An excerpt from my script review for Rampage which will be available 04/16/18:
1.) Marketability of the Idea
Rampage.
Not going to lie. This was the first game I purchased for the NES, or rather my parents purchased for me.
I didn’t get Super Marios Bros. or Duck Hunt, or even the light pistol…no all I wanted was to play a giant monster who bashed buildings, tanks, and occasionally ate people.
(Now that I think about it, I’m wondering if they even bought me a new system. Maybe they found one used, because that seems like quite the odd combo pack. Good on them if they did! I certainly wasn’t the wiser.)
My memory of this is probably over romanticized, but at the time I was amazed that I could play a video game that I loved at an arcade, but now from the comfort of our finished basement. Crazy how innovative my little mind thought that was.
(And how repetitive the game became once you didn’t have to force feed the machine quarters.)
With the “success” of projects like Ready Player One, and this script honestly not being a bad action film, perhaps we should entertain adapting these types of obscure 80s games. Honestly, if I took my son to see it, he’d enjoy it with little to no knowledge of his father playing it on his second video game console.
(The first being a knockoff Atari system that played all the games. Yeah, pretty sure my parents bought that NES at a garage sale…)
What were most of those original video games if not just a basic idea, or logline should we apply it to screenwriting?
By keeping the idea generic we get to explore all sorts of option for creative back-story and memorable characters, not forced on us like the established storylines of say Tomb Raider or Resident Evil.
Some of these properties may even be considered public domain by now, or perhaps the developer is no longer in business, but by keeping the core idea simple enough, you can always change the title, storyline, etc. so it’s not an obvious adaptation.
(Or when all else fails, just make sure The Rock stars in your tent-pole project!)
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