Good story concepts
Some days when I track what projects have been set up, I’m really struck by the creative inspiration of the basic story concepts involved. For example, in the last 2 days, there have been three projects with really clever premises:
“2-Face”: A man has a split personality: one part of him is a racist, and the other is a bleeding-heart liberal.
A racially themed version of All of Me. Will Ferrell to possibly star.
“Caliber”: Set in the 19th century in the Pacific Northwest, King Arthur and his Knights of the Roundtable are gunfighters sworn to protect the innocent, with (Ex)Caliber itself depicted as a magical six-shooter that never misses, but only when drawn by a man with justice on his side.
King Arthur in the old west.
“Bob: The Musical”: A thirtysomething guy who hates musicals wakes up to find his entire life has become one.
To be written by comedy veterans Lowell Ganz & Babaloo Mandel.
Now you can look at those three story concepts and say, “Well, they’re so obvious.” Perhaps so, but not so obvious that you or I thought of them. You might react by saying, “But they’re so similar to other movies.” But as we’ve discussed here, here, and here, that’s how Hwood operates — and it takes a certain kind of creativity to find “similar but different” ideas that will appeal to buyers.
Look, I know these ideas are not divinite incarnatus, but each of them is a clever idea, big enough to support a feature length movie and clean enough for a studio marketing division to launch an effective ad campaign. And that’s creative inspiration a screenwriter has to admire.