As the screen writers are out on strike, this would seem an opportune time to work on my script.
Actually, it was going to be a novel, and I really did do some work on it (about 3000 words) but I realized that the only parts that were any good were the dialog. Narrative isn't really my strong suit, but when I get on a roll I can churn out some killer dialog. Also, a script is only about 120 pages. This is what they call in "the biz" a "no-brainer".
The original idea I had was the story of a young academic who led a dual life as a secret agent/assassin. Basically, I wanted to juxtapose a brutal world of treachery, lies, and betrayal with that of espionage.
At one point I thought it might be fun to have the hero's two worlds collide: his mission becomes someone he knows through his "day job", who he eventually ends up killing. And from that, we actually find out that he has never been a secret agent, but that this was just an elaborate fantasy he constructed for himself to deal with the crushing inanity of academic research, and that his secret agent persona has actually taken over and caused him to kill lots of innocent people.
But then I realized that this was basically "Alias" meets "A Beautiful Mind" meets "Fight Club".
So here I am with a premise and some random bits of dialog, but no story that isn't hopelessly derivative. I think the fantasy/delusion angle is a no-go...but I do think that the black comic potential here is still pretty rich. I just need somewhere for it to go...
You know, maybe writers should get paid more...
1 comment:
Aren't most movies these days remakes or mash-ups of other movies anyhow? And they still seem to make money, so let's f-in do this. You write the movie, I'll figure out a way to turn it into a follow-up sitcom series.
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