grisborne thornhill isn't awful. i can call you gris for short. or maybe thorny.

some details here and there:

1. i see our young protagonist as only temporarily residing in San Francisco. there's the element of being, as always, thematically consistent -- he's on a search, and he's in no way satisfied with where he is currently. Maybe he's planning a move to New York, but living with a friend of a distant relative in San Francisco until he makes enough money to make the move.

2. i see, early in the movie, a pivotal encounter with a prophetic figure. these are always key in epics and modern day myths ( a la the cowboy from big lebowski or the oracle of delphi from orpheus). he'd be old and decrepit -- a neighbor or just a homeless man on a street corner (though that very example sounds a little trite).

3. i'm a fan of the constant self-narration. it'll give the film a noir/first person/memento-esque feel.

4. the plot of the last philip k. dick book i read ("flow my tears, the policeman said") revolved entirely around a drug which demolishes the brain's ability to delineate spatial coordinates, wiping out "reality" entirely. thus ensued the normal series of philip k. dick plot twists. anyway, we should have a drug that does something ridculously improbable. and of course, our protagonist should take a healthy dose of it.

5. though our hero goes through a lot of adventures, he should come back again and again to a single significant event constrained either temporally or spatially. the open mic comes to mind, but maybe something not as straightforward, but equally symbolic (bumpin into a gorgeous girl, for example).

These things are better done in fitful bursts of creativity greased liberally with alcohol or marijuana. this isn't an entirelly impossible scenario. i think the next step is to manifest a lengthy list of interesting occurences, people and elements that we want in our movie.

out, one time.
posted by gxyz at 8:27 PM