Don’t Give up on a Great Idea

A few years ago, film director and producer Walter Hill was interviewed by Marc Maron on the latter’s podcast. The director of classic action movies like The Warriors and 48 HRS. told the story of reading a script with his producing partner, David Giler, and chatting with him over the phone about it during the 1976 Democratic National Convention.

“Carter was giving his speech, and David called me about 10 minutes into the speech. … He said, ‘This [script] is terrible,' and I said, ‘Keep reading,’ and three minutes later, he called back,” Hill recalled.

Giler had just read the chest-burster scene in Dan O’Bannon’s script to Alien. This is the memorable scene where the alien jumps out of the chest of the character and really gets the movie rolling.

Ultimately, Giler and Hill worked with O’Bannon in making Alien happen, and Ridley Scott’s direction, a dynamite cast, and H. R. Giger’s unforgettable artwork made it one of the greatest science fiction movies ever made. Since then, eight more films have been released, along with a television series and numerous video games, novels, and comic books. But that chest-burster scene is what first got everyone’s attention.

The moral of this story is that if you have an idea that you know is great, but you cannot quite figure out where it fits, keep working with it. You never know where it will take you.

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