So I'm writing and action adventure movie. Without putting my name out there for obvious reasons...

So I'm writing and action adventure movie. Without putting my name out there for obvious reasons, my resume includes credits for a fantasy Netflix show, and a couple dramatic shorts, and I co-wrote an indie feature. Nothing big, but nothing even close to this genre.

I am writing an action adventure movie right now and I thought I'd ask you guys what your thoughts are about the genre.

What are some of the things that work for movies along the same vein as Raiders of the Lost Ark, Pirates of the Caribbean, National Treasure, etc? What are some things that don't work?

I'm not trying to crowdsource, as I've already got about 50 pages done. Just curious because after... shit, 6 years on here, although yall are full of shit, you do,have good taste from time to time.

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What works/doesn't work
What a fucking vague question.
Fist fights work, and romance.
Main character telling a legend everyone knows does not work

Uh you dont get to bring friends

>Without putting my name out there for obvious reasons
Obvious reasons like what?

What I'd like is a reboot of the classic Saturday serial style (aka what Indiana Jones was) but crossed with something like The Wrestler or Trainspotting in terms of grit and realism. No cutesy bullshit. No CGI to hell and back. No surviving a nuke in a fridge. No pointless love interest and stupid kid, just balls to the wall fun but grim times.

That it would be public knowledge that I'm on a Chinese cartoon picture board. Could hurt my barely existent career.

I bet it'd be difficult to organically include moments moments of fun and comedy in something too gritty, don't you think?

Also, I'm not directing or designing. Just writing. I have no control over CGI usage. Although if I write realistic things it's more plausible. For instance, I won't include aliens or a-bombs.

Unless it's a remake, based on a book or cape shit it will never see the light of day so who cares

romance is overused and a lot of times end up seeming like lazy writing. try not to use a lot if any.

Not my experience in the industry. The major companies are BEGGING FOR original, but fun and not-so-film-school-serious shit. We see so many sequels and adaptions BECAUSE of the lack of people writing original stories. So they get a board together to make sequel #12 to maintain profit.

Even though most contracts for writers don't include a clause in which you can't damage the brand of the movie/product, it still looks bad and people won't want to work with you (in public) if it's known you use websites such as the bastion of the "alt-right".

But that's okay. Before Sup Forums could ruin your reputation, it was Sup Forums.

There have to be thousands of people writing movies. Maybe tens of thousands (all over the world). And not one of them has come up with an original story worth releasing in the past few years?

I don't believe anything you say.

Toeing the campiness line is key. Too gritty/grim and you get Temple of Doom (which is a good movie, just too dark), too exaggerated/silly and you get Crystal Skull, just right and you get Raiders and Crusade.

Well quit your job at NEET incorporated and join us in LA and I'll show you around.

Ah, got it. Yeah, I guess many people wouldn't differentiate between being a poster here and being an alt-rightist.

Make the movie about the characters

Have a original plot involving action/adventure sub genre

Either it has to be 100% serious or has a comedic undertone. You decide.

I'm a lawyer. And I could probably move out there if I wanted to, my grandfather won an Emmy and I have other family in the business.

I'm so sure.

Now you know how you sound Mr. Netflix.

Saying someone co-wrote on a streaming only online show on a board about tv and movies sounds a lot more legit than "oh I'm a lawyer. And my grandpa won an Emmy! OH AND I HAVE FAMILY IN THE BUSINESS"

Just saying.

>File: indyhed.jpg (123 KB, 1100x739)
> Anonymous 05/28/17(Sun)23:31:57 No.83307027 [Reply]▶
>Have a[n] original plot
no one cares about an original plot. Originality is over-rated. If you went to the doctor, would you prefer an original diagnosis or a good one?

Listen to his "Make the movie about the characters" thing, though. I like spending time with my friends even if we're not doing crazy hijinks.

Just don't be a fag and you should be ok

the scene in the first Indiana Jones where Han Solo simply shoots the arab dude flexing with his sword

that scene is 10/10
steal that shit

also, try to avoid too much CGI bullshit unless you've got the budget for it

>unless
unless nothing.

Why would anyone take advice from a retard who can't even figure out how to reply correctly?

Good advice.

Any archetypes you/yall care for? Any that need to die from being oveedone to dearh?

nah I think CGI is fine when it's applied correctly. ie Mad Max Fury Road.

if it's not $$$ it looks like garbage tho

Yeah, even obvious CGI when used correctly and designed with care can be incredible.

Example, Davy Jones from PotC. Still blows me away, a decade later.

Guy Ritchie sherlock holmes is kinda gritty


You ll also need to put some It ain t me as main theme

everyone likes a winner. we all love mad men's don draper because even when he's "low" he doesn't turn into some loser. he just plows through and wins.

You can still have your characters go through adversity and not have the silly "oh no, how will i ever succeed" moment.

people have never liked watching losers, especially for an hour and a half.

>You ll also need to put some It ain t me as main theme
Y E S

use the vin diesel version if you can find it

Good point. I like the 'creative and cocky, but sometimes clueless' adventure movie hero character type, though. Might be much more light hearted than RDJ's Holmes character.

>people have never liked watching losers
how do you explain breaking bad?

if you can have every line of dialogue serve three purposes you'll be golden.

1. give insight to the character and his motivations/personality and whatever
2. advance the plot
3. have it be relevant/payoff later

efficiency kino, my man

What about an adventure movie set in 'nam? Like some kind of vietnamese curse and stuff

>Temple (which is a good movie, just too dark)

No, Temple oscillates between dark and and stupid camp so it comes off uneven.

>Crusade

I don't know why people praise it as much when it's basically an action comedy with two dedicated comic reliefs

>Raiders

Is arguably the darkest and grittiest (and the best) of them all. Humour is kept short in favour of suspense.

Explain what? It's a shitty show.

i don't get your point... no one liked flynn and jesse, and everyone besides women and effeminate men liked walter and disliked skylar (imo).

>a soft-skinned documentarian travels to a wartorn third world country to film
>he gets arrested after a rival filmmaker sabotages his passport
>is thrown in a shitty third world prison (basically locked up abroad)
>goes insane, scenes of the brutality of his prison life are interspersed with lurid fantasy sequences about his completed film
>prisoners riot, allowing the documentarian to escape
>makes it to an embasy, returns home
>rival documentarian's career has nosedived in the meantime
>protag forgives him

grounded realism (physics, knowledge and personality of lead), even during crazy sequences

If you have a male lead, you need him to be tough, rugged and aloof. Men want to be him, women want to fuck him. That draws. Don't let any liberal Jew tell you otherwise.

This. Avoid capeshit physics.

yikes

Without going into a ton do detail, the plot involves a relic mcguffin as these stories often do but the difference is nobody actually knows if these objects do anything.

The theme of the movie is sometimes belief is more important and more real than seeing things with our own eyes.

the objects are the 'Nails of Golgotha - the nails that crucified Jesus of Nazareth. The villain believes that because these three objects literally shed the blood of God, they endowed with dark, powerful curses.

Of course, do they even exist? What do they do when reunited? Can they be?

Sounds cheesy but these movies often are. Whether it's the Holy Grail or Posiden's Trident or the fucking Deathly Hallows, Mcguffins always are a bit ridiculous, aren't they? Makes it fun.

If you're doing an adventure you need to have in mind a location that is decidedly "exotic". The appeal of Indiana Jones for example is that he went to countries and encountered cultures that were alien. In an era of globalism, this is very difficult because you want to get lost in the adventure, when everything is pretty much known. This is why sci-fi has supplanted it almost entirely, or it's been adapted to a dystopian setting. So either you do a period piece or you look to the future.

To elaborate some on what this guy is saying because I think you misunderstood him. It is alright (and actually good) to have your character lose but they need to take it in stride pick themselves back up and keep going.

>Raiders of the Lost Ark, Pirates of the Caribbean

>both have unique and excellent soundtracks.

good luck getting John Williams though
>both have a cocky, handsome protagonist who can macgyver shit
>both in different time periods from our own
This is pretty important imo. I can't think of an "action-adventure" movie set in modern times, unless you count Bond, which isn't really in the vein of Indiana and Pirates
>both have supernatural elements
Davy jones/ghost ships and whatever religious magic happened with the ark
>both have (iirc) the main character going after a physical object
Indy the ark, Jack the boat/treasure(?)
>both have lovable sidekicks
>both have the protagonist fighting agaisnt a powerful institutional force
The British Empire, the Nazi empire. Can't be an adventure unless the odds are stacked against you
>many different locations travelled to, or at least scenic ones
>unique and memorable fight scenes
Everyone knows Jack swinging and kicking someone from a crane, or Indy shooting the swordsman or decapitating a guy with a plane rotor. NO explosions bullets and shakycam
>nothing implausible, barring the supernatural stuff
Fast and furious is not plausible.
>a few likable sidekicks. don't fall into the short round trap
These characters can follow their own threads if they're charismatic enough, see:pirates
>romance, or sexual tension

Dunno other than that. Another good action-adventure movie along these lines is the Mummy

I want annoying faggots to stop coming here looking for ideas
Kill yourself, rat

Turn off EVERYTHING. TV, computer, even your lights. Clear your mind. Sit in silence and think. Listen to music to relax first if you need to. Sit and think long enough and you will come up with something. Once you get it, DON'T write it down. Keep thinking. Go over it again and again. It will get better. The more you think about it, the better it gets. Impress yourself with the idea/scene/character whatever. When you REALLY like it write it down. Easy.

>I bet it'd be difficult to organically include moments moments of fun and comedy in

I didn't mention comedy once and fun is entirely subjective. In the context I'm talking about, fun would be ultra violence and chaos, not a roller coaster ride through a mining tunnel. You can always put some knowing comedy into a decent action film, it doesn't have to be abject cheese.

youtube.com/watch?v=q9g3cZBDMWs&t=0m5s

Good McGuffin

>Raiders of the Lost Ark
Trash with some iconic ideas.

>Pirates of the Caribbean
Best blockbusters series ever made. It got a sense of adventure and fun despite being set in a pretty dark setting and most of the characters and locations are memorable. Hell, just look at the establishing shots in At Worlds End. Another thing that makes it stand out is not taking itself too seriously. Most adventure movies are inherently silly and should embrace it.

Now the absolutely most important thing is: social issues. POTC only briefly touched them but shit like that is what makes a work way more impactful. No need to make it another Les Mis but even a dumb fun movie should hint a bigger picture.

> National Treasure
Trash with a bit of charm. Don't remember much about them sans the overall plot and Cage.

It's all about characters. Come up with people the audience wants to follow and you can serve up the most boring plot ever or mostly skip plot, it will still work. Also obviously emotional investment, which is helped by characters.

Not OP and not into screenwriting but literature and it's pretty similar there too. Most of the people either rehash old shit or can't think off anything good from start to finish.

Evil characters are so 1980. Indy movies trying to make it right with a rival and then blew it with him working for the nazis.

Finally not some Western mythology shit ... and then I read the spoiler. Also the theme sounds too much like religiousfag pandering, the setting is cool though.

>Posiden's Trident or the fucking Deathly Hallows
Might be Mcguffins but it's the WHY people are looking for them that matters. Personally I could've give any less shit about the object or its powers in question.

>he gets arrested after a rival filmmaker sabotages his passport
Over the top shit like that would make me stop caring already.

Make us care about the main character.