Story Ideas and “Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates”

So this movie got a nationwide release this weekend:

Hollywood studios have a bifurcated business approach: Expensive ($100–250M) franchise movies and lower budget ($10–30M) genre fare.

Enter Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates. Studio: 20th Century Fox. Production Budget: $33M. Genre: R-rated comedy. Opening weekend box office: $20M+. Depending upon word of mouth and if the movie develops some ‘legs’, movie could hit $40–50M in North America. Due to raunchy visual humor, perhaps a decent run internationally. Also this: High concept right there in the title. That should translate into almost any language.

So where did this project come from? Real life.

Twentieth Century Fox’s “Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates” hits theaters Friday, but the story of two incorrigible bros that inspired the movie is already the stuff of legend. In 2013, Mike and Dave Stangle posted an ad on Craigslist looking for dates to their cousin’s upcoming wedding. Why? The pair were told that they had to bring guests, otherwise the bride-to-be would worry about them harassing her friends all night. The ad was basically what you would expect from two twentysomethings with a predilection for getting rowdy at weddings: mildly amusing and more than a little misogynistic.

“You should be attractive or our aunts will judge you, but not TOO attractive or one of our uncles might grope you,” the post read. It was also slightly prophetic, as the Stangles offered “Royalties once our night’s story is developed into a romantic comedy,” something they estimated to be 85 percent likely to happen.

In no time, the ad went viral, and the Stangles were making appearances on NBC’s “Today,” ABC’s “Good Morning America,” and CNN’s “Anderson Cooper.”

So this is the Stangles 15 minutes of fame, right? Take their winnings at Hollywood’s roulette table and ride off into the sunset? Nope.

The Stangles reportedly landed a seven-figure deal for the movie rights, but they also wound up with something more meaningful: screenwriting aspirations. “We’re developing a screenplay that we’re crazy excited about and is also based on a true story,” the brothers told IndieWire, adding that they’re also working on digital shorts, sketch comedy, and a web series called “Meanwhile, On Earth.”

Every April, I run a series: A Story Idea Each Day for a Month. The underlying theory: Story ideas come from everywhere. Witness this movie. Even the Stangles knew they’d hit a home run when they posted the Craigslist ad.

Takeaway: Keep. Your. Eyes. And. Ears. Open. Every. Day. You. Never. Know. When. A. Winning. Story. Idea. Will. Come. Your. Way.

For the rest of the Indiewire article, go here.