Adam sequel?

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How many of you would like to see a follow-up to Adam? There is still so much more storytelling potential left. My idea is that it takes place several years after the events of the first film and Adam and Beth are married and have an eight year old son who also has Asperger's Syndrome. Adam is now one of the top astronomy professors at the University of Washington in Seattle and is highly respected in his field. He eventually meets a young psychology student by the name of John Turner, after attending his lecture on the history of Asperger's Syndrome, at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Adam and John immediately hit it off because both men share an equal amount of passion and obsession in regards to thier interests. Over time Adam and John Turner become very good friends and eventually he becomes both a role model and quasi-counsler to Adam and Beth's son. However Turner isn't like most people. He is very passionate about his studies and chooses to immerse himself in academia. In addittion he falsely projects the image of perfection. He is attractive, possesses superior intelligence, is on the way to a great carreer, and comes from a wealthy Canadian family. Despite his "perfect life" and brilliance , he is unable to form any long lasting friendships or connect with women (something he longs for) and relies on his parents for social interaction. Adam and John eventually realize that they are one in the same and that they could help each other out.

Shame Adam isn't in Spokane or Portland.


Does Turner have AS too?

Yes Turner does have Asperger's Syndrome, he just has a different variation of it than Adam. Unlike Adam, John Turner is an extreme extrovert who thrives off attention and is too outgoing. His knowledge of psychology gives him an edge at camoflouging his Asperger's Syndrome, therefore he can pass most of the time as an NT. However he does make the occasional mistake in social situations and is humiliated. a I think the John Turner character would provide a great contrast to Hugh Dancy's Adam Raki. It would illustrate that Aspie's come in all shapes and sizes and that their interests vary from person to person.

Is it possible for someone like Turner to give a lecture on Asperger's Syndrome and not realize that he is an aspie himself? Or he is aware from the very beginning, but just keeps it a secret from Adam and Beth?

You could write the story and post it at fanfiction.net.

Make their son classic autism, or more severe than Adam. Also, I haven´t seen Adam but from the previews he looked very extroverted, at least compared to me.

EDIT: Better yet, let them have a daughter with autism instead of a boy.

He does know that he has Asperger's Syndrome from the very beginning, he is very secretive about it and hasn't come to terms with it. I think it would be a good idea if thier son also had A.S. because I could illustrate and bring to light what it is like going through childhood with Asperger's Syndrome, something the previous film never touched on.

What it would do is confuse your audience. If you want people to understand a disorder, you have to give them something CONSISTENT to latch onto and understand. When you present opposite extremes like that, it will only appear to most people that you're portraying two very different conditions and calling them the same thing. That will leave everyone going:

" WTF??? This Asperger Syndrome stuff is a bunch of crap! Those characters were completely different. Hell, you can call ANYTHING Asperger Syndrome. I don't believe there is such a thing. Anybody who wants to make excuses for being weird or different can use that label as an excuse. Its a myth. Psycho-chic flavor-of-the-month."

I think we're dealing with enough of that attitude already.

That is the point at the beginning of the film. I want John Turner having Asperger's Syndrome to come as a surprise to the audience. I don't think that it would confuse the audience at all. Superficially Adam and John seem very different: thier special interests are different and thier lives are different. However, they are fundementally the same person. Both have an obsession Adam's being astronomy and John's being psychology, both have had difficulties attaining friendships/relationships and interacting with other people, the only major differences between the two is that John has learned to camaflouge his eccentricities better than Adam and that he is in denial about who he is. Over the course of the film, the audience will begin to see the behavioral commonalities between Adam and John and realize these two have much more in common than they thought earlier in the film.

You're expecting too much of the average reader/moviegoer.

They don't understand Asperger Syndrome to begin with, and aren't terribly interested in learning, except as a by-product of an otherwise gripping story. Trying to feed them subtleties and nuances about (what is to them) an obscure psychological disorder is going to confuse and bore any neurotypical audience to death, but good luck with that.

I agree it would be of great benefit to us as a community to see more Aspie characters in popular media (and I have yet to see one I feel accurately portrays the disorder in any sense), but you cannot expect average NTs to find learning about AS as compelling as you do. Keep it simple or their minds will wander away (probably to the Transformers or Twilight sequel in the next theater) and never come back.

And with that having been said and reiterated, I will simply consign myself to dissent and shut my mouth. Tic-a-lock.

You are right, American audiences are not into intellectually stimulating movies. They do not like paying attention to character details and motivations. The typical American moviegoer requires constant visual and auditory stimulation which usually involves lots of explosions, loud noises, and graphic violence. You are definitely right about how it would bore the audience, but I think it would be primarily American audiences that are not interested. If there were an Adam sequel, I think it would be alot more popular in Canada and Europe than the United States. I know it's a stereotype, but foreigners tend to prefer "thinking movies" over escapism.

Awww I feel so flattered

Your welcome LosFrida.

Your welcome LosFrida.

I'm not sure the director intended for there to be a sequel. Some of the critics said that the film was more realistic because the ending didn't show them living happily ever after.

It is strongly implied though that she wanted to see him again in the end of the first film. I think it wouldn't be an improbable idea at all that they would eventually wind up together. It just took a while for it to happen. My idea for the sequel would show them as a happily married couple, however like all marriages it is not all wine and roses and I would emphasize that point to make it realistic. Some of the greatest films ever made were unintended sequels Aliens (1986), The Godfather Part II (1974), Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991), The Good, The Bad, The Ugly (1966), The Silence of the Lambs (1991), The Dark Knight (2008), and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980).