...while walking the picket line during the writer's strike, I had another feature idea:Coincidentally, on Friday this was reported on deadline.com:
"Mail Order Bride"
LOGLINE:
Michael Cera and Jonah Hill are best friends until Michael Cera's girlfriend comes along. Left out and alone and drunk, Jonah Hill orders a smoking hot mail order bride from Russia and he and Michael Cera both fall in love with her. But she's not what she seems...
Let me be honest: this script is good. Lots of jokes. Pretty good story. I was proud of it. People liked it. I think my manager might have even liked it. Well, he didn't do anything with it, but he did hook me up with an agent.
I met with the agent, and surprisingly enough, loved him. He was at a smaller agency, and the place seemed more my style. Plus, he brought in a feature agent to talk to me too. Even better, they loved "Mail Order Bride"! Thank God.
I decided to sign with them. They gave me notes on the script and I rewrote it. Then, together with my manager (supposedly), sent it around to various feature companies.
EXCLUSIVE: 20th Century Fox has acquired the spec From Mia With Love, a John Hughes-style comedy written by Seth Grahame-Smith, David Katzenberg, Bryan Shukoff and Kevin Chesley. Katzenberg will direct, and he and Grahame-Smith will produce under their Katsmith Productions banner.Wow, apparently all Russian mail order brides are "smoking hot".
The coming-of-age comedy is a mix of Risky Business and Weird Science. Some plot elements could change, but the pitched premise had three guys so desperate to lose their virginity that they order up a Russian mail-order bride, figuring they can send her back. She is smoking hot but arrives with baggage and no plans to bed the lads, though she helps the trio become more suitable mating material.
So that was a fun Friday for me, but I harbor no ill will. I'm sure David KATZENBERG is a plucky young fella, similar to myself, just making his way up the Hollywood ladder on talent and talent alone. It's crazy though, such similar ideas. I just don't understand what David KATZENBERG has that I don't.
I can't figure it out, I mean, I'm Irwin Handleman, he's David KATZENBERG, I don't know what it could be. I'm sure David KATZENBERG has lots of great credits, especially writing and directing things. At least I think he must. I know I've heard the name KATZENBERG before.
Oh well, another one bites the dust. I'll live to fight another day. I just hope that my next idea isn't similar to anything Larry Spielberg is writing.
5 comments:
Sometimes all it takes is the right "agent".
Have you seen The Hard Times of RJ Berger? It is just awful. That's a Katezenberg.
Well, not to burst your bubble but a drama with a vaguely similar logline came out about a decade ago: Birthday Girl, with Nicole Kidman.
wait a minute, are you implying that there's been another movie in the history of the world that involved a mail order bride? my bubble has been burst!
everything has been done before, this was more about the same movie, being done in the same way (hard R male comedy), pitched to the same people around the same time, but with david katzenberg.
but i am well aware that my ideas are not original.
actually, it's not that similar. The aspect of the mail order bride is similar, but thats about the extent of it. It's a little narcissistic to assume otherwise; however, I think you're idea is better and a lot more original. I can actually envision the trailer and the story as you described it. The casting of michael cera and jonah hill seems a little hackneyed as I don't think of them as a team in the same way people saw Chris farley and david spade, but I think its pretty spot on if a lot of the humor revolved around uncomfortable situations and some slapstick. So, I guess you could say I don't think you should consider this film as anything more than the usual tripe that hollywood craps out, it certainly doesn't rip you off as the basic concept at it's core is different. The modifier thats in common is the mail order bride. Their film is actual an enormous rip off of weird science. I truly think you have something with your mail order bride script. Is their any place to read it?
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