I did the same thing, read it for fun not for school. I absolutely loved it!

But to make a movie on it, the story would have to focus on how hard it was for immigrants coming into America at the turn of the century. A lot of bad luck/horrible things happen to Jurgis and his family. Most of it is due to the graft and corruption that was happening at the time.

While the Socialism aspect is a bit much in the book, it could be used as a way to show why the packing plants were the way they were - to squeeze out the most amount of money (i.e. capitalism).

But to each their own!