How to Give Hollywood “The Same Thing, Only Different”

How to Give Hollywood “the Same Thing, Only Different”

By Wallace Wang

(https://15minutemoviemethod.com)

In Hollywood, studios want the same thing, only different. So what does that mean? It means Hollywood wants a story that's familiar enough to a current blockbuster that it can attract the same crowd. Yet it also means it has to be different because no one wants to see the exact same story all over again unless you change the story somehow.

Screenwriters often make two mistakes when writing a screenplay. First, they create a dull story that no amount of formatting or writing expertise can overcome. If your story is about a man who’s afraid to go out of the house, and the big climax occurs when he finally walks down the driveway and gets the mail, making that story interesting will be extremely difficult.

Second, screenwriters often copy other movies and thus give us nothing new or better than what the original movie gave us. When “Star Wars” came out, studios rushed science fiction stories into production. When “Pulp Fiction” became a hit, studios rushed copycat movies into production.

Few of these copycat stories ever made an impression and quietly faded away. So instead of trying to turn a dull story into an interesting one, or copying a well-known movie, it’s much better to mimic an existing popular movie but make major twists.

Change the Setting

One way to make your story different is to introduce a setting we've never seen before. "Avatar" takes us to an alien world where everything is connected such as when the natives connect the hairs on their head into the animals they ride. 

"Green Book" takes us into the world of the 1950s where black travelers had to rely on a green book that showed them where it was safe to eat at restaurants and stay at motels throughout the United States.  

"Sleepless in Seattle" took the ordinary distance between Baltimore and Seattle and made that the major obstacle keeping two people apart.

In "How to Train Your Dragon", the story takes the familiar coming of age story and puts us in the middle of a world where dragons are real and constantly fight against humans.

So think of an interesting setting, either imaginary or historical, and give us a peek inside this unfamiliar world, such as the world of Top Gun training in “Top Gun: Maverick”. Changing the setting alone can make a huge difference in making any story feel fresh and different.

Change the Characters to the Unexpected

A second way to change a story is to change the characters. Animation can do this easily where the hero is a rat in "Ratatouille" or talking toys in "Toy Story". 

Yet "Little Miss Sunshine" takes a failed motivational speaker, a gay uncle who tried to commit suicide, a cocaine-snorting grandfather, a teenage boy who has taken a vow of silence, and a harried mother in one place. Just one of these characters is unique but the combination of so many weird characters makes the story very different.

"Jurassic World Rebirth" simply mutated the dinosaurs to make them deadlier and visually scarier. 

In the Japanese comedy "Baby Assassins", the heroes are two assassins but they're teenage girls. One of the girl’s even says, “I don’t wanna look for a job. That’s why I became a hitman.” You can watch the trailer here: https://youtu.be/zAtW0Eobl8I

By simply changing the setting or the characters, you can create that mythical "same thing only different" goal that Hollywood wants. What you don't want to do is create a story where nothing is different or surprising because that mimics real life and people get plenty of that everyday.

Change the Expected Dialogue

A third way to surprise the audience is to take a common conversation and have one character reveal their personality and deepest thoughts through unique dialogue. 

In "Good Will Hunting", the hero, Will, interviews for a job at the National Security Agency (NSA). When the recruiter asks Will why shouldn't he work for the NSA, Will unloads with plenty of reasons including how the NSA's actions hurt common people like himself. Watch the scene here: https://youtu.be/mJHvSp9AKYg

In "Erin Brockovich", a neighbor asks for Erin's number. Rather than give it to him or refuse, Erin rattles off several numbers including the age of her children, the number of children she has, and the chances anyone will still be interested in her after knowing all that. Watch the scene here: https://youtu.be/xxSh0tvnB70

Summary

So give us the same thing, only different. Change the setting, the characters, and the expected dialogue, and you’ll go a long way towards creating a memorable scene that’s unique to your story and screenplay.