Modern / Parallel based on an old classic?

Hi everyone,
To be honest, I really was unsure what to title this post.
I wonder if it would matter considering the age of the original (1874) & the fact that it's not a retelling of the old tale. I believe the original work is now in the public domain & while I have absolutely no intention of plagerizing, My story dictates that the setting / locale be the same.
I am in the beginning stages of writing / outlining a WIP that is a new story interwoven with the artifacts of a previous classic novel scattered throughout.
The work intentionally parallels the theme (Robinsonade), the arrival (by air), the number of castaways (5, although the characters are NOT the same & 1 is a different gender), the locales or locations (chimneys, granite house etc.) and also the flora & fauna to remain true to the original work.
The work is intended to be a modern validation (it was true!!) by a group of modern castaways struggling to survive & not a simple retelling of the original tale.
I've even considered that my attempt to tie in the novel to the classic novel may be fruitless due to the fact that, in all likely-hood, most, if not all, references could be lost on many in today's audiences.
I have thousands of words written already & haven't been this enthusiastic about writing for a long time.
However, I'm concerned that I could be just spinning my wheels again.
After all, who would want to read about a group of survivors from an airplane crash in the Pacific who are castaways on a desert island, who find the evidence that someone had been there before them.
But it is only one of them who puts it together (a namesake of one of the original characters course).
It is he who leads them to the grotto where the legendary machine lies.

Am I on a slippery slope by using the original work / island as a backdrop for my work?

Just curious because I've really been out of the mainstream for a while & wonder if could work.

Tnonk

Thanks for the responses everyone, your replies where close to what I was thinking for the most part. At least I was HOPING for those responses anyway.
mscelina - I do have a few twists that should spice things up a bit.
dclary - I saw the commercials for the new 'Journey' but didn't get a chance to watch it (I don't watch much television now days anyway). I thought it was simply a new remake rather than what you described.
rainydayninja - well...the whole point of my story is that they are on the original island, stumbling over the clues that the original 5 left - part of the lure of this story is the 'what if'. What if that utterly brilliant scoundrel Verne LIED to us & both the island AND the story WAS real. He described the destruction of the island so we wouldn't look for it! (Because the Nautilus is still there!) Seems he & Nemo were buddies & I get the feeling that Nemo wasn't actually FROM India after all. I mean Verne is considered the father of science fiction with all of his futuristic inventions right? So maybe Nemo was something else altogether & feed Verne the info.
kryianna - I lost interest in Lost after it just became to frustrating to watch & I've only watched 1 episode of Crusoe but didn't really care for it much.
patti - I haven't read those stories but I guess I should check a few of them out. & yes, the story will pay homage through the framework to the original work.
james - actually I've found that this story line is just falling into place for me - a lot better than some of the other stories I've struggled with. As for the criticisms - well I'll just take those as it comes I guess.
Thanks again everyone!!

Tnonk

Thanks for the comments TrickyFiction & RainyDayNinja - I appreciate any & all comments.
I really hate to keep you waiting Tricky but...I've only just started writing it. I haven't finished the outline or any character sketches yet & I've only written about 10k on it in the last couple of weeks along with some notes, research etc. I'm also currently re-reading 'The Mysterious Island' to have a clear set of note for locales, flora & fauna, etc.
Oh & I love your emoticon poking the stick!!
RainyDay Ninja - I have to be honest with you - when I saw your post about signing up for the Beta, I had no idea what you were talking about. I researched it on the boards & found out. I have to say that I love the idea of someone criting my work but I don't think I really fit the guidelines for beta right now. As I wrote above, I am only beginning this WIP & really have nothing to offer just yet.
I would like to say that when & if I fit into the guideline for the beta I would be happy to have you crit it as a beta. It would be a whole lot more critique than I got on my 1st novel, and believe me I need all the help I can get!!
Thanks again,

Tnonk

Thanks for the replies.
Use Her Name - at first I was a bit piqued at your post. It seemed to me an inaccurate assesement of what I have posted so far & to be honest, being called lazy - every by association - isn't always easy to swallow.
However, the substance of your post upon reflection, is in part why I started this thread in the first place.
But contrary to you apparent belief that I am lazy, I want to assure you that I am finding it harder to stay on track with Verne's writing than if I had envisioned a whole new world of my own.
I could quite easily develope my own desert island 'world' in which my characters could find themselves thrust into. But then again, I would have merely created just another example of a 'robinsonade' & that's just not the point.
I could in a matter of minutes, sketch out the outline of an island, show a lagoon or bay (or two); pencil in a swamp, an extinct (or active) volcano, litter the beaches with black volcanic sand (or even brilliantly white coral sand); describe a multitude of waving coconut palms (or a desolately sparse spit of sand nearly devoid of vegetation). Within a day at the most I could have a detailed mosiac of my new world and plot out the movement of my characters.
But that would completely defeat the purpose of my WIP. I am not rewriting the Mysterious Island, nor am I writing a 'sequel'. I am merely using elements (albeit one extremely important one) of Verne's work that he, as rainyDay Ninja pointed out, destroyed at the end of his novel. My WIP is to be an entirely new work utilizing Lincoln Island as a backdrop, the extent of which will not be known to the characters until nearly the end.
In using my own world I would have taken away an important 'what if' element from the storyline that would have made the entire premise collapse.
Perhaps you are also correct on it being a type of 'fan fiction', I hadn't considered it in that light before. However, looking upon the millions of copies of fan fiction written in the worlds of Conan, Star Wars, Star Trek & others - perhaps fan fiction is not a bad place to be after all. If that is not your thing - I can respect that.
Verne himself acknowledge date descrepancies from 20,000 Leagues to The Mysterious Island. Why did Verne feel the need to 'kill' his most famous creation / character so soon?
Inquiring minds want to know!
I do suppose that any 'robinsonade' could be considered a pastiche of Dafoe's 'Robinson Crusoe' - including all genres that have used the desert island technique before.
My question is - Is that such a bad thing? Would it have been best had Verne NOT emulated Dafoe?
I understand your point, but Lincoln Island is the backdrop for the story & not the story itself. An important peice of hardware lurks on the island that I need to free up & it can only be reached by revisting Lincoln Island.
And yes, I have developed a few twists & turns - who could possibly have foreseen that the Nautilus wasn't really ...........?
While not actually thriving on 'things they did not create', I will conceed that utilizing the island as a backdrop has facilitated a more realistic series of events to produce my desired effect. After all, had I located & 'found' the Nautilus anywhere BUT Lincoln Island, it would have produced an entirely different set of problems.
And yes - of COURSE I'm writing a MASTERPIECE!!!
Thanks again.

Tnonk

HeronW, I'm unsure how to respond to your post.
I am aware & have stated that the WIP is based on Vernes work so I am fully aware that it is of his 'origin'. I would, of course, be a complete fool to try to emphsize the WIP as 'completely' original. It is not. In my first post I credited the fact that it I was using a original work as a backdrop for my WIP.
I have also stated that it would be a new work utilizing the framework of the original but not 'a simple retelling' of the original work. Without this tie-in my WIP storyline would collapse.
If I would decide to completely eleminate the references to Verne's work, characters & original creations then my piece would loose the flavor with which I am trying to convey. It would merely be another robinsonade with a scifi bend to it.
Using the 'what if' angle, my intent is to move the story forward with the MC's surviving on the island, stumbling across clues of prior castaways, & eventually realizing that Verne lied about the destruction of his 'fictional' island.
Why? There's the rub! THAT is where the REAL story lies.
A different treatment for sure, but the Verne aspect is critical to the current direction of the WIP.
I retrospect, this reply to your post is probably mismatch. I feel I may have misintepreted your intent.
This will be an 'original' work based on part of Verne's universe - hence, does it loose all sense of originality?

Tnonk

Thanks Juliette,
I appreciate the comments.
Yeh, I'm jazzed on this one, I'm writing on notepads at work whenever I get the opportunity.
I've got 12 pages that I'll be transferring to my notebook this weekend & do a little cleanup on them. (I'll be taking my notebook to work from now on - this WIP has taken on a life of it's own. It's like a drug & I get the DT's when I'm away from it for too long.)
I like your suggestions & have taken # 3 to heart. As a matter of fact, I'm shifting gears on it right now to take into consideration a few things that I had originally decided to to include. I didn't want the story to utilize too much of the MI world, but as I read your post, I agreed immeadiately on your suggestion that it would give my WIP that extra depth. (Of course there's alway's the chance that my execution will be off) (Probably wwaaayyyy off!)
For instance, the landing on the island (by air of course) is different but I have them coming ashore at the same location. However, the climate/enviromental changes are quite different & a Verne reader probably wouldn't recognize it. Of course, my characters have no idea that it's the Mercy River - the revelations won't come to them until much later.
Your reference to your characters having classical source resonates with me also. Two of my MC's also have classic sources, and although they are both Verne sources they are not both MI sources.

Thanks

Tnonk