The “A Quiet Place” team has already set up their next project, an adaptation of a short story about Mars colonists.
Genre: Drama/Sci-Fi
Premise: A small group of Mars colonists are shocked to find out that one of their members can breath the Mars air.
About: A Quiet Place nearly took down box office titan The Rock this weekend, scoring 32.6 million dollars in its second week. That’s less than a 35% drop. To add some perspective, most horror films drop more than 50% in their second weekend. The scalding hot Krasinski has already used the buzz from the film to set up his next project, which he is producing and directing, We Have Always Lived on Mars. The origin material is a short story that no one has heard of published on Tor.com. This continues the trend of short stories being bought up for feature adaptations this year. Aspiring writers take note!
Writer: Cecil Castellucci
Details: Roughly 15 pages
Outside of the key spec-friendly genres (Horror, Thriller, Biopic), this is where I see the spec market going – alternative IP. Short stories. Podcasts. Short films. Hollywood has this strange obsession with needing something to be created in another medium before they can accept it in this one.
Here’s what confuses me about this logic, though. You’d think that they’d want the IP to be successful, right? Apparently that’s not the case. This new trend of buying up short stories, particularly this one, which nobody has ever heard of, means that just the nature of something being in another medium is enough. Bizarre.
With that said, short stories and dramatic sci-fi go together like coffee and donuts. The last big dramatic science-fiction success was Arrival, also adapted from a short story nobody had heard of. So maybe when you’re writing sci-fi that doesn’t include space battles and killer robots, starting out as a short story is the way to go.
“We Have Always Lived on Mars” begins with a 20-something girl named Nina contemplating how frustrating her life on Mars is. Her ancestors lived on Mars. And her ancestors’ ancestors lived on Mars. And that’d be all well and good if Mars didn’t suck.
There have only ever been 24 colonists. That’s because living quarters are tight. So you can only bring a baby into the world when someone else dies. And Nina’s sick of it. She wants to run. She wants to breathe. She wants to live like humanity used to and expand.
We learn that a second group of colonists were supposed to arrive after the first but never showed up. Then came the storms, which blacked out the sky. Now the colonists can’t even see space, making their existence even more miserable.
One day when Nina goes out walking, she trips, ripping her suit. There’s no way to survive a rip so she anticipates her death. But she doesn’t die. As it turns out, Nina can breathe the Mars air just fine. The other colonists are thrilled. It’s taken generations, but finally a human has adapted to the Mars atmosphere.
That night, Nina’s father shares a secret with her. The original colonists only made it so the oxygen packs could hold 2 hours of oxygen. Which means they’ve never been able to travel beyond an hour’s walk from the base. Nina’s dad wants her to walk as far as she can and tell him what she finds.
And so the next day, Nina walks out, past the immediate base, past the ridge, until she finally runs into something so shocking, it will change the colonists’ lives forever.
Okay so, let me start off by saying this. I’m confused. Someone wants to make this into a movie?? I’m going to try and put this nicely. This is way too basic of a story for a feature film. On top of that, it exists in a genre where creativity is key. Yet there’s nothing creative here. It’s all basic rehashed sci-fi tropes.
For starters, every science fiction movie ever where the characters land on a new planet includes the moment where someone either accidentally or purposefully takes off their helmet only to find out that they can breath the air. Oh, come on, Carson. It’s not that common. Actually it’s so common that JUST LAST NIGHT I was watching the pilot episode of Lost in Space on Netflix, and that moment occurs.
But the cliches don’t stop there. I suppose I’m going to “spoil” this ending. But if you honestly don’t know what happens after the summary I gave, you’ve never read a story in your life. Nina walks over a hill and sees… a road! That’s right. They’ve been on earth this whole time.
I’m trying to contain myself because I’ve actually seen high school kids write this ending before. That’s how obvious it is.
I know Krasinski has repeatedly said in his Quiet Place interviews that what drew him to the project was not the monsters or even the “be quiet” hook. It was a family trying to survive. Which is actually great advice for aspiring screenwriters. Don’t get caught up in the bells and whistles of your concept. That’s not what makes a movie work. What makes a movie work is the human element. That’s what the audience connects to. If you get that right, everything else will fall in place.
So what I’m guessing is that Krasinski sees something in this colony that appeals to him. Essentially this colony is one big family that’s forced to live a close-knit existence. Maybe that’s what he wants to explore?
The problem is that there’s very little detail to the colony or what they’re going through. We’re barely told anything about how they operate. We only learn two characters’ names. Two! I’m sorry but I’m struggling to find any emotional connection to this story.
On top of this, this is going to be a nightmare to adapt. It’d be like trying to expand a story about a boy who gets stuck in a tree. Not only that, but you have to logically explain nonsensical things that are only in the story as a convenience to make the twist work, such as the sky is always cloudy so they can’t see that they’re still on earth. My fear is that Krasinski thinks this ending is the next Sixth Sense, so much so that he’s ignoring how little meat there is in this story.
If he did have the next Sixth Sense ending, I’d say it’s worth trying to figure it out. But come on. Who’s not going to see this ending coming after the first five minutes of the movie?
I’m going to chalk this up to a writer who got really lucky. So many people have an idea like this. For her to be the one to cash in the lottery ticket is a coup. So I’m happy for the writer. But Krasinski is in for a rude sophomore ride if he thinks this is going to work.
[ ] What the hell did I just read?
[x] wasn’t for me
[ ] worth the read
[ ] impressive
[ ] genius
What I learned: Get your work out there. Too many writers hold onto their stuff, thinking it’s so good that they can’t POSSIBLY allows other people to see it and, gasp, STEAL IT! But if nobody sees your idea, nobody can buy it. Nobody can become a fan of your writing. The writer put this story up on tor.com, which is what got her this sale. I beg of you guys. Stop hiding your work. Get it out there so something can happen with it!
