Director Duncan Jones ("Moon," "Source Code") told sfx magazine that one of his writing heroes is J. G. Ballard. Here's why:
"...I loved the fact that his idea of sci-fi wasn't to necessarily create entire galaxies and civilizations far, far away. He would take a completely contemporary, believable, understandable, cohesive reality, and then just tweak one thing, and then that's what made it sci-fi."
I know some people would disgree because they have a more strict definition of science fiction. However, it reminds us that we don't need to go to extremes to explore another reality. Some of the most thought-provoking stories come from wondering what kind of world it would be if one thing were different.
For instance, what if there were a black President of the USA?...Ooops, not that different a world, as it turns out. But you get the idea. It's an interesting way to come up with a different take on any genre.
You can see two vastly different versions of such an IF. What if an ape could become really smart?
The melodramatic version is Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which I saw yesterday and quite enjoyed. On a totally different level is a documentary called NIM, about a real chimp (that's him, above) who was raised by humans. Since it's factual, maybe it's not fair to compare, but NIM prompts a lot of thoughts about how we treat our simian cousins and tells you as much about the humans involved as the chimp--as does (in its broad way) Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
(For tips on screenwriting, see my other blog, http://www.ScreenWritingSuccess.com)
