A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 29
This is the fifth year in a row I’ve run this series in April.
Today’s story: The Silent Twins.
The Story: June and Jennifer Gibbons were British twin girls whose bond became something ostracizing and dangerous as it drew them together, away from the world, and into trouble. As children, they spoke their own language, and rarely spoke to anyone else. But their love for each other sometimes curdled, resulting in one trying to murder the other and vice versa. As they got older, they went on a crime spree of theft and arson that got them branded as psychopaths. They were committed to Broadmoor Hospital for the criminally insane when they were just 14 years old. Later, they did finally begin to reach out to someone, journalist Marjorie Wallace. To her, they showed a remarkable self-awareness, admitting they could never be individuals as long as the other lived. Jennifer told Wallace, “I’m going to die. We’ve decided.” And as they were being transferred to a lower security facility that would give them more personal freedom, Jennifer did just that. Though she is said to have died of a heart condition, it’s a bizarre coincidence to say the least.
The Pitch: The Silent Twins have gotten a made for TV movie in the UK (trailer below), but their story is so unusual that it deserves something a bit flashier. It could be a deeply moody film that speaks to the pain of creating an identity apart from family. As June lives (free and seemingly mentally stable), it’d probably be best to center a film on her, and her struggle to love her sister while attempting to be separate from her. Imagine The Brothers Bloom, but darker. This is the kind of story I’d love to see We Need to Talk About Kevin director Lynne Ramsay handle. Can someone get on that please?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ooiyijstms8
So look at this: The folks at Cinema Blend did their own version of A Story Idea Each Day for a Month… just not the whole… you know… each day… and for a month thing. But they did do this: 10 Terrifying True Stories That Deserve Horror Movie Adaptations, including one the strange case of Elisa Lam which did get set up earlier this year as a big spec script sale: The Bringing.
So what about the Silent Twins? We’ve already had the 1988 David Cronenberg movie Dead Ringers:
Twin gynecologists take full advantage of the fact that nobody can tell them apart, until their relationship begins to deteriorate over a woman.
I even found this article: The Top Ten (or is it Twenty…) Evil Twins in Movies. So there is a tradition, even if not quite qualifying as a subgenre.
What is the appeal about evil twins? Is it the ability for one to play the role of the other? Is it their special bond and line of communication which they can use for illicit ends?
More importantly, what would you do with the Silent Twins?
There you go: My twenty ninth story idea for the month. And it’s yours. Free!
Each day this month, I invite you to join me in comments to do some brainstorming. Gender bend, genre bend, what if. Take each day’s story idea and see what it can become when we play around with it. These are all valuable skills for a writer to develop.
See you in comments (hit Reply to join the conversation). And come back tomorrow for our very last Story Idea Each Day For A Month.
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