An Awesome Movie Idea That Still Hasn’t Been Done Yet

I’m a little wary of this question. It seems like the person that started this challenge may be sitting in an office in Hollywood waiting for all of us film geeks to get to day 24. Then when we post our great ideas he steals the ideas for his own and presents them to his boss. Perhaps I’m just paranoid, but I’m not sure if I want to put my great idea on the internet for everyone to see. Perhaps if I post it here with a time-stamp and a copyright at the bottom of the page that will be sufficient to prove that it was my idea before any one else. Well, I’ll live on the edge and throw caution to the wind and tell you all, but you have to promise to at least give me free screenings to your movies that will make millions after you steal my idea. It really is a simple concept and all the technology to make it happen already exists. In a sentence, I’m talking about audience interactive plot control or Choose Your Own Adventure.

You see, growing up, some of my favorite books to read were the Choose Your Own Adventure books. These were cool little books that stopped the action ever 30 or so pages and had the reader make a decision about the plot based on how they wanted a character to respond to a certain situation. Then it would stop again, and again. But each stop changed the story in a significant way and therefore there were several different endings and outcomes to that story. I think this would translate well to film. In the mid 1980s, Clue was released containing three different endings. The DVD even allows viewers to select a specific one, play all three or randomly select one, but that murder mystery could hardly be dubbed a choose your own adventure. There would have to be a much larger plan here. The flowchart below shows the breakdown of one of the books from 1979. I also wouldn’t expect something this complex. Click on the outline to explore it with more detail.

There are already a few campy low budget YouTube versions of this idea and Choose Your Own Adventure even did an animated direct to DVD version of one of the books with 11 different endings. But I am talking about a full scale Hollywood production with live action that you control. The same way that theaters have 3D glasses now they could have choose your own adventure remotes. At certain points the movie would pause and present the choice to the audience and they would have a few seconds to make their selection on their remotes. Then results would be tallied live on screen and once time was up, the film would continue heading down the course that the audience had chosen. This would make the viewing experience interactive and the film could be different every time you went to the theater. Then with the invention of Blu-Ray technology there is plenty of room on a disc to include all the possible choices and endings so the entire story could be explored in your home.

I am thinking of a simple tree effect on the decision flowchart. With an opening and character establishment in the first 30 minutes. Then have then have a series of three choices spaced by roughly 30 minutes of uninterrupted film. That would leave us with 8 possible endings based upon the decisions made previously. I am currently writing an outline of a possible screenplay using this model.

So do you have any great ideas that you’ve been waiting to see? It doesn’t have to be a new technology, it could be a story that you have been waiting to be adapted or a sequel that is just hanging out there waiting to rake in the money. What do you think of my idea? Would you go to a choose your own adventure movie? Please don’t steal my idea, or at the very least, leave me a comment if you do. You can comment in the area below or on Twitter or Facebook.