Something Like That

I have been networking with writer-director who has one well-regarded indie feature to his credit. He has a new story that he is trying to develop into a screenplay and I have been trying to help. Today he sent me a new take on the story and I responded with an alternative approach, which he questioned, wondered if I was really suggesting what it sounded like I was suggesting and this is how I responded, see if it sounds familiar to you:

"Something like that -- maybe not from opposite sides but maybe from different perspectives.

There has to be enough of an initial connection between them that would make it believable for them to "socialize" but maybe they come from different classes, backgrounds etc. so that both their differences and their similarities can be explored, much like, to tell the truth, a romance: boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy and girl get back together in the end, following the classic buddy movie formula as well: opposites attract, then repel and then find some other way --- greater understanding of each other, themselves and the situation they're in.

They initially connect on a professional level, then a personal level, discover differences between them and their perspectives on what is happening but, by that time, they're deep in it, sort of need each other to survive, ultimately overcome their differences and discover their core similarities ----

or something like that."

Beyond that, I have been busy teaching the screenwriters of tomorrow -- or, at least a handful of people who might wind up being screenwriters tomorrow or the next day.

After a bit of a drought this year (sold and got hired to re-write "Aftermath", wrote "Bait & Tackle" and "Used To Love Her"), it looks like, after about six months of no new gigs, I have some new projects brewing for 2010, at least 2 and possibly as many as 5 screenplays to write, some good stuff. Here's hoping or something like that.