whole way through the books and I think if they could replicate his thought process in a way that isn’t too corny would be really, really cool.
• Leading on from narration, I have this specific scene I would love to see. At the beginning when Neil introduces all the Foxes to the reader, he goes over their stats and things he knows about them in is head. I’d like to see some sort of ‘stat screen’ like it’d be a shot of each Fox, and then Neil’s narration over the top. This is a ridiculous comparison but you know the Mean Girls clip about Regina George and the different cafeteria groups? Something like that. But less corny.
• Interesting use of slow motion. This is what I meant when I said I liked the Teen Wolf sport scenes. One reason they’re cool is that they use narration to hype up the drama and impact of the games. Obviously the games are so important to the book and also Neil has moments where his attention fluxes and shifts throughout the games to important points, like that Andrew or Kevin is doing, or how he feels about the team winning or losing. I think they could capture this with slow motion and it would help perpetuate the importance of the sport and the violence of the sport on camera.
• Dramatic soundtrack. Neil, and all the Foxes, are massive drama queens. This scene NEEDS an iconic soundtrack. I’m talking interesting use of music in scenes and scores where the lyrics encapsulate what the scene is about in some way.
• Speaking of flashbacks, this show should have them. Mid action, but also use flashbacks with a present day voiceover. So an example, when Andrew tells Neil about his history, the flashback with the explanation over the top. When Wymack is explaining to Neil what happened between Riko and Kevin, it should be flashes of them playing amazing together, and showing them dreaming of playing court, but it should have this dark edge to it because it’s a bad past, and a narration over the top.
• A way to visualise the betting joke. Like, I don’t know how. But maybe shots of the money pot, or like even something like the characters randomly drawing money out of places for the bet. I don’t know, it’s a funny recurring joke in the book and I think the show could benefit from actually having something humorous.
• Focus on all the characters. One of my favourite things about The Foxhole Court is the relationship between all the team members and how they all interact so I don’t wanna see all that cut. Give all the characters decent screentime and maybe even give each at least one episode that explores their individual backstories.
• Symbolism. There is a lot of symbolism and foreshadowing through imagery in The Foxhole Court. eg, the keys, Andrew tripping Neil with the exy stick, the tattoos. I’d love to see the adaptation pay some attention to portraying these symbols. I only need something basic, a lingering shot on a key for example. But it’s gonna just take some notice of that.

Things I don’t want to see

• too much graphic imagery. Honestly this is because I don’t trust this fanbase. I really think that way too much horrible stuff happens in this book, especially to Andrew, and I really don’t think it needs to be shown graphically or explicitly. I’d even be happy with the graphic scene in the Raven King being cut because I think things are much harder to watch than read. The risk of a show coming off as tragedy porn is very high and some of the fans already get off on the tragic gays element way, way too much. I don’t think removing some of the graphicness of the books would be a bad thing especially since theres more room in film to imply.
• An aesthetic thats too dark. I think there is elements of this that are very dark and that should be captured but I think the show overall should have a brighter aesthetic, ESPECIALLY the court itself. One thing I thought is that flashbacks should have a darker aesthetic and present day a brighter one. The current day for most characters is supposed to be a better and more hopeful moment then the past so that could reflect it.

SOUNDTRACK:

This is just an embedded link to my foxhole court playlist but some of the songs could contribute to a playlist. I definitely think a few of these would be an interesting title theme.

That is it for this week! This post is SO LONG so thankyou for sticking around until the end if you made it this far. As always leave your suggestions for what series/book I should do next in the comments!

until next time!

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