The life cycle of an idea

I interrupt the writing assignment tracker to demonstrate how the seed of a movie idea can be planted, germinate, sprout with excitement and then be cut off at the roots during the course of a regular Monday afternoon.  This Monday afternoon.

The time line was as follows:

1.10pm – during my post-lunch coffee and Facebook browsing I came across this link that someone had shared - http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2013/apr/20/played-tag-23-years-experience

1.11pm – holy shit, that’s hilarious

1.12pm – holy shit, that’s totally a movie

1.15pm – a bit more digging brings up this article, written on 31^st January - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2270444/23-year-long-game-tag-Friends-flew-world-avoid-it.html

1.16pm – a bit more digging and we find the source, written on 28^th January - http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323375204578269991660836834.html

1.17pm – this is one of the funniest ideas I’ve ever heard - http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/563374/tagagreement01302013.pdf

1.22pm – I email a friendly producer and to my agent, sounding them out – I’m now totally over-excited about this

1.30pm – I track down an email address for Mr Tombari and send him the following email:

Dear Mr Tombari

I recently read the very funny story about you and your friends playing a thirty-year game of tag / ‘it’ in the Daily Mail and Guardian.

I’m a British screenwriter – see my website and blog below for more details about my credits – and I immediately thought this sounded like a fun movie.  Think Wedding Crashers or The Hangover – Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson, Bradley Cooper, the long-suffering wives, the confused kids etc etc.  ‘Bromance’ is big these days and this is right in that bullseye.

I imagine I’m late to the party, but have you had any approaches from film companies yet? 

If not, then I’d love to talk to you further, perhaps put a pitch together and see if I can set it up somewhere.  We would need to sort out some kind of legal understanding to remunerate you and your friends if the film ever got made, but that’s for further on down the line.

Please do get back to me, if only to tell me that you’re not interested.

Sincerely

Tom Williams

1.30pm – 5.30pm – I can’t get the idea out of my head.  I spend the afternoon loosely sketching out plot beats, act breaks, my BAFTA acceptance speech etc.

5.30pm – Mr Tombari replies with this very kind email:

Tom,
Thank you very much for your interest.  We were bombarded in February and had to choose back then.
http://screenrant.com/will-ferrell-jack-black-tag-brothers/
I think that link will get you caught up.
Thanks again for your interest.
Joe Tombari

5.31pm – New Line Cinema, Will Ferrell, Jack Black.  Shitballs.

5.32pm – Shit shit shit.

5.33pm – Right, what was I supposed to be doing this afternoon?

5.34pm – I knew it was a movie...

(6.00pm – hey, at least you can blog about it)