I’ve made no secret that I wanted to be a screenwriter before. It’s something that I’ve wanted to do as long as I can remember and I have a lot of ideas. The problem with my ideas though is that they are all movies I would want to see. Most of the movies that I end up loving are ones that don’t make millions and millions of dollars. I have been trying to change my thought process of late to think of the kind of movies that Hollywood actually buys and makes into movies and the kind of movies that become hits. This is actually a really difficult exercise.
I came up with one idea, called “When We’re 30 (or 40)” (or “The Marriage Pact”). It’s about a guy and a girl who are best friends in high school or college and after one breaks up with their girlfriend/boyfriend the two of them make a pact that if they don’t find anyone by a certain age that they will get married. Well, what if when they got to be that age one of them actually tried to take the other up on it. What would happen then? My thought process was that this is a familiar idea among people. I think it was on Friends and I know I have seen it somewhere else before too. Also, romantic comedies are cheap and one seemingly comes out every single week for the entire year. Some are good, most are bad, but almost all of them turn a profit. It speaks to the entire point of movie theaters in the first place, so people have a place to take their dates. Now, the problem with this idea is that I would never want to write this movie because I would never want to see this movie and even if I did write it I would be viewed as a bad writer because this movie probably wouldn’t be that good. It would most definitely star Kate Hudson and she is incapable of making a good movie. Still, I think I am on the right track with thinking about the kind of movies that are actually made in Hollywood.
What I am trying to do now is think of something more “high-concept”. A BIG idea, if you will. When I think high-concept I think about Brian K Vaughn selling a spec script for a million dollars after a bidding war. It was an incredible idea that went something like this:
In “Roundtable,” Vaughan tries out yet another tweak on the oft-revised King Arthur legend. His spin, more “Ghostbusters” than “Excalibur,” revolves around Merlin assembling a bunch of modern-day knights to battle a resurrected ancient evil, only to discover that today’s knights are all washed-up athletes, cowardly scientists or Academy Award-winning actors.
It a pretty basic concept (“think modern day King Arthur story”), but it’s really genius when you get down to it. (You can read a script review here.) Current real life knighted people include: Sean Connery, Elton John, Bono, Mick Jagger, Ian McKellan and golfer Nick Faldo. Put swords in the hands of those guys and you aren’t really striking fear into anybody except Republicans. It’s got a strong comedy potential, surely has good action and it has a certain level of familiarity because of Merlin and the Knights of the Roundtable. It’s a really great idea and if you really want to get screenplay technical about it, it’s a “four quadrant picture” meaning it hits all four marketing quadrants (men over 25, men under 25, women over 25, women under 25.). I think if it ever gets made it will be a huge hit. I love the idea and I wish I could think of something like it. Unfortunately, the only way to do that is to keep thinking.
