Hey

Quick question concerning my next potential native language screenplay. I think about writing an action-thriller which plays inside a cinema hall.

Well, without going much into the story, I got something in mind such as - the audience, of maybe even a premiere night, is held hostage by terrorists who try to obtain some imprisoned friends release. I imagine the parallels of watching the takeover of a cinema while actually sitting inside one could be a frightening experience, well, or the opposite of that.... I think about light and how this all could work. I like this raw concept a lot but maybe I forgot about secret rule No.1: Don't shoot a movie inside a cinema, ever; or why nobody has done so successfully yet? Any input out there?

From my side it would be stupid to start this project without asking for your writers' profound movie knowledge in this specific case. Looking forward to read some opinions.

Wasn't there a scenario like that in Belarus or some place like that a few years ago. Seems to me I remember terrorists taking over a cinema or some kind of auditorium and killing a bunch of people.

I'm only mentioning this in case your story is too close to a real event.

Quoted from Grandma Bear Wasn't there a scenario like that in Belarus or some place like that a few years ago. Seems to me I remember terrorists taking over a cinema or some kind of auditorium and killing a bunch of people.

I'm going to google Belarus. (haven't found it- but then I remembered of the poison gas controversy when Russian authorities used gas to free the hostages which killed a lot of them - in a Moscow theater- can't believe it's more than 10 years ago now) And, I can remember the assault in USA a few years ago.

Quoted from Grandma Bear I'm only mentioning this in case your story is too close to a real event.

Good point. You mean this is insensitive? or do you mean, if I do so, I should write from a true perspective?

Let's say it would differ in the case I could have some shiny celebrities in there to give it an original touch...

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jul/20/colorado-theater-shooting-dark-knight

I'd stay well away from this type of scenario. Still too raw imh. Up to you, of course.

After some digging in my foggy memories, I was thinking of the Chechen terrorists taking over the school. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beslan_school_hostage_crisis  

Not sure how my brain connected that to your idea though...

The Colorado shooting would be way too soon in people's memories for this story I would think though. I'd doubt anyone would touch it.

A few years ago though, there was a production company that wanted me to write a horror feature that took place in a movie theater.

Don't forget that Gangster Squad was pretty much ordered to remove a sequence in which a theater full of people were massacred. I would say to write what you're going to write, but consider it likely that people will take issue with it further down the line.

I do like the idea of making the audience uncomfortable by portraying the setting they're in as dangerous, but making it too real might put off the audience. I think the best way to execute that idea would be a horror movie (supernatural in nature) set inside the theater. That way you can play with making the theater scary without the level of reality which would make the situation uncomfortable.

Quoted from PrussianMosby … the audience, of maybe even a premiere night, is held hostage by terrorists who try to obtain some imprisoned friends release. I imagine the parallels of watching the takeover of a cinema while actually sitting inside one could be a frightening experience, well, or the opposite of that.... I think about light and how this all could work. I like this raw …

You could always turn this on its head by having an audience, watch a movie about an audience being held captive, then inject something from way out in left field like the ’Stockholm syndrome’. Maybe the audience would become so immersed within that it would be one of the most mind bending things they experienced… especially if this was a play, and the cast was trooping through the actual audience!

OK, now I’m really working it, but then again…

Anyways, best of luck...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome

Okay, I see the psychological and ethical issue here. It's understandable.

The whole terrorist angle doesn't work. It was just a first naive thought –(cinema hall? problems? – must be terror). It seems to be thematically too real, and also too near to tell it fictionally at this moment in time.

So, I might take a look again how I came to this:

I read a chat on IMDB about the new Denzel Washington movie. Some guys were talking about brutality-scenes in detail, so that it seemed as if it's their main reason to watch that movie:

QC TEAMKILL
Can you describe some death scenes in detail?
How many people are killed in this movie?

THE SHRIKE
I didn't count how many he killed, but it was quite a few. What stood out was how brutal some of the killings were, mostly to the throat, by gun, knife, corkscrew, spear, etc

QC TEAMKILL
That's nice. Would you mind writing some spoilers about how the bad guy dies? Thanks in advance.

ANDREW-MARKS59
One pretty big bad guy dies by a nail gun, then the bigger bad guy does by electrocution, other bad guys die in pretty brutal ways

QC TEAMKILL
Thank you for the info.
Could you describe the last action scene ( Home Depot )? Are there many bad guys or just a few of them?

ANDREW-MARKS59
The battle at Home Depot has people dying from barbed wire, giant garden clippers, a drill, nail gun, broken glass, very violent overall

QC TEAMKILL
Thanks for the info, bro. XD

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You know I don't blame them for being interested in the killings within a movie; just thought it would be kind of "ironic" to let those movie-geeks go on their personal trip of splatter inside a cinema hall. So, action thriller wasn't precise here, it could be also, as Eric mentioned, about a supernatural danger or killer, with potential comedic aspects too. Thanks for your thoughts.

@AsfarasSiam- hey, your experiments call made me think about a scenario sort of like The Haunting. Let's say a crazy director tries to establish a new kind of, what could it be called- multiple-way of cinema experience. Goes wrong...

Thanks again.

It doesn't work. The watching a cinema in a cinema plot is supeficial attractiVe - the substance isn't there...

Quoted from PrussianMosby It doesn't work. The watching a cinema in a cinema plot is supeficial attractice - the substance isn't there...

The substance isn't there. And neither's the spelling. What's a 'supeficial attractice' ?

R

The scenario of an audience within a cinema – which is watching an audience within a cinema is attractive (d'oh!) from a superficial sight IMO. But it has no substance out of that IMO. There are too much problems I recognized while thinking about all that and reflecting things said in this thread. I won't write it, and that's okay.

Check out this link:

http://campblood.org/Newblog/archives/4170

This might help as well:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_theater_hostage_crisis

Over here it was very big. Everyone in Moscow goes to theatres and many got scared after that.