A valuable thing I once read.....

[ak]

I've noted that a lot of people seem to write scripts for existing ideas. I don't quite understand why people do this.
For their own satisfaction, knowing that they can improve upon a bad film, by writing a sequel?

I've read in several screen-writing books and websites that it is a waste of time writing an already copyrighted idea cause they'll just be thrown away as soon as noticed.
Say, for example, you're writing a 4th or 5th sequel to a film that exists, why bother? The story is someone's property. They don't want someone touching their property who doesn't have permission to.

Could someone please share their thoughts here, cause this is something that's bothered me for a while, and, frankly, confused me.

P.S - I forgot to mention that this is aimed more at "fans" of films, cause they like to continue writing scripts of existing stories.



[This message has been edited by ak (edited 07-20-2002).]

[Bradox]

I'm currently reading Steven King's excellent memoir, "On Writing," and he alluded briefly to something like that. He mentioned Tolkein did such a great job with his work many people have tried to "bring Frodo and Sam back from the Gray Havens."

I think some people are just so moved they need to keep them going. However, there are some things that should just be left alone.

I'm almost afraid to think what this new Indiana Jones movies they're talking about would be like, or the threat of a fourth Rambo movie.

Some things should just be allowed to walk away.

Personally, I'm far more tempted to draft a screenplay on an existing book than another movie. If anyone's ever read the Worldwar series or Guns of the South by Harry Turtledove, those could make a good movie, or even mini-series.

[radiofreememory]

I don't think Indiana Jones belongs in the same company as this discussion. The fourth one is being made by the original members. Speilberg, Lucas and Ford.

[Bradox]

All right, I'll leave out Indiana Jones.

Something else I just thought of, though. Another point King made was that there is really very few new ideas. Most are a simple retelling of another story, with either a little, or a lot of twists.

How many truly original "romantic comedies" are there out there?

But still, I think it's part of the love of characters, plus the fact to build and control something that's already there that they like.

[PhantomRhyter]

Originally posted by Bradox:


Another point King made was that there is really very few new ideas. Most are a simple retelling of another story, with either a little, or a lot of twists.

Yes, exactly! Or as Old King Solomon the Preacher so aptly put it:

'The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun
Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See this is new? it hath been made already of old time, which was before us.'
--Ecclesiastes 1: 9-10

Starting around 1989 and into the early 1990s I started developin an idea which at the time seemed totally original. It was a whole new mythos that combined elements of fantasy and science together into one connected format. It was, I imagined, the completion of what such writers as Lord Dunsany, Algernon Blackwood, Ambrose Bierce, and H.P. Lovecraft started (and which was eventually dominated by Lovecraft in his 'Cthulu Mythos'), that final marriage between 'cosmic horror' and 'physical reality'.

In this 'new mythos' I was conjuring up, all the ties between ancient mythologies and modern horrors and science fiction (especially as regards UFOs and aliens) would have been tied together in the Ancient and Biblical accounts of the Nephilim (horrific half human/ half fallen angel [or
'alein'] hybrids, that pretty much raised hell on earth).

Unfortunately for me it seems other writers have already been 'catching up' to me and there is already three books that I know of which deal specifically with 'my' mythos;

The Fallen(1995) by Robert Don Hughes.
Nephilim (2001) by Lynn Marzuli. -and-
The Facade (2001) by Michael Heiser.

Now, should I quit developing my mythos simply because these other writers beat me to the pen and paper? Maybe, for whatever i do now will be compared to their work. Although I might want to kick these gentlemen in their arses for 'stealing my idea' I doubt I could really get away with that, and besides I have no right. Its not their fault I'm so damned slow, and it was only a matter of time that this connection would be discovered by fiction writers.

Main point is, that regardless of what I may have thought, the idea was not really 'original' in the strictest sense anyway, as we are all 'ripping off' a story originally told by God. Indeed I think that a paralell to every story ever told by man exists in the Bible specifically, and in many of the other ancient texts as well. The truth is there are only so many themses to stories that can be told. They are limited by their number just as are notes on the scale of music. What makes anything
'unique' is the perspective of a particular author.

This always used to hang me up-- wanting to tell a type of story that had never been told before, when the truth is there really is no such thing.

Chills,
PhantomRhyter

[Narrator]

I believe that originality now exists in the way you choose to tell a story not the story you choose to tell

for example: MEMENTO
This is fundamentaly a by the book revenge movie, Leonard Shelby is out for revenge on the guy who raped and murdered his wife. However it was told in such a strikingly original way it became an instant classic.

Which brings me to a point about people on this board, I think people are too quick to say "Hey ur idea is so much like blah blah blah" original sotires dont exist, in a screenwriting book currently gathering dust on my shelf I read that leading professionals were challenged to write an original story, they were dumbstruck and did not succeed. Originalty lies in film making not in screenwriting

Thats my ten cents my two cents is free http://www.joblo.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

Two multiplied by ten, plus one, Narrator dun!

[Bradox]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Narrator:
I believe that originality now exists in the way you choose to tell a story not the story you choose to tell

for example: MEMENTO
This is fundamentaly a by the book revenge movie, Leonard Shelby is out for revenge on the guy who raped and murdered his wife. However it was told in such a strikingly original way it became an instant classic.

Which brings me to a point about people on this board, I think people are too quick to say "Hey ur idea is so much like blah blah blah" original sotires dont exist, in a screenwriting book currently gathering dust on my shelf I read that leading professionals were challenged to write an original story, they were dumbstruck and did not succeed. Originalty lies in film making not in screenwriting

I believe that originality now exists in the way you choose to tell a story not the story you choose to tell

</font>

I agree with you Narrator. Just because an idea isn't a 100 percent original doesn't mean it's not a good story. There is that difference between plagirism and breathing in a new spirit to an old idea.

I'm doing it myself. The novel I am working on now was inspired by the movie Cyborg, with Jean-Claude Van Damme, but only a few of the folks who read the original story noticed the kernal. And as I've revised and written my story, the similarities disappear.

[This message has been edited by Bradox (edited 07-21-2002).]

[Ronaldinho]

This is very important, and nobody seems to have mentioned it.

If you're writing for a hobby, just to have fun, or whatever. Great. Enjoy yourself. It doesn't matter what you do.

However, if you are going to attempt to sell your material, it is very very important to write only compltely original material.

Period.

No sequels. No blatant knock-offs. Completely original material.

Sure, you can be inspired by something. Take it, run with it. Make it your own. But make it enough your own so nobody who reads it thinks, "oh, this is a sequel to CYBORG."

The law here is clear. You CAN NOT SELL something that you write if it based on characters you don't own. Period. Not only will you never get the people who do own the original material to read your script, but if you did, they could essentailly take anything in it they wanted--because they own the characters, you don't.

I know it doesn't sound fair. I'm not here to talk abotu fair. I'm talking about the law.

So, if it's for your own amusement, that's fine. Knock yourself out. Have a great time. But if you're going to try and do something with it, I'm sorry, no. You're wasting your time.