The least popular screenplay ideas/topics

[GreenTea]

Does anyone know what are the least popular screenplay ideas/topics? I heard that these topics aren't hot right now: psychological horror, big-budget sci-fi with lots of special effects, comedies set in a unique world, and anything where the main lead characters is a 10-year-old boy. Anything else?

[clockwork]

I think there are trends but trying to second guess what people are looking for is pretty fruitless. Write what you have a passion to write and worry about who will make it later. Not every script you write will be sold - many will simply exist as writing samples and introductory material. It's far better to have a script you have poured yourself into because you're in love with the story rather than assembling some amalgamate of a screenplay from bits and pieces of what you think may be marketable in a year's time - remember, it can take years just to get something made. Just because your boy/girl role reversal comedy is hot now doesn't mean it will be by the time it is produced. The time restraints are so wide and hapless that it's really not worth it, IMO.

Also, I'm no big city exec but I'm pretty sure there'll always be a market for most of what you listed above except perhaps for the sci-fi and that's only really because not everyone has that kind of money.

Shrug, my two cents. :)

[zagoraz]

I've heard that buddy comedies featuring albino dwarves are on the way out. Seriously, where did you hear all this stuff? There's no point in trying to predict what someone will like or what the market will lean towards. Scripts are often in development 2-10 years before they're made! Just write stories that mean something to you!

[Hillgate]

I've heard that buddy comedies featuring albino dwarves are on the way out. Seriously, where did you hear all this stuff? There's no point in trying to predict what someone will like or what the market will lean towards. Scripts are often in development 2-10 years before they're made! Just write stories that mean something to you!

Agreed 100%. eg 'won't take WW2 dramas', and then you get 'Black Book', 'Atonement' and 'Valkyrie' all in an 18 month period. Write what you want!!! :)

[scarletpeaches]

Albino monks. They're so last Tuesday.

[Hillgate]

Albino monks. They're so last Tuesday.

Welcome Scarletpeaches!

I've read two scripts recently about Knights Templar and someone even sent me an interactive videogame they've dreamed up, with, you guessed, Knights Templar featuring heavily AND there was also an Albino monk in the videogame...have these people no shame?

[zahra]

When I did the Carlton New Writers TV course, we were told that nobody was going to commission reporter or political dramas. Little after that, as my Dad would have said, there came 'State of Play', a hugely successful drama serial about reporters investigating a politician.

[cynicallad]

Agreed 100%. eg 'won't take WW2 dramas', and then you get 'Black Book', 'Atonement' and 'Valkyrie' all in an 18 month period. Write what you want!!! :)

That's not the greatest advice -

VALKYRIE was written by the great Chris McQuarrie and had Bryan Singer on board, an attachment that was able to shoot straight to the top of the pile.

ATONEMENT is based on an award winning novel - it's not a spec.

BLACK BOOK was concieved by Paul Verhoeven, a bankable director and is a Dutch film, not really a great model for writers attempting to break into Hollywood.

The lesson - write what you want, but always consider if a script was sold as a spec or if there's a political backstory to it.

[scarletpeaches]

Welcome Scarletpeaches!

I've read two scripts recently about Knights Templar and someone even sent me an interactive videogame they've dreamed up, with, you guessed, Knights Templar featuring heavily AND there was also an Albino monk in the videogame...have these people no shame?

Wotcha! I like to pop into this forum now and again to cause trouble, even though I write novels and am in no way, shape or form a screenwriter.

I don't know scripts but I know an albino monk when I see one!

[Hillgate]

That's not the greatest advice -

VALKYRIE was written by the great Chris McQuarrie and had Bryan Singer on board, an attachment that was able to shoot straight to the top of the pile.

ATONEMENT is based on an award winning novel - it's not a spec.

BLACK BOOK was concieved by Paul Verhoeven, a bankable director and is a Dutch film, not really a great model for writers attempting to break into Hollywood.

The lesson - write what you want, but always consider if a script was sold as a spec or if there's a political backstory to it.

That's all true but it doesn't detract from what I'm saying: 18 months ago, before any of these, no-one wanted WW2 dramas ('a difficult sell'). Now that's changed BECAUSE these 3 films have been made. The market has been shown that it can work. There'll be a couple of specs made and then it'll go quiet for another 3-4 years.

So write whatever you want. And I was just using WW2 as an example. :)

[gp101]

Does anyone know what are the least popular screenplay ideas/topics? I heard that these topics aren't hot right now: psychological horror, big-budget sci-fi with lots of special effects, comedies set in a unique world, and anything where the main lead characters is a 10-year-old boy. Anything else?


If you're writing spec, almost anything big-budget or with lots of special fx (which turns it into big budget) is tough to sell.

[NikeeGoddess]

you have 2 choices: write where your passion drives you and find a producer who's open and looking for what you have to offer (and if that passion is about albino monks then it may take a bit longer to find that perfect producer) OR write what you suspect the market will want in 5 years time.

what they want now is all in the past. if something current is hot producers are looking to copy then they need something that's already ready to go. they usually dig in their file drawer of something they purchased several years ago that was collecting dust and waiting for the right moment to submerge.

[bluejester12]

I don't know scripts but I know an albino monk when I see one!


even the ones that shave their heads?

[scarletpeaches]

Yes. No-one can hide pink-eye.

ETA: Bugger, I forgot about tinted contact lenses. Never mind. Oh, but they have white eyelashes. Dead giveaway, that.

[Frenchclimax]

Too bad I've passed the last 10 years writing a sci-fi story with a 10 years old boy lost in a space shuttle, mentaly disturbed by a black hole and with a computer generated alien sidekick who makes jokes about the situation. Shall I throw everything in garbage bags??

[Meerkat]

"Does This Look Infected?"--the Movie.

[azdak]

Too bad I've passed the last 10 years writing a sci-fi story with a 10 years old boy lost in a space shuttle, mentaly disturbed by a black hole and with a computer generated alien sidekick who makes jokes about the situation. Shall I throw everything in garbage bags??

Try to make that an 11 year old boy. Or would that strain the backstory too much?

[xhouseboy]

Does anyone know what are the least popular screenplay ideas/topics? I heard that these topics aren't hot right now: psychological horror, big-budget sci-fi with lots of special effects, comedies set in a unique world, and anything where the main lead characters is a 10-year-old boy. Anything else?


Screenplays in which the main character is a puppeteer who discovers a portal that takes him inside the body of a real-life movie star aren't very hot right now, and would probably be rejected out of hand.

[javili]

An engaging hero with a dream of sucess in the exciting, no-holds world of fighting dog pits...

Jesus comes back to earth as a muslim...

Mohammed comes back to earth as a woman...

A young man and woman start out disliking each other, but end up learning that they really hate each others' guts and have a bunch of bitchy scenes about it...

A sensitive, musical look at man-boy love...

[nmstevens]

Does anyone know what are the least popular screenplay ideas/topics? I heard that these topics aren't hot right now: psychological horror, big-budget sci-fi with lots of special effects, comedies set in a unique world, and anything where the main lead characters is a 10-year-old boy. Anything else?


I don't know what makes you think that "psychological horror" isn't hot -- that would seem to be a perennial hit, although you may have to call it a "thriller" or a "psychological thriller" (as opposed to some other kind?)

You have to distinguish between what a studio will actually buy, under the right circumstances, and pat excuses that they'll give, simply as an easy way to say no to a script.

The fact is, there's almost always a basis to say no to a script.

Something just like it came out -- no.

Nothing like it has come out for as long as anyone can remember -- no.

It's very close to something that was just a big hit -- no.

It's very close to something that was just a big flop -- no.

It resembles something that we've all heard before -- no.

It doesn't resemble anything that any of us have heard before -- no.

All of the examples you give are likely just specific versions of some of the above.

Awhile ago, I wrote a story taking place in caveman times in which everybody spoke, well "caveman" -- and it all had to be sub-titled, because what they were saying was too complicated for it to be understood otherwise and it simply wouldn't work for them to speak modern English.

And my agent basically said -- forget it. It isn't even worth going out with it. Nobody's going to buy it. Why -- "No one's going to go for it. Nothing like it has ever been done."

Now, of course, "10,000 B.C." is coming out. Cavemen -- and I'll bet my socks that they talk in caveman talk and it's going to be sub-titled.

Does that mean that my caveman script can now go out?

You bet -- not. Because now, in the shadow of this super-big budget thing, the answer's going to be -- "No one's going to go for it. They've just done it."

So how do you do it? How does anything get sold?

It's a terrifyingly simply formula -- "The same only different."

That's what Hollywood loves.

So how did 10,000 BC get sold?

Because it is exactly and precisely, "the same only different."

To be exact, it's Apocalypto. -- A guy from a primitive tribe has to rescue his girl from a vast mysterious civilization.

Only instead of it being Mayan (or whatever it was in Apocalypto) -- it's cavemen, and it's a lost civilization, and so instead of panthers, it's saber tooth tigers and we can throw in herds of wooly mammoths and pyramids and lots of other cool things.

I don't know that it was pitched that way -- but that's the way the cash register minds of the execs saw it.

Same only different.

That's what they want because that's what they think audiences want.

X parts familiar so that audiences have something to connect to, plus X parts novel so that they don't get bored.

That's why they love sequels. That's why they love remakes, that's why they love adaptations, that's why they love stories based on true life stories and things in the news -- because those things have those elements built in.

Familiarity / novelty.

NMS

[seunosewa]

Thanks for this quick explanation of Hollywood thinking.

[whistlelock]

vampires, westerns, and superhero movies.

but write what you want, if it's good they'll make it anyway.

[xhouseboy]

Awhile ago, I wrote a story taking place in caveman times in which everybody spoke, well "caveman" -- and it all had to be sub-titled, because what they were saying was too complicated for it to be understood otherwise and it simply wouldn't work for them to speak modern English.

And my agent basically said -- forget it. It isn't even worth going out with it. Nobody's going to buy it. Why -- "No one's going to go for it. Nothing like it has ever been done."

NMS

"Quest for Fire"

ETA: Although it was an adaptation of the novel, so not technically a spec script.

[nmstevens]

"Quest for Fire"

ETA: Although it was an adaptation of the novel, so not technically a spec script.

Quest for Fire, like all the other "cave man" movies that came before it, and like, Clan of the Cave Bear, which came after, didn't have sub-titles. It simply relied on the fact that what was being said, either through gesture or was sufficiently simple that it could be understood solely through context.

That's been true all the way back to the original Victure Mature One Million B.C.

But if you want your characters to have more than the simplest sorts of conversations (and my story sort of required it), then you can't rely on that. You need to understand what they're saying. And it would be absurd for them to be speaking English.

And the only alternative is for them to speak whatever you can come up with as being close to "cave man language" and sub-title it.

It was that that they felt was insurmountable.

NMS

[NikeeGoddess]

And it would be absurd for them to be speaking English.

And the only alternative is for them to speak whatever you can come up with as being close to "cave man language" and sub-title it.

for greentea - if they speak "dog" then they should be barking. if the dogs are animated then they can speak english.

[GreenTea]

To NikeeGoddess: What language do all the animals speak in the Disney movies?

[DanielD]

I have heard the same thing as nmstevens.
Do the same, yet put a new twist on it.
Your not going to come up with a new genre, but you can come up with a new(your own) take on it, whilst still staying within the framework.
I am of the belief that everyone has their own unique story(Or perspective) to tell.
Though how we go about doing so, will be the clincher.
We're all different yet, we're all the same.
So the audience/reader can relate to that part of us we share in common, and also be given some new(From a slightly different perspective) insights into the human condition.

As far as Dialogue for Greyhounds, Hey! that's a good question.
I thought you'd simply place an explanitory note at the intro, then
write it in english.
Why would you do it any other way?
Simply imply a bit of growling or Greyhound type behaviour, through your dialogue and action(Descriptives).
During their contact with humans, you could possibly alternate between,
Showing them(The Grey hounds speaking in English), then the humans only seeing the Greyhounds barking and carrying on as Greyhounds generally do.

I read a script from a fellow who adapted a novel into a screenplay(Sci-Fi).
He actually created his own unique languages.
Also, he wrote out extensive notes explaining the proper translations, and pronunciations.

Though, I feel with your Screenplay this won't be needed.

Daniel.

[NikeeGoddess]

To NikeeGoddess: What language do all the animals speak in the Disney movies? honestly, i don't know. i never watch them but you should know and have seen these "live action, animal" flicks:
Air Bud
Jungle Book
White Fang
Homeward Bound/The Incredible Journey
Old Yeller
Scooby-Doo
Fly Away Home
Greyfriar's Bobby
Benji
The Three Lives of Thomasina
you tell me. or possibly you have a better list.
it's not my genre and i am ignorant. but, i did give you some good "story" pointers. if they help good. if not, well... as you were.