MAJOR PROJECT: INITIAL IDEA

The starting point

Over the summer I began a couple of fledgling scripts writing the beginning of two separate stories. One about three immigrants from different countries in the back of a truck heading for Britain and the other about a translator who has to go into the field to work with an agent who has a prisoner. Both stories have a definite drama genre feel and direction, but I have since thought that a dark comedy would suit me more in terms of writing style and in relation to the kinds of films I prefer to watch. So I have taken my original Translator script and decided to re-write it into a dark comedy with twists and turns. 

Inspirations

Making my decision to move towards dark comedy is made in large part due to my love of the work of John and Martin Mcdonagh both directors of well written dark comedies. Martin Mconagh won an Oscar for his short film Six Shooter (2004) which explores the last moments of a young mans life as he intends to go out in a blaze of glory. It is left to the man sitting opposite him on the train to talk him out of it. 

Ruaidri Conroy and Brendan Gleeson (still from Six Shooter)

 This is a simple story with a dark comic as well as dramatic edge to it, but most important for me is it is simple. This is the kind of thing I would like to emulate to make my film. Most of the films of these two brother involve crime as well as comedy which is arguably the genre that most appeals to me which is why I would like to aim something of the same ilk.  

Premise: Pitch

The premise of my story is a secret agent has been sent into a foreign land to capture the head of a drug cartel. However instead of capturing this man he unintentionally takes a lowly henchman to a remote location for interrogation. He needs a translator to help understand what the man has to say, before he can be extracted from the country.  The translator talks with the man and comes to realise the man is not the target man or is he, but the translator and the agent need to decide what needs to be done. 


Genre decision

As I mention above I made the decision to alter my already existing script from a pure drama to a dark comedy which sways more and more towards the comedy side as it goes along. I would like to say I would categorise it as a crime comedy with a hint of accidental racism. But this is all very much at the fledgling stage and as I re-write the script the genre may change.