Monday, April 25, 2005

The Chimera

The Chimera
Sci-fi by Terrence Kenneth of Toronto, Canada

A man finds himself wrongly accused of murder in a world where victims of fatal crimes are brought to life to exact revenge on their killers.

This logline is better than Claw, but still lacks a little something to set it off. I think that’s due to the title, which is sort of vague and doesn’t reach out to the common man. Who knows what a Chimera is? Follow this rule when it comes to titles: If you have to look it up to understand it – it’s not a good D2DVD title.

The concept is great – a man on the run from his victims – only he didn’t kill them! It has elements of both Minority Report and Night of the Living Dead. I can see this movie being made in Prague or somewhere else in Eastern Europe to give it that futuristic “steel and glass” look. Hell, with the right angles and whatnot you could shoot this in your backyard in Toronto. Worked for Resident Evil: Apocalypse!

The problems I have with your logline are that a) you have set it up as one man v. one zombie (which lessens the tension) and b) you don’t tell us what he has to do to get out of this predicament.

Here’s my quick take on your logline:

In a future where murder victims are resurrected to destroy their killers, a man wrongly convicted must uncover the real mass murderer before sentence is carried out.

Tried to keep it in the vein you had, but add a police chase angle to it, which is where I think you were going. This logline still needs to be tested.

Like I said earlier, Minority Report came to mind. This is a unique blend of sci-fi and horror and should work if you follow the unique concept you’ve created. The problem with sci-fi is that you have to think it through so that your concept ripples throughout the society you’ve set up here. Look at Gattaca as an example – everything reflects back on the central concept of the movie regarding genetics.

If developed properly, this could be a great Sci-Fi Channel Premiere movie!

Good job, Terrence!

2 comments:

Mike Jozic said...

Sounds like an interesting idea but there may be a hitch to the concept.

I realise I have not read the script, and I'm running with this based on the logline, but if a person were wrongfully convicted, would the dead still want to kill them? If they were mindless automatons being sicced on the protagonist like a rottweiler, sure, but if they were true engines of vengeance the newly undead may just go off hunting the real killer and not the wrongfully convicted guy.

I'm just thinking out loud.

Cunningham said...

My initial thought too - which is why i put in the term "mass Murderer" into my revision - indicating that he could have taken out a bunch of people with a terrorist act of some kind...they wouldn't know who did it.