# Your movie ideas **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [January 1, 2026, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-movie-ideas/1026235 "2026-01-01T11:02:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2026, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-movie-ideas/1026235/81 "2026-01-05T01:06:06Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I believe such a movie was made back in the ‘40s or early ‘50s. I don’t recall who played the Maulden character (possibly Tom Jowell), but the title was something like Up Front or Willy and Joe. That movie was based on his cartoon characters. I’m talking about a movie about his experiences in WWII. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2026, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-movie-ideas/1026235/82 "2026-01-05T01:16:38Z")
A long time ago, I started writing a WWII novel that I thought would make a good movie: A small unit of American GIs in Italy is sent on a suicide mission to take and hold a German strongpoint perched above a crossroads in the mountains, in preparation for a major offensive. They carry out the task, but realize at the end that they were sacrificed to act as a diversion from the main operation. I eventually decided it was too derivative (too much like The Guns of Navarone) and shelved the idea. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2026, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-movie-ideas/1026235/83 "2026-01-05T02:02:01Z")
If not based on them, Willie and Joe (and the book Up Front) reflected many of his experiences. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2026, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-movie-ideas/1026235/84 "2026-01-05T02:06:21Z")
I’ve read it many, many times, that and the Brass Ring document his war years. The movie was disavowed by Maildin who never cashed the check, it is a slapstick comedy. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2026, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-movie-ideas/1026235/85 "2026-01-05T02:35:20Z")
I can’t speak to that. I saw it only once, many years ago. I just know it exists. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2026, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-movie-ideas/1026235/86 "2026-01-05T02:48:45Z")
Mauldin never fought in combat. He worked for the 45th Division News and Stars and Stripes. He had a jeep and was allowed to kind of travel around Europe during the war and crank out content. He didn’t just draw cartoons, he also did illustrations for stories. Patton hated him and complained about him to Eisenhower who set up a meeting between Patton and Mauldin to air their differences. It’s astounding that a 25 year old sargeant stood up to Patton. He was a professional smart ass. ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2026, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-movie-ideas/1026235/87 "2026-01-05T18:18:29Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > I had an idea for a horror movie. A group 5 people set off for an excursion in the woods. But when they arrive at the campsite there are 6 of them - yet no one can remember who among them wasn’t there when they started out. You might like an anime called “Another”. One of the people in the class shouldn’t be there. This spirit/ entity is causing all the horribly bad luck that’s going on. Since the situation is already set up you have to follow the students attempts to find out who it is. The second episode contains the most horrific scene I’ve ever watched ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2026, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-movie-ideas/1026235/88 "2026-01-05T19:02:16Z")
Lise Meitner fleeing Nazi Germany right after she figured out nuclear fission would make a great movie! ---
**Author:** ![Cmyers1980](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyers1980/32/11814_2.png) [@Cmyers1980](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cmyers1980)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-movie-ideas/1026235/89 "2026-01-14T13:08:53Z")
I have many. Murder World: A sadistic alien forces a group of people to fight to the death for his amusement in a high tech maze. Jack the Kaniff: An amateur serial killer partners up with an legendary killer who mentors him on the ins and outs of murder. Cirque de Sade: A twisted circus devoted to depravity and carnage from another universe appears in a city. Ghastly: An assassin is forced by his latest target to kill his employer in 24 hours or become her magic slave forever. Pandemonium: A genie’s lamp appears in the middle of a war zone and is set upon by various parties across the moral spectrum ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-movie-ideas/1026235/90 "2026-01-14T13:45:06Z")
> [@Cmyers1980](#): > > Murder World: A sadistic alien forces a group of people to fight to the death for his amusement in a high tech maze. Sounds a lot like the Outer Limits episode “Fun and Games” from the original series. (Which, in turn, owes a lot to Fredric Brown’s story “Arena”) > Mike Benson, ex-boxer and small-time crook, and Laura Hanley, a divorcee, each emotionally wounded by life, are abducted at critical points in their lives by The Senator, a sporting alien representing the citizens of the planet Andera. The Anderans have overcome war, pestilence, avarice and envy, are no longer driven by wants and needs, and find that their lives have become quite stagnant; therefore, they replace their boredom with a constant supply of “fun & games”. Mike and Laura are “electroported” to an arena planet where they are to be pitted in mortal combat against two primitive aliens from the Calco galaxy for the entertainment of the jaded audience on Andera. > **[Fun and Games (The Outer Limits)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fun_and_Games_(The_Outer_Limits))** > > "Fun and Games" is an episode of the original The Outer Limits television show. It first aired on March 30, 1964, during the first season. > There WAS a moment in time when those who were brilliant and powerful also were playful, and when they took recess from their exhausting and magnificent strides toward glory, they replenished their darker passions with fun and games. On the planet Earth, such pastimes have been civilized, and drained of all but their last few drops of blood... Mike Benson,... ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-movie-ideas/1026235/91 "2026-01-14T21:46:16Z")
These seem very grisly. I admit I would not be in your target audience. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-movie-ideas/1026235/92 "2026-01-14T23:25:35Z")
Okay, my takes: > [@Cmyers1980](#): > > Murder World: A sadistic alien forces a group of people to fight to the death for his amusement in a high tech maze. There have been enough stories similar to this that I think it needs a unique twist to make it fresh. My suggestion: where they’re stranded there is no food or water except for a machine that dispenses enough each day to keep ONE person alive indefinitely. Split between all the people, it will only slow down how long it takes them to starve to death. Eventually they start getting _really_ hungry… > [@Cmyers1980](#): > > Jack the Kaniff: An amateur serial killer partners up with an legendary killer who mentors him on the ins and outs of murder. There **has** to be an ironic twist. Maybe it’s that the legendary killer finally sets up the amateur for death himself; only the amateur is ready for it and turns the tables, because he’s already the protege of _another_ master killer who set him the test of killing the first one. > [@Cmyers1980](#): > > Cirque de Sade: A twisted circus devoted to depravity and carnage from another universe appears in a city. You mean sort of like _Hell Raiser_ combined with “Something Wicked This Way Comes”? > [@Cmyers1980](#): > > Ghastly: An assassin is forced by his latest target to kill his employer in 24 hours or become her magic slave forever. Is this a fantasy setting or magical realism? ---
**Author:** ![Cmyers1980](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyers1980/32/11814_2.png) [@Cmyers1980](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cmyers1980)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-movie-ideas/1026235/93 "2026-01-14T23:36:15Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > My suggestion: where they’re stranded there is no food or water My idea was that they have a day to kill each other until there is only one survivor. More than one survivor by the end of the day and they all die. > [@Lumpy](#): > > mean sort of like _Hell Raiser_ combined with “Something Wicked This Way Comes”? Yes. > [@Lumpy](#): > > fantasy setting or magical realism? It takes place in current day Los Angeles. The assassin didn’t know the target was a witch or that magic was real. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2026, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-movie-ideas/1026235/94 "2026-01-15T12:37:01Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > My suggestion: where they’re stranded there is no food or water That’s the situation in Fredric Brown’s “Arena”, only without the machine that dispenses it. The hero’s under severe time restraint. ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2026, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-movie-ideas/1026235/95 "2026-01-15T15:54:45Z")
My idea for a movie: A family starts experiencing supernatural/paranormal activities in their house - apparitions etc - and, consequently, call their local priest to help. The priest visits and sees some of the activities and lets them know that he/she will get back to them. Later, the priest happens to meet with a good friend who happens to be a physicist, and tells the physicist friend about the activities. The physicist is very intrigued as he/she is doing some very esoteric research on multiverse interactions. The movie continues from that point as a pseudo-documentary in which the physicist, plus an assembled team of researchers, set up residence in the house to conduct their research which culminates in the first solid evidence of a multiverse. The movie would have no sound-track, no stupid jump scares but it would basically be hard science-fiction in that scenario’s context. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2026, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-movie-ideas/1026235/96 "2026-01-15T19:32:49Z")
**House of Leaves** by Mark Z. Danielewski is a modern American haunted house tale, but it does with video what _Dracula_ did with written letters. It’s almost Cosmic Horror and I adore it. No idea how to stay true to the original while keeping it scary, but I am the Big Idea Guy. I’ll let the work-a-day office drones deal with all that grizzly shit, just get it done. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2026, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-movie-ideas/1026235/97 "2026-01-15T19:39:05Z")
Oh, me too. The phrase above the MGM lion is _Ars Gratia Artis_, Art For Art’s Sake. Nothing in there at all about documentaries. If I wanted to watch our boring world I’d watch the news. Let’s see imagination on screen in all it’s forms for the love of god, I have popcorn here. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2026, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-movie-ideas/1026235/98 "2026-01-15T22:06:09Z")
nevermind 🤐 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-movie-ideas/1026235.md?page=4)