Unclaimed Dead

As I mentioned, this blog began in August 2009 and is now in 2017, eight years later. Amazing and with over one thousand readers.  And I'm wondering how much longer.

I've told you about the distributor who's going to make Ghostkeeper into Blu-ray in the next month or two, not a big deal really. There is the idea of streaming, but we lose even more money. 

And if you look back to 2009 and follow it upwards, I get something going and then it dies and then again and again.

You must wonder how I survive, sometimes I also do. There's an old joke about dying in the movie business. A normal guy with a job retiring asks his screenwriter friend when he'll retire. Friend says "When my head falls on my laptop". He waits a beat then says "And I want my laptop with me in my grave". Friend asks why? "Writer says "Maybe I'll get a good idea."

I still have ideas, every day, most die by the end of the day or next morning, but ideas always come. I had an idea last week based on an article I read in LA Times (you can get great ideas from newspapers). 

How's this for a title:

Unclaimed Dead.

Actually it's about all those people who die with no name or no family nor friends. Homeless ones are the obvious, but there are a lot of people who die with no family or anyone close to them.

There's a cemetery near downtown L.A. where the lost people end up in. It's not just for them and it goes back to the 1800's. That alone should get some of you getting ideas. When there's enough John Doe's and Jane Doe's, say a hundred or so, they are cremated and all put in nice packets and go into a big grave.

So I had the page for about 4 years and last week I had a brainstorm.  A good idea for that story. It felt just perfect. I told my friends, they all said it was a great idea. So I started clipping articles about the cemetery.

The idea was that two or three people decide to try to find the families or friends of some of the lost people. 

Sounds great.

I even wrote a few script pages. It felt good.

My theme was that these three people, similar to any of the CW shows, would find families whose member was lost. And there would be a happy ending, or not a happy ending. Some families don't want their long lost member.

And that's what killed it. The idea.

I got stopped. It wasn't good. 

Who wants to find packets of dust and take them back to their families. Not a good idea at all.
           
 So it's gone to the "dead file" :)

You want it? It's yours.

I'm not finished. My mistake is that I couldn't figure out how to do it as a series. For now, I don't know. Maybe one of you might?

Or it could be a movie. I actually have a movie script about a dead killer comes back to get even with the people who put him away.

So, instead I'm pushing around some of my best unsold screenplays until I get a new idea that I think can make it work.

Who knows? 

Maybe I'll do that lost dog story instead. Everyone loves dog stories.