Original Movie Idea

zombie84 · Post by **zombie84** » 2004-01-26 04:35pm

revprez wrote:I've been working on a screenplay for a month now, tentatively titled "Gunfighter." Takes place in the near future after a brief nuclear exchange between the United States and Red China leaves the West Coast economically devastated and lawless. While federal marshalls are trying to restore law and order to California, young men and women near Sacremento find gainful employment in deadly, gladiatorial bloodsport sponsored by rising ganglords. Picture a duel where each contestant gets a pistol and 24 hours to hunt down and kill his or her opponent. Well, this is the story of one such encounter.

Rev Prez

i think that was the premise for Running Man. And Battle Royale recently did something similar.

But good idea still.

revprez · Post by **revprez** » 2004-01-26 04:59pm

zombie84 wrote:i think that was the premise for Running Man. And Battle Royale recently did something similar.

But good idea still.

Yeah, the premise is pretty similar come to think of it to what I've read about Series 7. However, the setting and visual style I envision is far different. If I had to confess influences, it's any Sergio Leone western, set in the stage of the The Postman (or better yet, the small town setting of First Blood), and cinematography akin to what we see in movies like Way of the Gun, Kill Bill or Traffic.

Rev Prez

The Aliens · Post by **The Aliens** » 2004-01-26 07:36pm

Good luck gettng that one off the ground- soudns expensive. If you shop it around you could probably get it animated, but unlikely your first attempt at a major script would get picked up by someone with the budget to make a decent go of it.

revprez · Post by **revprez** » 2004-01-26 07:50pm

The Aliens wrote:Good luck gettng that one off the ground- soudns expensive. If you shop it around you could probably get it animated, but unlikely your first attempt at a major script would get picked up by someone with the budget to make a decent go of it.

Which one, mine? All I need is a small town and miserable weather. A larger budget could mean exploring other locations and maybe showing wrecked cities, but any old run down gold town will do. We've scouted sites up in upstate NY (Orange County) that would work perfectly.

Rev Prez

justifier · Post by **justifier** » 2004-01-26 07:56pm

A revenge film about a hardcore gunslinger who's fiencee was murdered after looking to deeply into a Mexican business owner's accounts. Her research was sent to her brother, a geeky guy who gets narrowly saved by the gunslinger. They go to Mexico, gunfights ensue. The film will be filled with visual gags and pointless symbolism(ie-the gunslinger and main baddie henchman both have the same weird military tatoo, a guy drops a snowglobe onto the floor that breaks in slow motion, in the final gunfight in a church the gunslinger gets shot and falls onto a huge cross that got knocked down). There will be endless anime references(such as one of the heros wearing a suspiciously Vash-like outfit at the end). All of the music will be on guitars and the camera style a cross between spagetti western and '70s revenge film.

The Aliens · Post by **The Aliens** » 2004-01-26 08:01pm

revprez wrote:
The Aliens wrote:Good luck gettng that one off the ground- soudns expensive. If you shop it around you could probably get it animated, but unlikely your first attempt at a major script would get picked up by someone with the budget to make a decent go of it.
Which one, mine? All I need is a small town and miserable weather. A larger budget could mean exploring other locations and maybe showing wrecked cities, but any old run down gold town will do. We've scouted sites up in upstate NY (Orange County) that would work perfectly.

Rev Prez

My bad, I assumed you would show the whole fire-and-brimstone part of a nuclear exchange rather than cutting to the chase. You planning to use local actors, or try and bring a big name on board to get money at the box office? And are you working independently or with a company?

justifier · Post by **justifier** » 2004-01-26 08:05pm

Yeah, post apocaliptic movies tend to be pretty cheap becuase the setup of nuclear war can be cheaply done by using old A-bomb footage in the opening

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2004-01-26 08:07pm

justifier wrote:Yeah, post apocaliptic movies tend to be pretty cheap becuase the setup of nuclear war can be cheaply done by using old A-bomb footage in the opening

Um, that's actually not a reason why...

Mayabird · Post by **Mayabird** » 2004-01-26 08:09pm

justifier wrote:A revenge film about a hardcore gunslinger who's fiencee was murdered after looking to deeply into a Mexican business owner's accounts. Her research was sent to her brother, a geeky guy who gets narrowly saved by the gunslinger. They go to Mexico, gunfights ensue. The film will be filled with visual gags and pointless symbolism(ie-the gunslinger and main baddie henchman both have the same weird military tatoo, a guy drops a snowglobe onto the floor that breaks in slow motion, in the final gunfight in a church the gunslinger gets shot and falls onto a huge cross that got knocked down). There will be endless anime references(such as one of the heros wearing a suspiciously Vash-like outfit at the end). All of the music will be on guitars and the camera style a cross between spagetti western and '70s revenge film.

If you're going to have pointless symbolism, how about doing it as an "art movie" and refusing to tell what any of it means? It'd be funny to hear dozens of critics' interpretations of what "the hubcap on the giant cactus" is supposed to represent.

If you're not laughing, just think of something dirty.

justifier · Post by **justifier** » 2004-01-26 08:12pm

Mayabird wrote:
justifier wrote:A revenge film about a hardcore gunslinger who's fiencee was murdered after looking to deeply into a Mexican business owner's accounts. Her research was sent to her brother, a geeky guy who gets narrowly saved by the gunslinger. They go to Mexico, gunfights ensue. The film will be filled with visual gags and pointless symbolism(ie-the gunslinger and main baddie henchman both have the same weird military tatoo, a guy drops a snowglobe onto the floor that breaks in slow motion, in the final gunfight in a church the gunslinger gets shot and falls onto a huge cross that got knocked down). There will be endless anime references(such as one of the heros wearing a suspiciously Vash-like outfit at the end). All of the music will be on guitars and the camera style a cross between spagetti western and '70s revenge film.
If you're going to have pointless symbolism, how about doing it as an "art movie" and refusing to tell what any of it means? It'd be funny to hear dozens of critics' interpretations of what "the hubcap on the giant cactus" is supposed to represent.

If you're not laughing, just think of something dirty.

No, it will use a lot of the cliched pieces of symbolism that action movies use to make themselves seem smart. My movie will be a quasi-parody of itself. *Note to self add hubcap on giant cactus to script*

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2004-01-26 08:15pm

Reminds me a little of the remake of Pistol Opera...

revprez · Post by **revprez** » 2004-01-26 08:27pm

The Aliens wrote:My bad, I assumed you would show the whole fire-and-brimstone part of a nuclear exchange rather than cutting to the chase. You planning to use local actors, or try and bring a big name on board to get money at the box office? And are you working independently or with a company?

Local talent, I guess. We're looking for townies mostly. It's independent; got a grant through some MIT arts program to do a twenty minute cover in western Mass, though ideally we'd do it in NY.

Rev Prez

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2004-01-26 08:30pm

What kind of budget are you looking at?

revprez · Post by **revprez** » 2004-01-26 08:33pm

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:What kind of budget are you looking at?

All I know is that we got $2200 for film and lighting. Everything else is either free (lifted from MIT) or out of our pocket and handled by the guy who likes doing that sort of shit. Nobody gets paid but we signed a contract recognizing everybody as a full partner.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2004-01-26 08:34pm

What about shooting permits?

revprez · Post by **revprez** » 2004-01-26 08:40pm

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:What about shooting permits?

Same guy doing production and casting is on that...I hope. Filming doesn't begin until March so if he isn't on top of that yet he has time, right?

Rev Prez

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2004-01-26 08:42pm

That would depend.

Bust expect them to cost quite a bit.

In my Modes class I saw a short film that was about 15 minutes long and mostly set on a bus, and IIRC, it cost around $5000.

zombie84 · Post by **zombie84** » 2004-01-27 12:00am

If you tell them you're a film student a lot of places will let you use their facilities for free, or at least at a very cheap price.

If your going to be filming it in desert plains and flatlands, the local towns will probably let you use their land for free, since it wont be interfering with any businesses. I'm not sure how it works in the US, some places have local laws that require mandatory fees for this kind of stuff. If its a short film you could get all your footage shot in two days, if you're really guerilla filmmakers.