The Hidden Heist

I love a good heist flick, Modern Philosophers.

Ocean’s 11, The Italian Job, Reservoir Dogs… I could spend the day watching them all, and then want to break out my laptop and write one of my own.

When another movie inspires you to write one of your own, you know it’s damn good.

Of all the screenplays I’ve ever written, my favorite is my heist flick, .33 Reverse Gunther.  That’s the tale of a bank job gone very, very wrong.

I have this theory that I like to write bank robbery stories because my Dad spent his life working in a bank.  Perhaps a shrink would tell you that writing bank heists is my way of stealing my Dad back from the job that slowly sucked the life out of him.

I would not disagree.

I’m also a fan of putting a heist in another kind of story, just to add a little flavor and some action to the genre.

A great example of this is Return of the Jedi.

Who could forget Luke Skywalker’s getting a crew together to put off a pretty cool heist?

Stealing Jabba the Hutt’s most treasured piece of art, Han Solo frozen in carbonite, was an awesome way to start that movie.  So what if things got messy and there was some murder along the way?

In the end, they pulled of the heist, and that’s all that matters!

With this in mind, I decided to spice up my TV series by adding a heist subplot to Episode 8.  It fit perfectly into the story I wanted to tell, and in the end, wound up dominating the script as I came up with more and more ideas to further that plot.

I got so excited while writing it that I messaged my producer, who is also a director, and told him I was seeing the heist so clearly in my mind that I was adding specific camera directions to the script.

Maybe by the time Episode 8 is ready to roll, someone will get the crazy idea to allow the writer/creator to direct it.  Wouldn’t that be crazy awesome?

After the Pilot episode, Episode 8 was definitely my favorite one to write.  I can’t wait for my trusted readers to tackle the script and give me their thoughts on it.

Who knew that life at NYU was so damn exciting?  I’m not even sure I realized it at the time.

Don’t worry, no one got his ear cut off.  There wasn’t a Mexican standoff.  No one broke the law (okay, maybe that’s a little bit of a gray area).

All I know is that Episode 8 is done, and I have just two more episodes left to write in order to have an entire first season.  Did I mention I had an idea the other day for an awesome twist to add to those last two episodes?

When I set out to write this TV show, I had no idea the story would evolve into what it has become.  I’m so glad that even though I decided to work with an outline, I’ve kept it very fluid, and have allowed last second brainstorms to make the script and change the entire story moving forward.

This is why I love writing.  I never know what story I’m going to want to tell…