Sunday, June 14, 2009
Trailer for Darwin Biopic: Creation
Why aren't they calling it the infinitely more clever "Origins" again? I'm excited for this film, but I have to admit, a wave of nausea hits me every time I think about it. This is the exact movie idea I was practice-pitching in LA only 3 years ago.
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If all you have to go on is that vague "they stole my idea! ... maybe ... possibly =\" feeling, I would encourage you to look at it from the bigger cynical picture:
Darwin the man himself --> Darwin's many biographers --> Jay's science teacher --> Jay --> man Jay pitched the idea to
The point is that they have as much right to feel like they're missing out on the moolah as you do. Now maybe you don't buy that argument since you're the one who pitched it to the film industry specifically, but that's where flowchart #2 comes along. I can't make it work in puretext, so you'll have to settle for the line breaks and assume it was originally a web:
Jay --> man he pitched idea to
man's wife --> man (let's call him Larry)
Larry's coworkers --> Larry
Larry's son working on his science fair project --> Larry
If the DVD included interviews, and if Larry happened to be one of the folks they interviewed, and if they happened to ask Larry, "So, Larry, what made you decide to do a film about Darwin?", do you know what he'd probably say? I'm not shitting you: he would probably honestly answer, with no evil bone in his body, something like this:
"Well, I'd always wanted to make a film about one of the world's greatest thinkers. I thought, you know, we got enough of the military heroes in film, now it's time for the inventors and explorers to get a piece of the action too! I remember, some time about 3 years ago, my son Joseph entered the science fair with a project about Mendelian peas. He and my wife Sandra grew 'em out back outside our home and he talked my ear off about Mendel this and Darwin that."
"*laugh*, so you weren't a big Darwin fan right from the start?"
"Well, I mean, I didn't dislike the guy or anything, but I guess I never really took a closer look at him before then. You know, the whole 'hey, I discovered evolution' bit was all I really knew about Charles Darwin.
So anyway, a coupla weeks later, this young kid flies in from out east. Had a lotta enthusiasm. One day we get to talking, and he brings up Darwin. And I'm like, hey, there's that name again: Darwin. I asked my wife that night at dinner if she thought it'd be a good idea. She said sure, but she was like me and didn't know enough about the guy to know if a movie that could grab a wide audience was possible to produce. Next day, I go in to work, and I talk to Tommy and Steve [the co-producers of the film], and Steve tells me he just had a dream about Darwin last night. We figured, 'That's it. It's a sign.' And we set to work on the film that afternoon."
My point is, even if you inspired the film, unless you singularly, majorly inspired it, it's tough to lay claim to this being your idea and them stealing it.
Now, much less cynically, perhaps even bending over backwards to the point of foolish naivety ...
If you believe that the guy you suggested the film to is a good man ...
And if you believe he was involved in this project ...
And if you still have his contact information ...
Then contact him and ask him to let the big wigs know that you're the one who had this idea and you've got loads of other great ideas for films inside your head.
If he's a good man, he's not omitting your name because he's downplaying your role in the project: he's possibly forgotten your name!! You may have his contact info, but he's forgotten which card fit your face! And he's got thousands of 'em! And what's he supposed to do? Call every intern who he's ever had working with him and ask, "Hey, were you the one who gave me the idea for this multi-million dollar Darwin film?" They're all going to answer "Yeah! It was me!", the thieving lot of 'em, even though it wasn't. And he knows this. So he's waiting for you to contact him.
Like I said: nauseatingly optimistic. But still possible, and worth a shot.
If you don't contact the guy, in my opinion it never meant that much to you in the first place and you forfeit the right to complain that they stole your idea. Now is the time to at least try and get in touch with them. Only after you reach his secretary and she tells you he's busy and never puts you through to the guy do I think you get to cry foul about Hollywood.
The nausea is not from the belief that my idea was stolen so much as the fact that I was beaten to the punch. I wanted to make a Darwin biopic with the same emphasis.
I understand Jay. Also, I want to see this. It looks good.
Maybe the film will cover the topic of where all matter and energy in the universe originated from. Or is it rational to believe that everything just came out of nowhere, for no reason, by nothing?
lol worst attempt at trolling ever!
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