Free Plot For a Movie

[billroper]

I have a plot for a movie that is free to anyone who would like to adopt it.

It's a comic farce along the lines of The Producers, except that the protagonists here, rather than being a small struggling outfit, are the executives of a big, big film studio. At some point, in a fit of stupidity, they green lighted a movie with a couple of frequently bankable comic leads that revolved around their bumbling attempts to assassinate the leader of a Third World (or -- as some might suggest -- Fourth World) country.

Well, the time came to screen the movie and it was horrid. It made Ishtar look like an Oscar winner.

The studio was going to lose a ton of money and a great deal of face. They could just choose not to release the film, but then they'd end up taking a total loss on it. They'd bought insurance that would pay out if the movie wasn't completed or if it couldn't be screened due to some outside force not under the studio's control, of course, but insurance wasn't going to pay out just because the film was a giant turkey that was scheduled to arrive a bit too late for Thanksgiving, but just in time for Christmas.

And then someone got a brilliant idea. They could hire some mid-level hacker with just enough skill to obscure the true situation and let him release a huge chunk of files that he'd gotten from "hacking" into the movie studio's computer systems. There'd have to be some actually embarrassing info embedded in there, but nothing too terrible.

"So which would you rather do? Spend some time apologizing for mildly off-color humor or lose millions of dollars?"

"I'm thinking. I'm thinking."

Then the fake hacker could threaten to bomb theaters showing the film -- just following orders, of course. Naturally, theater chains wouldn't want the liability risk, so they'd drop the film en masse. And the studio could regretfully pull the film from distribution.

So there they are, sitting in the executive offices, drinking champagne as they're congratulating themselves for having pulled this off and gotten the insurance money.

When everything falls apart -- because, of course, it has to.

The fake hacker sees a YouTube video of the fans of the usually bankable comedy stars in tears over the fact that the film will never be released. And this touches him, so he drops all of the information about the hoax into the lap of the local U.S. attorney, the release timed for just after he has successfully fled with his share of the loot to a non-extradition country.

And the studio execs are left holding the bag.

So what do you think? Would some studio be interested in this? :)

Comments

[phillip2637.livejournal.com]

Interesting...sort of _Wag the Dog II_.

[mdlbear]

Heh.

Fails Hanlon's Razor, but it would make a good song.

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a better movie plot than the actual Interview plot.

As an actual explanation of current events, it's refuted by the interview I heard with someone who saw an advance screening and thought it was, if not great, at least pretty funny.

(Just considering the publicity-stunt conspiracy theory angle for a moment -- before the whole brouhaha, I had heard a little talk about the movie and the plot summary, and if someone had offered me free a free ticket I would have said no thanks. But now, if my local theater decided they were going to show it after all, I would feel some temptation to go. Considered as marketing, it certainly worked on me. But I'm so far from the typical consumer that I can't really evaluate marketing strategies...)

[madfilkentist]

Is Sony actually getting any insurance money? Can you be insured against getting threatening email?

You've probably seen my hypothesis, which is that Sony executives were blackmailed with information pulled from the invasion of their computer records, something even worse than what's been released so far, and the threat of violence was the cover story for the real threat.

To answer your actual question: No major studio would touch that plot, but I could see an independent having fun with it.

[billroper]

I saw a report that Sony had insurance that would cover some of the losses from not releasing the movie, but I don't know if that's actually true or what the terms of the policy would be that would allow for that to happen in this case.