(Un)Original Ideas

By Ben Magid, Script Journal Blog
April 28, 2010

I recently went on a general meeting at a studio, which I won't name, and asked if they were looking for original ideas. The answer was, "We are always looking for original ideas. As long as they are based on underlying material like a comic book or video game or novel." I sat there a bit confused, then finally responded, "So you're answer is no then? If it's based on someone else's IP, then it really isn't an original, is it?" Then he sat there a bit confused. He didn't understand what I was talking about.

And he's not alone. In today's marketplace, original ideas carry little weight. Studios are risk averse and are only looking for sure things. Sure things equate to pre-awareness. Comic books, novels, video games, remakes, sequels. They are counting on making their money back opening weekend. The odd thing is, many of these materials have zero pre-awareness to them, and are fairly derivative concepts as well. I'm a comic book fan, and I've never heard of some of these titles getting set up at studios or sent to me for an assignment. And if I haven't heard of them, 99.9% of the world hasn't either.

The main aspect to be considered is quality. Everyone knows Superman, yet the recent film lacked in my opinion. Or you can take Iron Man, a well known comic inside of the comic world, but not really that well known outside of it; yet, it was a great movie. Recent hits like Avatar, District 9 and The Hangover all performed exceeding well with relatively smaller actors, yet all had compelling stories.

A lot of producers and writers now try to convert their scripts to comic books to help sell them to the studios. It's an odd business model. A comic costs about 5 to 10 thousand dollars to make. The studio will then have to option the rights to the comic book, add another producer's (the comic book publisher) salary, and then pay a writer, or writers, to write the script, when all they had to do from the beginning was read the original script, pay the writer, and save a lot of money. Some say that a comic helps the studio exec "see" the movie. I say, if your imagination is that limited, you are in the wrong business.

In the end, it should come down to the story and how it is told, not what it is or isn't based on. But that's just my opinion.

Screenwriter Ben Magid is best known for thinking outside the box, creating high concept worlds and big ideas. Magid entered the entertainment industry in 2006 with the sale of PAN to New Line Cinema, a revisionist take on Peter Pan that garnered mention on the Black List. He went on to write HACK/SLASH for Rogue Pictures, scheduled to shoot early 2010. He has worked with Legendary Pictures on BIGFOOT, Level One Entertainment on THE MAZE and sold his spec script INVASION in 2009 to Participant and Summit produced by Strike Entertainment and Eli Roth. His script ATLAS has been optioned by the producers of Paranormal Activity. Currently developing a TV show with Warner Horizon / Warner Bros, Magid is also active in the comic book world, with the upcoming debute of graphic novel TROUT published by Arcana Comics due out in 2010. He is repped in film by Mike Esola and Rob Carlson at WME and Brooklyn Weaver at Energy Entertainment, and in television by David Stone and Richard Weitz at WME.