The Studio Demands It!

S7 EP7 | After single-handedly turning video game adaptations into a billions dollar success (that's right, this show did that), the guys must once again find a franchise movie to take from console to the big screen for another blockbuster. 


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Creators and Guests

Host
Jim Burzelic
Host
T.C. De Witt

What is The Studio Demands It!?

Two screenwriters attempt to recreate, reimagine, or flat out fix, existing film franchises when 'the studio' demands...MORE FILMS! It's an exercise in creative thinking where they will challenge themselves to conceptualize, pitch, and craft a film based on the stipulations of a hypothetical Hollywood overlord. | Sixfive Media

T.C.:

Hello, and welcome to The Studio Demands It, a screenwriting series where we will conceptualize, pitch, and craft a film or show based on the demands from one of you listeners acting as a hypothetical Hollywood overlord. Overlord. As professional screenwriters ourselves and massive cinephiles, we talk movies all the time.

Jim:

All the time.

T.C.:

And we'd like to believe that we can meet any demand thrown at us. We will be your screenwriters for this episode. I am T. C. De Witt.

T.C.:

And joining me as always is Jim Swag Burzelic.

Jim:

Swiggity swiggity swag.

T.C.:

Nice swag. You say it all the time.

Jim:

All the time.

T.C.:

And I I I didn't realize Yeah. That it was in fact your middle name.

Jim:

Mhmm. Now I'm constantly saying my middle name. Does it do do other people not do that? No. I say it like a Pokemon.

T.C.:

Yeah. You're just walking around going, swag.

Jim:

Swag.

T.C.:

Swag.

Jim:

Swag. Yeah.

T.C.:

Now I'm curious. Is it is it swag Brazil is it swag as in, you know, you got swagger, you're cool, or is it swag as in the acronym stuff we all get that nerds are very familiar with when it comes, like, convention stuff?

Jim:

It's both.

T.C.:

It's both? Oh. Yeah.

Jim:

Okay. Swag.

T.C.:

Yeah. Makes sense why I hear you say this all the time now, and I've

Jim:

never

T.C.:

processed I mean, if we listen back, if you like, if we did a we could do a a montage clip of of all the times you said it on the show now. Swiggity. Swiggity. Oh my god. If you weren't that far across the room, I'd smack you right now.

Jim:

Swag.

T.C.:

Do you it's do you like going to conventions and getting those swag bags? Like, the free the free stuff.

Jim:

Like, cool. Remember Who doesn't?

T.C.:

Hero clicks and I do. Oh, man. And, like, you get, like, one magic card Mhmm. And, like, a a ash can of a comic.

Jim:

And I am routinely disappointed. Swag bags get smaller and smaller. And The bags get bigger. The bag itself the bag itself gets bigger. The bag is part of the swag.

Jim:

It is. But then the the I I just don't get as much I I've never been great at collecting it. Mhmm. That's not true. I'm a great collector.

Jim:

What I mean is going around a convention, I never got, like, the cool swag. You'd meet up with other despite that being my middle name. You'd meet up with other friends and be like, oh, look at this cool thing I got.

T.C.:

Oh, got this thing. It's a Todd McFarlane Batman. Yeah. What?

Jim:

What do you get? Business cards.

T.C.:

Hey, got a postcard I for guess it's it's a Blair Witt's sequel. Yeah. Seems pretty cool. It's got a place for the post it stamp.

Jim:

There's a QR code on here.

T.C.:

Yeah. But it's an actual postcard, so it's you can use it. Oh. You do have to pay for the stamp when you put

Jim:

it in

T.C.:

the rainbow. But it's cool that you got that thing too. Yeah. It's amazing to me that there are people who go to conventions specifically for, like, the exclusives that they, like, grab them as soon as they can so then they can sell them on eBay.

Jim:

Yeah. I I would I've tried to be one of those people, and I I can't figure out how they did it.

T.C.:

I like a good enamel pin. Like, an enamel pin. Like, I've got

Jim:

I've avoided I've avoided becoming a pin guy.

T.C.:

I'm not pin guy. I'm not pin guy. But I like the occasional there was a year at Comic Con where it was if you went to all the DC panels Yeah. They gave you a the head of one of their heroes. So, like, they had a card, like a postcard Mhmm.

T.C.:

And they had 12 slots on it so you could get all the Justice League, like, and some villains, and ended up with, like, three of them. And people were, like, going and trading, and it was, like, hey hey, what what was the enamel pin in that one? Oh, it's Wonder Woman's head. I'll give you my Batman. Nice.

T.C.:

So it's kinda cool.

Jim:

Yeah. Pin trading. Pin alley.

T.C.:

Yeah. But everything's digital now. Everything. Everything. Even pins.

T.C.:

Even pins. Everything's electronic. Everything is on a screen. Everything is is ones and zeros. We don't want physical things anymore.

T.C.:

We want to

Jim:

You know, they tried that, and we Oh, and we resoundly reject rejected And

T.C.:

yet the video game industry thrives. Yes. And there and and the the most infuriating thing this just happened to me. I popped on my Xbox one. I haven't haven't I don't play very

Jim:

Your annual your annual turn on?

T.C.:

And all my Halo games weren't available anymore. I had them all digitally.

Jim:

Yeah.

T.C.:

Because I when I upgraded my Xbox, I I just put the disks away, and then Mhmm. They'll I could download the the game pack, and I and I couldn't play my Halo games. They were not available. I'm like, well, I bought them. Give them to me.

T.C.:

Where are they?

Jim:

You bought access to servers, and those servers have been shut down.

T.C.:

Unbelievable. And then I gotta rebuy the games?

Jim:

No. No. They're not live anymore.

T.C.:

So I I can I have the discs? I have

Jim:

to dust the discs off. You could play

T.C.:

the single player games. Yes. Goddamn it. Let's do an episode about video games.

Jim:

Okay. Jim That sounds swag.

T.C.:

That sounds swag. Oh, god. I'm gonna make you a hat that says swag. Oh, no. No.

T.C.:

Another another t shirt picture. Just says swag, and then underneath it, real small, it says, it's my middle name. Yeah. There you go. And then on the back, says, I mean both version.

Jim:

Mhmm. More explanation, please.

T.C.:

More explanation. And then on the sleeve, it says don't read too much into it.

Jim:

Uh-huh.

T.C.:

And then on the other sleeve, it says, why are you still reading my arms? Did you read the other arm?

Jim:

I really hope they read it in right? They read all of this in order.

T.C.:

Jim, our amazing listeners, they have given us demands from literally all over the world. And you listening now, you can send us any demand you like, and we will have to meet it right here on the spot. And when we reach the end of the episode, if we've done our job, we will have pitched a full script and story meeting or even exceeding those demands. And at the end of the season, your demand could have helped us craft the script that will be greenlit by the fans for our finale. I'm so frecklempt just thinking about it.

T.C.:

Thank you everyone who has been submitting. Keep them coming. Today's demand comes from a previous studio.

Jim:

That's a strange name for a studio.

T.C.:

No. No. No. It's a studio we have worked for before. Oh.

T.C.:

I got an email. Said, I don't know if you remember me. And I said, I I had I didn't. I had to look and

Jim:

Uh-huh.

T.C.:

And a new demand has been sent in. I have pulled that this is from Chapman at eight Bit and Beyond Studios. Hello, screenwriters. Welcome back to our office. In 2019 so I guess I should say, this is from no.

T.C.:

I guess I don't need it. The the demand will remind us.

Jim:

Okay. Demand will yeah.

T.C.:

Here we go. He asked me not to read it in the in the body of the email. He said the demands below. Here's the subject matter. Read it live.

T.C.:

Oh, okay. Okay. So, Chapman, here you go. Welcome back to our office. In 2019, the two of you successfully pitched a set of blockbuster game movies, and we couldn't have been happier.

T.C.:

Alright. But now that we have burned through all the box office revenue, our studio is in need of more cocaine and hooker money. Yes. Yeah. Classic.

Jim:

It goes faster than you think. Yeah.

T.C.:

Yeah. Should I take that moment where you go, don't do that. 2019 was season one. That's and it's that was '17.

Jim:

Yeah. That's a different let's continue.

T.C.:

Cocaine Hooker Money, sorry, Chapman.

Jim:

Well on that.

T.C.:

We've brought we've brought you back in to pitch again. And since you did so well last time, why not let you do the same demand again? Why not let you do the same demand again? And what's even better is that since you two single handedly solved the conundrum of video game movies, we did. That was us.

Jim:

Was mhmm.

T.C.:

Which were a catalog of bad to campy to offensive before you two. Thank you. There have been a multitude of blockbuster adaptations since. So now, the challenge is to pitch one that can stand among the rest. Thank you for taking a second demand from me.

T.C.:

You guys are the best. Alright. Chapman, thank you for reaching out directly, like, sending me an email. That's awesome. And and yeah.

T.C.:

A video game movie. Yeah. So here we are. We are back. Do you remember our video game episode?

T.C.:

Mildly. We did Spy Hunter.

Jim:

That's mostly what I remember.

T.C.:

I pitched Chrono Trigger real hard. We there's a few more in there, but we didn't we actually didn't go deep into, like, super popular IP. We kind of picked picked some stuff that wasn't, like, like, buy buy on a commando. Mhmm. And then because we didn't do Mario Brothers, we actually filed up with a full Mario Brothers episode, which Yeah.

T.C.:

Going back and looking at it, we we wrote we wrote We wrote that movie. We wrote that movie. Yeah. But we are back again for another video game pitch. Yeah.

T.C.:

And okay. I was just complaining about Halo, so we're not making a Halo movie. Nope. We're no Xbox properties will be allowed in this pitch

Jim:

Oh.

T.C.:

Because they're jerks. No. I don't know if that's true. I I I I haven't thought about I haven't thought about this. And and seeing Chapman's demand come through, did go back and glance at our our season one episode just to, like, oh, yeah.

T.C.:

Then that was so long ago. But here we are, Jim.

Jim:

Well, for the for the listeners, not not myself, why don't you do a quick recap if if you refresh yourself on the episode?

T.C.:

Of of our video game episode? Yeah. So you and I were watching Star Trek Into Darkness, and I was complaining.

Jim:

And I

T.C.:

was like, this is terrible. Why did they remake Wrath of Contra? Hold on. I'll get there. Oh.

T.C.:

And and and then you said, well, clearly, the studio wanted you to is this is this good? This good information?

Jim:

Yeah.

T.C.:

Okay. And then we started a podcast where are you are you following me with my Tom Fuller here? Yeah. Okay. Good.

T.C.:

Well, the I'm And then yada yada yada, seven seasons later, Chapman re emailed us.

Jim:

Yeah. I was I was asking you to give me a recap of the video game episode.

T.C.:

Oh, okay. Yeah. Well, it all started in 2019. No? No.

T.C.:

Chapman's original demand. Okay. Actually, you know what? Let me think about it here. So I know we did

Jim:

I I remember Spy Hunter. That's Spy Hunter.

T.C.:

Chrono Trigger, Metal Gear, Bionic Commando.

Jim:

I'm gonna

T.C.:

do this. I'm just gonna adjust my microphone for a moment here as I rack my brain trying to remember that we're we're the notion was

Jim:

We stuck we stuck with with mostly eight bit with Nintendo games. Right?

T.C.:

Yeah. Well, we we yeah. We went to, like, the more classic games. Because at the time, 2019, there hadn't been a lot of great he's not wrong. They were campy or dumb or whatnot.

T.C.:

But we pitched Spy Hunter. We pitched Bro Force. The Oh,

Jim:

we oh, okay.

T.C.:

Yep. Which was a modern game, but very much in the vein of Yeah. Like old school Contra type game. Starcraft. We I had pitched the the notion of a Starcraft movie from a ghosts perspective

Jim:

Mhmm.

T.C.:

Which is a a single run and gun kind of character. You pitched Tenshu.

Jim:

Oh, I love that game.

T.C.:

Which that's like a demon, like a And

Jim:

that's a ninja game.

T.C.:

It's a but it's it's it's a fighting demons ninja warlord.

Jim:

Like one ninja or there's one demon in it. It's at the end.

T.C.:

And then Chrono Trigger was was my big pitch on that. But we we didn't we actively chose not to adapt an obvious choice. We didn't do Mario. So we talked about Mario, Sonic, Final Fantasy, Zelda, Resident Evil. We went for the more unexpected with Spy Hunter and Tensho and all that.

T.C.:

But the we I think we might have missed a beat. I I don't we didn't go for the obvious because the obvious had been done to some degree or another,

Jim:

like Yeah.

T.C.:

Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter, Resident Evil, and all that. And I had suggested, like, well, Castlevania or could be something, and you had suggested Silent Hill. And then we talked about, like, well, some of the best video game movies are just homages to video games, like Scott Pilgrim versus the World. Mhmm. And Castlevania at the time had had a relatively successful or at least liked anime series on Netflix.

Jim:

On Netflix. Yeah.

T.C.:

Yeah. So there you go. That's it. That's a Okay. A brief recap Appreciate it.

Jim:

Of what

T.C.:

we did for season one.

Jim:

The movie we do, and we dedicate the whole episode to beating out a script for Russian attack.

T.C.:

Is that a text game? No.

Jim:

Is that

T.C.:

a text based game? Okay.

Jim:

Yeah. It's just it's another platformer from from Nintendo. Okay. Do you have Rush comma n attack.

T.C.:

Rush and attack. Oh, I see. Yeah. We could do the freaking A video game. I just blanked.

T.C.:

I just had a brain fart. I'm wearing a Mega Man shirt. You are? It's actually a mashup of Mega Man and Jason Staples.

Jim:

It's a shirt from our podcast.

T.C.:

It's true. It's the Meg and Man. Yeah. Mega Man seems But

Jim:

done but done as a video game. Yeah.

T.C.:

Right. Right. It's the box art from the original Mega Man two.

Jim:

So we turn Meg into a video game, and then we adapt that video game into

T.C.:

a movie. Rerelease it. No. Okay. All seriousness, Mario has had $2,000,000,000 movies at this point.

T.C.:

Sonic has had a trilogy of movies, a fourth coming out, and a successful Knuckles TV series.

Jim:

There was a Knuckles TV series?

T.C.:

Was a Knuckles mini series that on Paramounts or yeah. Paramount plus. Wow. So the I think Mega Man is another one of those iconic eight bit heroes that's the closest approximation I can think to it was an a a very failed animated movie for asteroid astroboy, which

Jim:

is Astroboy is is all it it's its own IP.

T.C.:

It's Right. Right. But and just a similar style of thing, like a CG robot boy who fights robot bad guys.

Jim:

Oh, sure.

T.C.:

And this was, like, a decade ago. Mega Man as the we have the we have the technology. We can rebuild him. And Yeah. Doctor Wiley makes the right?

T.C.:

It's doctor Wiley makes the little robot man. And he's

Jim:

Doctor like Wiley makes all the all the bad guys. Doctor Wiley and Doctor Light worked together, but then Doctor Wiley went bad Mhmm. And went off on his own and and was like, I'm gonna make I'm gonna make them all bad. And Doctor Light was like, well, I'm gonna make three. I'm gonna make Rock.

Jim:

This is the guy. Yeah. He's gonna wear blue. Mhmm. Roll.

Jim:

Mhmm. The girl.

T.C.:

Yep.

Jim:

She's gonna wear pink. Mhmm. And then Rush is a dog. Wears red.

T.C.:

That's right. This is a marketing land landfill of no. This is a bad one. It's a

Jim:

Marketing landfill.

T.C.:

It's a die it's a diamond mine of toys. All these characters, the fact that, like, give it to Illumination. They handled Mario fine.

Jim:

Yeah. They've they've made toys out of the Mega Man stuff.

T.C.:

It just it seems odd to me. That's not much of a pitch. It's just like, just do that. Make toys. Make toys.

T.C.:

Just do that. Make it toys. Make a toy. Make do that. Make it toys.

T.C.:

Okay. So Mega Man, I what's the story to that? I don't know other than just

Jim:

I I just told and then doctor Light's all like, okay, Rock. You're now known as Mega Man. Mhmm. Go beat up all of Wily's robots. And he said, yes, dad.

Jim:

And he went and did it.

T.C.:

There's there's like 10 or there's 10 plus Mega Man games.

Jim:

And in that, he find finds that he has a secret older brother named Proto Man. Yes. He's Wins up getting his own game.

T.C.:

Some real DBZ androids situation here. Do you do you like the idea of a Mega Man movie? Because I'll move on.

Jim:

I mean, I do, and I want to move I wanna hear more.

T.C.:

Well, you pitch one at me. What? Do you wanna pitch one at me?

Jim:

No. I

T.C.:

only pitch Mega Man because I'm literally wearing a Mega Man shirt.

Jim:

It's true. I'm mostly playing dead by daylight nowadays and, like, nothing else, and a movie for that is coming. Mhmm. And I will go see it. I don't trust that I I just I'd I haven't seen anything or heard anything other than a movie is being made.

Jim:

You know? And I just don't trust them to turn a game like that into

T.C.:

Well, firstly, you know what would convince you? A really good poster. It would. I would

Jim:

stand in front of it for minutes on end. No.

T.C.:

No. Secondly, minutes for for correct me if I'm wrong. Didn't we see dead wasn't there a movie that's the same idea where you try to survive the night?

Jim:

Yes. And now I I cannot remember

T.C.:

that Was

Jim:

that what it was called?

T.C.:

I don't But No. No. That's not What is the premise of Dead by Daylight?

Jim:

Dead by Daylight is it's a video game where you you play either it's an asymmetrical hide and seek slash tag game is really what it is. One person plays the killer.

T.C.:

Mhmm.

Jim:

And four people play survivors who have been against their will. They don't know and they also don't know how they got there. Put into this arena called a trial. Mhmm. And the killer needs to sacrifice the four survivors to the entity that put them all there, and the survivors are trying to repair generators to give power to a gate so that they can get out.

T.C.:

Okay. So it's a it's your it's pretty standard slasher slasher movie.

Jim:

Right? Absolute yeah. Like like, literally, the the the first killer, the poster character is the trapper, and he is a Jason Voorhees knockoff. Jason Voorhees I'm sorry. Jason, not Jason Voorhees, that name is owned by someone else.

Jim:

Jason has now, for the game's tenth anniversary, finally made it into the game.

T.C.:

Oh, wow. So it's a bit of a cabin fever no. No. Cabin in the woods situation where it's a it's it's I know, probably not randomly drawn, but it's a series of slasher villains that

Jim:

And and they've Until Dawn. They've expand

T.C.:

there you go. Until Dawn was

Jim:

Which is also a video game movie.

T.C.:

Until Dawn is a video game movie? Yeah. How could this be different if you were if you were coming in to go dead by dawn dead dead by daylight?

Jim:

So I don't know too much about Until what I know about Until Dawn, know from the movie. Mhmm. And in that, they did much more of like a a house of the dead type thing where there was a guy who like, there's the scientist, and he's studying madness and stuff like that. Mhmm. And they connect and then there's, like, a witch who lives across the street, and they end up connecting them all through the through the plot through a plot through that.

Jim:

I would want the entity in Dead by Daylight to be central to it. It's not there there are characters in the lore of the game Mhmm. Who are studying it and trying to figure things out and escape and stuff like that. But, ultimately, the real killer is the entity, which is disembodied. It is the realm itself.

Jim:

It it rebuilds all of these places from the memories of the people it's trapped.

T.C.:

Mhmm.

Jim:

And it it it feeds off of their emotions.

T.C.:

This is this is dead by day.

Jim:

This is dead by day.

T.C.:

Got it. Okay. Yeah. And So okay. So I'm gonna interrupt you.

T.C.:

The the notion of what the landscape looks like and what they're being attacked by is is similar to how the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man comes into existence in Ghostbusters. Right? Like, clear your mind. Don't think about anything. If we think about a thing, it'll be the thing.

Jim:

Sort of. It it sort of already has. Now there there's other bits to the lore that I don't care for as much. Like, a part of it is it it actually recombobulates the people as well and gives them amnesia every time. So as far as they know, this is the first time they've ever gone through this.

Jim:

And there there's there is some stories where, like, this this particular person remembers having gone through this previously. I think it's more compelling if they remember more often than not.

T.C.:

Yeah. Well, starting starting in also the

Jim:

way the way that they costume the characters, a number of them have to remember Mhmm. Because they're from different time periods, but they're not dressed like they're from those time periods.

T.C.:

Right.

Jim:

Right. So very clearly, they have some understanding that they're in a weird time loopy thing.

T.C.:

Well, the the if this were a film, you open up with the with with a big kill, like a cold open, climactic cold open where you kill something off Mhmm. And then we cut to a new entrant into this space. Someone someone driving along and break car breaking down and wandering into the wrong space.

Jim:

Ideally, and and I need to familiarize myself with the individual's stories more, the original four survivors and the original four killers is probably who I would I would want to start with.

T.C.:

Mhmm.

Jim:

And they all they all have stories about how they wound up here here in the fog is is is what it's called.

T.C.:

Great. So because how Until Dawn is really similar to this.

Jim:

Every every character has a story. Like, something was happening, and they they either woke up here or, like, some, like, a darkness or a fog engulfed them and they end up in the realm. Even the killers all have stories like that.

T.C.:

That they were suddenly drawn to this place. So then Yeah. Then the mystery of a film

Jim:

And there there's even another video game that is it's it's by another company, and they it's it's called casting of Frank Stone. And it's about basically the creation of another killer. And he's not in Dead by Daylight yet, but he's gonna be next year.

T.C.:

Mhmm.

Jim:

I just I found it interesting that that they they told this whole other story outside of the realm about how someone gets drawn in. And it didn't it didn't do super well. And so, like, a lot of people are like, that's why he's not in the game yet. And then for the the tenth anniversary announcement, they announced what they're doing through through the next year, and that's they're bringing Well,

T.C.:

if if this were a film

Jim:

And and and that and that game, the story of that game is about a film, is about is about a film being written about that guy.

T.C.:

Okay. Well, I mean, this okay. This has gotten so complicated at this point. I don't know if

Jim:

I can. I only do complicated things.

T.C.:

To simplify this down, to start it up, to to make a movie out of this that stands alone, bringing someone into this space who can ask all the questions of where am I, how did I get here, how do I get out.

Jim:

Mhmm.

T.C.:

And you have, well, the four of us are here, and I can tell you how we got here. And there's a killer out there that keeps changing. It's there there's tonight, we don't know who it is. It's like a cabin in woods. It's a roulette here where it's like, oh god.

T.C.:

It's gonna be the it's gonna be the it's gonna be the the trapper. Mhmm. Oh god. It's the fisherman. Oh, I don't know these characters.

T.C.:

So surviving is all well and good. And how long have you been surviving? I don't even know. Like, it's the next day starts and we start it all over again. It's just it's we've been stuck in this wheel for God knows how long.

T.C.:

Mhmm. What year is it where you came from? It's 2026. Oh, god. I've been then I've been here for fifty years.

T.C.:

What? You're 17 years old, whatever.

Jim:

Yeah.

T.C.:

Yeah. Okay. Surviving is fine. How do we get out? You think if we knew that, we'd still be here?

T.C.:

So now the mystery is how do you you have to survive the night to get out. Is that Sure. Like, for a movie, that would be the

Jim:

For a movie, that'd that'd work.

T.C.:

For the game, there is no way out.

Jim:

Yeah. No.

T.C.:

You just survive the round and then do it again. Yeah.

Jim:

Which is which is why to to to write it up properly, I would need to do a proper deep dive on this on the lore of this game that I've dedicated too much time to. Why haven't I done it yet?

T.C.:

Chamin invited us in here to pitch a movie, Jim. You came unprepared.

Jim:

I did. I really did. I'm sorry, Chamin.

T.C.:

You picked a movie you or you picked a game you like. Yeah. But you can do a I'm I'm just giving a hard

Jim:

time. I wanna watch characters jump around and get put on hooks and and do knock offs of other movies.

T.C.:

Okay. Let's let's

Jim:

yeah. That movie's coming out. So so this studio doesn't want doesn't want that one.

T.C.:

Okay. Alright. Let's let's take a beat here. The I think the risk of doing a video game that's that has a metanarrative to it is winking and nodding too much to the audience to me. Like like like, this is just a game or or this Sure.

T.C.:

Or, like, the it is the game, and I'm brought into the game. I'm from a world where this is a video game. I know how to survive this.

Jim:

Mhmm.

T.C.:

I I don't I'm not

Jim:

Like a free guy kinda situation.

T.C.:

And and and that's why it's something like Sims or Grand Theft Auto. There's these big all encompassing games that if you told a story within that game's world, it's such a huge world. Like, what's Grand Theft Auto? Just a crime movie? Why what makes it Grand

Jim:

Theft Auto? Makes it Grand Theft Auto?

T.C.:

And you don't wanna put a guy in Grand Theft Auto who knows he's in Grand Theft Auto

Jim:

No.

T.C.:

Because that has it feels trite to do that.

Jim:

Years ago, that was a a a quick plot summary of what a Ridley Scott monopoly pitch was.

T.C.:

Like, I'm sucked into it. So I I think the there are certain games that how how cheeky you wanna be. So for example, I said Castlevania earlier. Castlevania. I my favorite Castlevania game is the only one I ever played, it's notoriously one of the worst ones

Jim:

Worst one.

T.C.:

Was Castlevania two Yeah. Simon's Quest, which is the only one I had. I loved it. I it was fun. It was confusing.

T.C.:

I didn't know how to beat it, but I liked playing it. Putting someone I I think the risk of doing Castlevania in too fun of a style would be like, oh, you're just doing Dungeons and Dragons. You're you're kind of, like, isn't this silly? Oh, he's got a bullwhip, and I don't wanna do that. I want any Yeah.

T.C.:

Anything we pick, I wanna take it. I wanna give it the respect it deserves.

Jim:

Sure.

T.C.:

That being said, I think there are crazy ass games like Kung Fu Chaos Mhmm. Which are inherently silly that, honestly, the new Street Fighter looks like the energy of a Kung Fu Chaos game. Yeah. But I'm picking Kung Fu Chaos. I'm I'm thinking someone who is we'd have to think of a reason, like, this is the reason this needs to exist.

T.C.:

But it's basically take Crank, the movie Crank, and put it in a vehicle and make a crazy taxi movie where someone has to has to drive their ass off in the craziest way possible.

Jim:

It's yeah. I'm glad you said drive because I was just verifying. Yeah. I think the I think the game we should make into a movie

T.C.:

Yeah.

Jim:

Is Rocket League.

T.C.:

Okay. Go on. Rocket League is like soccer race cars. Right? Yes.

T.C.:

Okay.

Jim:

Yes. And we follow a team. We follow a team. Basically, we're gonna do a sport movie.

T.C.:

And their sport is

Jim:

Rocket Is is car soccer. Okay.

T.C.:

Yeah. Now in Rocket League, can you is there, an even playing field, or can you upgrade and purchase your way into kicking the crap out of people? Do you know?

Jim:

I I think it's always even.

T.C.:

Great. Great. So creating some sort of sports underdog movie that is Mhmm. A rocket rocket league team. Yeah.

T.C.:

I'm just thinking of the irreverent sports movies like

Jim:

Back News Bears and Beer Fest.

T.C.:

Yeah. And Oh, like like that. Schalling Soccer. Yeah. Schalling Soccer.

T.C.:

I rewatched that recently.

Jim:

Yeah. It's so good.

T.C.:

Well, the visual aesthetic of watching of watching that, what would make that

Jim:

Like, it meant basically, combined Shaolin soccer and Wachowski's speed racer, and that is Rocket League the movie.

T.C.:

What's the story? We just follow the tropes of a

Jim:

Yeah.

T.C.:

A ragtag group that is trying to win the championship? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's fun.

T.C.:

You didn't like my crazy taxi idea? That someone is is half like, doing has to pick up passengers and drop people off and is on a clock.

Jim:

I didn't know I thought you were just saying, things you I didn't realize you're pitching crazy taxi. I thought you were just pitching a a we it you you wanted a movie that had these these crazy speed elements to it.

T.C.:

Sure. And okay. And then you I didn't realize you

Jim:

were pitching Crazy. What's the what's the the hook? The the the the the pinch, the the clock.

T.C.:

The Well, that that's why I said this. We'd have to think of a good reason. What is a a ridiculous or compelling reason why this guy like, I said, crank, put him in a car, you got crazy taxi.

Jim:

Yeah.

T.C.:

Crank is he has to keep moving. If his heart stops, he's dead. Yeah. So he has keep his heart pumping. Yeah.

T.C.:

He has to keep his adrenaline going. So having Crazy Taxi be someone who's like like, okay. You have twenty four hours to get me $1,000,000, or I'm gonna blow up this.

Jim:

Like Reverse Brewster's millions with a taxi. And Honestly, that's what I thought taxi with Jimmy Fallon and Queen Latifah was basically, it was a it was a a a an IP less, license less crazy taxi movie.

T.C.:

It did kinda seem that way.

Jim:

Yeah.

T.C.:

What that movie did nearly twenty years ago that we would that we were doing something like this is the more practical the car stuff

Jim:

Yeah.

T.C.:

The more interesting it gets. Mhmm. Fast and the Furious lost a lot of its luster when they started CG riddling these things.

Jim:

Mhmm.

T.C.:

And Roman pointed out how invincible they all are. So having having, yeah, having it's simple as let's keep it as simple as this. It's like, give me this much money by daylight, or I'm going to kill your wife. So I don't know. Like, this you you have until this to give me the money.

Jim:

I like the guy who wants the money is he just he knows he wants the money. He has no idea how to force you, but you know he's violent enough. He's or I'll

T.C.:

kill your wife. I don't know.

Jim:

Just give me the money.

T.C.:

A a a nonstop like, Mad Max Fury Road is car chase the movie. Yeah. It slows down barely in the middle midpoint, and then turns around and races itself right back.

Jim:

Yeah. People it it slows down when people step out of the car to look back to see where the other cars are. And then it's like, okay. We gotta keep going.

T.C.:

So having a movie like that I'm suggesting this wild pitch of Crazy Taxi of, like, never letting up. A little bit like Novocaine, where where, Jack Quake couldn't feel pain, and he's trying to rescue the girl. And and so he's just going from one thing to the other. It's pretty pretty standard running, gunning action movie fare, but you give it that that little extra kick of in a car, can't stop, has to pick up passengers and drop them off, pick them up, drop them off. I don't know.

T.C.:

This this is all premise. I don't know.

Jim:

No. Yeah. No. Well, that that's that's the I'm try I'm trying to find I'm trying to find that right hook and and just doing a just doing a crank or just doing a hostage situation. I I it doesn't quite fit the tone of crazy taxi.

Jim:

Yeah. Trying to find the right thing. Like, it's essentially we're doing mad mad mad mad world, but instead of it being this cross country thing

T.C.:

Mhmm.

Jim:

It's all within, like, five city blocks.

T.C.:

In San Francisco. Lots of hills.

Jim:

Yeah. So what could compel someone or someone's to need to

T.C.:

Drive like a maniac.

Jim:

Drive over here, pick up this per pick up and whatever, MacGuffin Mhmm. Whip over to another side of town, then go over and just just do that over and over again.

T.C.:

For a ninety minute movie.

Jim:

And what is fun about watching that?

T.C.:

Yeah. It it that might not be the right way to go. The a close approximation to this is baby driver watching those car chases. Yeah. Those those car sequences are just stellar.

T.C.:

Some really, really fantastic dancing with vehicles.

Jim:

But so the reason I said mad man, mad man world is because, off the top of my head, it's it's less a threat and more a contest. Hey. Here's an illegal contest. There are it's it's essentially a type of scavenger hunt. Sure.

Jim:

There are a number of cost customers around town. You have to pick them up and get them where they need to go, and whoever does it first wins my billion dollars. Right? Well, maybe And so then we have five different drivers who are like, alright. I'm Well, doing

T.C.:

let's let's think let's tweak this a little bit and make it a more hyper real world. Running man got close and then fell short in a world where people are okay with this. This. So maybe maybe no. Maybe it works better if these are illegal.

T.C.:

Like, it's not a world that accepts that people are driving like assholes Uh-huh. All over the place, and you might be on something that's

Jim:

like It can still be kinda hyper real. I I kinda like that idea. So then if the cops are chasing them, they're they're almost like Keystone no. That's too goofy. Yeah.

Jim:

Honestly, who I'm thinking of is specifically Stacy Keetch from Cheech and Chong. He is very serious, and he very much wants to catch these guys.

T.C.:

Yeah.

Jim:

But he just just he cannot keep up with the antics of them, of this world.

T.C.:

So okay. So we have a character. We have a we have a multiple characters who all all have a need for this this payday. Mhmm. They they need to have this money because of x y or z.

T.C.:

But we have our main character who's like dire straits like, I need I need this money for like in in Running Man, it was his daughter.

Jim:

My baby cancer. His daughter. I have I have eight babies, and they all have a different kind of cancer.

T.C.:

Yes. That's what it is now. No. That that he has bills to pay. Maybe his his loved one that he takes care of is in, like, in home care and medicine.

T.C.:

Make it make it a commentary in the medical system or whatever, but bills, bills, bills. And someone says, almost squid game esque of, like, I got an opportunity for you where you can make a whole lot of money if you're willing to willing to risk everything for it. Be here at this time at this place. You'll you'll you'll have the opportunity to do this.

Jim:

You're not talking about crazy taxi, are you?

T.C.:

I am talking about I've never got an invite. Lunatic Uber. So then, yeah, people show up and it say, like, welcome, welcome, welcome. This this all can be yours. You have to in the next twenty four hours, you have to accumulate the the x amount of passengers and the x amount of credits or dollars and then whoever has the most wins in the end?

Jim:

That meant that that correlates to Crazy Taxi a lot more. I was thinking to try to put a little more story of some kind of like like, it's a scavenger hunt.

T.C.:

Mhmm. Mhmm.

Jim:

Right? So they you need to get specific things that each of these Passengers. Quote customers or passengers Yeah. Has, and and that is what they will pay you with. Yeah.

Jim:

And then you can have a a whole plot line about someone cheats by trying to by stealing someone else's.

T.C.:

You know you know what we could do? We could take a season of Amazing Race. Let's find one of the seasons of Amazing Race, break it down to all the drama

Jim:

forward it?

T.C.:

Well, yeah. Break down all the drama of one season of Amazing Race.

Jim:

Uh-huh.

T.C.:

Figure out, like, oh, this this father daughter team, this husband wife team, this roommates team, and, like, lift all that drama and condense it down into crazy taxi. Like like because Amazing Race is moving from puzzle to puzzle around a country

Jim:

Mhmm.

T.C.:

And solving the clues to get to a to b to c to to try to win the big money in the end. Looking to that that like, looking at Amazing Race and just saying, like, okay. What are the what are the how do they construct their seasons using that as a template of sorts to then say, okay. Now we're gonna we're gonna dial this up to eleven Mhmm. And make it crazy.

T.C.:

Yeah. And, yeah, all contained within a city. You have to get to this place to this place. People backstabbing each other, stealing each other's passengers, all for the big prize. Is the prize a lie?

T.C.:

Is is the prize real? Like, what's the antagonist of this situation other than all these people competing for the same thing?

Jim:

Sure.

T.C.:

Surely having an evil asshole who has all this money to do this is the villain of this story because they could if they were really so altruistic, they could just give the money away, but instead, for my amusement, you are now gonna drive crazy.

Jim:

You know what that reminds me of? It's and and more onto the running man type thing. Rather than being an a a network, a sanctioned thing

T.C.:

Mhmm.

Jim:

We have a mister beast esque character Okay. And he's the one doing this

T.C.:

Uh-huh.

Jim:

For Internet points. Mhmm. Right? He he wants Internet points. He has gajillions of dollars.

Jim:

Sure. So he's giving 1 ga to away to whoever can do this. If you get caught, it's on you. Mhmm. Yeah.

Jim:

So some of you so these antics are being not tell that would we use the word televised because we're we're from the twentieth century, but but being not broadcast. Stream. Stream. That's the word. That's the word.

Jim:

I do that. I actually do that myself.

T.C.:

It it escaped you in your excitement for a crazy taxi movie.

Jim:

It really did. Crazy taxi. You remember that game from twenty years ago? Oh, longer. Anyway, yeah, there we go.

Jim:

Done. Crazy taxi. Crazy taxi.

T.C.:

Think that the movie. Didn't think that pitch would would go go the distance. But, yeah, I having it be this Internet thing, knowing that it's getting filmed, we might be getting a little close to what the running man was most recently.

Jim:

No one remembers.

T.C.:

But that's okay. Right?

Jim:

Also, that was that had other I think that had other themes that I don't necessarily know that we'd be utilizing. Like like

T.C.:

That was about the wage disparity, the social classes.

Jim:

And and and and turning people on on each other and and right? Like, the whole notion of running man is people just want people like to see an underdog win. Mhmm. But they like to see someone who's on top lose even more. Sure.

Jim:

So they wanna see that top guy go down. Mhmm. Whereas this wouldn't be about that. The viewership wouldn't be about that. Actually, if anything, it touches more on that movie that hasn't come out yet, the bank robbing movie.

Jim:

Totally. How to no. How to how to rob a bank.

T.C.:

Okay. Yeah.

Jim:

Because they they're streaming their bank robberies.

T.C.:

Oh, right. And the

Jim:

people, they're like, I love your show.

T.C.:

Yeah.

Jim:

That's sort of what I'm imagining. That's kind of the reactions I'm imagining the public would have. Mhmm. Like, literally, like, in crazy taxi. Okay.

T.C.:

Making a real cut. Especially evoking mister beast and that this is one of his a mister beast analog is creating the the shenanigans, and it's just it's out of hand. Yeah. The desperation people have for the need for the money and what they're willing to do and then the and then people who are just so obsessed with the online presence and whatnot. Mhmm.

T.C.:

Yeah. There's some commentary to be had there in the midst of some really kick ass car chases.

Jim:

In fact oh, actually, maybe this is this is a thing that happens crazy taxi is a thing that happens regularly. Never know which town

T.C.:

it's gonna be in, all sorts of like that. Agree going here. Oh, yeah.

Jim:

And and it is illegal. He's so rich, the cops don't shut him down

T.C.:

Mhmm.

Jim:

But they will chase the the Yes.

T.C.:

The drivers. There we go. That's great. You're building this, like, world lore here. Like, it'll be it's a it's it's it's almost it's a little Hunger Games y.

T.C.:

Right? Like, annually, a a town is chosen.

Jim:

But the contestants the contestants aren't always the same. The contestants are they're like they they they they, at this point, are sort of known personalities. Mhmm. And then maybe one or two new ones are brought on

T.C.:

once in

Jim:

a while. Hang on. Okay. But there's a rule about it's totally it's not against the rules to have a a cabbie not a cabbie. A a fee affair Uh-huh.

Jim:

Stolen. Mhmm. That's where our character comes in. He is desperate. He has not been invited.

Jim:

Yes. He's like, they're coming to my town. I'm gonna steal affair. That's how I'm getting in this game.

T.C.:

Yes. I love this. This is great. Like yeah. Yeah.

T.C.:

It's someone it's like, you have to have a certain threshold to like, you have to cross a certain threshold of of online presence to even be invited into the game, like, wherever Crazy Tricks he's gonna be. And so this mister beast character is like, I'm coming to Detroit, and these are my these are the these are the players. And it's like, yeah. I'm so excited to see my favorite online presence.

Jim:

Yeah. It's it's a little bit wacky races. It's

T.C.:

a little

Jim:

bit Death Race two thousand.

T.C.:

Sure. Sure. But but having a main character be like, this is bullshit. These people already have money. Yeah.

T.C.:

They're they don't need the money like we do. I'm stealing a fair. I'm I'm in this I'm getting this what are talking about? You have 50 followers on YouTube. Doesn't matter.

Jim:

And you and you don't have a car that can move like their cars do?

T.C.:

I can drive anything. Yeah. Get me behind a wheel. I can do this. Mhmm.

T.C.:

Now we have a main character. Now we have a character. I love the idea that the the the declaration that this is gonna happen. Mhmm. We get the whole setup of, like, what this is gonna be, and then the the game starts, and we're following one of the personalities who's our we've already met.

T.C.:

And they're like, alright. Yeah. Cut into a few of them as the game is starting. All of sudden, out of nowhere, just this blindsided, boom. And our main character enters the fray and and, like, flips the car and, like, goes in, grabs it.

T.C.:

And it's like, once you have the first fare, it initiates the second and the third. Like, once you have a fare

Jim:

Like Crazy Taxi.

T.C.:

Exactly. Yeah. Once you have the first one, it initiates the next one. And so, like, all he needs to do is get that and once he gets that first one, he's in the game. Mhmm.

T.C.:

And now it's, like, hot now he has to beat everybody to to win the game. Right?

Jim:

Yeah. Well, should it yeah. Because because they should be competing with the like, directly with each other. They're trying to because in because Crazy Taxi is a single player game. You're not really competing that way.

Jim:

The But you

T.C.:

go for the high score. And Yeah. Think think of it this way. They're not getting money. They're getting credits.

T.C.:

Whenever they pick up a fare and they know where the next fare is, they're collecting credits. And whoever has the most credits in the end gets the prize money. Yeah. It's not like he can rob the first person of their fare and, like, good. I got the 10 k I want, I'm done.

T.C.:

Mhmm. It's no. It's not real money. And maybe he doesn't even know that at first.

Jim:

Like Well, so so rather than it just be okay. So that's that's that's right. I don't I fee I don't want it to be just be a rally race. I don't just want it to be pick up this customer, and now everyone is racing to get to this like like, you No.

T.C.:

They're all over town. Yeah. Every when you grab Everyone's

Jim:

all over. There's all sorts of of customers. Yeah. There's and the thing is there's clues as to the order that they're getting ready. So if there's five racers Sure.

Jim:

That means there are five fares Mhmm. Out out in the city. And any one of anyone the the rules meant any one of the five could intercept one of the other fives Sure. Things. Our character jumps jumps into this race, steals a fair.

Jim:

Mhmm. I don't I don't see it like like, I think that'd be a great visual for for the streams things that this this guy plows in.

T.C.:

Yeah.

Jim:

But I don't I the way I see him entering is he figures out where one of the starting fairs is gonna be. Or or maybe it's not even the starting fair. Maybe it is, like The 2nd Floor. First round is already done. He's like, oh, oh, no.

Jim:

They're gonna go there. I'd like like and and so he gets there, and he's, like, trying to coax the the per come on. Get in get in get in my car. I'm I'm the cabbie. I'm the cabbie.

Jim:

Come on.

T.C.:

Come on.

Jim:

Come on. And, like, the other guy comes around the corner. We get to zoom in on him and, like, what do you who who is this jerk?

T.C.:

I like I like that notion, but I I think the first thing he should do is he needs to to get in the game, he has to steal something from the from the player. If it's the map or, like, the radar system, he needs to he needs to get that first fare to himself. Just I I see what you're pitching, but I feel like it's the it we could raise the stakes a little bit more if he because because if he's just like, get my cab. Get my cab. How is he gonna know where the next fare is?

T.C.:

If he gets a device or something or or the the key from one these businesses there. Because a fare always tells you where they need to go. Mhmm. But to to play more to the game Sure. It's not a single one for one.

T.C.:

When you activate that you can pick someone up, a bunch of activation points occur. And Oh, sure. Yellow, green, and red where to determine what are the price points.

Jim:

Sure.

T.C.:

So as soon as he I I say he attacks one of the existing players Mhmm. To get in the game, whether he carjacks them or or gets a radar device that only activates when you drop off a fare so that he can see where all the other options are.

Jim:

Okay. I I wanna I wanna sneakier, more clever.

T.C.:

I I do like the idea of him saying, like, get

Jim:

my

T.C.:

car.

Jim:

My car. Because there's well, because there's other ways to do it. Like like, especially if if the first fare isn't he he's already not in the race. Mhmm. It's because he he has he's rigged a GPS.

Jim:

Let's do some let's do some writer computer work here. He's he's rigged his GPS, and he's he knows this is the path the cab's gonna go by. So I just need I just need long enough Mhmm. Next to the next to their car to to spoof the signal.

T.C.:

Let's do that for his first couple, but then he immediately gets taken out again. So then he has to attack one of the racers to reactivate it. Then we get both. Sure. Then we get both.

Jim:

Yeah. Yeah. Like like I said, I I don't mind that. I I I just don't don't think that should be his entrance.

T.C.:

Sure. Yes. I I I I'm

Jim:

for it. Because it should be this sneaky thing, and then everyone's mad. They're like, that shouldn't be allowed. Mhmm. And then mister mister money.

Jim:

Mister

T.C.:

money. Mister monster. Monsieur monster. What what

Jim:

what's Danny DeVito's character's name in in taxi?

T.C.:

Oh god, dude. I don't all my movie knowledge, it's not in there. The penguin. The penguin. Mister Penguin.

T.C.:

Monsieur Monstier. Mister mister Monster. Mister Monster.

Jim:

Mister Monster says stealing stealing fares is entirely within the rules. Mhmm. And and that brings him that makes him an entry. He doesn't knock someone out. Yeah.

Jim:

There's just now another

T.C.:

person. Sixth man.

Jim:

And everyone hates him.

T.C.:

Freaking goblet of fire over here.

Jim:

Yeah. Yeah. Basically. Except he did put his name in it.

T.C.:

Yeah. Except I did put my name in it. Everyone should yell at me like Michael Gambone. Dumb. Dumb.

T.C.:

I'm sorry.

Jim:

Yeah. So then we then we follow this character as he struggles, like, literally because because there would be like, it's it's like a bout of, like, three. Right? For it's it's a movie. We can't have it go on forever.

Jim:

Mhmm. So it's it's it's it's this it's this you gotta get three fairs in a in a row, and that's a round.

T.C.:

Yeah.

Jim:

Right? So then then everyone comes back, and how much you've made is tallied, and it's all compared. And that's that's when right so we can get some of the slowdowns.

T.C.:

Yeah.

Jim:

Characters can meet, talk to each other, punch each other.

T.C.:

Who the hell is this guy? He's not even Yeah. How do you he doesn't even have any followers.

Jim:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That kind of thing. Yeah.

Jim:

And mister mister monster can be like, we're we're rectifying that right now, and you you the camera goes over, and you see a bunch of techs. No. No. They don't give him a new car. They they're just drilling cameras into his car.

Jim:

Basically, I wanna see this guy's car

T.C.:

Yeah.

Jim:

Falling apart through this whole movie. He's having to duct tape it together. Yeah. Maybe at one point, he he recruits his friend who now just sits in the back of the car and is repairing it as they go.

T.C.:

Yeah. Like repairing well, that's pretty fun. Not like a Dom Toretto holding together, the engine while it's on fire. Fate of the Furious style.

Jim:

A lit no.

T.C.:

A little bit of Yeah. Yeah. Pretty close. Yeah. The the the, and and oh, he doesn't have any followers to start, but over the course of this, Yeah.

T.C.:

He's getting followers, and he doesn't even have a livestream. He's like, someone keep Yeah.

Jim:

That that and that that's why mister monster he's not gonna miss out on this. Yeah. He's like, he's in, and they start putting cameras and stuff all over his car.

T.C.:

And and he's he's so determined. Our main character is like, I'm gonna win this because I I I need and he's okay. Let's let because we're beating this out, he getting to that end, that final moment, whenever that climax is where he's where we jump to the he's won, and he's given the money. Does does he just let it go? Like, let all the money go or, like, throw it to the people?

T.C.:

Like

Jim:

No. He becomes the next mister monster. No. No. No.

Jim:

No. No. Depressing. No. He I don't know.

T.C.:

Because I think that the the real he's kind of like a it's like Running Man. It's like the long walk. It's like, does this end with shutting this down so this can't happen anymore, or is that too big of bold of a statement?

Jim:

I think it's too big and bold. Mhmm. We while we are making a story that touches on themes like that Mhmm. I don't think we're not we're not driving toward that. Driving.

T.C.:

We could even go so far as him suggesting it to miss Jamalstia, and he's like, are you kidding me? The only thing I'm gonna do is make sure this doesn't happen again. You you broke because the rules weren't in place, but you just made it a little more difficult for everyone in the future. So thank you for doing that.

Jim:

We'll see you next season.

T.C.:

Here's your money. And if you if you wanna shut me down, come back and race again. Just keep your viewership up or above 500,000. It's like, man, screw you. You learned nothing.

T.C.:

Like, if if the if the monster of this doesn't learn anything, there's a little bit of commentary in that. But if our hero gets gets to go home, like, walk into the sunset with his winnings and and do bet like, if he takes if, say, he gets a billion dollar a gajillion. A one as you said.

Jim:

One

T.C.:

And he and he's doesn't keep it. He doesn't he just spreads it across and fixes his city. Like, if this if if mister monster picks trashy places because it's better to, like, watch shit blow up, I'm not gonna go to New York City. What? Am I an idiot?

T.C.:

I would never do that. I go to I'm going to Detroit. I'm going to, like

Jim:

I see what you're saying. How about this? Rocky, he doesn't win. Aw. He doesn't win.

Jim:

Yeah. And and they're like, ah, you you you gave it a good run. Mhmm. But ultimately, you didn't win. Told you wouldn't win.

Jim:

Yeah. Not with that jalopy. Yeah. I just wanna say the word jalopy.

T.C.:

That there's the whole point in you saying

Jim:

this, good. And he has to go home. But just for trying, he has become a hero. He's come to to his Yeah. To his town, to his neighborhood.

T.C.:

People saying, thanks, man. Hey. I like what you did there.

Jim:

Thank you. And and and in standard game show fashion I know mister beast games are often all or nothing Mhmm. I think. I I don't I don't watch enough of them to know. But we don't have to do all or nothing.

Jim:

That is higher stakes. But he could've gone home with with a little something.

T.C.:

Enough for his to help his grandmother who's sick. But the if all this notoriety and people watching him is just even just a fraction of people who are like, know, mister monster sucks, but I'm gonna start following this hero guy. And that's just enough that puts him over the edge that he can monetize in such a way that he could help his community in the end. Sure.

Jim:

I I don't I don't I don't think the the the the the resolution of of money it it I'm I'm more I'm more interested in the moral victory

T.C.:

Okay.

Jim:

Of of the of the trying and the the people liking liking him for that.

T.C.:

Yeah. Like, maybe in the beginning, if he, like, is getting a coffee and a donut from someone who's a jerk to him in the end, that guy gives him a coffee and donut for free. That sort of thing.

Jim:

I'm cool with that. And also, because I can't help it, leaves it open for a crazy taxi too.

T.C.:

Well, of course, mister Monster's going to the next city. Yeah. We'll get another another another Crazy Taxi movie.

Jim:

Mhmm.

T.C.:

Dammit Jim, I did not think Crazy Taxi would get us a whole a whole pitch out of it, but I'm glad it did.

Jim:

I think it yeah. Actually, I'm I'm really glad we did that one. It it fit the bill for what we do here

T.C.:

Mhmm.

Jim:

More. Because the thing is a lot of video games have full actual stories. So the answer is, oh, do that.

T.C.:

Yeah. Yeah. That that's the problem with doing stuff like Left four Dead or the the like Halo. There's Mhmm. These games are Bioshock.

T.C.:

Move. Yeah. They are movies themselves.

Jim:

And it would be amazing to see it as a movie.

T.C.:

The Last of Us.

Jim:

But the the pitch

T.C.:

is Just do that.

Jim:

Do do that.

T.C.:

And and I don't I don't it's fun to see things done one for one, but I am more interested in seeing stuff adapted in such a way where I'm surprised. Mhmm. Which is it's sort of a weird line to walk because sometimes it's like, man, this book, this comic, this cartoon is so good. If you're gonna make a live action version of it, just do it exactly like this.

Jim:

Yeah. But And and and that's that's that's sort of why I say that with Crazy Taxi, It is an ambiguous

T.C.:

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Premise,

Jim:

like like like plot, so we can put a story on there Yes. Rather than just saying, let me tell you about the lore of dead by daylight that I love so much and how this will be a movie.

T.C.:

Yeah.

Jim:

It it's yeah. I would I would love to do that. I'd I'd need to do that. But but, like, yeah, to the same end, like, Bioshock, it's a super cool game with a super cool story, and it would really just be us regaling

T.C.:

Do that. Story to you. And honestly, it's probably the mistake I made with Chrono Trigger. Just keeping on the rails if we go back to season one. But here we go.

T.C.:

Crazy Taxi. Okay. Let I I like that. That was a lot of fun. Yeah.

T.C.:

I can really picture the energy of it. It would be, like, the more practical the effects. I love the idea of a a friend trying to cobble the car together in a car chase sequence. And definitely, guns are coming out. Like, the people are gonna I think No.

T.C.:

No? No? No guns?

Jim:

Maybe the cop? No. No. No. No.

Jim:

No guns. This isn't running,

T.C.:

man. Okay.

Jim:

Yeah. This this is all about the fare.

T.C.:

Okay. So may not even just one character who gets a little too trigger happy here? Maybe.

Jim:

Sure. Sure. A fist fight? Definitely fist fights.

T.C.:

Okay.

Jim:

Great. And and may maybe maybe there maybe one of the drivers is is a is a gun.

T.C.:

A gun nut.

Jim:

A gun nut. Okay. Great.

T.C.:

I I I didn't wanna turn this into bullets flying in all the action sequences. I just meant at some point

Jim:

because because I yeah. This is this is cars flying through apple carts, jumping bridges Yeah. Flipping flipping as they as they hit other cars. Mhmm. That's what that's that's what this movie is.

Jim:

It's it's so car centric.

T.C.:

Great. Okay. Good. I love that. I love that.

Jim:

It's not that guns ruin it. It's if everyone actually, guns turn it much more into twisted metal.

T.C.:

Great. Cool. Yeah. Yeah. I'm I'm with you on that.

T.C.:

Good good good sell. But I think now we should take a break. Yeah. Take a breather here, and let's even come back and find some other I think we caught something with Crazy Taxi because you're right. The the more freedom we have to tell a story, the better.

T.C.:

So let's take our five here and see if we can come up with a couple other pitches here.

Jim:

Candy Crush. Oh, gosh.

T.C.:

King Candy from Wreck it Ralph. One of my favorite video game movies. Okay. Here's a couple messages from our beautiful network. We'll be right back.

T.C.:

I don't know. That felt longer than five minutes to me. Okay. Here we are. We're back again.

T.C.:

I have a I do do you have a pitch? Nope. I I wonder I thought of this as we were we were getting up to walk out of the room to get some fresh air. A game that you know everything about.

Jim:

Uh-oh. Guitar Hero. Oh, I do

T.C.:

know everything about that game. Guitar Hero or Rock Band? Okay. So check this out. There are there's a story in Guitar Hero and Rock Band.

T.C.:

It's a it's a garage band that rises up to be world famous. Right?

Jim:

Yeah. And then in Guitar Hero six, they actually rise up to be like, you rise up to be gods. Woah.

T.C.:

Okay. So Like,

Jim:

you you you you end up dueling against demons and gods. Woah. Really?

T.C.:

Yeah. I didn't know that. That's cool. Now I know we were just talking about, like, a movie that has or I'm sorry. A game that has rails doesn't exactly make for a good movie, and just following the story of Guitar Hero slash Rock Band, Just just do that.

T.C.:

They they they Which is yeah. Just started as an amateur garage band and then worked their way up to fighting demons for the soul for the souls of the universe. Yeah. That's kind of fun. You you know why I would hate this movie?

T.C.:

I'm pinching it, and I'm already realizing I would hate it.

Jim:

Uh-oh.

T.C.:

I don't like jukebox musicals.

Jim:

Oh. Jukebox musicals. I And and by its by the nature of Guitar Hero and It very much is.

T.C.:

Yeah. Yeah. It's now here's the thing. I shouldn't say I don't like them across the board. I don't want this to turn into I hate horror movie situation here.

T.C.:

Yeah. But for the most part, I don't care for jukebox musicals when the it's there's no real rhyme or reason. It's just like, oh, we got this pop song, and now this character's going to sing it. And there's no context to it. There's no there's no extra flavor to it.

T.C.:

They're just doing the karaoke version of it.

Jim:

How do you feel about

T.C.:

Blues Brothers? Blues Brothers is a good musical. Okay. It I know it's technically a jukebox musical, but they're giving their own flavor to these songs. It's within the context.

T.C.:

My problems with Blues Brothers are different different than the music aspect of it. One of my favorite movies of all time is Pitch Perfect. The first one, only the first one. The other ones are all the problems that are wrong with both jukebox musicals and comedy sequels. Oh, sorry.

T.C.:

I got real worked up just now. Yeah. That first one, I love that first one. But so never mind. I'm taking rock band and guitar here off the table of the video and make sure that no.

T.C.:

We can talk about it. No. No. No. You wanna pitch off of it.

Jim:

I'm no. I'm not sure necessarily where to go with it. Right? It's like, oh, okay. Let's follow the music biopic.

Jim:

Mhmm.

T.C.:

And but it it doesn't end with them overdosing and and doing a final show at Wembley Stadium where we get the credits card that says, they went on to do blah, blah, No. These these musicians go on to to become gods. Yes. Where are you at? There we go.

T.C.:

Bill and Ted. Station. Man, Bogus Journey is a weird movie. Yes.

Jim:

Okay. So not Guitar Hero.

T.C.:

Not Guitar Hero. No.

Jim:

Jet Moto.

T.C.:

Jet Moto. Wait. Is that the spray painting one with the roller skates?

Jim:

No. No. No. That's jet that's Jet Grind Radio and Jet Set Radio Future.

T.C.:

Got it.

Jim:

Okay. I love those games. Yes. I was thinking about pitching them.

T.C.:

Oh,

Jim:

yeah. I I want them I so badly want them to make another one.

T.C.:

Mhmm. To complete the trilogy of the Jet Set?

Jim:

Just to have more. Yeah. Just to have more.

T.C.:

I just remember the the menu screen, you'd pop the game on it. It'll go, jet set video.

Jim:

And then. And it because it had its own soundtrack. Yeah. Right? Like, you could switch out songs, and oh, man.

Jim:

It was so great. What's the premise of it?

T.C.:

You said you thought about pitching and pitching. What stopped you from pitching? What

Jim:

I the the premise is there's there's a bad guy, and and and he's trying to steal the music, and and and he's he's trying to control the streets. And you are the GGs. You're one of the street gangs

T.C.:

Uh-huh.

Jim:

Who who is trying to run the streets. Mhmm. But you're the GGs. The that stands for good guys. Oh.

Jim:

You're the good guy gang. And you go around different neighborhoods tagging it with your tags to take it over. And sometimes the other gangs like and I am not remembering any of their names now. Like, it's something like the the Red Scorpions. They're all it's all female skaters.

Jim:

The the sewer sewer animals or something like that, and they're all dressed up like gators, and you gotta race them. Mhmm. You gotta race them.

T.C.:

And you're just trying to stop stop the it's a save the rec center scenario?

Jim:

Yeah. Yeah. Basically.

T.C.:

Stop the big corporate

Jim:

Yeah. In in the first game what was it the second game? Like like, literally, end up skating up to a rooftop where, like, the big bad is, like, spitting, like, records and fireballs at you, and you gotta dodge them and and skate around and spray them in the face and stuff Heck yeah. With spray paint.

T.C.:

That's fun. That's a fun world to play in.

Jim:

It yeah. It it really it is. It really is. But you said It'd have to be animated. It would have to it like, I'd I'd I guess you could do a live action, but that almost kinda takes away some of the fun of it.

T.C.:

It should probably be in that new Sony style of animation that

Jim:

Spider Verse great.

T.C.:

Yeah. That and that though that animation, both Sony's so Spider Verse, demon demon k pop demon hunters

Jim:

Mhmm.

T.C.:

Even Nimona, That style lends itself to music.

Jim:

And Sony makes PlayStation. Mhmm. It was PlayStation exclusive.

T.C.:

There you go.

Jim:

I don't know who actually owns it. Sony.

T.C.:

Jim's Jim's ready for you.

Jim:

Make that make that movie and game and movie and game. Just relaunch the franchise, please. But

T.C.:

Please. I derailed you thinking that's what we're talking about. You said Jet Moto. What's Jet Moto?

Jim:

Jet Moto is a PlayStation one racing game Mhmm. Where you race Oh, yeah. I can hovercraft motorcycle things.

T.C.:

Yep. Jet Moto racing. I remember you now.

Jim:

I I love You don't wanna do that? Let's do f zero, hovercraft racing I love science fiction racing games.

T.C.:

Well, we we just did a crazy taxi. Guess the sequel to crazy taxi, hovercraft. Yeah.

Jim:

Back in the day, I I liked crazy taxi enough, but not as much as All My Friends because it wasn't it wasn't sci fi now.

T.C.:

My my game of choice was not Crazy Taxi. I did enjoy it, but it's I might have even said this before on the show, is San Francisco Rush twenty forty nine.

Jim:

Yep. Love that game. Sci fi. Great game.

T.C.:

Yeah. The loop a the loops. It's in the future. Okay. So we're not doing that.

T.C.:

Alright. I have a game idea. K. It is wide open for whatever the hell we wanna do with it because the game, it has one objective. It's a game with one objective.

T.C.:

It's get from a to b. That's it. That is the whole objective of the game, and it is a whole wide open world for us to litter with whatever the hell we wanna do with it. And what you do is you start way over on the East Coast, and you're trying to get to Oregon. Okay.

T.C.:

On a trail. Uh-huh. An Oregon trail. Oh. Now, you ever see the movie Frailty?

Jim:

No. No. You haven't. No. I've not seen Frailty.

T.C.:

No. No. No. Not Frailty. Oh my god.

T.C.:

Guy Pearce, Jeffrey oh my god.

Jim:

The Not the offer.

T.C.:

Oh my god. It's not frailty. The people are screaming at me right now. I'm completely blanking. It's a it's a Wendigo story.

Jim:

Oh. Oh, Ravenous.

T.C.:

Ravenous. Thank you. Did you ever you ever see Ravenous?

Jim:

I thought you were talk talking about the the the proposition. That's an Australian western.

T.C.:

You ever see

Jim:

I've seen Ravenous? Yes. I've seen Ravenous.

T.C.:

Oregon Trail presents. Now there there's a fun card game that someone has made called Oregon Trail Yes. Which is a zombie survival game in the fashion of Oregon Trail. Yeah. My whole life growing up in the Midwest, I thought it was Oregon.

T.C.:

And then I

Jim:

I had someone I said Oregon Yep. As well, and then I was at a convention Mhmm. At a at a at a table with someone who was from there. And they said, oh, we're from Oregon, and we're conversing. And I said Oregon.

Jim:

And they cut the conversation. Stop. It's Oregon. It's Oregon. Yeah.

Jim:

It's not Oregon. Yeah. I And and, like like, I I got very flustered. Oh oh.

T.C.:

I I similarly had a situation of being corrected on how to say it, and I've known it ever since. So I had a pen pal in high school that was from Oregon. So just a a frontier period piece movie, but let's get

Jim:

Everyone keeps dying of dysentery.

T.C.:

Let's make it a horror movie. Let's make it a frontier horror movie that it it's it's seemingly this just this great western movement, the the great expanse of crossing the prairie with what little supplies you have, a a family desperate to get west for a better life, following the tropes of of the game, but that would be boring. Don't just do that. No one wants to see a freaking wagon wheel movie. Even even the revenant had a bear attack.

T.C.:

Why is it called the revenant anyway? The revenant's a ghost that comes is a well, because because Leo dies. Right? Like, it seemingly dies, and he comes back to enact his revenge.

Jim:

Yeah. Okay. Because he

T.C.:

won't he won't die. That's why it's called the revenant. Yeah. Okay. But even the revenant had a crazy bear attack.

T.C.:

And, so the Oregon Trail, right, it's a family. They're they're heading west, and the turning point in the movie is let's make it weird. Let's let's get weird with this, Jim.

Jim:

Alright. You need to explain to me how we're allowed to get weird. Why we're allowed to get weird with the license.

T.C.:

Well, at this point, I gotta imagine Oregon Trail is just public domain.

Jim:

Unfortunately, Disney and other corporations have ensured that copyright lasts real long.

T.C.:

Okay. Okay. Well, let's let's start here that there are mods in the game. It's been around for literally decades. I joked about the zombie survival one, but let's not go that far.

T.C.:

Let's go so far as you have to hunt and survive and cross rivers and all that. There is the the first mod that I'm aware of is someone added Bigfoot into into the game. Uh-huh. So that when you're out hunting, a Bigfoot attack can happen. So we just tell a Frontier movie where a Bigfoot attack happens.

T.C.:

The peaceful Sasquatch would never, says Jim.

Jim:

I mean, he wouldn't. Yeah. I'm glad you know me so well. Honestly, just the frontier movie could be done well. There's there's not much to pitch there.

Jim:

It's it's we'll we'll follow we'll follow this wagon of of people Mhmm. Telling, frankly, a harrowing tale because following the trail was not easy.

T.C.:

So just a historical drama.

Jim:

Yeah. It ends up feeling like a chapter of Buster Scruggs. And so maybe that's why it's because even Buster Scruggs Buster Scruggs was the western oh my god. What's the what's the rom com movie of six rom coms all jammed together? Love Actually.

Jim:

Yeah. Buster Scruggs was the western version of Love Actually because it was six ideas that the the the Cohen brothers had, but they didn't have any place. Not not no one of the ideas jumped out enough to be a whole thing, so they just jammed them all together

T.C.:

Mhmm.

Jim:

In a thing. And I could see saying, hey. This is this isn't interest like you were saying, that's not interesting enough. I think it could be.

T.C.:

Well, to be fair, it's it's not an exciting genre bending action adventure blockbuster movie, which we tend to pitch on this show. Yeah. Telling a very serious period piece about the Oregon Trail and the absolute bloodbath that that thing could be Mhmm. That that people did survive on their their will is wonderful. I I love historical fiction.

T.C.:

I love history pieces. We saw, what, pressure recently and, like Yeah. Like, there there is a place for those things.

Jim:

Telling this Imagine having a subplot Mhmm. Where we make an audience I don't know yet how Mhmm. Where we make an audience care about a broken wagon wheel. Yeah. Where where, like like, this is a since this is this is a serious problem that this wagon they they literally have to be pushed off the trail so the other wagons can keep going.

T.C.:

Oh, and you're

Jim:

like super sorry. We don't have any spare spare wheels for you.

T.C.:

We just can't spare we sorry. You're on your own, and then trying to fix that to before the the cold sets in

Jim:

Mhmm.

T.C.:

Before the dysentery sets in. Yeah. Okay. So I I I like the idea of just a drama, a history drama. There was was a Nick Cage movie from a couple years ago that I really really enjoyed, and it was just about him going out into the mountains and hunting buffalo.

T.C.:

And the movie was it was like watching literature. Really? It was this really wonderful movie. I'm trying to remember what it was called. Jeez.

T.C.:

The Butcher's Crossing. It came out in 2022. That's four years ago. Anyway Yeah. But it's a they the it felt like it felt like literature.

T.C.:

It was about an Ivy League dropout. This young guy who goes to Colorado, and he joins a team of buffalo hunters led by Nick Cage. Mhmm. And and it's just this experience. They they have to stay out for the winter and survive.

T.C.:

And it was produced by the indigenous people who occupied that land that the story was set in and how Nick Cage plays this buffalo hunter who is obsessed. It is his everything is his is to hunt the buffalo. And he he respects the buffalo, but he hunts them. He is one of the reasons buffalo became an endangered species because they hunted he hunted all winter, Everyone he could find, and he has this mountain of pelts. And and the sadness and the the harrowing nature of surviving nature Mhmm.

T.C.:

Was it was a really, really wonderful movie. And so taking an Oregon Trail movie, there there's a silly way to do it. Treat it like Jumanji. Treat it like Sure. Like, uh-huh, Oregon Trail.

T.C.:

Oh, I'm a I I played this in sixth grade. I could survive in the real Oregon Trail. Boom. You're blasted back in time. Survive.

Jim:

I don't know if I necessarily but I think what you said you didn't wanna do might be the most fun way to do Oregon Trail Mhmm. Which is a game that acknowledges it's an it's a game. Like like, do you want right? You're you're in you're in the game. Whether it's yeah.

Jim:

I just there's a lot of humor, like, I died of dysentery. You start over, and you're coming across your own headstones.

T.C.:

Oh, yeah.

Jim:

Oh, that that on premise, I think, would get sold before our serious.

T.C.:

Sure. Sure. Historical drama. Doing doing a historical historical drama about the the story of the Oregon Trail. Yeah.

T.C.:

Boring. Mhmm.

Jim:

You know who

T.C.:

would do it? Taylor Sheard would do it. He would. And he would do it great. Yeah.

T.C.:

And and our dads would love

Jim:

Everyone in America would watch it.

T.C.:

Yeah.

Jim:

We wouldn't know any of them.

T.C.:

We would know anybody watch it. We would never see it ourselves. Nope. The most watched movie in in television history. Yeah.

T.C.:

In streaming history. Yep. But you're right. Having a person who is, like, sucked into the game kind of thing, Tron style, and now they're in Oregon Trail. Yeah.

T.C.:

Boy, we were talking about animated earlier, having someone pixelated into what it looks like on the screen and then what it looks like to them.

Jim:

Oh, is the clock is the clock, every time they die, they get a little more real? Oh. Because that means it's gonna they're not gonna be able to get out of the game.

T.C.:

I've never been able to beat this game. I hate this game. One person or a team, because you you could name all your

Jim:

Oh, sure.

T.C.:

Companions, and it's like, little little butt died of dysentery.

Jim:

Little butt.

T.C.:

Oh my god. Someone someone on the outside being a smart ass about Oregon Trail. Like a modern day kid who's like this stupid game my grandpa played. It's like, oh, I don't respect you. You don't respect Oregon Trail.

T.C.:

I'll come back to bite you in the ass Jumanji style. Hope you appreciate that. Go ahead. Name your character. I'm naming him a little butt.

T.C.:

And then you get sucked into the game. And everyone calls him

Jim:

a butt. Hey, what's

T.C.:

up little butt? Damn it. This is my fault.

Jim:

Actually actually, this could be this you just cite Minecraft.

T.C.:

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Jim:

All the money Minecraft made?

T.C.:

Hey. Do like that Minecraft one? We're gonna do that with Oregon Trail.

Jim:

Yeah. We'll call it Oregon Trail.

T.C.:

Oregon Trail. Oregon Trail, you'll die of dysentery. What? Jesus. Someone Oregon Trail.

T.C.:

Did your you played it, obviously. Did you ever get to Oregon? I think once or twice I can remember getting there and be like, oh my god. I did it. Everyone else died, but I made it.

T.C.:

Mhmm. There's there's the sorrow of it. If someone came in sarcastically

Jim:

Sure.

T.C.:

And learned to care about their oh my god, little butt died. Yeah. Little butt junior dies. Mhmm.

Jim:

For the for the serious one, I I remember I watched a documentary about the Donner party.

T.C.:

Mhmm.

Jim:

And they I think they started on the Oregon Trail, and eventually they had someone had told them this would be a shortcut, and I think they they took it there. But it wasn't just, oh, we're gonna go here. Like, they were a part of a train. There was a meeting, and they actually split. So some were like, we're gonna stick with the trail.

Jim:

Mhmm. And others like, we we trust this word, and they they went this other way. But there was way more drama before that. Mhmm. The father Donner, the the the the matriarch

T.C.:

Mhmm.

Jim:

Of the family had had a falling out with someone else in the wagon train, and he had stabbed someone. Oh. They died. There's no justice out there, and no one there wanted to be like, well, we're gonna. They didn't wanna lynch him.

Jim:

Right. So they're like, you know, you have to go.

T.C.:

Get out of here.

Jim:

So he had to go on his own. That's one of the reasons he survived. I don't know if you know the story of the Donner party.

T.C.:

I didn't know this of it.

Jim:

So he survived. He got to California. Mhmm. Found out his family was stuck in the mountains during that winter. Kept trying to get people to take them out, and like, they're like, no.

Jim:

It's it's middle of winter. There's no way we can go. Tried, I think, two different times to get out there and and wasn't able to. By the time he got out there, there was, like like, all of this stuff had happened.

T.C.:

They and for and that stuff is? Cannibalism. Cannibalism. Yeah.

Jim:

Just like that movie, Ravenous. No. Not just like that movie. Ravenous is is actually really sad. It it wasn't it it's not even, like, that that, like, seedy salacious type thing.

Jim:

They were they they tried to be there were very creepy things that happened, but not because they were creepy people. Yeah. Like, if you saw the movie alive where they where they had to eat other their their their fellow soccer players.

T.C.:

Yeah.

Jim:

It was it was very much they kept track of who meat came from. They, like, actually wrote names on the packets they kept it in. And that sounds super creepy. They did it to try to be less creepy so they wouldn't have to eat their own kin. You know?

Jim:

Because the Donner party was actually multiple families. I'm telling all this just because I know these terrible anecdotes. My point to bring it up is I don't wanna tell the Donner party, but it I'm imagining an Oregon Trail story that starts with the Donners as a part of it. Mhmm. And at at a certain point, and then somewhere in the second act, you we actually see them go.

Jim:

Yeah. They go this other way.

T.C.:

And, like, if you know your history, then the whole

Jim:

And and the whole time, we've been seeing this trouble. Mhmm. Right? The the the father father Donners keeps getting in fights with these these people, and you're like, dude, why is it why why is anyone out here fighting? We we gotta survive.

T.C.:

Yeah. Okay. Here's a thought. An Oregon Trail story. We're following a wagon, and everything that can go wrong in the game happens to anyone else that they're in this trail with on this trail with.

T.C.:

And even bringing up, like, the downer party at one point, and they go off on their own, like, alright. Free from that. And the the person driving that wagon is not making any mistakes. Nothing bad has happened to this character, and they're acing this. Yeah.

T.C.:

And may this can't go for too long, but it needs to reach a point of, like, this is too perfect. What is happening here? And it's because someone's cheating at the

Jim:

Someone's cheating

T.C.:

at the Someone's cheating at the game. Like, as as somehow, coming out of the game or or someone coming into the game in a fashion being like, you're doing too well. What is going on here? You should have died of dysentery or whatever. Keep using that one.

T.C.:

Typhoid could have got you too. Oh. But but it's someone who is Kobayashi Maroon. Kobayashi Maroon cheated the guy James Kirk is cheating at Oregon Trail. And so then and then the punishment is that they have to okay.

T.C.:

That makes a bunch of ideas here. They we find out this person's cheated, and then they're in the real world, they're reprimanded for it. And they're like, whatever. I beat the game. And then it's like, no.

T.C.:

You cheated. The only way you could actually survive the game is if you to prove if you could do it or not, you'd have to play it correctly. Well, I'm not why would

Jim:

I do that? You gotta resolve that first part real fast.

T.C.:

Yeah. To then put them in again. You've been Jumanji'd. Yeah. Jumanji did.

T.C.:

Yeah. Damn. Jumanji's a good movie. All three of them are good. I mean,

Jim:

is that just the term for any time that happens in is Minecraft just a Jumanji? Yeah. Zithera. Tron is a Jumanji?

T.C.:

Yeah. Poor Tron. Tron's like, I did it way before Jumanji. You know what observation someone made recently that I saw a friend pointed out to me? Jumanji from Robin Williams point of view, he returns to a dystopia.

Jim:

Oh, sure.

T.C.:

He comes back to his hometown. It is a dystopian future.

Jim:

Mhmm.

T.C.:

He sees he's getting, like, the Jimmy Stewart treatment of it's it's a wonderful life. This is what this city looks like without because of you disappearing and what it did for your father, what it did for the city, repercussions of this. Buildings, big box store had come in. In the nineties, that was a death sentence to a small town. Yeah.

T.C.:

And homelessness, poverty, all because of this one instance of his disappearance, and he returns to that life and then gets go back and do it all over again, and and keep that town thriving.

Jim:

Jumanji is It's a Wonderful Life with a Jungle.

T.C.:

It's a wonderful jungle. It's a wonderful board game. It's a wonderful movie.

Jim:

What year is it?

T.C.:

Okay. Sorry. Sorry. Off mark here. Yeah.

T.C.:

It's unfortunate that I can't like, the I I do think the historical drama is a wonderful idea, but the the goofy silly idea, you're right, would sell faster because it would just be do a Minecraft. Yeah. There we go. So he cheats at the game, then he gets thrust in the game, then he has to survive in the actual game. Mhmm.

T.C.:

And then Bigfoot attacks.

Jim:

And sure. And and I and I think I think I like that as as sort of the the the clock, the stakes. Every like, he keeps dying, and he becomes a little more real.

T.C.:

Every time. Yeah. Yeah. Back in. Come on.

Jim:

No. He's it's All the all the way to the point of all the characters he named, like, be like, he's now sincerely working to keep little but little butt alive. Little butt, I'm not gonna lose you again.

T.C.:

What do you mean again? God. Not gonna let you die little butt. I can't do it anymore. I'm hungry and cold, daddy.

Jim:

Little butt junior, I'll We get just gotta ford this river. LBJ. LBJ.

T.C.:

We just gotta ford this river. Okay. Oregon Trail. I do you wanna do you wanna try to pitch one more? Or you got you wanna keep talking about Oregon Trail here?

Jim:

I think we've said everything we have to say about Oregon Yeah.

T.C.:

Okay. That

Jim:

is there any Bejeweled. The movie.

T.C.:

You had choked Candy Crush earlier. I did.

Jim:

There's more of a story to Candy Crush because there's actually characters.

T.C.:

Okay. Let's try this. Is there a pinball movie? Like, Tommy. Yeah.

T.C.:

Not a good movie. It's it's a weird weird movie.

Jim:

I don't think there's another one.

T.C.:

One of the best movies one of the best biopics that came out in recent years is Tetris. And it was an Apple movie, so no one saw it. But anyone who did see it put it on their top 10 of the year list kind of thing. Who would have thought? A movie about Tetris.

T.C.:

But hey, you know what? Social Network is Mhmm. One of the pivotal movies of the twenty first century. Yeah. I don't know.

T.C.:

I did are there any other the I I could bring up, like, the greatest video games of all time list if you're if you're

Jim:

Could we do it? I don't know what the story is. So just picking a game and saying documentary about it doesn't really work.

T.C.:

Just do documentary about this.

Jim:

Galaga, a spaceship has to fight its way past infinite waves of space bugs. Yeah. Starship Troopers in space. Wait. But, like, not on a planet, like like, flying around in space.

T.C.:

Well, okay. So if we're just looking at, say, the the best selling, like, most awarded, most played, most sold, like, the blockbuster games list, Zelda is We did that. And we've we've done it more than once at this point. Tetris, Zelda. Again, Half Life two.

T.C.:

Half Life two is a great example of, like That'd be a great movie. Because the game is

Jim:

A great story.

T.C.:

Yeah. Just do the story. The Last of Us has already been a show. Any Mario Brother game has already been covered.

Jim:

I there like, we could pitch, for example, Portal.

T.C.:

Mhmm.

Jim:

Because there would be more for us to inject into that. Mhmm. Because Chell is is the main character, and as a movie, it wouldn't be first person, so we'd be following this character. Mhmm. But she is a it's well, it's her and Gladys.

Jim:

Right? Right.

T.C.:

And ultimately, Gladys is the antagonist of the story.

Jim:

Mhmm.

T.C.:

What what's curious is for all the bad video game adaptations that there have been, especially since we fixed it, there has been like, The Witcher is one of the best selling games of all time. Already done. Resident Evil, one the best selling series of all time. Already been done. Final Fantasy has had over a dozen entries into its library of films, library of games, and all of those, again, are just we'll just do the story.

T.C.:

Like Sort of.

Jim:

The one time they tried not to, I don't know about you and your friends, but my friends made fun of it.

T.C.:

Spirits of Spirits Within? Yeah. Yeah. Well, idiots made a yeah. Terrible.

T.C.:

Terrible adaptation. It's too bad.

Jim:

I see Because it wasn't the way it was an adaptation is they were telling a new fight because every Final Fantasy is a new story.

T.C.:

It's the Final Fantasy for those characters.

Jim:

Right? And they were telling a new story. Mhmm. And honestly, I I think on paper, I think on premise, Spirits Within is a very cool idea.

T.C.:

I'll I've said this years ago when I did the one minute rewatch. Mhmm. Spirits Within, if it was a live action movie with the exact same cast that voiced everybody, it would be a massive cult hit. Sure. Like, it's it's a cult hit in its own right, but it's a dull movie.

T.C.:

But if it had been live action, holy shit. The movie would have been we we would be talking about it in different terms right now.

Jim:

Yeah. There'd probably be three more of them.

T.C.:

Yeah. Grand Theft Auto is such an open world.

Jim:

There's well, the thing is there is a story. Yes. So then do you do that story? If you don't do that story, what are you doing in Grand Theft Auto?

T.C.:

Right. The third one follows our nameless character. Advice City is more or less I

Jim:

guess. Her face. So okay. Just real quick. Let's let's explore this notion.

Jim:

Take the world of Grand Theft Auto. We're gonna tell a new story. I have not played much of the more recent ones.

T.C.:

The last one I played in its entirety was four.

Jim:

I am remembering in two, went all the way back Wow. There is a game mechanic where you gain favor and disfavor with the different gangs Mhmm. Depending on jobs you take and what you do. Okay. Does that per persist?

Jim:

I don't remember it in three.

T.C.:

In three, you work for and against each gang little by little until you are you have faced them and helped them. Your the Yakuza, the Triads, the Russians, the the the Latinos, every gang you can imagine you've worked for or with in San Andreas, you can gain favor amongst the gangs. There's a little bit of that. But that's a game mechanic. That like, how

Jim:

do you

T.C.:

how do you translate to a film?

Jim:

That's that's what we're going to base our story on.

T.C.:

Mhmm.

Jim:

Our character wants to rise to the top or or or wants to get somewhere up in this criminal world.

T.C.:

Mhmm.

Jim:

And so he's going to try playing the gangs off of each other

T.C.:

Mhmm.

Jim:

By stealing cars.

T.C.:

Okay. Grand Theft Auto.

Jim:

Yeah. And and and, like, situating them in each other's territories. Like, hey. You stole our car.

T.C.:

We

Jim:

hey. How do

T.C.:

you know I stole what are talking I didn't steal your car. What was he doing in my neck of the woods?

Jim:

Yeah. Stuff stuff like that. I I this is still real premise y. I don't have much more plot than this. I don't know why he's doing this.

Jim:

Maybe it's a revenge thing. Maybe it really is just an ambition thing. Mhmm. But that that's my initial pitch for a new story that takes place in a Grand Theft Auto world where we center that notion of Grand Theft Auto. So there's gonna be a lot of car stealing

T.C.:

Yeah.

Jim:

And driving. Getting away from cops, trying to clear

T.C.:

Yeah. I I I love Grand Theft Auto games as and and they are they are fun to play, but I think that there's such open world. It's really more about the missions and less least there are stories. This before has, like, a pretty they all have stories to them. But, yeah, taking it just becomes like, what makes it uniquely Grand Theft Auto?

T.C.:

I don't know. I think Rockstar has has really captured a specific style of gameplay that makes those games feel like those games. And it's sort of a very

Jim:

And you don't think we could capture that on in film?

T.C.:

Yeah. I guess. But I don't know. I I don't know if it if it elevates itself beyond its source material. And if and I think that if you're gonna make a movie out of a thing, you better make it unique and fun and worth it, or you're gonna get a spirits within situation over here.

T.C.:

It's just I I don't I don't know if we could I sure. If the studio demanded it specifically do a Grand Theft Auto, then I'd sit here and I'd I'd bend myself into a pretzel to make sure I could do that. But if it's just tossing it on the table, like, wanna do a Grand Theft Auto? I'm like, not really. I I had more fun coming up with Crazy Taxi on the Fly Sure.

T.C.:

Gang guys stealing cars to just pit other gangs against themselves. Like, I don't know. It it feels a little hollow to me. You could pitch it you can keep pitching it

Jim:

if want. I'd I'd it's a matter of figuring out why that feels hollow to you because, right, if if I were to have mic Yeah. Without the IP, if I had pitched a movie like this, I think you would be intrigued by the notion of, okay. What's the character's motivation? Mhmm.

Jim:

What kinds of what kind of set pieces are we gonna have?

T.C.:

Okay.

Jim:

What ultimately is is the end goal here?

T.C.:

That's fair. Yes. Okay. So fine. Let me let me walk back into the room.

T.C.:

I I left the room and I'm not back. Alright. Fine. You want a Grand Theft Auto? Gotta Grand Theft Auto.

T.C.:

The the notion of those games starting with three up. I'm not I'm not familiar with the top down games that the

Jim:

original were. That's why they they they weren't.

T.C.:

But the notion really is you are the lowest level of scum driver Mhmm. And you work yourself up the ladder in one way or another to be the king of the city. You go through every gangster in in in in your way working for and against everyone until you are the kingpin. So here okay. Here we go.

T.C.:

This is what we're gonna do. We're gonna do Grand Theft Auto. I love your idea. He's stealing cars. He's he's pitting the gangs against each other.

T.C.:

Mhmm. And he's climbing the ladder. And we get, like, almost a Conan the barbarian type story, where when he gets to the top and he's sitting in the throne, what does he sacrifice to get there? He he won. He's there, but now now what?

T.C.:

This isn't it's not what's all it's cracked up to. Right? Am I thinking right? Conan, he gets to the throne and

Jim:

Sort of. I mean, he's dedicated. I think you're right. He is sitting there, and King Conan looks looks forlorn.

T.C.:

Yeah.

Jim:

But I I I think it's a little more of a Alexander the Great, no worlds left to conquer.

T.C.:

Yes.

Jim:

Not that that was ever what Conan wanted to do. This is a totally different conversation. Yeah. You're evoking a particular thing. I think I understand what you're evoking.

Jim:

It's not quite Conan. Mhmm. But that's fine.

T.C.:

Yeah. Just that he gets he does manage to get them all killed and get everyone out of his way, has his fleet of cars from every every gang that he stole from, and he gets to the top, and it's nothing. I was just talking about how this idea the gay a movie of this could feel hollow. This is a victory for this this this criminal that got to the top, and it's not all it's cracked up to be. It's like, well, no.

T.C.:

Like, what do I what did I get out of this? I'm I'm the king of the worst people on the city. I'm the king of the worst people in the city. Congratulations to you.

Jim:

Is that what the games are about?

T.C.:

Not maybe I maybe I'm being a little bit a little cynical, but there's there's a for the most part in these games, it's like become the best criminal. Know? No. There's no you don't come out of

Jim:

this clean. We can still frame criminals though as not jolly good guys, but

T.C.:

Right?

Jim:

Yeah. So and and fairly staffable, but there's there's also stories where the Ocean's Eleven, they are all criminals.

T.C.:

Yes. Yes. You are you are right. There is a way to and I'm not saying we look at this I wouldn't hate the main character. I'd be rooting for him the whole way.

T.C.:

Sure. I'm just saying that by the time we get to the end and he's he's the king of the mountain, there is that little bit of forlornness that you see in King Conan's face of, like, now what do I do? I I I guess I wanna just go back to stealing cars. That was the best time of my life. Because when you beat every one of the Grand Theft Auto games, once you beat the story mode, the world is your oyster.

T.C.:

You can do whatever you want. There are still missions out there to be had, and the the game truly becomes an open world for you to play in. I'm really curious to see what six is because five is one of the largest video game maps ever created, and six is even bigger. I mean, literally, when the five came out, you had to get it with a hard drive to play the damn thing. But, anyway, that that's off point.

T.C.:

Yeah. Is that having a character who is a nobody who wants to be a somebody, and he and he becomes a somebody and and then feels like, I didn't want actually, you know what? Now that I'm here, I don't want it. I'd rather just be out on the streets again, boosting cars.

Jim:

Wind in my hair, police on my tail.

T.C.:

Yeah. Five star rating. Yeah. I don't know. I I don't know what more to say

Jim:

Okay.

T.C.:

On Grand Theft Auto. But I think with that, we can we started with a car movie. We can end with a car movie. Do you want do you want I'm gonna slowly start wrapping up the show.

Jim:

Yeah. I I just I I want to wrap up Grand Theft Auto on a on a it it feels lack lackluster. It feels like going out on a whimper.

T.C.:

And I take more I take some responsibility in that. So I want you to take a moment right now

Jim:

to

T.C.:

to to keep developing it. Mhmm. You know that thing you do where you sort of just zone out and stare in the middle distance while I end the show? Do that. Okay.

T.C.:

Okay. Here we go. Okay. But to to our, Chapman, thank you for for sticking with the show for seven seasons. Thank you for submitting a second demand and and giving us a chance to pitch some more video game movies.

T.C.:

So, of course, we default to you first, and you gotta let us know, did we did we do it again? You got another billion dollars for your cocaine and hookers? But anyone listening, you can go ahead and hit us up and let us know what did we miss. Is there anything that you wish we would develop further or or that you would yourself? And, of course, what are some video games?

T.C.:

Like, I honestly, I could keep going through the list here of some of the greatest video games of all time. Mass Effect, Red Dead Redemption, Minecraft, Bioshock, l any of the Elder Scrolls games, like Morrowind and Skyrim, Doom, Metroid. I'm glad to see Chrono Trigger on this list. Street Fighter Portal.

Jim:

Doom. I was gonna pitch Doom. A do redoing Doom.

T.C.:

Re redoom? Redoom. It's a redoom. Yeah. Warcraft, Metal Gear, Halo's on here, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, a bunch of Mario, a Golden Eye.

T.C.:

Pokemon obviously is gonna be on here. Silent Hill, Deus Deus Ex, Animal Crossing, Star Wars, Nice of Old Republic, Smash Brothers, Diablo. Like, that yeah. I'm I'm not gonna keep it. There's five there's literally 500 things on here.

T.C.:

I just wanted to to to list some of those off. So many great adaptations have come out in the past few years. People finally understood. And and I think Jim and I, you and I discussed this that super superhero movies are going to eventually go away. They're they're eventually gonna reach a point of people like, we're done.

T.C.:

We're done with the superhero movies. I think it's gonna happen soon, but we've we've seen the peak of it. And the next great thing to draw from is probably gonna be video games. Yeah. And we're seeing that very obviously with 2,000,000,000 successes with Mario and so on

Jim:

so forth like that. Minecraft.

T.C.:

Yeah. Like I've I've listed already. So to to you listener, what are some of the video games you'd like to see adapted? And and and I think it's a fair point that if the game has a great story, don't just adapt it one for one. You try to do that, and you get a second season of last of us that literally gets the showrunner fired.

T.C.:

Or

Jim:

tell us how we're wrong. Tell tell us take take a story that has a narrative that a great narrative that's already there

T.C.:

Mhmm.

Jim:

And tell us how you would portray that on screen. Like like, show us what we're missing.

T.C.:

Sure. Sure. Fallout. The Fallout show is really been is it didn't follow the rails, followed the world. Mhmm.

T.C.:

Awesome. Anyhow, you can message us directly at studio demands it dot com or on Instagram at studio demands it. If you wanna find this post specifically, you can comment there. Or wherever you're listening to these podcasts, you can come on. You can subscribe.

T.C.:

It doesn't hurt you none. Ask your friends who are already subscribed. I'm they'll tell you how great this show is if you haven't already figured it out. And a little review in the algorithm. Never helps.

T.C.:

Never hurts. Oh, god. You can also find us on YouTube. You can also find us on YouTube where we're doing a little maintenance over there on the YouTube channel to try to bolster our our library there. So you can check out some unseen stuff that isn't here on the show over on YouTube and TikTok as well.

T.C.:

Jim, I see you're still thinking, but do you wanna tell people real quick about some of the ways they can reach out to us?

Jim:

Come come hang out on Reddit at r slash studio demands it, or join us on Discord. Go to our website, studiodemands.com. No. I shouldn't say that. It might be different now.

Jim:

You can see it. Studiodemands.com. And at the top, there is a link to the Discord invite to the Discord.

T.C.:

Yeah. Of course, if you'd like even more of us, we have a Patreon. And for a couple bucks a month, you can get episodes early and they're commercial free. We have extended double length episodes. We talked about movie posters before this episode today.

T.C.:

So if you wanna hear some extra conversation and chatter from us about movies and all things we feel like discussing, subscribe over there. Or just subscribe for free and and get some of our extra bonus stuff there as well, such as suddenly a conversation. And yeah. Yeah. A massive thank you to our godfather and producer himself, Dave Geisler, for everything he does for us.

T.C.:

So please check out the other shows. Now, Jim, there you go. I I I've rattled this off. Yeah. People either put me at two times speed Yeah.

T.C.:

To get to this point Uh-huh. Or they just skipped ahead thirty seconds at a time till they reach this point.

Jim:

So our main character, right, he is he's he's at the bottom of the ladder. And, he's under under everyone's thumbs, like, like, what happens to the people at the bottom. And, so he's he's in false debt to people. Right? He's he's he's in sort of that that blackmail just not blackmail.

Jim:

Extortion extortionate debt.

T.C.:

You owe me because you owe me because you owe me because you owe me.

Jim:

Yeah. You owe me because I'm because otherwise, I'll punch you. And so he he's work he's not working his way to the top. He's not looking to become Scarface. He's not looking to be on top of the world, Ma.

Jim:

Okay. He's he's looking to make his way to the middle. Basically, he's looking to make his way out from under these people who hold him under under their thumb. Mhmm. And he's gonna play them off of each other.

Jim:

And, basically, make it to the middle to the point and be such a miscreant that anyone higher up doesn't like, you're we don't we don't wanna deal with you. Mhmm. Everything from the gangs to the cops. And, like like, it's just too not quite to say it's too much of a problem to come after you

T.C.:

Right.

Jim:

But more to kinda play them off of each other to to escape. He wants to essentially to escape the city.

T.C.:

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I'm with you.

Jim:

And and that includes the cops as one of these organizations. Mhmm. And so we've this character comes up with his scheme to steal cars and blame other people for it. Mhmm. And it's this it's this this round robin thing that gets bigger, and it it it it's a a cyclone of car theft

T.C.:

Yeah.

Jim:

That kinda grows out of control to the end to to to the point that he's able to get out. Mhmm. And so so it it ends. I know I I skipped a lot of beats in there.

T.C.:

You're fast pitching right now. It's

Jim:

cool. It it basically ends with him leaving town Scott like like, Scott free. Right? Like, the cops are now after money. The jets and the jets blame the sharks and yeah.

Jim:

Yeah. And he and he has he has this movie ends he has a cool $100, like like a bunch of money. Mhmm. It's not that he's gonna land back where he was. Mhmm.

Jim:

This movie ends with him good to go.

T.C.:

Just enough. Yeah.

Jim:

And and he's headed out out of this city to another one. Because

T.C.:

hear Liberty City's nice this time of year.

Jim:

Oh, may maybe I'll check that place out.

T.C.:

Or maybe he starts in Liberty City and goes to Vice City.

Jim:

Sure. Either way, like like, definitely, this this would have him crossing paths with with the mate with the characters from other games.

T.C.:

Okay. I like that.

Jim:

That's gonna

T.C.:

that okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Jim:

Yeah.

T.C.:

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Okay. So taking so the Liberty City universe that they've created that Rockstar has created Mhmm. Is overlaps.

T.C.:

The main character in three is in San Andreas. He doesn't say a word. His mouthy girlfriend does. That that that Vice City is a part like, they have kinda connected these. So setting a character within this universe who exists as a miscreant, great word for it, trying to get out, I think that that is a good plot set in this universe.

T.C.:

Yeah. At the and a lot of visual referencing, if not crossing paths with some of the some of the like Nico from five or four or or yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

T.C.:

I think

Jim:

And you get a really fun soundtrack Oh, yeah. With all the radio stations.

T.C.:

Yeah. Oh, Laszlo on the radio. Come on, man. Mhmm. Chatterbox.

T.C.:

Yep. Okay. I can see that that his goal is to just get just far enough into his in his underworld that he can safely exit without people coming after him.

Jim:

Yeah. And I I love the idea because you often often often, it's I need just enough. Mhmm. And the whole point to those movies is it's never enough. Yes.

Jim:

They always end up pushing too far, and that's their

T.C.:

Yeah. Fall. Yeah.

Jim:

Not this guy. He's This guy gets to enough, and I want to ensue. Oh, is he gonna do one more job? Is it no.

T.C.:

I'm good. I'm out. Yeah. Yeah. It's a bit like the character Parker in payback, Mel Gibson movie where he's like, I don't want all that money.

T.C.:

I want this much money. Yeah. That's it. But I I like what you're pitching here. That's that's a fun idea that it's this a criminal world.

T.C.:

It's very much boosting cars like Grand Theft Auto. The machinations in a way, if this were a show rather than a movie, I I would almost go so far as you could pitch it as Game of Thrones with cars.

Jim:

Oh, yeah. That's great.

T.C.:

Yeah. That this this is this is that level of underhandedness and and conniving and lying and cheating and killing and and and murdering all the bad stuff. And you have a character that you're like, man, I hope this guy gets out of here. He's he's a bad guy, but he's not the bad guy. Yeah.

T.C.:

That's a that's a solid pitch, and and thank you for accepting that I could throw Game of Thrones as a sort of a a blanket over it. We're talking, like, good Game of Thrones.

Jim:

Of course.

T.C.:

Yeah. Season seven and eight. Yeah. Wait. Wait.

T.C.:

Our season seven and eight? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. But I think that'll do it for this.

T.C.:

Have a good job on on pulling out with the Game of Thrones. You won me over. Excellent. But that's gonna do it for this episode. So any final I've

Jim:

already given you No. Those those are the

T.C.:

final thoughts. And so with this rambling rambliness that we've always done, that's this is exactly how the show ends.

Jim:

End.

T.C.:

End. Just like that.