The Billion Dollar Idea

I keep hearing "ideas are worthless" when it comes to screewriting.

Not true!

Obviously, you have to execute the idea into the form of a teleplay or screenplay to be able to copyright the work and to have something to sell. But there are certainly million (billion) dollar ideas.

For example...

The late author Michael Crichton did two major hits with one concept:

An amusement park does scientific advances only to have the advanced creatures from the park go out of control and kill the park visitors.

That one idea lead to

WESTWORLD

and

JURRASIC PARK

I'd call that a billion-dollar idea!

Got an idea for a third park? If so, you might be on your way...

How about the film DIE HARD?

It has led to countless films using it as a template. My former mentor Chris Soth sold the script for FIRESTORM for $750,000 and it tracks DIE HARD story beat for beat (mini-movie for mini-movie).

The 'DIE HARD in a ___' is still making big money for writers decades later. They had not one but two 'Die Hard in the White House' movies out a couple years ago (WHITE HOUSE DOWN and OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN).

Then they did 'DIE HARD in a shopping mall played for laughs' -- PAUL BLART, MALL COP.

Amazing the shelf life of that setup. I met the writer of the screenplay, Jeb Stuart, a few years ago. He spoke at BR Community College. "Did you ever get a check for all of the DIE HARD knockoffs?" "I wish!"

So don't devalue ideas. Be sure you execute the screenplay or pilot as best you can but some ideas are golden.