My concept sold today

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  • My concept sold today

    I worked on it for a year. The story of a dumb yet earnest border guard who is deported to Mexico and has to try and sneak back into the US. I finished the script last week and sent it to my manager for a read. My plan was to target Gary Sanchez. I could see everything unfolding. The day we went out with it. The back and forth phone calls. The resulting bidding war. Dollar bills falling from the sky...

    And then this happened: http://www.deadline.com/2014/04/will...border-guards/

    Same concept. Exactly.

    I'm sick to my stomach. I can't move. One year. Gone.

    I don't know why I'm writing this. Maybe someone out there has had a similar heartbreak and can make me feel better. I keep asking myself "why didn't you finish it sooner? why did it take you a whole f--king year?"

    Anyone out there have this happen? Or am I to wallow in self-pity alone.

  • #2
    Re: My concept sold today

    Originally posted by Strangerthanfiction
    I sympathize, I truly do... I wrote a story some years back, in the form of a novel. I sent it out to quite a few publishers, but it didn't get picked up, so I concentrated on an acting career, but kept writing in the background. 18 months ago, I decided to resurrect said story, and adapt it into a screenplay. Put my heart and soul into it, finished it, then found out that something of a very similar nature was already in development (now in production), similar down to the bone, including almost identical characters ect. I wrote one of the roles when adapting for a specific actress, and sent her agent the script, no idea if the agent ever passed it on or not (her assistant said they would)... Anyway, noticed some stark similarities in the other story, and did some digging, one of the writers just happens to be best friends with said actress... Anyway, it sucks it truly does, and I feel your pain. I spent several days lying in bed in the depths of depression, feeling so sick to my stomach that I couldn't eat, or sleep... At the end of the day you have to find a way to let go, cos all you can do is pick yourself up and move onto the next screenplay.

    Thanks for sharing Stranger. Misery loves company and tonight we're buds.

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    • #3
      Re: My concept sold today

      Bob here's my thoughts. Change the lead to a woman - starring anyone of the talented women from Bridesmaids - make her something other than a border guard but keep the urgency of getting back home and change the location to any other country than Mexico. Only when she finally gets the opportunity to come home, she decides to stay because she falls in love with someone there. Something like that.

      My wife one time was doing a job in Thailand and got deported to Namibia! And she was stuck there for two weeks. True story.

      Good luck buddy. I feel your pain. Keep pressing.

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      • #4
        Re: My concept sold today

        Originally posted by madworld View Post
        Bob here's my thoughts. Change the lead to a woman - starring anyone of the talented women from Bridesmaids - make her something other than a border guard but keep the urgency of getting back home and change the location to any other country than Mexico. Only when she finally gets the opportunity to come home, she decides to stay because she falls in love with someone there. Something like that.

        My wife one time was doing a job in Thailand and got deported to Namibia! And she was stuck there for two weeks. True story.

        Good luck buddy. I feel your pain. Keep pressing.
        Thanks for the pep talk Mad.

        Changing the protag or setting is always an option. Unfortunately, the arc is very male-centric and every set-piece and gag relies on the Mexico/US relationship (drug cartels, etc). It wouldn't be a plug and play. It would be a page 1 rewrite. And honestly, i just don't know how passionate I would be working outside the themes that come with the US/Mexico dynamic.

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        • #5
          Re: My concept sold today

          Originally posted by Strangerthanfiction
          Also just to add that I did a massive re-write of said screenplay, and made some drastic alterations to the story, which has made it significantly different, and also significantly better, so that's an option also... Anyway big hug, you will feel better soon. I'm bashing out my next screenplay, and so should you.
          I'm working on scenes for a new script now. It's the only thing that makes me feel better. Upward and onward, as they say.

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          • #6
            Re: My concept sold today

            This has happened to me a number of times. And I'm talking EXACT same concept. It even got to the point where I thought I had a special power -- whatever script I finished, the same concept would be sold and fastracked to production by another writer within weeks. So I started a thread asking people what they wanted to see up on the big or small screen and I would start working on the script.

            It's surprisingly common and I feel for you, my friend. All you can do is move on...

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            • #7
              Re: My concept sold today

              Same here. I once saw the trailer of a film I knew nothing about which not only had pretty much the same story as the one I had just finished writing, but one of the scenes was word for word the same!

              I felt like I'd written a Hollywood movie, only without being paid.
              TimeStorm & Blurred Vision Book info & blog: https://stormingtime.com//

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              • #8
                Re: My concept sold today

                While it may not help right now, take heart that your instincts for what would make a good movie appear to be spot-on!

                Keep writing that next one.
                Check out my blog:
                Rookie Australian Screenwriter

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                • #9
                  Re: My concept sold today

                  Originally posted by Bob Smargiassi View Post
                  I worked on it for a year. The story of a dumb yet earnest border guard who is deported to Mexico and has to try and sneak back into the US. I finished the script last week and sent it to my manager for a read. My plan was to target Gary Sanchez. I could see everything unfolding. The day we went out with it. The back and forth phone calls. The resulting bidding war. Dollar bills falling from the sky...

                  And then this happened: http://www.deadline.com/2014/04/will...border-guards/

                  Same concept. Exactly.

                  I'm sick to my stomach. I can't move. One year. Gone.

                  I don't know why I'm writing this. Maybe someone out there has had a similar heartbreak and can make me feel better. I keep asking myself "why didn't you finish it sooner? why did it take you a whole f--king year?"

                  Anyone out there have this happen? Or am I to wallow in self-pity alone.
                  I would proceed as normal/like it didn't happen. Let your reps worry about whether it's worth worrying about.

                  EJ

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                  • #10
                    Re: My concept sold today

                    It's happened to me twice. I tried to take comfort from the idea that at least I had commercially viable concepts but... The time spent is a bitch.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: My concept sold today

                      Originally posted by carcar View Post
                      It's happened to me twice. I tried to take comfort from the idea that at least I had commercially viable concepts but... The time spent is a bitch.
                      I think that's the hardest part to swallow. The time lost.

                      The good news is though a deal is in place, the script hasn't been written yet so it's not like prodco's are going to read the logline and go "I've already read a script with this concept" and toss it in the trash. So I'm hoping it will still get reads which can lead to meetings, work, etc.

                      All is not lost.

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                      • #12
                        Re: My concept sold today

                        Originally posted by EJ Pennypacker View Post
                        I would proceed as normal/like it didn't happen. Let your reps worry about whether it's worth worrying about.

                        EJ
                        Good advice. My pity party ended last night. Back to work.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: My concept sold today

                          Couple of thoughts:

                          First of all, this means you can come up with great, commercial concepts! That's awesome. Keep it up! As you gain experience, you'll get faster and faster at turning them into scripts.

                          Second, don't panic. Projects that are very, very similar at the logline stage can be very, very different at the script stage. The sales hook for a script tells you very little about that script's unique flavor of comedy - you may well read the script for this project and realize that even though the loglines sound incredibly similar, the actual projects are miles apart.

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                          • #14
                            Re: My concept sold today

                            When Vince Gilligan went to pitch Breaking Bad, the first comment he received was "A suburbanite who starts selling drugs? So, it's like Weeds?"

                            Gilligan's internal response: "What the hell is Weeds?"

                            He later said that if he had known of the existence of Weeds, he would have tossed the Breaking Bad concept out and thought "Oh well. Everything's been done."

                            It turns out that the world was capable of handling both Weeds and Breaking Bad.

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                            • #15
                              Re: My concept sold today

                              Originally posted by Bunker View Post
                              When Vince Gilligan went to pitch Breaking Bad, the first comment he received was "A suburbanite who starts selling drugs? So, it's like Weeds?"

                              Gilligan's internal response: "What the hell is Weeds?"

                              He later said that if he had known of the existence of Weeds, he would have tossed the Breaking Bad concept out and thought "Oh well. Everything's been done."
                              Makes me wonder how many great TV shows/movies we've been robbed of due to situations like this.
                              "I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paperwork.-- Peter De Vries

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