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  • #46
    Re: New Ideas

    Originally posted by Cyfress View Post

    You need an interesting investigator that has an open wound that happened in backstory but comes back into play as the plot unfolds. You need that psychological piece to the story and not just be chasing a maniac who is killing people.
    Cyfress, you throw that "need" word around a lot. What you suggest with the "open wound" is great, it adds depth to a character, but a writer doesn't "need" to include it.

    "The Boston Strangler," staring Tony Curtis and Henry Fonda, was about an intense investigation, with little clues, for a mentally ill serial killer. It's investigator character didn't "need" to have an open wound.

    You tell Bono, well, that story was based on true events, so I think they are in a box on what they could do with a character.

    Have you ever heard of creative license? Writers and filmmakers use it all the time with stories based on true events. If a writer wants to have his investigator character in a story based on true events have an open wound, then he's free to do so.

    Let's say your right and stories based on true events can't have a character with an open wound, unless they had it in real life, but original serial killer stories "need" to have an investigator with an open wound.

    Doesn't this advice throw your great execution theory out the window? With this "need" edict, you're saying no matter how the writer executes his story, it's not gonna work without the open wound, where he's just chasing some manic serial killer.

    By the way, my investigator in my serial killer story has an open wound (the death of his wife), but I'm just saying...

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    • #47
      Re: New Ideas

      IMO, the best serial killer movies have that inner conflicted lead investigator. It's just what I like and what I think makes one better than another. When I say need, I'm speaking as to what I think a good script in this genre needs. I'm sure people have thoughts on what they may think a script needs and that's fine too.

      As far as Zodiac goes, the investigator character played by Jake G is different in quite a few ways, one he is a cartoonist which is very outside the box for this genre. It's usually someone in Law Enforcement. Two, I think there was a wound to the hero. His obsessiveness over the unsolvable - his need to finish every puzzle even if it kills him and this one might.

      I didn't see the Boston Strangler movie so I can't speak to it. If someone feels they don't need the wound - which is not my creation, not my label - then they surely won't have it in their script. I always heard those trained in story talk about how important it was and how healing that wound is REALLY what the story is about - the plot is a vehicle for it to happen - again not my original thoughts, not my original ideas - I like to watch interviews of writers, agents, professors in screenwriting. Ive read many books on story though not any in a decade. This is where I get my knowledge. I'm not sitting in a dark room with with a pen and paper making things up.

      But a story only really needs to be interesting. That will keep the pages turning. A wound is good for sympathy, it's good for inner conflict, it's good for reader/character attachment. But nothing is a have to have.
      Last edited by Cyfress; 08-13-2020, 06:28 AM.

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      • #48
        Re: New Ideas

        Originally posted by figment View Post
        I just came here to list this. Hahah. I loved Blockbuster. This could be a horror maybe? Halloween night?

        I'm surprised no one ever made a movie (with a take) from this biker gang shooting. 9 people dead and 177 arrested when two biker gangs had a shootout in a damn restaurant in the middle of the day. Then all those arrested held on a million dollars bond. Yikes. Then the bikers threatened police. There are so many angles to this.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fh13ZLavobM

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHG_KB5fH6Q
        Horror for sure -- I mean yes!!!!

        I don't know if there's a full movie, but a biker gang movie is long overdue. I'm thinking of STONE COLD as the last one I can think of. Comedy version WILD HOGS.

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        • #49
          Re: New Ideas

          ^That could make a great movie. I'd definitely watch it. There's a hell of a lot of potential for good biker gang neo-westerns.

          Since someone is going to beat me to the punch anyway I'll toss this out -

          Logline: After being targeted by both law enforcement and his former gang, a notorious outlaw biker must team up with an undercover informant, or snitch, in order to survive.


          I wrote a full outline for that in 2012 or 2013 but never committed. I wanted it to be a gritty and (hopefully) funny western with a contemporary or slightly futuristic setting. Something like Raising Arizona but with more action/adventure (and plenty of hobo camps). On a side note, one of the set-pieces involved the leads trying to bypass a huge, high tech border wall en route to Mexico. Don't think that would fly anymore. I didn't mean anything political by that either. I was just imagining.

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          • #50
            Re: New Ideas

            Biker Gang meets Fast and Furious franchise. Add a gadget or two to each bike and you're golden. Like one has a flamethrower, the other a laser beam...

            You're welcome, America.

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            • #51
              Re: New Ideas

              It sounds like your talking an American not-yet-post-apocalyptic Mad Max on bikes. Yep, that'll work.
              Know this: I'm a lazy amateur, so trust not a word what I write.
              "The ugly can be beautiful. The pretty, never." ~ Oscar Wilde

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              • #52
                Re: New Ideas

                Thanks. I've only seen the new Mad Max but I saw they just put the original on Netflix. I will watch it.

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                • #53
                  Re: New Ideas

                  Originally posted by Bono View Post
                  Biker Gang meets Fast and Furious franchise. Add a gadget or two to each bike and you're golden. Like one has a flamethrower, the other a laser beam...

                  You're welcome, America.
                  That could work but it'd change the vibe. I toyed with the idea of a supernatural element - maybe a four horsemen type death squad, each with different powers, based on the Nomads - but I thought I'd better not. The fantasy stuff might repel more people than it'd attract (and I think Neil Gaiman did something like that already). The tech angle is easier to digest as long as it's not too crazy (or if it's that type of comedy).

                  To keep it on topic- the idea was inspired by this-

                  https://youtu.be/S5TnPjOd_To

                  And some documentary I saw about an undercover cop that killed someone (while undercover) and then ended up in trouble with his bosses. It might've been cartel related.

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                  • #54
                    Re: New Ideas

                    Originally posted by Bono View Post
                    This thread is more about the creative process of finding NEW ideas in the first place.
                    Finding new ideas is the easiest part of the process IMO. It's telling them that's the hard part: avoiding well-trodden plots and characters. This is especially hard when a concept is similar to an existing, well-known IP, as I can't shake them from my mind. For example, a thriller underpinned by a sci-fi concept was ticking over nicely until I saw similarities to Universal Soldier and now I can't complete the final third without copying that film's conclusion.
                    Last edited by SundownInRetreat; 08-19-2020, 02:23 AM.
                    M.A.G.A.

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                    • #55
                      Re: New Ideas

                      If ideas were easy I'd write six features a year.

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                      • #56
                        Re: New Ideas

                        Originally posted by Crayon View Post
                        So we're doing new serial killer movie ideas? Hold on, give me a second ... ooh, here it comes ... ahhh, there you go:

                        BALLPARK MESSIAH

                        Crime Thriller

                        Tagline: Three strikes and you're dead.

                        The "baseball-bat murders" just appear violent and random until a devout virgin Catholic detective finds that each victim had filed for their third divorce.
                        Slightly reminsicent of The Fan (1996), starring Robert DeNiro and Wesley Snipes, directed by Tony Scott. Don’t know why it flopped so hard at the box office.
                        “Nothing is what rocks dream about” ― Aristotle

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                        • #57
                          Re: New Ideas

                          Originally posted by TigerFang View Post
                          Slightly reminsicent of The Fan (1996), starring Robert DeNiro and Wesley Snipes, directed by Tony Scott. Dont know why it flopped so hard at the box office.
                          Surely it flopped because of the lame title. I told Tony to go with Ballpark Messiah - but would he listen!?
                          Know this: I'm a lazy amateur, so trust not a word what I write.
                          "The ugly can be beautiful. The pretty, never." ~ Oscar Wilde

                          Comment


                          • #58
                            Re: New Ideas

                            Originally posted by TigerFang View Post
                            Slightly reminsicent of The Fan (1996), starring Robert DeNiro and Wesley Snipes, directed by Tony Scott. Don't know why it flopped so hard at the box office.
                            Could be any number of reasons. I never saw it, I recall trailer and thinking, it looked bad.

                            But I looked up box office wkd and Tin Cup came out same time, it's the end of summer, so I figure if you're going to the movies, probably going to see happy Costner sports film over the intense baseball thriller when real baseball is playing on your TV or at the ballpark. This was BC when we could leave our houses, remember those days?

                            Also Independence Day was still out...

                            Back in the day movies were in the theaters for more than 2 weeks! Crazy times!!!!

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                            • #59
                              Re: New Ideas

                              I didn't think the Fan was that bad. I'd say like a 6.5/10.

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                              • #60
                                Re: New Ideas

                                Please remember to stay focused on the topic of coming up with "new ideas" in general and any method or approach you might have.

                                If you want to discuss developing specific ideas, please use the STORY & IDEA DEVELOPMENT forum. Or if you want to discuss films you like, please use the FILM forum below.

                                Thanks.
                                Will
                                Done Deal Pro
                                www.donedealpro.com

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