Thursday, February 05, 2009

Where to?


I've got a bunch of story ideas rolling around in my brain right now. I'm still finishing up with Not Dead Yet, but I'm also trying to get something new started so I don't just peddle around for eternity on the same project and never move on.

I'm toying with the possibility of adapting H Ryder Haggard's She. Mystery Man pointed out a list not long ago that includes all literary works in the public domain and I noticed She was on it. I loooooved that book in grad school. It's had a few adaptations, including one successful one with Ursula Andress. But my main reason for wanting to do this adaptation is to use it as a work sample just in case I end up in the right place at the right time. There is a book I want to adapt more than anything in the world. I would probably knife somebody for that opportunity, but the book has gotten tossed around Hollywood over and over and every now and then we hear about some new effort to adopt it and then it lands in development hell.

I want this book. So maybe I'll adapt She to prove I can do this book. You know, just in case I meet the right studio head at a party.

I'm also thinking about this athletic competition thing based on contests I keep going to, but I'm a little worried about my ability to maintain enthusiasm for something with no fight scenes or gun battles. Every time I try to write something without lots of violence I get bored and can't finish. So I think I'll put the athletic thing aside for now.

There's this space bounty hunter pilot I've been thinking about for years and I've got it pretty well set in my mind, but I've wandered further and further away from television over the years. I used to think I was headed for TV but the more I've worked on features the more I want to continue working on features. And this pilot could never be a feature.

But then the other night I realized that if I took the backstory I created for my pilot I could form a solid feature story. There's a whole drama I created for my lead to explain her life choices that would actually make a pretty slick standalone story. With fights and gun battles the way I like.

So it will either be an adaptation of She I take on next, or this bounty hunter story. I'm hesitating because I just hate starting on something and then losing interest. I've got too many half finished screenplays and first drafts in my box of scripts. I don't want another one.

9 comments:

  1. I wrote an adaptation of "A Romance of Two Worlds" a couple of years ago. It is also in the public domain like "She". I haven't read "She," but I ran across it when looking up books similar to "A Romance of Two Worlds."

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  2. Emily,
    I think you'd get on with my wife.
    I convinced my wife to take in a movie for a break while I am travelling this week and the kids are at school.

    She looked at the selection, Transporter 3 won out.

    For our date night a few months ago, her selection was Quantam of Solace.

    They don't make many like her!
    cheers
    Dave

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  3. She was on my list of things to play about with - loved the Hammer film and I've had the book on my shelf for ages meaning to get around to reading it. Been a bit too busy pretending to be a novelist to do anything with it. So I think it's good material - particularly if you can throw enough of your own spin on it to make the material yours.

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  4. I'm ashamed to admit that I've never heard of "She..." ugh, I'll google it.

    good luck with your new screenplay ideas. I'm almost done with my novel, and then I'm gonna tackle my screenplays again.

    Sigh. Being a writer is so damn hard.

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  5. Yeah, it's like having two full-time jobs but one you don't get paid for and nobody actually wants you to do.

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  6. This isn't exactly public domain, but if you want a cool space bounty hunter story that's dying to be told, how about the history of "Mal" from "Firefly" and "Serenity"?

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  7. I'm looking to either adapt a book or write an original screenplay. I don't really write fan fiction.

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  8. The Hammer SHE from 1965 is a damn good movie--well, at least that's how I remember it, it's been a long time. Unfortunately, it's not on DVD. I think I've got a tape of it lying around, I should see how it holds up.

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  9. Charles Edward Pogue is either writing, or has written, an adaptation of SHE. So might want to have a look at that.

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