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SimplyScripts Screenwriting Discussion Board  /  Thriller Scripts  /  The Anarchist's Playground
Posted by: Don, July 31st, 2016, 10:16pm
The Anarchist's Playground by Eric C. Dickson - Thriller - A mentally damaged liquor store clerk believes that the gun that almost killed him is a divine instrument of justice sent from God.   105 pages - pdf format

Writer interested in feedback on this work

Posted by: ericdickson, July 6th, 2017, 10:15am; Reply: 1
This was recently sold and slated for production this Fall.
Posted by: Cacutshaw, July 6th, 2017, 10:54am; Reply: 2
Congrats! That's amazing, the world needs more vigilante films.

Would love to read it but I'm in the middle of writing a vigilante script myself and don't want to read or watch anything similar until it's done. But it's very cool that I could be watching it instead of reading it in the near future.
Posted by: eldave1, July 6th, 2017, 11:27am; Reply: 3
Very cool - keep us posted when it's out - did read the first ten - well done IMO.
Posted by: SAC, July 6th, 2017, 2:49pm; Reply: 4
Just checked out the first five pages here at work and, yeah, I definitely wanna read more!
Posted by: ericdickson, July 6th, 2017, 4:11pm; Reply: 5
Cool.  Thanks, gentlemen.  
Posted by: Arundel, April 22nd, 2020, 11:46am; Reply: 6
Don't know what happened, but I was really enjoying this up to about page 20, then the script seemed to shift style and theme. Maybe it was just me. Really was enjoying the beginning with the vigilante angle. Even though it's nothing new, the script and especially the writing was fantastic. Kind of cared less about the whole Chandra/Denise angle development. Again, maybe just me.

Liked the scene in the playground. The nod to the script's title.
Posted by: ericdickson, April 23rd, 2020, 6:10pm; Reply: 7

Quoted from Arundel
Don't know what happened, but I was really enjoying this up to about page 20, then the script seemed to shift style and theme. Maybe it was just me. Really was enjoying the beginning with the vigilante angle. Even though it's nothing new, the script and especially the writing was fantastic. Kind of cared less about the whole Chandra/Denise angle development. Again, maybe just me.

Liked the scene in the playground. The nod to the script's title.


Appreciate the look and the notes.  

I hear you with the Chandra/Denise stuff.  I was just thinking about this the other day, and how much the character seems to refocus his efforts on the crooked cops during the second half of the script.  

I think it's mostly a matter of me running out of ideas and mostly running out of steam halfway through.  There's only so many ways to enact revenge on someone and keep things interesting before it becomes just a series of repetitive scenes and gratuitous violence.   There needs to be some type of story to follow, as well as a resolution.  

I also wanted this to be a sort of talking point script, showing the positives and negatives of taking justice into your own hands.  Specifically gun violence.

Denise's subplot with recording the corrupt cops was a way to show some redemption on her part, as well showing that even a lost soul like her had some love left in her heart and hadn't become completely numb.   As Derek was threatening to become.  

The diner scene was meant to show how Derek's actions toward Gary O'Dell may have dire consequences he'd never even thought of.  As O'Dell was threatening to file a lawsuit against his victim's father for damages.    

Basically, I wanted to tell a story about a man's inner conflict as opposed to just another vigilante bloodbath like the later Death Wish films became.  But I did add a lot more vigilante stuff to this most recent draft.  The pedophile and wife beater weren't in the earlier drafts.  It was just O'Dell and the drunk driver, as well as the guy at the nightclub he shoots in the alley.        

  
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