I’m always interested in how
projects change from the original idea to the final version. Here, courtesy of
worstpreviews.com, is an excerpt from an article in which director Pete Doctor
reveals the original story of what became “Monsters Inc.”:
"My idea was that it was about a 30 year old man who is an accountant or
something. He hates his job. And one day he gets a book with some drawings,
that he did when he was a kid, from his mom. He doesn't think anything of it,
he puts it on the shelf and that night, monsters show up. And nobody else can
see them."
"He thinks he's starting to go
crazy. They follow him to his job, and on his dates, and it turns out that
these monsters are fears that he never dealt with as a kid. And each one of
them represents a different kind of fear. As he conquers those fears, the guys
who he slowly becomes friends with, they disappear as he conquers those fears.
It's this bittersweet ending where they go away."
Sounds like a good idea, but
I can see that the final version has a lot more appeal to kids.
If you want to work in
Hollywood for TV or film, this kind of change between the original idea and the
finished product is typical, and being flexible is mandatory. If you are not
open to having your ideas changed, stick to books, you’ll be a lot happier! Not
that book authors don’t have to deal with input, too, but the changes usually
are far less radical.
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