Everything that’s new is old… everything that’s old is new

Whenever we generate ideas or work on assignment, invariably the story has echoes of previous stories. Indeed, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie or TV show, read a book, perused a logline, or heard a pitch where one or more associations didn’t spring to mind.

You hit this in Hollywood all the time. Check out these two pitches from the 1992 movie The Player:

Griffin Mill: It’s The Gods Must Be Crazy only the coke bottle is an actor.
Screenwriter: That’s exactly right: It’s Out of Africa meets Pretty Woman.

Griffin Mill: So it’s a psychic political thriller comedy… with heart.
Screenwriter: Not unlike Ghost meets Manchurian Candidate.

The fact these pitches are wrapped up in the movie’s extending one-shot opening which itself is an homage to A Touch of Evil takes us squarely into postmodern Meta-Ville

Bottom line for a writer, every ‘new’ story concept we come up with is by definition going to be ‘old’, a variation on stories which have come before.

To a novice writer, this might seem downright depressing. Nothing new under the sun? How can I be expected to come across as a unique, fresh voice? What can I bring to the table creatively that will set me apart?

Fortunately as far as Hollywood is concerned, ‘new’ and ‘old’ aren’t the operative words. ‘Similar’ and ‘different’ are. Studios and TV networks actually prefer stories that are similar to preceding ones, particularly those which have been successful. Why?

First, it makes the marketing of the ‘new’ project that much easier. Advertising can rely on the ‘similar’ stories from the past — those associations consumers will make — to help get across what the movie or TV series is about in terms of concept, what its tone will be like, and so on. In an increasingly noisy consumer marketplace, this is a big deal.

But perhaps equally important is risk management. A buyer will feel much more in their comfort zone greenlighting a project that is similar to a successful predecessor precisely because of the original’s success. We are talking ‘cover your ass’ here. The execs can always point to how New Project is similar to Pretty Woman, Out of Africa, Ghost, or The Manchurian Candidate as justification for their decision to buy it.

The key is that other word: ‘different’. What we, as writers, are tasked to do is come up with stories that are not only similar, but different than other movies or TV shows. Or at least different enough so consumers will perceive to it be distinguishable from a previous project.

Which is to say for a Hollywood writer, everything that’s new is old… and everything that’s old is new. We will never come up with a story concept that is entirely new. It’s impossible by the sheer fact there have been hundreds of thousands of movies and TV series produced during the last century, not to mention novels, short stories, and non-fiction books.

That’s not really our concern. Our focus is on finding ways to take a concept that attracts our attention and discover something different about it, uncover something ‘new’ in what is at its roots ‘old’.

So here’s to you, fellow writer! May you come up with a ‘new’ idea that is similar enough to an ‘old’ one to hit Hollywood’s comfort level… yet different enough to make an ‘old’ idea seem ‘new’.

Like this: “It’s Ghost meets Out of Africa… or Pretty Woman meets The Manchurian Candidate.”

While we’re here, why not play the mix-and-match game? Take two movie titles and pair them. See what crazy ideas you can come up with. When in doubt — and for a laugh — I always use the bizarre 1979 sex drama (?) Caligula. Like: “It’s Home Alone meets Caligula.” Or: “It’s Godzilla meets Caligula.”

How about you? What mix-and-match movie titles can you generate? Who knows. Maybe a ‘new’ idea worth writing!