20 users responded in this post

Subscribe to this post comment rss or trackback url
mygif
Craig Oxbrow said on July 1st, 2009 at 1:17 pm

I feel that pain. I was about 6500 words into a novel about vampires attacking an oil drilling town above the Arctic Circle when Thirty Days of Night was announced.

ReplyReply
mygif
Lister Sage said on July 1st, 2009 at 1:42 pm

I’m with you on the directing bit. I made a short ten minute film for a class in high school, which I wrote about half, shot about 90% of and directed and editied the whole thing. And it was a bitch getting people together, organizing them, finding locations, props; I’m suprised I got it done and in two days no less. After I’d got it “in the can” most of my friends where begging to do another, but I knew it would be impossible once we got in college and no chance when we graduated. And I’d say mine was the best though I do say so myself (most of the others where dating game or COPS rip offs, where I had a semi-original story).

ReplyReply
mygif
Dennis Brennan said on July 1st, 2009 at 1:48 pm

“…Al’Rashad…”

Dude, I didn’t know that you wrote _The 13th Warrior_.

ReplyReply
mygif

“which seriously looks to use maybe eighty-five percent of my story beats.”

Can I ask how you know this? The trailer wasn’t long and I’m still a bit confused as to what the movie is actually about and what any of the characters want, and I got a sense of a few beats but it’s really difficult to discern the beats of a two-hour-long movie from a trailer.

As for Fadeaway: “All right, guys, think Jumper meets Air Force One“. An idea like that is pretty much the definition of “high concept.” “Okay, guys, it’s like Speed but without the bus” (Crank). Your particular execution is like a big-budget, high-concept, action version of how Hollywood spun Idle Hands out of the gag from Evil Dead II.

It’s pretty obvious that of all the things Hollywood might ever value, originality might well be at the bottom of the list. Also, it’s terribly overrated. One could pretty easily make the argument that Shakespeare was really just the greatest plagiarist of all time.

ReplyReply
mygif

I can tell you’re not a Hollywood writer, because you’ve made no mention of those other studios using government mind-reading radio signals to steal your ideas before you’ve written them. (Or, more mundanely, having broken into your house to peek at your scripts and totally rip them off before you finish them.)

ReplyReply
mygif

Here’s a plot idea: Somali pirates hijack a cargo ship secretly transporting a female cyborg ninja that just happens to break free during the raid. And it’s up to the badass seen-it-all chef (Ving Rhames, who’ll spend five minutes at the beginning of the movie narrating the most awesome chili recipe ever) to save the day.

ReplyReply
mygif

Hell, I was shit at directing a play I wrote in high school. I let my friend do the heavy lifting, and focused on getting the knee-to-the-crotch to look more realistic.

Aardy, there’s a comic about a guy’s inventions being stolen before he finishes them. The Un-[something I don’t remember, there are a lot of The Un- comics going]

ReplyReply
mygif
Thousand Sons said on July 1st, 2009 at 2:51 pm

Simpsons did it! 😀

ReplyReply
mygif

WOO! I won.

ReplyReply
mygif

Paul:

Yoink.

ReplyReply
mygif

I just finished reading Small Gods for the first time. Fantastic book that. Between that and Reaper Man, I had no idea a Discworld book could pull that sort of reaction out of me.

ReplyReply
mygif
MarvinAndroid said on July 1st, 2009 at 3:43 pm

I would support a Small Gods movie. I think it’s Pratchett’s second-best book overall (Night Watch taking the number one spot) and certainly his best stand-alone novel.

I would also support a Nation movie, and that seems like it would have an easier time getting an audience and sell better.

There’s been rumors of a Wee Free Men movie directed by Sam Raimi for a while now, but I get the feeling it isn’t going to happen.

ReplyReply
mygif
Thomas Wilde said on July 1st, 2009 at 3:52 pm

Wow, I remember talking to you about Fadeaway, what, ten years ago? Probably more?

ReplyReply
mygif

MarvinAndroid, I feel less bad for apparently skipping “Guards, Guards!” now. I’ll get to it. I’m about a quarter of the way through Night Watch now.

ReplyReply
mygif

I would love to see Small Gods get more exposure. It’s my favorite Discworld book, and, frankly, the stand-alone of his that really works. (Plus, while it covers the same basic god principle as Gaiman’s American Gods, it did it first, and better.) May I ask what drew you to this particular Pratchett work?

ReplyReply
mygif

Oooh, Well, if the film flops, at least there will be tasty, tasty chili.

ReplyReply
mygif
Eric TF Bat said on July 1st, 2009 at 8:07 pm

The trouble with Midnight Men is that anyone seeing the title is going to think it’s that movie with Ben Stiller in it, and Janeane Garofolo with a haunted bowling ball.

Whereas my first thought when I heard of Daybreakers was that it was that Phillip Jose Farmer story about people being put into suspended animation six days out of seven so as to avoid the problems of massive overpopulation.

But the latter does sound good, and after it’s out I’d love to get a comparative review from you, talking about where your story diverges.

Except… if Daybreakers is a hit, you know there’ll be a dozen more movies rushed into production to capitalise on it, because the one thing Hollywood hates is a completely new idea. So maybe you’ll have a chance of being one of the “copycats”…

ReplyReply
mygif
MarvinAndroid said on July 2nd, 2009 at 12:07 am

Kyle,
Like a lot of Pratchett’s earlier work, Guards! Guards! isn’t as strong as his later stuff. It’s still worth reading just to see the origins of Vimes, but he becomes a completely different character in the later books. It’s a ton of fun, and the book that gets a lot of people into the series as well.

ReplyReply
mygif
Lister Sage said on July 2nd, 2009 at 8:22 am

Eric TF Bat: Your thinking of Mystery Men, which is the only Ben Stiller movie I can sit through and while they have similar titles you’d have to be an idiot to think that those things are even close to each other story wise.

ReplyReply
mygif

I think everyone who saw the brilliant British cop procedural/vampire show Ultraviolet had the idea for a society were humans are processed as food for bloodsuckers…..god I miss that show.

ReplyReply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Please Note: Comment moderation may be active so there is no need to resubmit your comments