It seems strange to say there’s nothing to watch in the era of 15,000 TV shows but THERE WAS NOTHING TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND! While scrolling through Netflix, I somehow ended up on Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971), a movie I hadn’t seen since I was a kid but remembered loving.
I always find it fascinating to rewatch these beloved classics to see if they still hold up and I was shocked to find that Wonka held my interest from the first to the last frame. A big surprise considering how screenwriting-unfriendly it was.
For starters, almost every single character in the movie is unlikable. Veruca Salt is unlikable. Augustus is unlikable. Violet. Mike. Even Willy Wonka is a smarmy jerk. The only two characters who are likable are Charlie and Grandpa Joe, although they don’t get all that much screen time once we’re in the factory.
How is it the movie still works, then? Well, Charlie may be one of the most likable protagonists in history for one. That helps offset a lot of the negativity. Which is a good lesson for aspiring screenwriters. If there are a ton of unlikable people in your script, make sure your protagonist is extremely likable.
Another cool thing about Wonka is that the whole movie is a series of impending mystery boxes. Which room are we going to next? What will be inside? This ensures we’ll keep watching. We want to see what the next room has in store. This same setup would not have worked if, say, Willy Wonka had taken the five children camping.
Finally, as a kid, I never paid attention to themes. But watching the film now, the theme is very apparent. If you’re mean or selfish or a glutton, bad things are going to happen to you. I used to think of theme as this complex equation that needed to be half-statement half-question and include its own three-page thesis paper when, in reality, the most effective themes are very simple, like this one.
But the big lesson here is when you have a problem in your script, you need to have a gameplan to overcome it. With so many bratty kids and this dark heartless candy factory host, you need to be able to say, “Here’s what I’m going to do to offset that.” The most likable protagonist ever and a series of mystery boxes did the job.
Willy Wonka reminds us that no matter how old a movie is, when it works, it works. Even with its slow-by-modern-standards first act, once you start watching Willy Wonka, it’s impossible to stop. Try it out. It’s on Netflix.
Bringing us into the modern era, there have been a surprising amount of script sales as of late. As for why this is happening now, I’m not sure. Especially because I can’t remember the last high profile script sale before this year. But I’m not complaining. Let’s take a look at what’s selling.
The first is probably the most shocking. Simon Kinberg, whose last spec sale was Mr. and Mrs. Smith (he’s since gone on to produce and write many of the X-Men movies) sold his spec, “Here Comes The Flood” to Netflix for – get this – MID SEVEN FIGURES. That would make it one of the biggest spec sales ever. Frustratingly, there isn’t a full logline. We’re only told it’s an “elevated, character-driven love-story heist movie, with the heist playing out in increments.” It literally sounds exactly like Mr. and Mrs. Smith, but with criminals instead of agents.
Another key detail to this sale is that there is no director or actors attached. This is mighty good news for aspiring writers if Netflix is buying material without elements. The naked spec script is back, baby!
Next up we have Johnathan Stokes, who sold his spec script, Murder in the White House, to Paramount for mid-six to low-seven figures. Although Stokes has made the Black List numerous times, I was surprised to look back into my archive and see that I’d never reviewed one of his scripts. I remember seeing his 2013 entry, TCHAIKOVSKY’S REQUIEM, about a conductor who investigates the great composer’s unnatural death and unlocks the mysteries of the man himself while preparing to debut Tchaikovsky’s final symphony. But I guess I never read it.
The logline for this one is as follows: “The president is murdered during a private dinner, and a female Secret Service agent has till morning to discover which guest is the killer before a peace agreement fails and leads to war.” I’ve always been a fan of people murdered in high profile situations. I once had an idea for a murder in Area 51. Not sure why I never wrote it. It’s an easy way into a high-concept world. Curious if this will be any good.
Next we have “Fast and Loose” from the writing team (Jon and Erich Hoeber) who brought you Meg. This one actually sounds interesting. It follows a man who wakes up in Tijuana after being left for dead with absolutely no memory. As he follows a string of clues to uncover his identity, he discovers that he’s been living two different lives: one, as a super-successful Crime Kingpin, surrounded by beautiful women, expensive toys and a lavish lifestyle, and the other as an undercover CIA agent, but with a puny salary, no family or home life whatsoever and zero trappings of success. The problem is, he can’t remember which of these two personas is his true identity.
Talk about a big concept! Reminds me of that 2011 film with Liam Neeson, “Unknown,” which covered similar territory. That film had a great hook. Our hero shows up to a big conference with his wife, gets in an accident, goes back to his wife, and she says she has no idea who he is. But it kind of fell apart after that. This one comes from John Wick co-director David Leitch’s production company, 87North.
So what can we learn from these sales? Well, they’re all big ideas. Heists are ALWAYS marketable. You don’t even need to come up with that amazing of a heist idea. If it’s exploring a heist in a slightly different way, it’s got a chance at selling (assuming it’s good of course). For the White House spec, if you have a dead body, you have a movie. Especially if that dead body is the president. And the last sale is also based on a time-tested trope: amnesia. I know how much some people hate amnesia concepts but as long as you can find something interesting to do with the amnesia, you’re good.
What’s interesting is that versions of ALL THREE OF THESE IDEAS could’ve been written 30 years ago. 60 years ago. Even 100 years ago. Certain setups just work. Why mess with them?
But this last idea is where I draw the line. It’s the most Hollywood of Hollywood projects and I’m predicting bomb central right here, right now. The project is titled “Ball and Chain” based on a 90s comic no one heard of and here’s the description: “Edgar and Mallory Bulson have decided to throw in the towel. That was the plan anyway, until a mysterious meteor bathed the battling couple in extraterrestrial energies that gave them super-powers. Will their newfound abilities be enough to make their marriage work?”
Meteors giving characters powers is the trope to end all tropes. It’s not allowed to be used anymore. This sounds like a bad version of Hancock which was already bad on its own. It’s got Emily Gordon scripting, who did a great job with The Big Sick. But this is a husband-wife superhero movie. It’s a million degrees removed from The Big Sick. It, of course, is going to star The Rock and Emily Blunt. This feels like one of those ideas that nobody in any creative position was actually a part of. It was all decided upon by suits and agents then delivered to the talent later via e-mail. God does this sound bad.
But other than that, I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother’s Day!
