Mile High

Being an Air Marshal Is the Sweetest, Horniest Job in The World
by Sam Biddle

Remember senior spring in high school? Now imagine if you could take all the irresponsibility, sex, and drinking, but set it 40,000 feet in the air and throw in a gun and federal mandate.

I'm thinking Wedding Crashers or The Other Guys at 40,000 feet. Then add in some international smugglers and our heroes having to actually solve a real case.

If you were a studio exec, would you buy a seat for that ride?

I Dated A Married Couple

That Time I Dated A Married Couple
by Maggie Tokuda-Hall

50 Shades of Grey proved that there's a robust audience for erotic thrillers at the multi-plex, and with the exception of the occasional niche film like Boy Next Door or Obsessed, we don't see them very often. So here's a new twist, focusing on a woman who dates a married couple. What could possibly go wrong?

Casting would be the fun part. How about Garrett Hudland and Elizabeth Olsen as the married couple and Emilia Clarke as their new muse? 

Maybe this needs to be a self-published fanfic novel that becomes a worldwide phenomenon first. But I think the set-up is a no-brainer. The question is whether or not Hollywood suits want to get in bed with the idea. 

The Pez Outlaw

How a Michigan Farmer Made $4 Million Smuggling Rare Pez Dispensers into the U.S.

This is a bananas story that would make a gem of a movie in the hands of filmmakers like Requa and Ficcara (I Love You Philip Morris) or the Coen Brothers Raising Arizona).

It's almost too much to believe. The article itself refers to its heroes - a bipolar father and his estranged son - as going on a Raiders of the Lost Ark adventure in search of rare pez dispensers. 

This is an American dream story on steroids.

But it needs a title. Any suggestions?

Gone in 30 Seconds

Gone in 30 Seconds: Motorcycle Thieves, Stunt Riders, and One Wild CHP Sting


When L.A.’s street bike culture started making motorcycle theft a major problem, the California Highway Patrol devised an undercover operation. Then things really spun out of control.

This Los Angeles Magazine article wastes no time in referencing both The Fast and the Furious and 21 Jump Street, so it's no surprise that the story seems destined for the big screen treatment. 

It's a bit reminiscent of the Furious knock-off Torque, but with more of a focus on character than action. 

I'm starting to see how easy it must be for producers and studio execs to read these true life stories and the ones with everyday characters up against unbelievable odds and say, "It's Argo meets... Fast and the Furious." This has that same vibe of real stakes, but super colorful characters, and unlikely heroes. 

Whether there's room for another undercover cops and fast vehicles flick, it's a fun read. 

The Tunnel

The Incredible True Story Behind the Toronto Mystery Tunnel

Why Elton McDonald built the Toronto tunnel that captivated the world...

This terrific story by Nicholas Kohler appeared in Maclean's this month. I think there's absolutely movie potential, very much in the same vein as The Pursuit of Happiness or The Terminal.

It feels like something Steve Conrad might write for Gore Verbinski to direct in between tentpoles. There's also a nice plum part for an up-and-comer like John Boyega. 

What do you think? Should somebody dig deeper into this story and turn it into a movie? 

Bachelor Party Crasher

Man Mistakenly Included on Bachelor Party Email Thread Told to Come Anyway


For weeks, Joey DiJulio received emails detailing plans for a Philadelphia-based bachelor party. The email thread promised a laid-back weekend featuring several bars, maybe a casino, and of course, plenty of March Madness viewing. The only problem for DiJulio, who lives in Washington, was that he had never been to Philadelphia — or met the groom or any of the groom's friends.

It turns out DiJulio's last name is similar to that of a friend of groom Jeff Minetti. But when DiJulio, 31, got in touch with the group to explain the mix-up, they invited him out for the weekend, anyway.

"This is the city of brotherly love," Minetti told The Associated Press. "Any and all are welcome."

DiJulio told his story online and quickly raised enough money to cover the trip; any more cash he brings in, he says he'll put toward his new friend Minetti's honeymoon.

It's Bachelor Party meets Wedding Crashers. 

Hilarity and hi-jinks ensue. 

The Cave

Drone reveals startling ‘alien world’ inside planet’s ‘largest cave'
by Justin Moyer (Washington Post)

This story has been making its way around the web for the last week, and the footage is pretty spectacular. The only question is how to bring a fresh take to the movie.

We've already had Land of the Lost and Journey to the Center of the Earth, so what's left?

Explorers discovering a hidden land within a cave could be a giant tentpole fantasy adventure along the same lines as Avatar, or it could be done on a much smaller scale, like the cult horror entry The Descent. 

Or maybe it's just an immersive, 3D Imax documentary.

What's your pitch for The Cave?

Master Thieves

From last week's Boston Globe Magazine, an excerpt from Master Thieves: The Boston Gangsters Who Pulled Off the World's Greatest Art Heist by Stephen Kurkjian.

 
In a secret meeting in 1981, a low-level Boston thief gave career gangster Ralph Rossetti the tip of a lifetime: the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum was a big score waiting to happen. Though its collections included priceless artworks by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Degas, and others, its security was cheap, mismanaged, and out of date. And now, it seemed, the whole Boston criminal underworld knew it.

Nearly a decade passed before the museum was finally hit. But when it finally happened, the theft quickly became one of the most infamous art heists in history: thirteen works of art valued at up to $500 million, by some of the most famous artists in the world, were taken. The Boston FBI took control of the investigation, but twenty-five years later the case is still unsolved and the artwork is still missing.

You can read the full excerpt here. 

Thinking about the movie. It definitely has an Argo vibe to it, and in the hands of Steven Soderbergh circa his Out of Sight/The Limey era, this could be a fun hybrid of the mob-heist-caper genres.

Who do you think could put a fresh spin on this tried-and-true formula? And what would make it a great movie? 

Lights Out

Wow. My "that would make a great movie" senses are on high alert. Just watched Friday's episode of Shark Tank on DVR and I think it's only a matter of time before there's an EDM-dance movie in the world of gloving.

Emazing lights on Shark Tank

Mark Cuban made the deal, so it's a no-brainer that his 2929 Entertainment should produce it.

Summit bought a spec script in 2013 called Spinback, a murder mystery set against the backdrop of electronic dance music, and apparently Will Ferrell is making an EDM romantic comedy called I'm in Love with the DJ. But I'm imagining more of a Step-Up, teen romance in the competitive world of gloving.

What do you think? How long before somebody announces that this is in development?

Gizelle's Bucket List

Another day, another ripped from the Internet story heading for the big screen.  Hot on the heels of Bat-Kid landing a movie deal at New Line, today Odd Lot Entertainment has won an auction for the rights to a story that first appeared on Yahoo earlier this year before going viral.

I Took My Dying Dog on a Bucket List Adventure

Now you can read the Hollywood Reporter story that dropped today.

This just proves yet again that these stories are EVERYWHERE. 

The Man Who Sailed His House

The Man Who Sailed His House

Michael Paterniti Love and Other Ways of Dying

Two days after the Japanese tsunami, after the waves had left their destruction, as rescue workers searched the ruins, news came of an almost surreal survival: Miles out at sea, a man was found, alone, riding on nothing but the roof of his house.

You can read the full story here.

Yes, that would make a great movie. In some ways, it feels like it already has. There are unmistakable echoes of Ang Lee's Life of Pi, perhaps crossed with The Impossible. 

There's also a movie in development at Fox called The City That Sailed, that has Shawn Levy attached to direct and Will Smith attached to star. 

But it's a beautiful, haunting story, and one well worth reading. 

Science Fair

Science Fairs Aren't So Fair

These K-12 events are hardly more than a competition among over-involved parents.

by Hana Schank (March 12, 2015)

Read the Atlantic article here.

When an elite New York City prep school 7th grader faces off against an underdog public middle schooler in the state's annual Science Fair, it's their hyper-competitive parents who escalate things to a whole nother level. Imagine Jude Law and Rose Byrne as the entitled, connected rich parents and Melissa McCarthy and Nick Offerman as the working class folks eager to bring them down. Election meets Neighbors. 

It could be fun. You throw in some Real Genius-style pranks. It's topical. I can see it. 

Are you sold? Would that make a great movie? 

Bat-Kid

I'm sure you remember the Bat-Kid story that made the rounds late last year. Well, today New Line announced that they are moving forward with a film version of the story starring and produced by Julia Roberts.

Watch the original story that went viral.

Now read the Hollywood Reporter article here.

Do you think this is going to make a great movie?

Cooked

The Brief, Extraordinary Life of Cody Spafford

In this Seattle Met article (published March 10, 2015), Allecia Vermillion tells the story of Cody Spafford, who found both solace and redemption in the kitchen of Seattle's most celebrated restaurant. But what turned a promising chef into a bank robber?

Imagine Taylor Kitsch as the young man who battled heroin addiction for years before getting himself clean and rising up the ranks of the Northwest Coast's elite chefs... only to relapse, rob a bank, and invite one of Seattle's largest manhunts in its history.

In the hands of a filmmaker like Gus Van Sant or Jean-Marc Vallee, this could transcend the indie-festival circuit and break out.

If this article made it into your weekend read pile, would you give it the greenlight?

Fu-Go

From Radio Lab's March 10, 2015 podcast... 

"Reporters Peter Lang-Stanton and Nick Farago tell us the story of a seemingly ridiculous, almost whimsical series of attacks on the US between November of 1944 and May of 1945. 

During World War II, something happened that nobody ever talks about. This is a tale of mysterious balloons, cowboy sheriffs, and young children caught up in the winds of war. And silence, the terror of silence."

Listen to the story here. I think it would make a hell of a movie.

I'm picturing Ang Lee creating a visually stunning 3D film in the vein of Life of Pi. Sony's new Tri-Star division, tackling such unique stories as the upcoming The Walk, the story of high-wire walker Phillipe Petit, seems like the perfect home.

If you were a producer or studio exec, would you put Fu-Go on your development slate? And what would be a better title? 

The Scout

Here's a story that seems tailor-made for Hollywood. A biopic of Girl Scouts founder Juliette Gordon Low. In a time when women faced prejudice and less-than-equal-rights to the men of the day, this pioneer introduced the spirit of adventure to an entire generation of young girls. Imagine Reese Witherspoon as the trailblazing Southerner and Jodie Foster in the director's chair. I smell Oscar.

From A Mighty Girl's Facebook page (March 12, 2015)

In honor of the 103rd birthday of the Girl Scouts today -- an organization which has been a part of more than 59 million women's lives -- we're celebrating the woman that made it all possible: Girl Scouts of the USA founder, Juliette Gordon Low!

The early 20th Century was a time when many restrictions were placed on young girls. Athletics and outdoor exploration were not encouraged activities. In general, girls were expected to set their sights on the traditional roles of wife, mother and homemaker. Juliette Gordon Low, set out to change the status quo and give girls access to a broad range of new experiences and opportunities.

Born in 1860, Low, known as "Daisy" to friends and family, grew up in Savannah, Georgia but spent much of her early adulthood traveling extensively and exploring the world. In 1911, she discovered a new passion when she met former English General Robert Baden-Powell who had recently founded the Scouting movement in the UK. Baden-Powell had also recruited his sister Agnes to organize the Girl Guides and new scout troops were springing up across England.

Inspired to bring the new movement to America, Low returned to the US in 1912 and made a historic call to her cousin, Nina Anderson Pape where she stated: "Come right over! I've got something for the girls of Savannah, and all of America, and all the world, and we're going to start it tonight!" The two women recruited girls from throughout Savannah and, on this day in 1912, held the first meeting of the American Girl Guides. By 1913, the group was thriving with Low as president, and the organization's name was changed to "Girl Scouts."

In the final years of her life, Low dedicated her energy to building the global scouting movement. She believed that "Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting can be the magic thread which links the girls of the world together." Following her death in 1927, Low was buried in Savannah in her Girl Scout uniform and friends created the Juliette Low World Friendship Fund to honor Low's love of travel and cultural exchange. To this day, the Fund supports international friendship by funding Girl Scout exchange visits, service projects, and travel to global events.

Through her founding of the Girl Scouts, Low has left a tremendous legacy. Today in the US, there are 3.2 million Girl Scouts -- 2.3 million girl members and 890,000 adult members working primarily as volunteers. Many of the Girl Scouts of the past and present have been inspired by the Girl Scouts Law to "make the world a better place, and be a sister to every Girl Scout." Low's goal was to include all girls and the Girl Scouts have historically welcomed girls with widely varied backgrounds and abilities, at one time leading Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to call the organization “a force for desegregation.”

You can read more about Juliette Low's amazing life story here.

What do you think? Would this make a great movie? Who would you cast?

That Would Make a Great Movie

Argo. Adaptation. The Insider. Shattered Glass. The Bling Ring. Even The Fast and the Furious. (Yes, The Fast and the Furious.) All were either based on or inspired by magazine articles. A movie producer, studio executive, or screenwriter flipped through the pages of Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, or Wired, read one of these stories and said, "That would make a great movie."

And it's not just articles, either. Remember Paul Potts, the shy mobile phone store manager who wowed the judges on Britain's Got Talent (and has over 133 million Youtube viewers to date).

The Weinstein Company adapted his story into the 2013 film, One Chance.

Or how about Jason McElwain, the autistic basketball manager who made an incredible six three pointers when he was put in for the last minutes of his team's high basketball season.

Columbia Pictures beat out twenty-five companies, including the Walt Disney Company and Warner Brothers, who were vying for the rights to produce a film based on his life. Why? Because they all thought the same thing you or I did after watching that story. That would make a great movie.

These stories are everywhere. They fill our Facebook and Twitter newsfeeds, and get lost among the endless barrage of headlines overloading our favorite websites. But in Hollywood, you can't let a potential blockbuster or Academy Award winner slip by.

That's why I've started this blog. To shine a spotlight on the stories that I think deserve the big screen treatment. I might even give my pitch on what the movie could be, and who should star in it. So let's fire up some popcorn, kick back with a box of Junior Mints, and get started.