Tag Archives: Screenplay

Oh my. It appears we need ANOTHER ending

Posted on by

Young woman (college age) scours flea markets looking for digital cameras and the occasional memory card. She uses the more interesting photos in her art projects. She finds a little point and shoot and buys it, even though she can’t seem to call up any photos.

Later that afternoon she gets the camera to turn on and finds just two photos. One is an amazingly realistic image of the World Trade Center Towers in mid-collapse. The date and time (the following morning) appear in the lower right-hand corner.

Gruesome, but damned good Photo Shop work. She emails it to an art school friend who is equally impressed. Can’t see how it’s done and he can ALWAYS see how it’s done. Really bugs him.

The next morning the world changes forever. She goes back to her apartment and calls up the image on her laptop. The same image she see from her apartment window. Whoa.

The phone rings and it’s her friend from art school.

“What the fuck!? Where did you get that picture? Where did you get a fucking picture of something before it happened.

[later at friends apartment]

Young Woman wants to take the photo to the police. Hold on, says Friend. How can you explain having that photo. No way, have to think this through. Was that the only photo on the camera, asks Friend?

Young Woman pulls up the other image. It’s a store front with a selection of cameras displayed. One is circled in red. But nothing to indicate where the shop might be.

[We’ll fast-forward a bit and assume they see a street sign or address in the reflection or something like that]

They buy the camera and jump back in the car to take a look. Again, two photos. One a disaster (make it as big and as bad as you like) with date and time stamp for a week from that day.

They have to figure out where the disaster is going to take place and how to stop it. I’ll bet real screenwriters have a name for this kind keep-the-plot-moving writing. This sequence repeats a few times with the girls preventing some and not others.

The final camera only has one photo. Of the Friend shooting Young Woman in the head with a large handgun.

Regular readers know that this is where I stall out. No ending. No way to wrap things up. That, class is your assignment. To the comments!

PS: This is only a little like a story idea I posted a couple of years ago.

Snapshots

Posted on by

A woman/man/boy takes my picture at a crowded sidewalk cafe. I object and the woman/man/boy runs away. I give chase. The mysterious photographer dashes in front of a bus and is killed instantly. I look down and see the camera at my feet. I pick it up and walk away. A couple of blocks away I go into a bar and turn on the camera, looking for a clue to the identity of the photographer. There are just 12 images on the camera, the last one being the one just taken of me. The story unfolds as I attempt to unravel the mystery, searching for clues in the twelve photos.

Snapshots
To put some meat on the bones of this story, I really should come up with interesting photos. For example, let’s say one of them is crash scene of Princess Di (time stamped 5 seconds after the crash, before anyone else arrived).

And maybe one is a shot of Lee Harvey Oswald posing by the window in the book depository. (A digital image before there were digital cameras?)

If we want to take a spooky tack, the first image could be the crushed body of the photographer under the bus.

You get the idea. Would this make a better TV series than feature? You could post the images online and invite fans to help solve the mystery. Hmmm.

Comments/ideas are encouraged. And if this has already been done, please let me know.

All I need is one more ending

Posted on by

It’s the first day of anatomy class and the med students are being assigned cadavers. During the dissection process, one geeky but brilliant student discovers that his guy didn’t die from natural causes. He was, in fact, killed in a highly sophisticated manner that could only have been murder. The kind of high tech death that should have been undetectable.

We all know the next part. He takes his discovery to his professors, the cops, etc etc. Nobody listens.

The med student can’t find the dead guy’s name because the records have been erased. But his geeky-yet-adorable former girlfriend matches the face with images she finds online and discovers the guy was a blogger for the last ten or twelve years of his life.

The plot unfolds as our two protagonists dig back through the dead guy’s blog, looking for clues to who killed him and why.

Regular readers know this is as far as I get with my plots but, in a few days, Kay Henderson will come up with a thrilling conclusion.

If you can’t come up with a killer (snicker) ending, feel free to suggest a title.

Taking the Imus story to the big screen

Posted on by

Aging white radio personality (Bill Murrary) gets fired for racist remark. His career appears to be over until he’s hired by the owner (Bernie Mac) of a struggling, urban (Detroit?) radio station. Seems the radio personality saved the station owner’s life in the jungles of Viet Nam.

The station manager (Queen Latifah) doesn’t like the idea at all but the program director (Jack Black) –a white man who longs to be black– sees big ratings.

The local minister/activist (Eddie Murphy) keeps the heat on to get rid of “this loud-mouthed saltine!”

The station sales manager (Regina King) sees nothing but angry advertisers but soon finds herself falling in love with the repentant Murray character.

As with all my movie ideas, I have no third act, but know Kay will come through as she always does. I guess I need a title, too. Maybe, “What’d I say?”

All we need is (another) ending

Posted on by

I’m probably one of the last to hear about the guy that made a bet with his girlfriend that he could make a website that would get 2 million hits. If he fails, he admits he’s an idiot. If he gets the 2 million hits, his girlfriend will do a threesome with with another girl. The guy is obvisouly not an idiot because the site he created (HelpWinMyBet.com) appealed to every horny geek on the Internet and there’s waaay more than 2 million of those. He’s passed 3 million hits and his girlfriend has conceded defeat. They’re now reviewing applicants for the trois of the menage.

The site looks legit but who knows. When Darin forwarded this link, all I could think of was the screenplay that jumped out of my inbox.

As you know, I’m a terrible casting director but I could see Jack Black (maybe Ben Stiller) as the geeky boyfriend. Perhaps Janeane Garofalo as the girlfriend. Not sure who should play the other woman but here’s my take on the story…

Starts off just like the "real" story. Guy wins the bet and starts putting photos of "other girl" candidates on his website. Which comes to the attention of a publicist for a rock (movie?) star whose career is starting to fade. The flack talks the star client into joining the threesome by putting together a movie deal that will jump-start her sliding career. (We’re talking movie-within-a-movie here, right?)

At first the geeky boyfriend is giddy with delight. He’s going to be in a movie where he has sex with his girlfriend and the star. But the star and the girlfriend become pals. Not lovers, but friends. As they begin to have fun with the whole idea, the boyfriend starts having second thoughts.

As regular readers know, this is where I run out of ideas… and my friend Kay bails me out with three or four really good, boffo endings. But you can play, too. Just click the comments link below.

PS: If this movie has already been made, let me know.

PPS: If this movie ever gets made, how pissed will I be?

PPS: Ooh, how about this. Starving (blocked) screenwriter scours the web looking for ideas. Comes across a blog where this smart, funny guy keeps posting movie idea without endings. The blocked writer is ass deep in good endings…steals the blogger’s plots…and sells them to Big Studio where they bescome megahits. The blogger recognizes his ideas on the big screen and road-trips to Hollywood to confront the (now wealthy) screenwriter. I think we might have two movies here. Any ideas on who should play me?

All we need is an ending

Posted on by

I have this idea for a screenplay but I’m thinking it’s already been done. And, if not, I don’t have an ending.

Famous female rock star breaks off high-profile engagement to equally famous sports figure. This tough, smart, independent woman hears her biological clock ticking and decides to have a baby on her own  and worry about meeting Mr. Right later (or never). But she needs sperm donor. The normal procedure sounds cold and sterile so she decides to do it the old fashioned way and starts looking for the lucky guy. Several humorous, unsuccessful candidates later, she’s about to give up when fate brings her together with The Guy.

He’s a romantic who wants nothing to do with the scheme but gets tricked into the sack and the deed gets done. She tries to give him a bunch of go-away money but he doesn’t want it and just goes back to his anonymous life.

A few months pass and the media notices that Famous Female Rock Star is in a family way and goes searching for the father. Relentless Reporter tracks down The Guy.

So we’ve got Girl-Meets-Boy…Girl-Loses-Boy… but I’m stuck on how to get them back together.

And I’m thinking this movie has already been made but I can’t come up with the title. Sounds a little like Notting Hill. Any of you film buffs out there help me out on this? Have I seen this movie and just forgotten it?

I kind of see Kevin Connolly as The Guy. And maybe Sienna Miller as The Rock Star? Would help if she could sing but not critical.

I’m gonna keep working on this because I want a happy ending for the Famous Female Rock Star.