Equilibrium

Try and picture it like this. An excited young studio exec rushes into the office of a Hollywood bigshot, clutching a bundle of partly-read screenplays under his arm and waving one aloft. "Sir! Sir! I've got it! This one's a killer. We have to make this."

The mogul leans back in his executive leather chair, lights another cigar and tries to look less cynical than he's feeling. "What's this one about?"
"It's set in the near future."
"Blade Runner or Towering Metropolis?"
"A little of both. One of those divided-city things; a thriving centre and shattered outskirts with rats, excessive surplus rainwater and crumbling buildings."
"What's the concept?"
"Well, it's post-WWIII - "
"Topical."
"Yeah, and society has outlawed human emotion so that things don't get out of hand again. And they have these regulating kick-ass intelligence agents who wear long black tunics and look kinda like priests."
"Except they kill, right?"
"You bet. We've got a great opening where they walk into an apartment building and ritually slaughter a bunch of civilians who've been collecting art. And this one guy, Preston, is the senior 'cleric' - that's what they call them, clerics - and he gets to point his guns in dramatic poses and be this lethal killing machine."
"Lots of guns, right?"
"Lots. But here's where it gets interesting - various events conspire to cause Preston to stop taking the mandatory drug that helps citizens control their emotion. And little by little he starts to feel again."
"How we gonna depict that?"
"I figure we do it gradually, you know - we'll have him slowly coming to terms with it through a few isolated incidents, and then we'll have a bit where he tears off the paper sheet covering his window so he can look at the rain outside. It'll be totally devoid of any subtlety so that we can be sure our audiences understand the metaphor."
"This is good. This is good. Can we get a dog involved?"
"Yeah, I'm sure we can find room for a cute dog somewhere. Nothing softens the hardest of hearts like a cute dog. Especially if its life is in danger."
"So what happens next?"
"Well, he gradually starts to adjust to his emotions and learns to get used to them. But we undercut this with the tension of the state: if he gets caught they'll kill him, so he has to be as emotionless as possible. So we can let our leading man be as wooden as he needs to be whilst pretending that this is exactly what he's trying to do."
"Who is our leading man?"
"I figured maybe Christian Bale."
"Makes sense. What about the love interest?"
"Oh, it's this feisty chick. The character's name is O'Brien."
"O'Brien? In a totalitarian oppressive future? Gee, that's not an obvious choice at all, is it?"
"I know, I know...but anyway, I figure we'll put shots of her wearing a flimsy dress staring hard at the hero. Lots of eye contact. Chicks dig that."
"Good, good. How's it end?"
"Well, you'll have to read the screenplay for that, boss."

The mogul flips through the last five pages and drops the script on the table in disgust. "Gee," he says sardonically, "who coulda seen that coming. Minority Report had a better story. And the dialogue stinks."
"Doesn't matter. The visual flair will compensate. And we'll put the bad dialogue down to the 'emotionally stilted' complex."
"Fine. How will this look, visually?"
"I figure lots of tall grey buildings and bad guys dressed in black. The dictator character will appear against a background with clouds swirling against a blue sky: very Windows. Oh, and all the cops will wear SWAT helmets with the visors down so you'll never see their faces - that way no one will care when they get mown down."
"Make sure we have some swords as well as all the guns. It'll be suitably post-modern. Which reminds me, how will we market it?"
"That's the best part. I think we can establish this in the trailer as an action movie when it really isn't - that way we'll get all the guys in. I'll put in as many references to The Matrix as possible without making it look too obvious. And if they feel cheated afterwards it doesn't matter, we'll still have their money."
"Great. Nice work, Will. Let's make a movie! But - off the record - what's your take on this?"
"I think it'll be a reasonable hit without breaking any records. One of those concept movies that's of more interest for its depiction of the future than for its actual content. And I also think that if we put a little more effort into the story and introduce more of a love interest we could actually come up with a good movie instead of the second-rate Saturday night hokum that we'll be putting out. But hey, you didn't hear me say that."
"Of course not..."

(Monday, 17th March 2003)