Button, Button by Adam Nadworniak - Short - Norma and Arthur are a down on there luck married copule who are visted by a mysterious man with one arm. He gives them a button. and explains to them that if they press the button on the box, two things will happen: they will receive $500,000, and someone they don't know will die.  19 pages - pdf, format 8)

" 'The Box' - Adapted from the Richard Matheson short story, “Button, Button”. Cameron Diaz and James Mardsen will star." Source - ScriptShadow.

Maybe the author of this 'short' can shed some light on this version submitted to SS .

Yeah the premise this short story is based on is interesting but not sure why you are writing this as I'm assuming you don't have the rights to it.

Nonetheless I read the first page to see what you've done with it but it's not good. You have mixed up past and present tense many times and it is an indication the rest of the script will be littered with mistakes. All the action should be written in the present tense, so we see it as it is happening. Don't tell us what has already happended as this is not something we can see on the screen. Study some other scripts on here to get a feel for how they should be written.

Cheers,
Tim.

Quoted from Don Button, Button by Adam Nadworniak - Short - Norma and Arthur are a down on there luck married copule who are visted by a mysterious man with one arm. He gives them a button. and explains to them that if they press the button on the box, two things will happen: they will receive $500,000, and someone they don't know will die.  19 pages - pdf, format 8)

Read a Scriptshadow review of a feature with the same premise. Even saw the trailer.

It also sounds VERY similar to a short here at SS that was turned into a short film by the author. It was very good. It was also stolen by someone who idiotically enough posted a script that was exactly the same, but with a different name on it. The original author proved it was his story and Bert promptly gave the impostor a lashing and then he was banned (I think). Wish I could remember the title. Maybe Bert does...

Thanks Dressel!! That's exactly the one I was thinking of!  :)

Quoted from Grandma Bear ...and Bert promptly gave the impostor a lashing and then he was banned (I think)...

Yeah...that really sucked that time I was banned haha.

Honestly guys, the author of this script is one of those that posts scripts and never participates on the boards.

There is a TON of new stuff.  Enough has been said about the derivative nature of this story.  Please move on instead of piling on.

Quoted Text

I have this episode of TZ... Hell, I have every episode of TZ, actually. The bad thign about this is when hollywood rips off other ideas they never give the source it came from any credit. I'm willing to bet that 98% of mover goers will believe the new movie is an original idea... Sad.


Anyways, Keith Odett is another guy floating around here who likes to steal other peoples work and post it as his own.

""Button, Button" was first published in Playboy, June 1970, a short story written by Richard Matheson. The story was republished as part of a collection of Matheson's short stories.

In the original short story, the plot is resolved differently. Norma presses the button, and receives the money - after her husband dies in a train incident where Arthur is pushed onto the tracks (the money was the no-fault insurance settlement, which is $50,000 instead of the $200,000 in the Twilight Zone episode). A despondent Norma asks the stranger why her husband was the one who was killed. The stranger replies that Norma never really knew her husband.

Richard Matheson strongly disapproved of the Twilight Zone version, especially the new ending, and used his pseudonym Logan Swanson for the teleplay."