[…] Let’s say you write and sell a spec script. Congratulations. You’re the “flavor-of-the-week.” Your agent and manager set up meetings across Hollywood with producers and studio execs. The first words out of their mouths will likely be some variation of “Love your …read more […]

HURRAY! MY FAVORITE TIME OF YEAR!

This story has Eau de Guy Ritchie all over it, says me.

My first reaction was Michael Bay, the screwball element reminds me of "Pain and Gain," I can picture that same sort of story happening here (it IS the same story, basically, kidnapping for money). And of course, the second I saw that the ringleader was in "How To Lose Friends," I immediately thought "okay, it's Megan Fox, but a very self-aware, back-stabbing, career-oriented Megan Fox." I can see the Denouement being her as the star of her own Kardashian-style reality show in jail or something. Everything's a step towards something bigger.

Sounds great. I’m new to this. Today is April 1st, so I guess it would be nice to tie today’s story idea with April Fools’ Day. Let’s start with a far-fetched, silly comedy. What if our actress is a nasty diva that everyone, above and below the line hate. The most obnoxious person in Hollywood. Her attitude ruins a movie and the producer wants to give her a lesson. He knows she owes money to the IRS and is desperate to get the money or she will be facing jail time. So the producer hires some girls to act as dancers and a guy to play as club boss. The diva asks everyone to lend her money, but obviously she can’t find anyone willing to do so. Another actress tells her she did $20,000 in one day - as an elite lap dancer in an extremely exclusive, ultra-VIP club - only billionaires admitted- So, the idea here is that someone plays an April Fool’s joke , and then someone else plays it on him, and so on, a bigger joke on the joker every time. A battle of who will do the biggest one in the end. Even the reporters and the court are actors playing a joke on someone. Think of Fincher’s “The Game” on a silly note and with two camps playing the jokes to each other. And now, for something completely different. I think we could take only part of the elements in the story and develop from it. a)Drama. No kidnapping, just the actress that is past her prime, hasn’t landed her breakout role and really needs the money. We see she has to support her family because her husband left her, and is so desperate that she thinks and even plans to kidnap her wealthy club boss. In the end she realizes she’s doing all this for her kids and if she goes to jail she won’t be there for them, so she throws away the kidnapping plans. There would be some “evil mentors” and “evil attractors” How about the club owner as the protagonist? And his attempts to escape. Or add a little twist. It’s not an “official” court but rather a secret court that the mob has to solve this kind of problems before the public knows about it and gets attention (you know, keep “our thing” secret). And we have a mobster investigating if the lap dancers or the club owner should eh… sleep with the fish. LIke the court in Fritz Lang's "M". What if we raise the stakes and the brothers that devise the kidnapping are the club boss’ sons that have been recently disinherited? And they're the protagonist. The dancers obviously the attractors. What if the club owner was a woman and the dancers were male dancers, thinking they could easily take advantage of her, but she would give Scarface a run for his money?

Guy Ritchie. Good call.

That's interesting. What if the kidnapping goes public and there are viral videos involved, the kidnappers become celebs, the whole thing becomes a cultural circus...

Alejandro, you have immediately embraced the spirit of this series by using those two key words: what if. Perhaps the most powerful phrase related to generating and developing story ideas. I did a post on that here. Stick with the series all month long. Lots more 'what if' brainstorming to do.

"Who do we give the ransom video to?" "I dunno, just put it on Facebook!" They put up a six second ransom video on Vine: "We-want-our-money-now." "Do you think we adequately communicated our intentions, or do you think we should try that again?" I can almost see it turning into a wacky version of the "National Anthem" episode of "Black Mirror" mixed with "Airheads." Then the two brothers become their guides, helping them fix their mistakes and act like proper criminals.

How about a modern take on The Killing? One year later, after not being paid by the guy (who is also a racehorse owner/trainer) the girls and boys come back to the track to stage a heist, that all goes badly wrong - told from each of their perspectives with flash backs to the original race meet where they were conned, right up to the present day when it all goes wrong. We think they are friends at the start, but they all just want one thing - money.... A re-imagining of course - not a remake.....not of Kubrick! ;-)

So it could be a kind of Natural Born Killers + Bling Ring. Nice! And maybe the movie is in the form of a reality TV show episode of the kidnappers that have become famous and right now are battling. And of course, we include exaggerated recreations of the events.

Scott: thanks. I love this kind of exercises. I hope I'll be around for the whole series. Side note: maybe one of my problems is that sometimes I brainstorm too many ideas and I want to incorporate them all to the screenplay. That's what has happened with some screenplays I've written and read at my local writers group. Some of the comments are that I want to tell two, three or more stories and I should focus only on one. Any tips? Thanks.

There you go: It's 9 to 5 meets Rashomon!

Did you see "Sushi Girl?" Your idea kind of sounds like it has an element of that: these bank robbers reunite at an empty Japanese restaurant to celebrate their cohort getting out of jail-- but what they really want is to find out what he did with their stolen goods.