Screenwriting : Strike the Iron while it’s HOT. by Bill Brock

There will be a glut of them. Just like there was a glut of mysteriously found plane scripts right after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared. Just like there's a glut of AI related dystopia now.

The mind space to go into should be "what medicine do people now need?". This is probably a terrible time to shop any disaster movie set in LA, but probably a great time to shop something that tells the tale of a heroic firefighter.

Regardless, nobody should be actively capitalising.

I know an actor who's house has burned down. There's not a lot I can do to help them, but I'm waiting in the wings to support them with writing and help keep their career going, when the time is right.

I had this thought: sooner we go to hear about Palisades fires new script! Someone will write about it! The message must be that we are survivors and life is one the most precious things we have! I am helping through prayers and sharing donations!

Someone needs to jump on THIS: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/09/takeshi-ebisawa-yakuza-lea...

CJ Walley I meant no intent in capitalizing on disaster of epic proportions and loss of life. But this story WILL be told. I was thinking in terms of observations of affected neighborhoods, talking to witnesses, LISTENING to related conversations. Capturing the IMMEDIATE before memories fade.

Maybe a fundraising film to help the victims?

Mike Childress Great idea, Mike. : )

Lee Goldberg, author and screenwriter, has a book called Malibu Burning, along with other burning disaster books. I think someone like him would be tapped to write the movie,

Debra Holland Good call, Deb. I, for one, am certainly not up for the task.

I will not write about this topic. It would be a good documentary in a few months. Such a tragedy and my prayers are with everyone in LA

Who's going to play Gavin Newsom?

That is a great question! Have you seen the movie Escape From LA? Hmmm...

Philip David Lee 87-year-old Anthony Hopkins.

Mark Deuce Oh, you mean the Pale, Pasty White, Buck-Toothed, Ugly, Redheaded Stepdaughter of the AMAZINGLY EPIC TRUE STORY,

“ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK”?

— Yeah, seen it. Piece of crap.

No, but I include environmental challenges in a few of my scripts. Nature is often one of my “characters”.

It`s not the saddest thing that happened on that day. As Che said it "All the properties of the rich men in the world are nothing, when compared to one innocent life."

I think the wars on Ukraine, Middle east, Africa & Asia are more concerning than the destruction of luxury homes. For some celebrities, the burnt homes are not even their 2nd & 3rd homes.

Yeah, I was thinking documentary myself... Debra Holland That writer ended up having to evac! An LA-based sibling sent an article that stated some dude was impersonating a firefighter to rob houses. Stay classy humans.

Bill Brock, I hear you. After the 2004 tsunami in Thailand, there was the movie Impossible about a family surviving it against the odds. That was released eight years after.

I'm saying I'd tread carefully with the topic. Many of the people affected are key decision makers within this industry.

CJ Walley It may be “possible” that IMPOSSIBLE was written shortly after the disaster, then took an additional 8 years to find a producing home.

Bill Brock, it almost certainly was as it was a true story.

Probably not gonna be something i write, but assume a glut of them will flood the market in due time. There's a lot of producers who love "ripped from the headlines" stories (the built in audience!). All you need is a hero/courageous angle and let errr rip

The first 9/11 film, a documentary, was released the year after the attacks, and even though it was not a dramatization many people, including victims' family members, were like, "Too soon", even though the documentarians were actually filming inside the towers on the day of the attacks. Given the likely number of filmmakers/industry people affected by the fires perhaps one or some of the victims will drive the production of a documentary... The "when is appropriate?" question is always going to be a source of contention.

Mike Childress, imagine your family home burns down, you're still reeling from that, and some random queries you with a bombastic logline related to the event. It's gonna happen. My partner's house burned down in August last year and she hasn't even had the insurance settlement needed to start rebuilding yet.

CJ Walley Gah. Bad form. I have seen some wild stories about people trying to get their stuff in front of people, e.g. staging a fake pizza delivery with a script in the box, but post-tragedy shenanigans... Collateral Damage got delayed after 9/11 because drum roll it has a scene with a bomb going off outside federal building in LA. I know some other films got put in limbo after too. There seem to be a few firefighter-based series now, I wonder how the producers navigate the real-world disasters...

Speaking of physical production, how would you recreate the fires? Greenscreen & CGI, mixed with neighborhood & mountain minatures? And where would you shoot the exteriors? Can you fake San Diego shoreline for Palisades? Technically challenging; and the production will need to hire real firetrucks and firefighters to monitor fake fires and actor-firefighters.

To put things in perspective, we were looking at shooting a small film set in the backyard of a house in LA. Just two people talking. No SFX or pyrotechnics. Film LA insisted we have a full time fire marshal. It's policy.

Bill Brock being an Aussie, sadly, large bushfires are something we live with almost every year (we just had one in western Victoria in December). If you are wanting to do research on similar stories, there is a great Aussies mini series called “Fires” - you should be able to find it on IMDB. The only caution I would have, is that it will be a very sensitive issue for many people who have lost property and loved ones. So, treat the subject with sensitivity, and speak to someone who has been affected, and “tell their story”. It will also be a “bit raw” for many, to be tackling them on this subject right now. However, a potentially very meaningful story, that shows the horror of large scale fires, and the very real impacts of global warming.

Bill Brock if you do want see “Fires”, it is on Australian “Free to Air” TV on “iview.abc.net.au”,but, you may need a VPN to get to it - if you are having trouble finding it also google “Australian Broadcasting Corporation - Fires TV Series”.

Peter Bartels Hi, Pete. My question was simply a hypothetical one. I have ZERO interest in writing it. Simply raised the point in order to discover other writers’ thoughts.

Is that not what we see in LA Bill Brock and I agree it was a dud.