A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 4
Another value of plowing through current events for possible script story ideas is the fact that the events are… you know… current. If you can jump on it and knock out a script within 2–3 months, your story could be timely per buyers. For example, this story:
The body of the managing director of one of the world’s largest sovereign funds, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, has been found after his disappearance in a plane crash last week, a Moroccan government official said today.
“This unhappy news is confirmed,” the official told Reuters, without providing further details. The Maghreb Arab press agency reported that the body of Sheikh Ahmed bin Zayed al-Nahayan had been recovered from a reservoir near the Moroccan capital, Rabat, where his aircraft went down on Friday.
A member of the Abu Dhabi ruling family, he was the younger brother of the ruler of Abu Dhabi, who is also president of the United Arab Emirates,
Sheikh Ahmed was in his early 40s and was ranked 27th on Forbes’ list of the world’s most powerful people last year. His sovereign wealth fund is believed to have assets of around $500bn (£335bn) to $700bn, ranging from Citigroup bonds to a stake in Gatwick airport to residential property in major cities.
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The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority is considered the world’s largest state-run investor, funnelling funds from the emirate’s oil exports into shares and bonds overseas from its headquarters in a gleaming skyscraper on the island city’s shoreline.
This is a sad ending to a story that gripped the Middle East as Sheikh Ahmed bin Zayed al-Nahayan had gone missing for several weeks.
But what if one of someone like the Sheikh had survived a crash landing in a lawless part of the world like Somalia or south Yemen. And the parent of this adult son or daughter, a person of enormous power and wealth, gathered together [pick a number] of the most ruthless and skilled human trackers in the world. Their goal: Find and return to safety the lost person. Reward: [Pick a number].
It’s Escape from New York meets Black Hawk Down.
Of course, you can switch the point of narrative attack by making the Protagonist the super rich adult son or daughter who survives the crash.
Or even make the P a local who stumbles upon the victim, nursing them back to health from the plane crash. Maybe s/he makes a promise to get the victim back to their father — and now it’s this local versus everyone else who wants the reward.
Throw in some crazed fundamentalists who could care less about the reward and just want to whack the victim… maybe you’ve got the makings of a halfway decent action movie.
What would you do with this story conceit? What would you do with “Hunted”?