What Made you Smile/What Ticked you off Today?

[REPO Man]

I do the cooking, my wife does the laundry. Granted she also makes clothing so I dont want to ruin anything.

A sleep-deprived Dorothy inadvertently slits her wrists and when she nods out in the ambulance, she somehow ends up in a desolate wasteland and is joined by a scarecrow made out of a disgraced preacher's skin, a homicidal maniac whose soul is stuck in a tin statue and a mutant freak as they seek a mysterious individual in a dystopian city and ultimately comes face to face with, among other things, a body-harvesting witch and a past that Dorothy's been trying to forget for quite some time.

One quick question, why would a homicidal maniac decide to team up with others? If he is in a body with no real weaknesses (sans the occasional rusting), why would he want out?

He developed remorse and attempted suicide, but the local witch cursed him to never know death, even after he dove into a vat of molten tin at a local foundry.

[fastbilly1]

I do the cooking, my wife does the laundry. Granted she also makes clothing so I dont want to ruin anything.

A sleep-deprived Dorothy inadvertently slits her wrists and when she nods out in the ambulance, she somehow ends up in a desolate wasteland and is joined by a scarecrow made out of a disgraced preacher's skin, a homicidal maniac whose soul is stuck in a tin statue and a mutant freak as they seek a mysterious individual in a dystopian city and ultimately comes face to face with, among other things, a body-harvesting witch and a past that Dorothy's been trying to forget for quite some time.

One quick question, why would a homicidal maniac decide to team up with others? If he is in a body with no real weaknesses (sans the occasional rusting), why would he want out?

He developed remorse and attempted suicide, but the local witch cursed him to never know death, even after he dove into a vat of molten tin at a local foundry.

Then he would not be a homicidal maniac. He would atleast be reformed and not much darker than Nick Chopper.

[Sload Soap]

Have you seen Tin Man, Repo(Man)?

[Ack]

Have you seen Tin Man, Repo(Man)?

Or has he seen the Todd McFarlane Toys Twisted Oz line?

[AppleQueso]

: hotel is booked for my weekend Austin visit.

: but I have to get a new tire first now

[REPO Man]

Have you seen Tin Man, Repo(Man)?

Yes.

And I've also heard of the Todd McFarland line... after I got my idea.

But while his is more about just being grim and twisted for the sake of such, mine's much more under the hood. For starters, it does kind of pulls a few pages from the playbook of American McGee's Alice, using fantasy as a twisted metaphor for the reality one typically attempts to escape. Similarly, every single person Dorothy encounters is trying to cope with their particular reality.

It should be noted that in the current concept, Dorothy's life prior to the start of the story, while being just as relevant as it's always been, is never directly alluded to until much later in the story (which in the first chapter it's just blatantly said).

All the while we go down the not-quite-yellow brick road with this particular Dorothy in her nightmarish attempt to find in Oz what she couldn't find in her life. I'm not saying how it ends, whether it ends on a positive note or with a total soul-crusher.

[fastbilly1]

I am curious to what you mean by soul crusher. To me, the only way to have a soul crushing movement in a film, or any work, I have to like or relate to a character. From what you have described so far, I am not being grabbed at all by any of the characters. Then again, you would be walking the very dangerous line of goreography with this concept - like most twisted takes on classic stories.

I would be more interested if you took your concept and made it your own. Instead of turning the story of Wizard of Oz your way, take the world that your protagonist wakes up in and go a complete different direction than Frank L Baum, CS Lewis, or Lewis Carrol did. Still it is a story about getting home, which is hardcoded into most humans, but the journey there would be anything possible. Maybe your protagonist does not meet three strangers to go off to kill again, or a talking cat that disappears, but does it alone and confused.

[catnip]

My home state passed the nation's first GMO labeling law - super pumped to have a giant lawsuit with Monsanto that's going to drain all our resources. It's cool though. Still gonna be badass.

[SirGawain]

you would be walking the very dangerous line of goreography with this concept - like most twisted takes on classic stories.

Agreed. Not trying to change your mind or anything, but anything that takes a story that old and changes it better be damn near perfect. It is something that has been done enough to flood the market. I like the concept, it just needs something new and thrown at it so people won't look at it like another jacked-up/reworked thing of the past. I think you are on the right path, just flesh it out more or make the OZ character come to our world and have to get back to theirs before the crazy tin man causes too much damage.

[Flake]

I am curious to what you mean by soul crusher. To me, the only way to have a soul crushing movement in a film, or any work, I have to like or relate to a character. From what you have described so far, I am not being grabbed at all by any of the characters. Then again, you would be walking the very dangerous line of goreography with this concept - like most twisted takes on classic stories.

I would be more interested if you took your concept and made it your own. Instead of turning the story of Wizard of Oz your way, take the world that your protagonist wakes up in and go a complete different direction than Frank L Baum, CS Lewis, or Lewis Carrol did. Still it is a story about getting home, which is hardcoded into most humans, but the journey there would be anything possible. Maybe your protagonist does not meet three strangers to go off to kill again, or a talking cat that disappears, but does it alone and confused.

Agreed. The takeaway I have after reading his ideas is that he's unhappy and he wants to project that onto characters who are traditionally linked to the themes of hope and courage as some type of coping method. Being grim for the sake being grim is boring.