The Elephant In The Room

OK, so there's an elephant in the room and nobody's mentioned it. Guess I'm going to be the one to admit that I know it's there, and maybe we can all start to deal with it.

Back before TrashHouse, I had a whole bunch of ideas for movies. Still do. Sometimes, you get ideas that sit on the back-burner for a long time, then they get their day in the sun and everything's wonderful. Sometimes that day in the sun has shitty timing, sometimes it's just plain weird.

I remember seeing the trailer for Shaun of The Dead for the first time whilst I was editing TrashHouse and thinking "Oh look. A British comedy/horror film with zombies in it. I just made one of them too, and that I can't remember there being another one since... Ooh, pretty much ever". Still, that coincidence worked out pretty well for us, I reckon. Shaun was an amazing flick, (still one of my favourites of last year), and the similarities between finished products were so slight as to not be worth worrying about.

You know where I'm going with this. I've stuck my head in the sand whilst on pre-production for the two new flicks. I've tried to wish it away. It hasn't worked, so a couple of days ago I went and saw it.

You know the movie I mean. The elephant in the room. Tim Burton's The Corpse Bride.

I had wondered if just not going and seeing it at all might be the most prudent idea. After all, here I am working on a 'ghostly bride' kind of movie with an as-yet-unfinished script. Wouldn't I be on safer ground to just deliberately never watch it?

Actually, I'm glad I watched it. Not just because it's a fairly good movie, (not up there with any of his best, but certainly no Planet of the Apes letdown), but because it's put my mind at rest. The two movies are absolutely nothing alike, beyond the involvement of a ghost that looks like a bride, (which is hardly the most original conceit in the history of fiction, regardless), and I can safely carry on the way I was headed, (although I'm going to be 'Find and Replace'-ing a particular character name that was unfortunately shared between the two movies).

By the time the flick actually comes out in late 2006/early 2007 the elephant will most certainly have wandered out of the room regardless. I just hope it doesn't eat all the potato salad like last time.