In Star Wars, Obi-Wan has died and the Death Star is in motion.This is when the girl and guy break-up in every romantic comedy ever made when Ron Burgundy gets fired in Anchorman, and when John McClane is beaten and bloody in Die Hard. To the characters and audience, all hope seems lost.
The Major Set-Back: Since the point of no return, the stakes have gotten higher.They cannot make it to Alderaan as planned, and must fight their way out. In Star Wars, they are trapped at the Death-Star halfway into the movie.A Bond villain attacks again, the Gladiator arrives in Rome, Thelma and Louise rob their first store, etc. But, at the halfway point of the movie, something happens to make it impossible to turn back. The Point of No Return: Up until this point, the characters are working hard to make their goals a reality.He agrees to go on the quest to save Leia. In Star Wars, this is when Luke turns down Obi-Wan, but sees that his family has been killed.The next 10-20 pages show your characters dealing with this change. The Change of Plans/Opportunity/Conflict: Something happens that sets your conflict in motion on page 9-10 - Erin Brockovich gets a job, the school of Superbad throws a party, Neo is introduced to The Matrix, etc.In Star Wars, George Lucas introduces the premise of space warfare, the conflict ("Help me Obi-Wan, you're my only hope"), and many central characters (Luke, Leia, Darth Vader, R2-D2, and C3-P0).This is the first 10% or less of your movie, and it introduces us to the movie. The Set-Up: Give the characters, the setting, and the world.Take your idea and come up with these 5 crucial points and you will have a movie that stands a chance of getting made.
There are a lot of structures out there, ranging from the basic 3-Act movie to the common "hero's journey." But they can all be distilled into 5 basic parts that are found in 99% of all movies, from action and drama to rom-coms and children's films. This quick "mash-up" of movie types helped it stand out immensely. Warm Bodies has all the trappings of a Rom-Com, but one of the main characters is a zombie.Avatar is strikingly similar to Dances With Wolves, but by setting it in space James Cameron was able to get a brand new take on things.O Brother Where Art Thou is a retelling, nearly scene for seen, of Homer's The Iliad, but it is set in the bluegrass soaked world of the rural South.The plot is the same, it just happens to have jokes instead of action scenes. Austin Powers is simply a comedic twist on spy movies, particularly James Bond, that had dominated the theaters.How can you twist or change something you enjoy into something new? Ideas include:
No movie ever made didn't draw influence and ideas from movies and art before it, and yours will be no exception. Though that sounds harsh, it is actually incredibly liberating. You will never come up with a completely original idea. Tweak existing movies into something original.