Ideas upon ideas upon plans

This scene appeared in my head the other night - an action scene that would be a great opening shot to a big budget film. I kept thinking about this scene until I got an idea for a character. I had an idea for what could happen to this character, but it just didn't seem very conflict heavy and I couldn't figure out how to make a story out of it.

Usually with me the story comes first, but not this time. I just kept shifting this person around, trying to find a way for them to grow-

Then it hit me. BAM. I way toying with possibilities, thinking what's the worst thing that could happen to this person? And suddenly, there it was. When in doubt, think of the worst thing that could happen to your character, and there's your story.

I've been focusing on comedy for a while and once I finish this next script I'll have two low budget projects under my belt, but I'm ready to get back to straight up big budget action, my first love. This is like Dark Knight / Tonight, He Comes territory - gritty, dark, explosiony. I've wanted to write something like this for a long time.

First I promised myself I'd crank out the current project. It's commercial, it's solid, it's sellable. In the meantime I'm going to brainstorm this new thing that I'm already in love with. It's going to require world building.

My first issue is, I know I'm going to have to make it a male protagonist. I haven't written a male lead in a while, but let's face it, if I want to write action I need to write men, and this story lends itself to a man for various reasons. It's time to face my fear.

So now I know what I'll be working on for at least the next six months, unless of course someone pays me money to do something else.

Somebody got there first

I had this idea, see, about a woman who fantasizes about killing her boss, because I figured everybody can relate to that and it would be a big hit, except I'm a little late. Horrible Bosses, a comedy about three buddies who decide to band together to murder their despicable bosses, is already slated for production.

I just read it and yeah, there's a lot of overlap. So back to the drawing board.

I love the original idea, but at some point I got stuck on it taking place at work because of the aforementioned thinking about killing the boss as being relatable. But the story doesn't have to take place at work because there are plenty of other people we fantasize about killing during the day.

So I've decided not to scrap my script, but to use this as an opportunity to get really creative. I went for the obvious - cube farm frustration and an irritating boss, but this is actually going to force me to come up with a scenario that hasn't been done.

It happens to everybody eventually.