Fox Searchlight Pictures has a trailer up for a new movie starring Johnny Knoxville called "The Ringer," the story of a guy who acts retarded so he can fix the Special Olympics.
If you can believe it, me and my friends came up with a similar concept five years ago . . . We envisioned a movie about a guy who's so bad at sports, he does the same thing. We called it Ups and Downs.
I feel like Ross on Friends, when he claims he came up with the plot for "Die Hard." (Don't make me pull out the napkin!)
Has anyone else had this happen? Have you come up with a completely inane movie, only to see Hollywood lower itself to to the same level and actually produce one these bombs?
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Sorta. I wrote a treatment for something I concieved as a black comedy called "Film At 11" where a struggling news station accidentally runs over a celebrity with a TV truck, but ends up scoring a ratings coup off it being first on scene and then covering up the killing and then going around and running over MORE people with the truck because it's now giving the station ratings claiming it's a serial killer who uses his van to run people over (or "The Road Rage Killer", as it gets dubbed in the press).
"15 Minutes" wasn't EXACTLY like that, but it looked a lot like it in tone and delivery, and especially the way I had already planned the ending.
For what it's worth, I'm sending a copy of this post to my attourney. :P
Hopefully Hollywood doesn't follow suit and start producing more movies that currently reside in my mental file - I don't think the world is ready for "Best Friend Dad" or "Trailer 'Hood."
Steven Spielberg totally ripped off my idea for a movie called "Timmy and the Cloneosaurus." Just to get even, I won't go and see "The Terminal." Take that, Spielbergo!
I came up with an idea for a Navy fighter pilot who goes to an elite training school and falls in love with his teacher, then kills his best friend in a horrible training accident, only to redeem himself.
DAMN YOU TOM CRUISE! DAMN YOU TO HELL!
Actually, a lot of pornos have copied ideas I have had!
In 2000, I thought that there should have been a movie made about Herb Brooks and the 20th anniversary of the "Miracle" team. Four years later, and Kurt Russel has put on a funny wig to play Brooks (although, that movie wasn't a "bomb").
I've had similar experiences with songs. I'd make up some riff on my guitar, not do anything with it, and suddenly hear it in some new song months later on the radio. It's probably better that someone else gets famous for those riffs, though, because I suck at composition!
The beauty of NY is that it's a walking town. You can start all the way at Battery Park at the lower tip of Manhattan and just start north up Broadway and just absorb everything for free.