I came up with what I thought was a great idea for a screenplay. The idea was original and interesting. My writing partner agreed that it had a lot of potential. The more we worked on it the more we liked it. We came up with a fantastic logline and title. We were making progress on story ideas.
And then it happened... again. My partner stumbled upon an article about a movie in development with a very similar premise. The movie appears to be stuck in development, but what do I know? In any case, we were unable to find any information about the plot other than a very general overview, but even then the major concept seems fairly identical.
So much for "original". Foiled again! (haha)
screenwriting
Be Dauntless
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain
9 comments:
As disconcerting as this may be...
If you're going to allow other similar ideas to stop you from writing, you're going to be in trouble as a screenwriter...or any writer for that matter.
There are a lot of similar ideas. You'll set yourself apart by how you execute your screenplay.
You could hand the exact same log line to 3 different writers and wind up with 3 very distinct screenplays.
i agree w/Matt, but w/the caveat that if you've got another equally good idea...write that...
...all things being equal.
Shit yeah, I agree, too. Keep writing. The other project might never get made, and if you don't write yours, yours won't either!
EVERY script that we're all working on likely is already in development, turnaround, or even post-production.
can you tweak yours a bit to make it slightly different? I have access to a lot of spec scripts floating around so email me the title of the one in development and maybe I have it? You can see how similar it really is
I CAN say...I sold Firestorm when there were at least three other forest fire movies in development. And in the end, it got made, for better or worse. It was also the most commonly registered title at the WGA, or so they told me...
...my word verification has KKK in the middle...ulp.
Thanks to all of you for the advice and encouragement!
We ened up coming up with an idea that we like even better. We are working on that right now, but we may go back to the other idea eventually.
THANKS! :)
In agreement here, as well. It seems that a story can never be told enough!
I working on a clever boy meets girl story.
I know, isn't that crazy?!?!
I working on using verbs too!
lol
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