A few great upcoming scripts

Nick Douglas

Registered User
Forum Member
Oct 31, 2000
3,688
15
0
48
Los Angeles, CA, USA
I know a lot of you guys love movies so here is some stuff I have read recently that should be good coming up.

THE PANIC ROOM

Opens the week before the Super Bowl and stars Jodie Foster. It sold for $4 million and David Fincher (FIGHT CLUB, SE7EN) is directing. This one is a thriller about a single mom who moves into an upscale brownstone equipped with a panic room in NY with her daughter and has three burglers break into the house. A panic room is a room shut off from the rest of the house where occupants can go for safety in case of a break in. Lots of great twists and turns. I have never read a script so fast it was electrifying.

STAY

Maybe not a truly *great* script but it has its moments of genius and it sold recently for $1.8 million with Nick Cage looking at it and possibly Michael Bay looking to direct. Story of a wierdo college student who is planning to commit suicide in 3 days and the college psychiatrist trying to convince him to stay alive. Definitely a psychological thriller with some really amazing stuff. In my opinion it needs a slight rewrite in the third act. This one should be around two years off from release.

PAYCHECK

An absolutely amazing sci fi action script that absolutely blew me away for two acts before tailing a bit in the third act. Story of a guy who is hired as a contractor by major companies to take apart products from the competition and help them copy them. Then at the end of each job his short term memory is erased to clear the company of any possibility of copyright infringement. He goes in for a huge job that is going to set him up for life but at the end of the job after his memory has been erased he finds that he forfeited his $5 billion fee and that the comapny and the government is after him for something that happened. Pick the biggest movie star you can think of and I can just about guarantee they would be drooling to play this part. Some of the thrid act is being rewritten so I would think this one is also about two years or so off.

KILL BILL

Quentin Tarrantino's script for Uma Thurman. This baby is a monster and I got lucky as this is arguably the toughest script in town to find. Story of a Bride who is betrayed on her wedding day and her quest to kill the man who did it. Lots of wild stuff and a lot of fight scenes as she is a former top secret assassin and Bill is the leader of the group of assassins that she was a part of. As expected with Tarrantino, lots of cool stuff, brutal pain and a wild style here. I heard casting starts up soon so I would think summer or fall 2003 but I am not sure.

Most of what I have to read is pretty bad but if I come across anything else that is really great I will let y'all know.
 

MadJack

Administrator
Staff member
Forum Admin
Super Moderators
Channel Owner
Jul 13, 1999
105,230
1,627
113
70
home
nevermind..

[This message has been edited by MadJack (edited 11-23-2001).]
 

Nick Douglas

Registered User
Forum Member
Oct 31, 2000
3,688
15
0
48
Los Angeles, CA, USA
I saw PAYCHECK today, which was the script I touted most enthusastically when I looked at these four two years ago. To recap the other films, PANIC ROOM ended up being pretty good and I thought that KILL BILL VOL. I was very good. KILL BILL VOL. II will be released early next year and I have very, very high expectations. STAY recently wrapped up filming in New York and it will star Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts. I have heard good things there.

PAYCHECK was a pretty good action movie and I'd give it a thumbs up. That said, I must say that I was expecting to be blown away and I wasn't. Aaron Eckhart is just fantastic. Ben Affleck makes a good accouting of himself, too. They are great and some of the action set pieces are great, but to me it never rises above the level of a very good action movie to the level of a truly memorable action movie like DIE HARD or TERMINATOR 2.

I think the reason I went back to this post and brough it up again is because I see that I wrote that the third act had problems. Man, I'll tell you the more I read and the more I write, the more I understand just how essential it is to put the focus on making a great end to any story. I guess it's like a sporting event in a way. Miami vs. OSU in the Fiesta Bowl last season has been called a classic, but really that was a turnover-laden, poorly played game until a dramatic finish made it memorable.

I am still learning as a screenwriter, but if there are any folks out there on the board who have thought about writing a novel, screenplay or play, I just can't emphasize strongly enough how important it is to have a great finish. A few folks have emailed me from this site to ask me my advice and anyone who is looking to write can certainly do so in the future, but if you are just looking for quick advice, I'd say come up with a great finish to whatever story you have in your mind.
 

THE KOD

Registered
Forum Member
Nov 16, 2001
42,497
260
83
Victory Lane
Nick Douglas said:
I am still learning as a screenwriter, but if there are any folks out there on the board who have thought about writing a novel, screenplay or play, I just can't emphasize strongly enough how important it is to have a great finish.

I'd say come up with a great finish to whatever story you have in your mind.
...........................................................................

Nick

Yeh but that's the whole problem writing screenplays.

The finish is the hardest thing to create.

Everything else has to lead up to it and make sense at the end.

People that write great finishs have a opportunity to write very good movies. And even they fail at times as great finishs are not easily recognizable until it gets to the general public.

You know you have a great finish if the audience exits the theatre saying.... that was good... I enjoyed that.

KOD
 
Bet on MyBookie
Top