Who Scanned XX ? (USCO case #1-942119421 – WGAW # 1655866)
Jean-Marie MazaleyratPenpusher
Just 3D-digitized, two famous Toon-actors of the forties must struggle to foil the Villains who want to make them spread an elusive virus which threaten the worldwide networks.
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Hi Karel,
I read your post about dual protagonists. This is very true and very helpfull. I ‘ll take care not to fall into one of the errors you describe
I hope there will not be any big problem in this story because the main characters and their relationships are clearly defined from the beginning: I write the chart of characters before or at the same time as the Synopsis :
– XX and BB models are Laurel and Hardy: they are the two opposite personalities of a single hero. They share the same quest, the same flaw, the same conflict, the same antagonist, … and are almost always together present on the screen. Their only duality is in their inner goals and their mutual relationship:
– XX is friendly, mischievous and scatterbrain and is regularly called to order by BB; and the only woman he cares for is JX
– BB is a false-macho sex maniac, grumpy, down to earth, but he is regularly get out of a mess by XX
– As I said above, Pete and Dr Brown are something like the Thomson and Thompson meet the Professor Calculus?. Dr Brown appear later than Pete, but his arrival rightly allows Pete to take more consistency and credibility. They enrich each other by sharing their knowledge.
Is this better please?
“Sent despite themselves on the internet to spread an elusive virus, two famous Toon-actors just 3D-digitized must prevent Villains? of leading the world into a backward of forty years.”
(29 words)
“Just 3D-digitized, two famous Toon-actors are sent despite themselves on the internet to spread an elusive virus and must prevent Villains? of leading the world into a backward of forty years.”
(31 words)
Or a longer version :
“To restart their careers, two famous toon-actors make them 3D-digitized, but then are sent despite themselves on the internet to spread an elusive virus and must prevent Villains? of leading the world into a backward of forty years.”
(38 words)
(NB: They need to be two because the virus code is dispersed in their two binary files, allowing to make it elusive)
In “Who framed Roger Rabbit”, Eddie and Roger are the real odd couple, actually, and Roger is Eddie’s constant problem.
Well JM, stop daydreaming and rewrite this logline!
This is my spare wheel! 😉
But there is something interesting to build on an existing blockbuster: the fame.
… And there is at least one more reason : I love this movie!
about the cost of the rights for characters:
It is possible that there will be only Disney, Nintendo and right-free heroes in this movie (I believe that there is an agreement between Disney and Nintendo). I would like to see others like Gru and his minions, or heroes from Ayaho Myazaki (Porco rosso, Shihiro…).
I plan to write some scenes according to the characters that I will have on hand.
Disney (through their subsidiary Touchstone) was one of 4 production companies and 6 producers (including Steven Spielberg) involved in the making of “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”.
They had to pay for rights to characters from Warner Brothers ( Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and other Looney Tune characters), Universal Studios (for Woody Woodpecker) and Paramount (Betty Boop). And, of course, all of them insisted on seeing –and agreeing — to the script, how their characters were going to be portrayed.
(This is where having Steven Spielberg attached to the project was important: he was someone with the prestige, connections and clout to get deals done for the character rights.)
My takeaway is: you would have no creative control in how you want to recycle these characters for your story. So…
>>Maybe I?ll transpose it with no reference to Roger Rabbit? and Back to the Future?. I?ll find something else.
Why not? You then have complete creative control. You can start your own family of franchise characters. That’s where the money is — franchising and merchandising rights.
Such was the foundation for George Lucas’s fortune. 20th Century Fox negotiated hard, paid George Lucas little for the script of Star Wars and the fee to direct it. But they let him have all the merchandising rights. They didn’t imagine the toy market for the characters and props.
Huge mistake.
Hi dpg,
I write this story first for fun.
I just hold the rights to what I write and I do not want to violate the property of others. This is why I don’t give any reference to an existing story or movie in the Synopsis. My story is original and based on an original unique High Concept: the 3D digitization process of 2D real people (As “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” was based on the High Concept of making cartoons as any other movies with real 2D actors).
Unless I’m mistaken, the rights holders for the exploitation of “Roger Rabbit” in cinema are The Disney Company and maybe Robert Zemeckis. The right holder for “Back to the Future” is Universal Pictures.
There is a third movie in connection with my story, but I don’t want to reveal it.
There was a similar problem when they made “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” as they wanted to make appear together toon heroes from several Majors : Disney (Dumbo, Donald Duck…), Warner (Daffy Duck…)… They managed to reach agreement.
I think they are working on “Who Framed Roger Rabbit 2” which would be rather a prequel and has nothing to do with my story.
However I write it for them.
If they like it, and if there is any problem of copyright, I’ll adapt the story.
If they don?t like it, what a pity!
Maybe I?ll transpose it with no reference to “Roger Rabbit” and “Back to the Future”. I’ll find something else.
>>All this is copyrighted mat?rial of course.
Which means you are writing a script that IF it is bought will have to go through a protracted and very expensive legal quagmire before one frame of film can be shot.
Because “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” was a big hit, it’s going to cost millions of US dollars for clearances and licensing fees for EVER character from EVERY studio that holds a copyright on the character.
IF — the owners of each individual copyright are willing to come to terms.
Unestablished writers are strongly discouraged from writing scripts contingent on copyrighted material.
Just saying.
Good luck.
Here is the Synopsis :
XX, a famous toon actor of the forties and his buddy-buddy partner BB are out of work after the bankruptcy of the studio which employed them.
To restart their careers they decide to give in to that is all the rage in 2N’Town: getting digitized in 3D.
Contact is made with a graphic art studio. The scanning goes well but then happens something wrong:
In a digital shape, they find themselves simultaneously multiplied and driven worldwide through the Internet, where “Villains” make them conveying and spreading an elusive virus that threatens to destroy all computers and networks worldwide.
Exploring the internet with BB, XX tries desperately to reach his toon wife JX and his zany human friend Pete, physicist and mathematician searcher and grand-son of a detective who had once saved him.
They finally succeed and inform them of what is happening.
With their help and that of his partner, exploring the internet as Pete helps at the keyboard, and with the help of all their friends Toons and video games heroes, he begins a battle against time to prevent “Villains” to lead the world to a backward of more than fourty years.
In the same time, the ?Villains? unfold their threat and issue an ultimatum to the UN: they will destroy all the computers and networks worldwide if a ransom of one trillion dollar is not paid in various currencies on a set of accounts in tax havens within fifteen days.
While the whole Earth Secrets Services launch their best agents and most powerful antivirus on heroes’ heels, the Toons oppose the viruses that multiply in a fierce battle. The ?VILLAINS? rapidly discover that their plan is not working as expected, and they decide to counterattack: they kidnap JX as she is just digitized and they hide her somewhere on the internet. She will be destroyed with the rest of the WWW if XX and BB do not cooperate.
Triple challenge for the heroes: save themselves, save JX and foil the plans of the “Villains”.
While these ones have almost succeeded, the heroes locate them and intervene just in time thanks to JX who has managed to break free. They finally discover who hide behind the ‘Villains’ just before these ones are destroyed.
…
The heroes and their friends get together in 2N Town to celebrate the victory. On this occasion, the President of the United States in person decorates them.
All this is copyrighted mat?rial of course.
Hi Karel,
Hi dpg,
Thank you very much for your commentaries.
The starting idea is a sequel of “Who framed Roger Rabbit” and I’m cooking it for the attention of Robert Zemeckis and Disney Studios.
“who framed Roger Rabbit” takes place in Hollywood in 1947. The main “gentil” characters are Roger Rabbit, the private investigator Eddie Valliant, Baby Hermann and Jessica Rabbit.
– The true heroes of the movie are Eddie Valiant and Roger Rabbit -rather Eddie Valliant actually-
– In this story, Baby and Roger are an odd-couple of cartoons’ heroes in wich Roger is the stooge of Baby.
My story takes place today in Hollywood and on the Internet.
The premise is :
To restart their careers, A famous toon-actors of the forties and his partner decide to give in to what is all the rage in 2N?Town: be digitized in 3D. The scanning goes well but then happens something wrong… Will he get out of it with the help of his friend Pete, grand-son of the private detective who had once saved him?
The main characters are Roger, Baby and Jessica who keep their main features (nature, behavior). Eddie Valliant is dead, of course, but his grandson Pete is one of the heroes. He is a zany young guy, PhD in Physics and Mathematics, and there will be a connection with other movies of Robert Zemeckis -Back to the Future- as they will encounter Dr Emmett BROWN and his De Lorean time machine.
– The main heroes are Roger and Baby who embark despite themselves in a hazardous trip on the Internet. They will be helped first by Pete, then by pete and Dr Brown together.
– Emmett Brown and Pete, the old and the young, make also an odd couple as they are quasi-analogous. Something like “Thomson and Thompson” in “The Adventures of Tintin”
– Jessica will be first kidnapped by the Villains, then will manage to break free and will take an active part in the resolution.
To make a comparison with Tintin (the comic books by Herg?)
– Roger and Baby are Tintin and captain Haddock
– Pete and Dr Brown are thomething like “the Thomson an Thompson meet the Professor Calculus”
– Jessica is Snowy (as there is no woman close to Tintin in the stories by Herg?)
Therefore, there is five heroes in this story.
And of course, there will be an intervention of many other toons in my story, just as in the first movie. (I have eard about a very funny story of “Big foot” and “Big Toe” which could take place there).
The Treatment is written up to 95% and the script is in progress.
I’ll put the Synopsis into the next post (however, nobody will read something so long.
Maybe it will spark some good ideas to improve my logline.
The dual-protagonist story usually works best where the duo are an odd-couple, foils for each other’s clashing defects (software bugs?), allies with their complementary strengths (software features).
See “Kagemusha” by Akira Kurosawa where 2 bumbling, rascally peasants, Tahei and Matakishi, are caught up in clan wars in feudal Japan. BTW: the peasant odd couple were George Lucas’ inspiration for the odd couple robots, C3PO and R2D2. Who, by the way, are a continuous — the one continuous — relationship through the entire “Star Wars” hexalogy.
Awesome! Having just taught story for a whole day to screen students, animators and gaming artists, this is a nice logline to find on the site. 🙂
I am a fan of single-hero stories, unless there is a clear reason why we have a dual protagonist situation. I wrote a little piece about this here: http://thestorydepartment.com/dual-protagonists
From this particular logline I don’t understand why there are two heroes.
“who want to make them spread an elusive virus”: why can’t they just refuse? Must they foil the villains? From the logline it isn’t clear why.
Style: avoid “the Villains who..” followed by “an elusive virus which…”.
“the worldwide networks”: What is this? The internet? Otherwise, why would the audience care about these networks?
Finally, is there a character journey? I can imagine that the actors have trouble adapting to the 3-D world, but is this perhaps because of some character weakness/flaw?
Not all necessarily story problems, but aspects of the logline that can be clarified.
Have fun rewriting!