STORY TRIGGERS FOR AS-YET UNWRITTEN SCREENPLAYS

Gone dry on ideas for stories?  Wishing there was something you could get your teeth into? Tired of fruitlessly perusing your local newspapers for a high concept film idea? 

Back in the mid-1980s, together with writers, Chris Lee and Steve Wright, I came up with an idea and a screenplay for a feature film based upon urban legends. I wanted to call it Urban Legend, but the project's producer put the nix on it, explaining that "no one would ever use that as a title - too academic".  Subsequently, the project went through many drafts and was finally given a pre-sale by a big Hollywood company.  Everything was set, casting was started, and the script was re-titled You Never Can Tell (from the song by Chuck Berry, which was to be featured in the film). Alas, at the last minute, the AFC (Australian Film Commission) decided not to pick up the "non-deductibles", owing largely to the fact that the producer wanted to assign an inexperienced director to the project, namely himself!  Ultimately, the project fell over and became - as they say in the classics - "history".   

Twenty years later, as is often the case, Americans took up the idea and made the very successful - albeit inferior version of the Australian-grown film - Urban Legends,  a film - and a title - successful enough to warrant a sequel. 

Here's what they came up with:

In light of  the fact that there are any number of great ideas begging for imaginative writers and filmmakers to breathe some dramatic life into them,  WHERE'S THE DRAMA? is happy and generous enough to offer a new service to screen storytellers that are wishing to broaden their story horizons. 

The film "ideas" contained here will be written by some one, some time; and most of them will probably be made; the only question is when and by whom?  

Each of these story "triggers" offers a compelling starting point for dramatic action; each is grounded in both the "real world" and in genre, with the potential for character and situation that most audiences will find intriguing. This page won't tell you HOW to write the script, but if your looking for starting points or something to inspire your imagination, the you've come to the right place.

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