The Subterranean: The Movie

The Subterranean was written to be a two hour movie (see trailer below). Dialog is pithy if not sparse and the images do most of the talking. I divided the story into five 30 page segments and have the first three comics completed. The last two episodes are as catastrophic and unexpected as those who enjoyed Cypher would demand (see the Cypher blog here). SubT is a different world than Cypher but I fused the same bizarre sensibility with the superhero genre. Here is the logline for a SubT movie (spoiler alert):

A scientist forced underground by the murder of his wife battles to avenge her and save New York City as former colleagues launch the world's largest bank robbery under the guise of a terrorist attack.

Episode One is an origin story and a few readers complained they see the hero in full battle regalia in only one frame. Such critique is accurate but I felt compelled to flesh out the origin in a vintage style rather than abbreviating the story according to modern convention.

Episode Two introduces Max Jeffries who is an amalgamation of many hero archetypes. Readers suspected he was going to be a sidekick to The Subterranean. But he transcends such a narrow role and his character is fully developed in issues 4 and 5 with some surprising twists.

Episode Three heats up the action to a pre-climax boil. The villains are introduced–twins cast in the light of vintage comics and B Action Movies. I plead guilty to using apparent stereotypes on occasion but only to give more contrast to relationships in the final crescendo of the story. It's an unconventional approach but provides a harmonious, familiar world to overturn.

Regarding the motivation of the Thanatos Brothers I can only say that it isn't what you're thinking. And yes, in the tradition of Cypher, thanatos is Greek for death.

Stay tuned.

Brad Teare–May 2012

Write a great logline

A LOGLINE IS A BRIEF explanation used in the movie business to describe the entire story. It's not easy to boil down a complex plot into one sentence but it's necessary if you're going to pitch your idea to a Hollywood executive you meet on an elevator. In anticipation of such a meeting many people memorize their loglines.

Loglines get their name from the short titles producers write on the spines of screenplays. They can then identify which screenplays have potential by quickly browsing the spines. Here's a checklist to use when formulating your logline. You probably won't be able to get all of these elements into one logline. Remember; if the logline gets too long it loses its effectiveness:

CHECKLIST (squeeze in as many as you can)

Reveal the star's SITUATION

Reveal the important COMPLICATIONS

Describe the ACTION the star takes

Describe the star's CRISIS decision

Hint at the CLIMAX

Hint at the star's potential TRANSFORMATION

Identify GENRE

Keep it to THREE SENTENCES or less

Use PRESENT TENSE

Here's the logline for The Subterranean (If you haven't read issues #1,#2, and #3 , all free. Isuggest reading them first as the tagline contains a spoiler):

A scientist forced underground by the murder of his wife battles to avenge her and save New York City as former colleagues launch the world's largest bank robbery under the guise of a terrorist attack.

Is this the best logline I could write for The Subterranean? Haven't I neglected many of the exciting elements of the story? Due to the nature of loglines, yes, but until it ends up on the spine of a screenplay it's a work in progress.