There’s a funny article on the Guardian’s Film Blog by Paul
Owen on a ten-point plan for
writing a disaster movie. For instance, here’s point 8 (in this case, the
disaster is that gravity has started working sideways instead of down):
8. The scientist puts together his team In a cave underneath Mount Rushmore, the president should introduce the scientist to a crack team dedicated to fixing the problem – which should turn out to include his attractive ex-wife as well as a droll Englishman. The three of them should come up with a plan to stop the disaster – the more unrealistic the better. A good one in this case would be to have someone jump off the Empire State Building like a diving board in order to activate a nuclear weapon that would destroy the moon and thus reset earth's gravity; anything like that, really. Watching a cable news channel as they discuss who could carry out this dangerous mission, the team sees a report from the devastated New York, where the cat burglar is leaping across sideways skyscrapers to save an old grandmother's life. "By Jove," says the Englishman, "I think we've found our man!" The celebratory mood should be punctured by a brief phone call to the scientist from the head of the army with the upsetting news that "we lost Canada".
(for actual help in writing screenplays, see "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey and available online at Amazon, etc. -- also check out the associated website, www.yourwritingcoach.com)