Tis here!
Movie Crossover Showdown, baby!
We learned that just this weekend, the seemingly impossible-to-please Lucasfilm head, Kathleen Kennedy, greenlit The Acolyte based almost entirely on this movie-crossover pitch: “Frozen meets Kill Bill.”
It goes to show just how powerful movie crossover pitches can be in this business. Something about the right one CLICKS with readers. There have, for sure, been instances when I was on the fence with a logline and a cool movie-crossover pitch sold it for me.
Alas, I quickly learned from the entries that movie-crossover pitches aren’t as easy as they seem. I got a lot of entries where one of the movies in the pitch WAS A BOX OFFICE FAILURE. Never ever pitch movies that did poorly at the box office. Or even neutral. They have to be big box office winners or major awards winners.
Also, I got a lot of movie crossovers that were basically the same movie! I.E. “Joker meets Taxi Driver.” The power of the crossover is that you’re pitching two movies that aren’t the same, however, when combined, create something that sounds exciting.
I also encountered several entries that included very obscure movies. You might get some points in your film school class for including “Why Does Herr R. Run Amok?” in your pitch. But it’s not going to get anyone to read your script.
With that said, there were some really fun entries! The hardest part was when someone had a strong crossover pitch but the logline itself didn’t hold up. One of my favorites was, “THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS meets THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW.” That was great. And there were others. So I want to thank everyone who took the time to send their pitches in. If you didn’t make the cut, feel free to offer your pitch in the comments for feedback.
Again, guys, when you’re cold-querying people, a great movie-crossover pitch could be the difference between them requesting the script and not requesting it. So this is important!
We have some very movie-friendly ideas this month. Maybe more so than ever before in Logline Showdown. These ideas are big and they’re sexy.
As far as how you should vote, I want you to vote on the whole package! The logline should still be the focal point of your vote. But if a movie-crossover pitch helps elevate that logline, that should factor into your vote!
If you haven’t played Logline Showdown before, read all the entries below and then, in the comment section, vote for your favorite. The entry that gets the most votes receives a script review next Friday. If you have extra time, tell us why you voted and why you didn’t vote for the others.
You have until 11:59pm Pacific Time Monday Night to vote.
May the best logline win!!!
ENTRIES
Title: Recursion
Genre: Action/Fantasy
Logline: A female reporter desperate to rescue her kidnapped friend from a Tijuana drug cartel, teams up with a mysterious man who claims to be stuck in a time-loop – where every day ends in his death.
Movie-Crossover: Sicario meets Edge of Tomorrow
Title: Goblin In Love
Genre: Family/Animation
Logline: A young goblin travels with his friends across a suburban fantasy world to meet the love of his life – a fairy who’s he only ever seen in one social media post.
Movie-Crossover: ONWARD for the TikTok generation.
Title: INHUMAN
Genre: Sci fi Horror
Logline: An estranged married couple get attacked by three psychotic men who claim the wife has been replaced with an alien clone and they must kill her to prove it…
Movie-Crossover: The Strangers meets Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Title: Lockdown at Hell High
Genre: Horror
Logline: Twenty years after a tragic shooting, a high school reopens with state-of-the-art security, only to find history repeating itself when students are “locked down” with a sadistic killer using the technology against them.
Movie-Crossover: Riverdale meets “Saw.
Title: ECSTATIC
Genre: Drug Dramedy
Logline: In 1985 Dallas, a young psychotherapist discovers a new drug that could be a life-saving treatment for PTSD, but she falls for the DEA Agent tasked with finding evidence to ban this abused club drug nicknamed “Ecstasy.”
Movie Crossover: What if TRAINSPOTTING partied with ERIN BROCKOVICH?
I said I would include one entry this week SOLELY on the movie-crossover pitch, regardless of the logline. Here is that winner. And to be honest, it wasn’t close!
Title: She’s Got Claws
Genre: SUPERNATURAL THRILLER
Logline: A young war widow awakens naked on an Alaskan military base and fights for survival as she’s hunted by her father’s vengeful soldiers after a whole platoon was ripped apart overnight.
Movie-Crossover: American Werewolf In London eats Memento
