I originally started reading a script to review today. It was called “Propel.”
It starts off with this ocean diver woman and she goes diving with a partner. Then, out of nowhere, this whale comes screeching by. It’s upset because it’s got a net caught on its head. She somehow ends up in its mouth. And then, not long after, she ends up in its stomach.
The movie is about her trying to get out of this whale’s stomach before she runs out of oxygen.
Does this sound familiar?
It should.
I reviewed THE EXACT SAME STORY last year via a book called “Whalefall,” which is being turned into a movie.
The reason I bring this up is because I get a dozen e-mails a year from writers telling me that someone stole their idea. Usually from movies that have been made. They’ll say, “Nope was my idea! Jordan Peele stole it!” for example.
Propel is proof that nobody stole your idea. 99.9% of these, “someone stole my idea” stories come from newer writers who assume that they’re so genius, even though they don’t have any movie credits, that people are actively looking to take their ideas. Therefore, if someone writes something similar, it clearly must have been stolen.
Who would’ve thought that two scripts would’ve been written about a diver getting caught in a whale’s stomach and needing to get out before their air ran out? And yet that’s exactly what we have.
The truth is we’re all slurping from the same bowl of ideas. If you come up with an idea that was inspired by something you read ANYWHERE, chances are other people read that too and a portion of them likely came up with the same idea you did.
I’ve seen this TIME AND TIME again, where very specific movie ideas appear in two different scripts.
The only way you can convince me that someone stole your idea is if you had a relationship with this person and you talked a lot about your script with them. Or their script has the exact same dialogue as your script.
But even if you tell me some scenes are similar, that’s not enough. Because certain movie ideas lead to common scene ideas. If 100 people came up with an idea about a dinosaur theme park, I’m guessing 70 of them would’ve thought up the T-Rex car chase set piece. Cause it’s obvious.
Dueling ideas are a reality of this business.
However, if you don’t want to deal with that reality, there are ways around it. The number one way to avoid this problem is to NOT COME UP WITH AN IDEA that is inspired by something you read in the news. Hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of people have read the same thing. Which means of course someone else is going to come up with the same idea.
I would also avoid ideas inspired by any place on the internet that gets a lot of views. Forget about coming up with movie ideas based on Reddit posts. Those posts have been read to death. Other people are going to write the same movies.
The number one place to find an original movie idea that nobody else will write is YOUR OWN LIFE.
What are the 2 or 3 most original compelling stories from your life? Chances are that there’s a movie there and it’s going to be so specific to your life experience that you won’t have any competition.
That’s why Baby Reindeer has become so huge. It’s a show based on this guy’s own personal experience. And that experience is SO specific that no one else can come up with something similar.
The number two way – STORIES FROM PEOPLE CLOSEST TO YOU.
Again, what we’re looking for are stories that are not publicly available. Once they get online, they’re there for the picking. But if only your friend knows about this crazy story, that’s the perfect story to turn into a screenplay. Cause you two, and maybe a few others, are the only ones who’ve heard it.
Which leads me to the third best way to come up with an original movie idea.
Which is to be okay with coming up with an idea that others might write BECAUSE you’re a good enough writer that your version is going to be better than anything anybody else can come up with.
Let’s go back to Jurassic Park for a second.
70 out of 100 writers would’ve come up with a T-Rex car chase.
But how many writers would’ve come up with the scene where the water in the cup starts vibrating? Where the jeep gets turned upside down? Where the people are stuck in the jeep as the T-Rex’s big snout spins the upside-down car around like a top?
Maybe 5 out of 100? Maybe 3?
That’s all EXECUTION. It’s the writer coming up with a unique scene within that larger movie idea. If you can do that consistently, you’ll write a great script and it won’t matter that other people are writing their version of it as well.
Execution is the primary currency that screenwriters offer in Hollywood.
So, to be clear, find a great story from your own life and write that. If you don’t have that, think back to the stories friends have told you over the years. Is there a movie in one of those ideas? If yes, write that. If you don’t have either of those things, find the best idea you can come up with and then execute it in a way that YOU KNOW nobody else could match.
The only other option I can think of is to be an idea historian. You’ve seen every movie. Every TV show. You track all the scripts that are being sent around town (which you all basically do since you read this site). If you’ve heard of the top 100 movies of each of the past 50 years, then chances are you know when you’ve come up with something truly original.
But even then, it’s difficult. Cause I probably have heard more movie ideas than anyone in Hollywood. Seriously. I can’t think of anyone who would’ve heard or read more than me. And even I sometimes learn that ideas I’ve come up with have been used before.
It happened not long ago. I came up with this idea about violent criminals being forced to endure the exact crimes that they committed on their victims and a friend of mine was like, “Yeah, they did that 70 years ago in The Twilight Zone.” 70 years ago! I thought I’d come up with this brand new idea and someone used it SEVENTY FREAKING YEARS AGO.
So just do your best to come up with the idea and then spend all that energy and effort on the execution. Cause that’s what really matters. :)
