Serious Science Fiction: A Discussion about Theme

Let's face facts: there is relatively little actual Science Fiction happening in cinema today, at least in the classical understanding of the purpose and form of Science Fiction. If I were to offer a simple definition, it would be that Science Fiction (serious Science Fiction perhaps) explores the pressing issues of today by extrapolating them into a potential future where their effects can be magnified and examined.

Now let me couch my statement by saying that there is some great Science Fiction out there. Children of Men, Minority Report, 28 Days Later, Inception, Moon, District 9, I Am Legend...if its original ending were to have made it to the screen...but that's another discussion.

And let me further couch my statement by my own mea culpa. I am a professional screenwriter, credited with writing A Sound of Thunder, and soon to create a feature version of another well known sci-fi staple, it appears. All I can say about A Sound of Thunder is that I'm sorry, and it was a very different movie than what I wrote (Harry Knowles is a fan of my version). Nonetheless, I felt I owed any readers of this thread the above info to either inform them, or fuel their trolldom, whichever their heart leads them to.

Having read several of the scripts here on the Amazon Studios experiment, I found a few to be very well written, but so far only Children of Others seems to have the underlying bone structure to be something special. For a first draft, it appears to me to be onto something.

Fertility. Playing god with conception and even genetics. A massive change in the average age of parents in just one generation, with a host of unintended and unwanted consequences. All of these are relatively unexplored areas of interest and conflict for us.

I propose a discussion of how these thematic elements are present in the material here, and how they can be strengthened and amplified. Has the writer missed opportunities to explore this theme? Is there more happening in our culture that is relevant and might strengthen the work?

Looking forward to, hopefully, some helpful back and forth, as we explore this new model of story breaking.

Best,

Thomas Dean Donnelly

i second your motion, sir!

in the interest of exploration and growing as a writer, i love the idea of discussing the themes in this script. i don't know that i can add anything, but i'd love to watch a discussion like this unfold.

the idea of playing god with genetics has certainly found its way into films before. Gattaca springs to mind. also, Speilberg's AI takes an interesting approach to the dilemma of infertility (or i think, replacing a lost child in that case). the television show Fringe does a pretty good job with these themes as well. in fact there's actually an episode about rapidly aging fetuses.

i think that's all i got. but i hope others chime in.
-pete

I have written a short story that is right along the lines of "Children of others" but it is much more fun, a grey comedy. Please do not run this until you read my short script.

Thomas Dean Donnelly has hit the proverbial nail on the head. I think of Children of Men that explored the problems of immigration and perhaps our neglect of valuable natural resources, not just environmental but human. And Gattaca was simply brilliant, a recasting of discrimination into genoism and an affirmation of human will as a primary ingredient of success.

Children of Others (which must be re-titled) needs that thematic glue, that overarching perspective, to help it transcend a simple "Demon Seed" genre. Maybe the view is that the hybrid beings are not a threat, but just an evolutionary opportunity (suggested by Octavia Butler in her Xenogenesis Trilogy) that we should be embracing, not running from.

I am a avid Science Fiction fan - I love the idea of the alien child and love the idea of everything else but but but....Since 2010 and even before....This has been done many times before. Ok, I would still watch it on TV for free. Would I pay to watch it at the movies? Nah. I notice that themes run popular in Hollywood. This theme is a little aged but so is everything in Hollywood and repeated over and over. I would re-work the premise - Make the women younger 16 ish fill the roll with a Disney Kid looking to break out of the Disney Stereo type. Work from that point where the child can alter family DNA to be Alien. Something like Alien ZOmbies ... but this story is long in the tooth

As stated in my version I believe that the most deep and meaningful theme of Barrington's excellent sp is: "There is no greater love then that of a mother for her child".

Which, regardless of the father, colour, sex etc. is a totally unbreakable, pure and infinite bond - which underpins the whole premise of sacrifice, oneness and of how 'we' in our collective universe ultimately survive.

Blood IS thicker than water - True love DOES conqour all...

No greater love then a Mother for her child.

Please read my version and let me know if I accomplished what I set out to do -

respectfully, Jim.

And why do either of you gentlemen doubt that all of that is currently happening. As a spec screenwriter, my year of research writing my current script "Roswell: The Beginning" has me believing there is more to what we are told. I had always known that life from other worlds was reality but the level of secrecy among the Black budget military is staggering Why is no one questioning WHY the shuttle program ended so abruptly, it;s NOT for lack of funds as the lamestream media wants us to think, they have trillions to spend of savage wars, the money is there. Reality? They don't need rocket burning craft anymore, they've finally back engineered a human version of the flying saucer. I'm 51 and the SR-71 Blackbird flew when I was born. It took over 2 decades before they admitted to it. F-117A, stealth fighter first flew in 1978, I was still in high school, and that also took almost 15 years to be revealed. Ask yourself, what do they have now that we wont officially know of for the next 15-20 years. I haven't read this script but look forward to it. IMHO, aliens are real, and a hybrid is their ultimate goal. People getting snatched (not unlike what we do to "lower forms of life") for the purpose of experimentation and exploration are not crazy, its not all weather balloons and swamp gas as project Bluebook and MJ12 tried to convince us. My story begins at the Roswell crash where all of the now aging eyewitnesses claimed to have seen a survivor among the 4 dead alien bodies. "Roswell: The Beginning" follows that survivor. Stays tuned, for the script and someday full UFO disclosure. :-) <3

I agree. :-) alien zombies is a bit juvenile for the subject of motherhood. I have friends who went thru heartache of trying to have kids, its hurts. They have a pair of birds now. Makes me hug n kiss my kids every chance I get.