Tagged, but I'm Not It: ?The Next Big Thing? | Celeste Parr's My (Beat ...

Sending my thanks to Saleema Nawaz at Metaphysical Conceit for tagging me in this very fun meme for writers, ?The Next Big Thing? about a work-in-progress.

Saleema?s post about her forthcoming novel?Bone and Bread?is so enormously intriguing that I very much wish her novel was out already so I could buy it for myself and for all the readers in my life ? and not just the women ? for Christmas. Though I admit to immediately thinking ?My mom, my sister, my sister-in-law, and Myriam all have to read this novel.? I?m sure of it and I haven?t even read it yet. So Saleema clearly gives very good meme.

Bone and Bread, I learned, is?about sisters; that sibling relationship I?m often approaching and then rapidly retreating from in much of my work over the years. For the purpose of this meme I?ll be discussing my first script that features two sisters as a dual protagonist, whereas I usually banish one sister to the margins to inform and inflect the protagonist.

And yes, because I?m a screenwriter and not a novelist, I?m adapting this meme for my medium.

1. What is the working title of your screenplay?

11 Things I Learned About Tokyo by Watching J-Doramas. Which is a nightmare of a working title because it?s too long to sell, as it is too long to even speak casually in conversation, or even to type at the top of my development notes. With my colleagues it?s come to be known as The Tokyo Script or sometimes simply J-Dorama.

2. Where did the idea for the screenplay come from?

My sister and I had been inseparable all my life, and then we drifted apart for much of my early-to-mid twenties. She had nestled comfortably into a long-term relationship in the suburbs while I pursued graduate studies in the city. On the increasingly rare occasions on which we did speak, she would mention these Japanese drama series she was hooked on. Even though they didn?t initially interest me in the least, I began watching them as way of trying to bridge the gap between my sister and I so we could have something to chat about easily and comfortably.

I finally became smitten with (read: addicted to) these shows, and before too long my sister and I were on a JAL flight to Tokyo, even though neither of us knew anything about the city apart from what we?d learned by watching these Japanese primetime soap operas. I had become so accustomed to hearing the language while reading subtitles that on some level my brain was tricked into the thinking I actually understood Japanese.

3. What genre does your screenplay fall under?

Comedy. There are romantic elements at play, too, but only as subplots.

4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

In my case it is a movie so this is something I have to think about on a fairly regular basis.

Charlize Theron as the failed actress.

Maggie Gyllenhaal as the separated law professor.

Hiro Mizushima, very appropriately, as a big J-Dorama star. He also happens to speak beautiful English, which helps.

Mark Ruffalo as the bored and grungy American news correspondent.

5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your screenplay?

This never gets easier, does it?

Ok here goes (*taking a deep breath*):

Two sisters, a failed actress and a newly separated law professor, flee Montreal to Tokyo where, they?ve learned from TV, their North Americanness, their legginess, and their eccentricity will be praised and embraced; their latent value recognized at last.

*gasping for air*

See what happens when you guys make me write it in one sentence? Geez.

6. Will your script be self-produced or represented by an agency?

All my work is represented by Omada. This is one of my few scripts (at the moment) that I?m trying to bring to a polished draft on spec, and we?ll see where we can find a home for it later. This idea has been brewing for a few years and already there?s been a lot of interest in it. But for now I want to develop it further before anyone else gets involved, apart from my agent and my trusty consultant.

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your screenplay?

I haven?t finished. I have a treatment and some scenes, character outlines, notes, etc. I want to go back to Tokyo and do some more research, actually. The writing of this script came to a halt after the earthquake and tsunami a couple of?years?ago, and I?ve been inundated with commissions in the meantime. In recent months I?m carving out time for my spec-writing and this one is finally progressing again. But the trip with my sister to Tokyo was in 2009, I think. So three years, ongoing. I actually write very quickly but it?s common for me to leave a couple of years between spec idea and spec execution. Gotta let it simmer. And gotta write the six-to-eight features I?m getting paid to write. Momma?s got bills to pay.

8. What other films would you compare this story to within your genre?

I think it?s similar in tone and register to?Silver Linings Playbook, and similar in aesthetic and universe to?Stranger Than Fiction (save for the magic realism). It?s difficult to transplant two crisis-ridden North Americans in Tokyo without?immediately?recalling?Lost in Translation but, as much as I love (love, love) that film, this is written in a very different style.

9. Who or what inspired you to write this screenplay?

I did, I guess. And my sister. And the following Japanese dramas:?Hana Yori Dango, Kimi Wa Petto, Zettai Kareshi. And the Korean drama?The First Shop of Coffee Prince.?

I?m really drawn to narratives about people who struggle to distinguish between fiction and reality. I wrote my Masters thesis about it, and it?s a trope that keeps rearing its head in my work. In this case we have one character more than the other who is actually trying to transplant herself in a world she only knows by its fictional representations (and soap operas, at that).

The other character gets at one of my newer preoccupations, the idea of distance as valuable. The husband from whom she?s separated, during their marriage, lived across the street. It seemed the only distance from which she could be loved and accepted ? never up-close. And in response to her separation she flies across the world, and her marriage, from this even greater distance, looks very different. I?ve always said that my ideal husband would live across the street, and I often joke that, as a woman and a partner, I?m good-looking from far, but far from good-looking. I?m really invested in finding the right distance/closeness with the right people, and these preoccupations play out in an interesting way in this story. The ways in which we can?t move away from something without inevitably moving toward something else, and whether we?re simply moving toward the same patterns and behaviours we?re trying to shed, or whether we?re moving to something altogether different.

10. What else about your screenplay might pique the audience?s interest?

Women behaving badly. I think we need to see more of that.

?

Ok there you have it! Thanks, Saleema!

Now it?s time to tag fellow writers-slash-bloggers who haven?t done this yet. So, I?m gonna tag playwright and former classmate Elise at Around the World in 80 Plays, and fellow screenwriter Alex at Complications Ensue. Join in, if you?re feeling it! ?Here are the questions:

1. What is the working title of your book?
2. Where did the idea for the book come from?
3. What genre does your book fall under?
4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?
10. What else about your book might pique the reader?s interest?

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Source: http://celesteparr.wordpress.com/2012/12/21/tagged-but-im-not-it-the-next-big-thing/

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