interesting idea, if only i had time to do stuff like this

justsomeguy · Post by **justsomeguy** » Sat Jan 31, 2004 2:17 am

my friend gave me this a while ago for a play his brother was going to do. ithink it would be much better as a film, persoinally, and i dont see how youd be able to it really on stage. anyway so here's the idea: this guy (well call him bob), accidentally finds and news article on the interent about his friend (well call him joe) dying. the news articel makes it seem as though it already happened, but his friend is still alive, and its oviouse its talking about joe (has name, pic, etc). bob later finds another article like the first, but its a bout a huge tidal wave craching over alcatraz in san fransicsco. he trys figuring this one out but eventually kinda gives up as if its some kind of joke someone is try to puul on him. but then 3 years later, joe dies in the huge wave over alcatraz, or some other island. may be more afdtter that.
my friend is working on a different script for the movie were gonna make, but might use this idea. let me know what you think. and another thing, has this same thing been done before? i always hate whwen that happenm, you have a great idea only to discover someone did it beforee you.

foxwood · Post by **foxwood** » Sat Jan 31, 2004 2:21 am

It seems like the idea has been done, the key would be in making sure that there is an interesting twist at the end or that your resioning is orignal.

justsomeguy · Post by **justsomeguy** » Sat Jan 31, 2004 2:31 am

i figured, do you know what is the actuall origanal idea?

BrownCowStudios · Post by **BrownCowStudios** » Sat Jan 31, 2004 4:50 am

Although it's a little far fetched, it's still a cool idea nonetheless. I'm pretty sure it's been done though. Sounds kind of like Minority Report, in the sense that the furture is known ahead of time. But your case is much different from that. I know there's a film like this, or a book, or something, but the name is slipping me right now. I'll keep thinking, but as Foxwood said, add a twist in there to make the creation your own.

SgtPadrino · Post by **SgtPadrino** » Sat Jan 31, 2004 7:58 am

There used to be an entire television series about it - Early Edition it was called. A guy got a newspaper from the following day/week/month telling of some grizzly crime, and he would prevent it. Believe me, it's a fairly old idea, nothing really original. You just gotta do something different with it.

Epsilon · Post by **Epsilon** » Sat Jan 31, 2004 8:10 am

I used to watch Early Edition for a while. It was an interesting and fun show to watch, but eventually it just got boring cause nothing new really occured. So the cancelled the series. It was the paper for the following day. Anyhow, yeah I have seen that plot in a number of films. I am thinking of a Schwartzenegger film right now with something like that in it too.

Whenever I think of tidal waves, I always think of that ending from Abyss.

Themovieman44 · Post by **Themovieman44** » Tue Feb 03, 2004 6:17 pm

Nice idea but like everyone said it's been done before. There needs to be a few twists in there not only just in the end. Make it your own make it original, make it the best it can be, there are some words of encouragement. lol

padawanNick · Post by **padawanNick** » Tue Feb 03, 2004 8:18 pm

Yeah, I also thought of Early Edition right away.
It can still be done, but as other have said, there needs to be more to it to hook viewers into some drama.

There's also elements of this in "The Ring", where through converastions and the video tape, the lady is affraid that she will die withing X days of watching the tape, but the movie is about her solving the mystery about if the tape's effect is real, what is the source of the tape and can it's effect be stopped.

Incidentally, a side note about your plot is that many news services keep pre-written obituaries for public personalities on file and update them throughout the year to keep them current. This way, when a notable person does in fact die, they just fill in a few details about the circumstances of their passing and can have a lengthy, in-depth article online or in print with very little work. There was a bit of a goof about this a year or two ago when one agency's pre-obituary articles ended up on their live website by accident before people actually died. Maybe that senario can be factored into your story.

Have fun.

justsomeguy · Post by **justsomeguy** » Thu Feb 05, 2004 1:26 am

thats pretty funny about thew obituarie. yeah i might be able to use that, i might actually film this one some time in my spare time, no sooner then summer after next unfortunately.