Movie Minute Klassic - Comic Heroes

[0:00] And now, the Flophouse Movie Minute.

[0:09] So, Elliott, you had an idea for a Ziggy movie.

[0:13] I just feel like the Ziggy character is one that has a lot of cinematic potential.

[0:17] What is he? Man or unman? Superman? Subhuman? You don't know.

[0:21] Then there's the dynamic between him and the parrot. The parrot hates him, but depends on him.

[0:26] And it's that dependency, I think, that makes him hate him. It's a very Greg Arden's aspect.

[0:29] You've got the dog. The dog is loyal. Dogs representing loyalty as dogs.

[0:34] And then you've got, say, his different complaints, his different troubles with the world, obstacles.

[0:38] Goes to the complaint department. That could be a big set. That's your set piece right there.

[0:42] What does the complaint department look like on the other side of the complaint window?

[0:45] He goes to the doctor's office. Maybe he has cancer. I don't know.

[0:48] That could be your story. Very Constantine. He runs out of man dresses.

[0:52] Doesn't wear pants. Does he get in trouble for that? Does he have genitalia?

[0:55] We don't know, because the man dress covers it, but he doesn't wear pants.

[0:58] He has a cat. The cat is indifferent? We don't know.

[1:01] Aliens land very often in the script. Is the movie about the first time he makes contact?

[1:05] Or is it a multiple thing? Do they land and he already knows them?

[1:08] Do they have a backstory? Is this something that we can gap?

[1:11] Do we show the first meeting? Flash forward five years. The aliens are coming over more often.

[1:15] Also disparaging him. There are three stories you can tell.

[1:18] Man vs. Nature, Man vs. God, and Man vs. Man.

[1:21] In this case, it is Man vs. Man. If Ziggy is a man, we don't know.

[1:25] Could be Man vs. Nature. Ziggy represents nature.

[1:28] Could be Man vs. God. Is Ziggy God, or the aliens God?

[1:31] They come down from above. Is the parrot God?

[1:33] He can come criticize Ziggy, but he does not have to worry about any sort of rebuttal.

[1:37] Any sort of vengeance. Why? Because maybe he holds the power over Ziggy.

[1:41] I like it, but how are we going to realize Ziggy?

[1:43] Is Ziggy CGI, or is Ziggy a short man with a really big head and nose prosthetic?

[1:50] There are three schools of thought on this.

[1:52] One, CGI Ziggy. I think that's a problem. Works for something like Shrek, which is CGI world.

[1:57] For Hulk, however, very hard to put it across.

[1:59] I would say no CGI Ziggy, unless it's an all CGI movie.

[2:02] And in that case, the specialness of having a talking parrot and a Ziggy is destroyed if it's a cartoon.

[2:08] Also, you could say do Jeremy Piven in a fat suit.

[2:11] That would get across the visual idea of Ziggy in a very Flintstones, Popeye sort of way.

[2:17] But it might not be realistic enough. Again, it looks too much like a man in makeup.

[2:21] Or, and here's a more radical idea.

[2:23] We don't try to visually get Ziggy across, but through the mannerisms, the voice.

[2:28] In this case, I see Wallace Shawn as Ziggy.

[2:30] If it's animated, Wallace Shawn as the voice of Ziggy. Certainly.

[2:33] The man is like a Ziggy in real life. A real life Ziggy, if you will.

[2:37] Except that he is very much a man with male genitalia.

[2:40] We assume he has pants, but what's beneath them? We don't know.

[2:43] My dinner with Andre doesn't really address this.

[2:45] Neither does his role in The Princess Bride.

[2:47] Neither does his role in Clueless, where he does have romantic feelings for a human woman.

[2:51] But that doesn't necessarily mean he's a man.

[2:52] Swamp Thing had feelings for a human woman.

[2:54] And yet he was a sort of swamp elemental made up of organic matter.

[2:57] With the memories of a man. Yes. The memories of a man.

[3:00] But does Ziggy have that sort of background?

[3:02] Is Ziggy the reincarnation of Alec Holland, the scientist? I doubt it.

[3:05] He's Ziggy. Is Ziggy some sort of mutation that's gone horribly wrong and has escaped and now has set up his life?

[3:10] What does he do for a job? What does he do for a living?

[3:12] What does he do for a living?

[3:13] Maybe the government kind of keeps him around because he's too important to kill.

[3:17] At the same time, they must control him.

[3:19] Maybe the complaints department is part of a conspiracy to keep Ziggy down.

[3:22] Maybe the parrot is an informer for the government to tell them about Ziggy's movements.

[3:25] Maybe Ziggy tries to leave, gets on a bus, the aliens stop the bus, the aliens are working with the government.

[3:30] Roswell. Area 51. All these things come together.

[3:33] Ziggy has a conspiracy sort of thing. A Ziggy identity, if you will.

[3:36] Born, ultimatum, Ziggy ultimatum.

[3:38] Maybe a Ziggy, um, I don't know.

[3:41] Something with a conspiracy. Ziggy with Zodiac.

[3:43] Ziggyac, you could call it. Everything comes together.

[3:45] A conspiracy of facts, if you will.

[3:47] Very Tom Stoppard.

[3:48] Uh, the idea that reality is up against these people.

[3:51] Very Pinter. Minimal. Minimal dialogue. Minimal sets.

[3:54] We never leave Ziggy's house.

[3:55] Maybe Ziggy calls through different periods of time.

[3:57] Very by the skin of our teeth.

[3:59] These are theatrical things again, but you can make plays into movies.

[4:02] We've proved this. Our Town. Hamlet.

[4:04] Maybe again, Wallace Shawn puts across Ziggy's characteristics just as himself.

[4:09] No prosthetics. We see Ziggy in our mind's eye,

[4:12] but our regular eye's eye just see Wallace Shawn.

[4:15] Movie posters just gonna be one of the panels from the strip?

[4:18] That's a good question.

[4:19] We could show a panel from the strip with the back of the live-action Ziggy looking at it.

[4:24] Creates mystery in the audience.

[4:25] Does he look like Ziggy?

[4:27] Maybe there's just the Ziggy outline with a question mark in it.

[4:29] Just says, guess who?

[4:31] Or it says something like, you know, there's a close-up of the parrot.

[4:34] He's a sassy parrot.

[4:35] And it says, like, this summer get zigged.

[4:37] We don't know. These are some ideas.

[4:39] I could have the guys in promotions put it together,

[4:41] but there are many things we can do with the poster.

[4:43] I don't know if we need to get the cartoonist of Ziggy involved

[4:46] or if we could do it all with Photoshopped actors as they do posters nowadays.

[4:49] Trailer. Give me a trailer.

[4:51] Trailer starts. Complaint department. Man behind the desk.

[4:53] Then close-up on his face. Shock as something we hear shuffles up to the window.

[4:58] And then, sir, you have a complaint?

[5:00] And then we hear, I wish I was taller.

[5:03] Suddenly, cut to, or maybe camera spins around to, Ziggy, right there.

[5:08] And then suddenly the title comes up big.

[5:10] Ziggy, in the kind of Flintstones rock font, maybe.

[5:13] Or maybe in the Ziggy cartoon font, but a three-dimensional version of it.

[5:16] And then we see Ziggy gives one last bon mot to the camera.

[5:19] You know, something along the lines of, like, shrugs his shoulders.

[5:22] Maybe we see the parrot go, uh-oh.

[5:24] And then, again, that slogan, I think, is really good.

[5:26] This summer get zigged.

[5:28] I see this as a summer tentpole movie, definitely.

[5:30] This is big business. Comic book movies have done very well.

[5:33] Spider-Man, X-Men, et cetera.

[5:35] Marmaduke, not so well.

[5:37] So I think this is a tentpole movie.

[5:39] Merchandising. I see a lot of merchandising.

[5:41] Ziggy figures. Ziggy stick-em-ups to go into windows in your car.

[5:44] Ziggy at Burger King. Collect all Ford action figures, obvious.

[5:47] You have your sets. You have your house play set.

[5:49] You have your complaints department play set.

[5:51] You have your doctor's office play set.

[5:53] Alternate Ziggy figures. Ziggy with pants.

[5:55] Maybe that's a spoiler for the end of the movie. I don't know.

[5:57] Maybe you dress him up. Maybe he's a stuffed animal and dress him up.

[5:59] That brings the female audience in.

[6:01] Little girls. They like it. They like talking animals.

[6:03] Stuffed animal Ziggy dogs. Take them home.

[6:05] Stuffed animal parrots. Or talking parrots like a big-mouth billy bass.

[6:08] You put it on your wall and maybe it says sarcastic things to you.

[6:11] If I really want a denim jacket that has an airbrushing of Ziggy on the back,

[6:15] possibly wearing, I don't know, hip-hop clothing, could I get that?

[6:19] Right there. That's a perfect scene. Right there.

[6:21] Ziggy is this kind of nevish-y character.

[6:23] You get him in a scene.

[6:25] You don't expect him to bust out with rhymes or maybe pop and lock.

[6:28] And then he does it. We do it all with CGI.

[6:30] Maybe there's a foul-mouthed granny, rapping granny, something like that.

[6:33] Maybe this is just a credit sequence.

[6:35] Maybe this is just the end credits.

[6:37] After we've established this Ziggy character, the movie ends with a shot of him

[6:39] smirking or shrugging.

[6:41] Either things haven't gone his way, uh-oh, that's life as a Ziggy,

[6:43] or things have gone his way.

[6:45] Finally, Ziggy's on top.

[6:46] Then we get to the credits. Credits roll.

[6:48] The audience is about to get up to leave.

[6:50] And then, uh-oh, more footage. This is going to be great.

[6:53] And Ziggy raps about being Ziggy. Slap slips on the sunglasses.

[6:57] Maybe the parrot has gold chains around his neck,

[6:59] and sunglasses, kerchief, do-rag on his head.

[7:01] Turns on the boombox, and then maybe the dog does some spins on a turntable.

[7:05] Scratching records.

[7:07] How hilarious would it be to see Wallace Shawn rapping and breakdancing?

[7:09] How hilarious would that be?

[7:11] Tell me. Very. That's money in the bank.

[7:13] That's gold. And Wallace Shawn will do it. He needs the money.

[7:15] If he's going to put on another play that no one wants to see,

[7:18] or one-man show about how terrible life is, he's going to need moolah.

[7:21] Let me stop you right there.

[7:23] You've just sold your first film.

[7:25] Thank you.

Movie Minute Klassic - Comic Heroes

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