Friday, February 24, 2012

20 in 48

So, for the most part, I try not to be one of Those Moms -- you know, the ones who think their kid is incredibly brilliant and talented and won't shut the hell up about their young genius.  You know who I'm talking about -- hell  you probably know That Mom.

But every once in a while I fall trap to it.  So prepare for a That Mom sort of post.  My son, who I normally refer to as The Boy in blogs and public postings (such as on Facebook), turns 17 on Saturday February 25.  So keep that in mind when you are reading the rest of this post (if you make it that far -- I assume I've already scared a good portion of you away).

The other day he issued a challenge on his Facebook page.  In return for liking his status, he promised to create a movie about the future life of the person, with title, description, and main character casting.  Cool meme, no?  I haven't actually seen it as a meme, but it has potential.

He looks up at me yesterday and he says, clearly pained, "I have 24 'likes.' What the hell am I gonna do?" or words to that effect.  I said...'get crackin' (we're a 'keep your promises' kind of family).

And so he did.  He has completed 20 of the promised 24, over the course of two days.  I am...incredibly impressed.  Now I am NOT saying this is a stunning body of genius level writing, nor am I saying that every single idea my little genius boy had deserves to be a movie.  In fact there is some eidence one might have been lifted (inadvertently) from a forthcoming Dakota Fanning flick, but I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt.

What I think is pretty awesome, though,  is the level of thought he put into each one, trying to come up with a unique plot that would appeal to each of the folkshe was writing to, and also, how good the log-lines are.  Like seriously, I had to learn this skill.  How dare a 17-year old nail the concept.

At any rate, I share, with his permission, the 20 concepts he came up with in 48 hours.  I corrected capitalization and the spellings of actors names (where I noticed they were wrong, I may have missed a few) and a few spelling errors. Otherwise, this is what The Boy spent the last two days workingon (hopefully he did his Trig homework too...)

Hope you enjoy it as much as I have....

Title: Talk Nerdy

Synopsis: after a scandal, a model loses her job. Now, the only way she can get work is as a booth girl at sci-fi conventions. She begins gaining fame and gets invited to the booth babe competition at the biggest convention in the country
Actress: Zooey Deschanel


Your title: Those Bright Lights (the musical)
Synopsis: an actress who has spent most of her life undiscovered and doing community theater is discovered by a Broadway producer. Now she has to leave her friends and family behind to face the big apple and the biggest play in a decade
Actress: Meryl Streep


Title: The Mistress
Synopsis: as the mistress of a wealthy businessman, the main character lives a comfortable life. But when the man turns up dead, she's the only suspect. Now she has to fight for her innocence in a world where nobody is inclined to believe the mistress.
Actress: Sandra Bullock


Title: A-student
Synopsis: as a student at his high school, the main character got good grades and was fairly popular. Now, when he returns as a teacher, he has to struggle to fit in and rescue the school from its poor administration and failing students.
Actor: Daniel Radcliffe


Title: Militant Media
Synopsis: in a distant future where all forms of news are completely controlled by the state, a former editor leads a band of rebels to open the only free press on the planet
Actress: Ellen Page


Your title: Oh, The Good Times to Come
Synopsis: a woman in her mid twenties is diagnosed with a terminal illness. Her priorities change from partying constantly to spending the last year or so with family and friends. Her significant other donates an organ to save her life, but complications arise and now neither one has a high chance of survival.
Actress: Dakota Fanning (in five or so years)


Title: The Best of Times
Synopsis: a successful lawyer living in LA loses the biggest case of her career and as a result, her job. Now she has to struggle to get back on her feet by discovering her affinity for acting.
Actress: Nicole Kidman


Your title: Single Mother
Synopsis: in order to save her child who's been kidnapped by drug lords, a mother has two options. Come up with half a million dollars, or kick everybody's ass.
Actress: Angelina Jolie


Title: Radioman
Synopsis: after coming home with a purple heart, a young marine has difficulty adjusting to civilian life until he accidentally becomes a political radio host.
Actor: Channing Tatum


Title: The Matchmaker
Synopsis: in the near future, couples are paired up to create genetically perfect offspring. When a long-time proponent of the system, a statistician who works on pairing people, falls in love with a rebel who fights the system, his world is turned on its head
Actor: Ryan Reynolds


Your title: Head Trauma
Synopsis: after a near-fatal car accident, a woman wakes up in the hospital thinking she is her 17 year old self. Hilarity ensues
Actresses: Betty White is who the world sees
Emma Stone is who she sees herself as


Your title: Business Casual
Synopsis: a businessman's wife is dying. In order to save her life, the main character must train to regain the strength of his youth to compete in an underground prize fighting ring.
Actor: Clint Eastwood


Title: Gunman
Synopsis: a lowly mob accountant becomes a hilarious victim of circumstance when he is mistaken for the mob's top hitman.
Actor: Michael Cera


Title: Dead on Scene
synopsis: a reporter is doing a story on a new virus at the local hospital. it turns out to be the start of the zombie apocalypse. Now she has to stick with her annoying cameraman, who's prepared for this his entire life, in order to survive.
Actress: Courtney Cox


Title: Junkyard: Earth
synopsis: a young man from Brooklyn moves to a small town. the only thing that keeps him from going insane is his time spent at the junkyard putting old cars back together. but when he finds a piece of ancient mayan tech, the fate of the earth falls in his hands.
Actor: Josh Hutcherson


Title: Swordmaiden
Synopsis: a sword wielding barbarian badass is fighting to save her homeland from a rival clan. She soon realizes that her army isn't interested in being ethical
Actress: Ali Larter


Title: Hands of Fate
Synopsis: when the main character goes to sleep, she sees a person die. But when she sees one of those people on the bus the next day, she confronts her ideas of fate and control.
Actress: Annasophia Robb


Title: Reform
Synopsis: a stuck up rich girl gets what's coming to her when she is sent to a reform school in southern England
Actress: Nikki Blonski


Title: Metallet (Norwegian for "the metal")
Synopsis: a guitar player from a little-known band leaves his life behind to move to Norway in search of the ancient gods of metal music
Actor: Joseph Gordon Levitt


Title: Revelations
Synopsis: a young Christian girl is shaken from her faith when she is visited by God who reveals new information about Christ
Actress: Rachel McAdams





4 comments:

  1. I laughed at Head Trauma, and the movie isn't even made yet. Betty White must be golden. Tell the boy to get crackin' on the screen play. At 95, Betty's not getting any younger. :)

    Steve

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  2. I'm actually jealous of most of these ideas.

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  3. Deb - your blog is the best and The Boy has really come through with some great concepts. I'm ready to watch the Gunman - that could be really funny! And Betty White - well who doesn't like Betty White.

    Thanks for the great stimulus - got to do some seriously fun writing.
    Susan de W - from Steamboat Springs

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  4. Thanks, Susan! He is ridiculously brilliant, The Boy. I am jealous of how fast his mind works. Feel free to share the link to this -- I'd love for it to get some attention. He is working on an actual screenplay, among other writing projects.

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