Sometimes I’m absolutely fascinated by the direction my dreams take, especially when they’re inspired by something as simple as the fact that the last thing I saw on television before turning in for the night was the commercial for the new Arthur remake. I haven’t really seen even the first one, though it was a favourite of my father’s. But, still, the dream that lingered as a potential story was very loosely based on, if not the movie, then at least Russell Brand.
There seems to be a bit of well of ideas that can branch off of some crazy old rich dude wanting to put people through funny games to earn a portion of his wealth. That was, essentially, the premise of this dream. Crazy old rich dude doesn’t have any children (or, at least, none that he actually wants to give his inheritance to) and so he decides he’s going to open up the option for people to come in, go through all these hoops and challenges and situations, and whoever remains victorious at the end gets the spoils. Ideally, he wants to bestow these gifts onto a young couple, who could start a new family and a new empire and give him the chance to see a fancy, schmancy wedding at his estate before he dies, since he’s a romantic at heart and it seems like the sort of thing his long dead wife would have liked. The central figure, who takes on the personality much like Russell Brand in the Arthur previews (and a little from Get Him to the Greek, which I haven’t seen, but have seen the same ad about fifty gazillion times OnDemand), clearly wants to take up this opportunity, but he doesn’t exactly have a partner. So he randomly enlists in the aid of a girl he knows by some still-undetermined association, not because he particularly likes her (which he doesn’t), but just because she’s there and if he offers her some sort of compensation, he figures she’ll do it. And she does.
So these two oddball kids get together, pretend to be in love, and compete against other actual (or so you’d think) couples to win random old dude’s moneys. Hilarity and wacky hi-jinks and probably a blossoming actual romance ensues. It’s clearly the sort of thing you’d see out of a movie script, or perhaps even a television show (I…would totally watch that show), but it could be interesting attempting to make a novel out of it. If anything, it could be a lot of fun and a good departure from heavier, more serious stuff.
L.S. Engler 