Story idea based on Romeo & juliet

[maria1966]

I have story idea based based on William shakespeare's story Romeo and Juliet.

But its set in the present day but their is no suicide scene at the end of it.

but aside from that little detail i can't do a Damn thing with it.

So if one of my fellow Lit discussion board members wants to take a crack at its all yours do whatever the hell you want with it.

 

[atariblue]

Romeo Mountafew is a budding porn star (maybe a straight guy working in the gay sector), who's well on his way to becoming one of the few notable male stars in the industry, because of his larger than normal "talent". Juliet Cap is a struggling actress trying to make it big in Hollywood. Bit parts here and there but nothing that will make her stand out.

One night at a party she meets Romeo. Fireworks immediately go off between them and they start spending more time together. As time goes on they get to know one another and she soon learns of Romeo's profession. Juliet is okay with this fact but her friends and agents are telling her otherwise.

An interesting turn in the tale could include her landing that big gig, but if her relationship with a porn actor is revealed she may be ostracized in the industry.

 

[emap]

Ahem this is not that hard.

Atari you are forgetting one thing, the movie industry doesn't give a rats ass about anyone working in the porn industry except the talent. In other words, rising young starlet falling for a porn star the only thing that happens is she is asked if it's better to fuck him. Little known fact, the guys holding the porn camera also have held a camera for a movie that is out or is coming out. Ron Howard wants to direct a porn, not because it means he stops making movies, it's just the toughest one to shoot where everyone is happy.

Romeo and Juliet on the other hand is a romantic play. Two families hate each other, while a promising son and daughter of the two families fall for each other. Granted it's more or less love at first sight but otherwise it's a good story. Little in actual fighting so most of the story is about young love and their struggle to overcome obstacles.

So present day, young Romeo is a black man and Juliet is a white woman. I said that way because it's what came to me. Possible to reverse so romeo is a white guy, however most Romeos are a black man in this country, don't ask me why. So her family is tossing a fit, his family would actually slap him on the back, so focus on her family. Her family first is telling her to not talk to the boy, so on so forth. Fight happens between Romeo and her brother, Juliet steps in to stop the fight.

First kiss, or latest kiss, happens then in front of others so now Juliet is being swore at. They have to run away so they are not pelted with things. Law comes into things because Dad thinks she is kidnapped, cops come to the house where Romeo lives with his parents, talking back and forth. Cops leave but mention it's best if they move so Romeo and Juliet catch the bus and go to a new town. Live happily ever after.

Sex would come in whenever the hell you want really. Mostly because in the play they never actually knock boots. I think, it's been forever and a day since high school and mostly we just watched the movie, 60's version newer hadn't been made then, I feel old now you evil bastard atari.

 

[atariblue]

I feel old now you evil bastard atari.

Emap, you're only as old as you feel in your mind!

I failed to mention Baz Lurhman's Romeo+Juliet, one of my top ten favorite movies, is a great modern retelling. The two family's are feuding business men with hints to mob connections. And it's all done using the Shakespearian speak, line for line.

 

[maria1966]

Bump.

 

[Hypoxia]

Romeo and Ethel the Pirate's Daughter -- no, it's been done. Although it would work if Romeo is a Lord of the Admiralty's son.

We know the basic plot. The principals are scions of rival organizations: families, gangs, corporations, gaming groups, colonization starships, vamps vs weres, etc. Their love is socially unacceptable. Then one kills or at least seriously discommodes a member of the rival faction. Now their love is impossible. After a bit of vivid action, each principal ends up accidentally dead or at least seriously discommoded. Cue the laments.

Much may happen within that structure. Kinks, fetishes, incest, cosplay, gender-play, aliens, clones, but forget the tentacles. Unless Juliet is a pearl-diver and Romeo is a tentacle monster...

But I digress. Add the tidy-girl-falls-for-fat-slob trope: R+J are with rival garbage pickup crews or RPG cliques. Or go SciFi: R+J are products of hostile cyborg-building groups. For extra fun, they switch genders at least once each, maybe more.

 

[maria1966]

Bump.

 

[MrRandyWatson]

For an American audience, it's hard to come up with two groups that have the same level of tension as the Montagues and the Capulets did in R&J. If it were a period piece, the obvious answer is the segregated South, although Rodgers and Hammerstein did something not too far off in West Side Story using street gangs.

The first thing that comes to mind, however, in today's world - political parties. Set the story in a medium-size city that's kind of purple politically but has gotten very divisive. St. Louis comes to mind. I suppose you could go bigger than that if you wanted to set it somewhere more iconic (I'm partial to Chicago because it has everything - big cities and sprawling suburbs, wealthy and poor, every race and ethnicity you can ask for, beautiful areas and nightmarish hellholes, etc. etc. It's also where my son was conceived, but I digress.)

Romeo comes from a powerful family in the city - wealthy lobbyists, privileged, yada yada. All of them are staunch Republicans, though Romeo questions a lot of his family's statements about "pulling yourself up by your bootstraps." Predictably, he's white.

Juliet comes from another family - business owners, locally influential but not privileged or wealthy. The matriarch of the family is a strong backer of Democratic candidates, though Juliet is conflicted based on seeing people abuse the system. And just to make it more interesting (and, y'know, since it's from my mind,) she's black.

The two meet at a cocktail mixer downtown having no idea who the other person is, and they end up going back to one of their rooms and hooking up. Only when a family member wakes one of them up the next morning does the other find out (I'm thinking it's Romeo's father who calls the room, and Juliet recognizes the voice in the background as "that asshole from the ads.")

Instead of murder, which is Lit unfriendly and an element of both R&J and WSS, I'm thinking of something else - Juliet's older brother is accused of stealing from Romeo's family. Charges are pressed, but he countersues for defamation, resulting in a fistfight between Romeo's dad and Juliet's brother. While the fight ends more or less in a draw and the legal fight is up in the air, somehow Romeo's mom ends up with a black eye. The dad ends up forbidding Romeo from seeing Juliet under penalty of being cut off. Juliet's family tells her to stay away from him as well.

Ultimately it comes down to a choice for Romeo and Juliet - family or each other. The two meet at a coffee shop far away from their families and plot to move away, leaving behind not only the city but all of American politics and move to Canada. They're spotted by an employee of Romeo's father, who fires a shot at Juliet, perceiving her as a threat and later saying he can cover it up by planting a knife on her. However, Romeo takes the bullet for Juliet in an unanticipated move - and it was caught on camera.

The employee is arrested after going rogue, Romeo heals in then hospital and regains use of his shoulder through physical therapy, and Romeo's dad sees how much his son loves Juliet and warms up to her. Juliet's family applauds Romeo's sacrifice and does the same.

When the story catches up to them a few years later, Romeo and Juliet are married with a son and a daughter, Romeo's dad has given up lobbying and is now a philanthropist, Juliet's brother has expanded the family business, and the political situation is a lot less tense.

 

[Hypoxia]

For an American audience, it's hard to come up with two groups that have the same level of tension as the Montagues and the Capulets did in R&J. If it were a period piece, the obvious answer is the segregated South, although Rodgers and Hammerstein did something not too far off in West Side Story using street gangs.

R&H had enough other masterpieces under their belts. West Side Story "is an American musical with a book by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and conception and choreography by Jerome Robbins."

 

[Carnevil9]

Aside from West Side Story, R&J was also moved into the modern world in the 80s classic flick Valley Girl. Randy was a punk/goth from the wrong side of town, and Julie was a squeaky-clean girl from"The Valley." In case you didn't catch the initials of the main characters, there was even a scene of them under a marquis announcing a showing of "Romeo and Juliet" at a local theater.

 

[Hypoxia]

Aside from West Side Story, R&J was also moved into the modern world in the 80s classic flick Valley Girl. Randy was a punk/goth from the wrong side of town, and Julie was a squeaky-clean girl from"The Valley." In case you didn't catch the initials of the main characters, there was even a scene of them under a marquis announcing a showing of "Romeo and Juliet" at a local theater.

I posted a sneaker version as a plot gerbil in Story of My Fucking Life:

Romeo Et Juliet - Romeo also et Sue Ann, Lily, Clarita, Meg, and Daisy. He used his prehensile hillbilly tongue like a starving anteater. And he sure loved "dining at the Y". Them gals got et out GOOD!

But I digress. I can see R&J as members of different school cliques, or car-repo agencies, or bands (punk vs soul), or rival televangelist staffs, etc. For fun, at least one is a cyborg.

 

[MrRandyWatson]

Aside from West Side Story, R&J was also moved into the modern world in the 80s classic flick Valley Girl. Randy was a punk/goth from the wrong side of town, and Julie was a squeaky-clean girl from"The Valley." In case you didn't catch the initials of the main characters, there was even a scene of them under a marquis announcing a showing of "Romeo and Juliet" at a local theater.

The story itself dates back to Greek mythology - Pyramus and Thisbe was the original story and the idea dates back even further. However, today in America it's hard to find groups of people who have death feuds with each other within the mainstream. Gangs have already been done in WSS. The Hatfields and McCoys signed a peace agreement at the beginning of the century. Sports don't usually result in death feuds, and when they do, fans of the rival team generally support the victim (Bryan Stow, a San Francisco Giants fan, was savagely beaten and permanently disabled by two Dodgers fans in L.A., and everyone from fellow fans to the Dodgers' organization unequivocally condemned the attacks.)

Of course for Lit, does death really have to be on the line for a story like this? Can it simply be two rival businesses (case in point, Ed O'Neill in Modern Family and his chief arch-rival) or two rival schools? Churches? I dunno...I wish I had time to sit down and write something like this.

 

[ChattyAnnie]

You people are all much better informed than me, but I would love to see the story set in the original Shakespeare time frame. The exploration of their innermost desires leading ultimately to the culmination of their love for each other (almost getting caught of course) would be exciting. Of course they would have to be 18, not 13. A scene where Juliet sees her father fooling around with her attendant could be thrown in, and perhaps Romeo seducing her mother to try and win her favor.

Maybe I'm just old fashioned though.

 

[Badfather80]

A science-fiction convention in sunny California. Star Trek fans meet Star Wars fans. Much animosity. But, amid all the hatred and vitriol, a cute girl in a Princess Leia gold bikini gets the hots for a hunk dressed as Data. Hot sex happens between the star-crossed lovers. Furious reaction from both sides on learning of this unnatural coupling. The warring sides unite in gang-banging Leia - who wouldn't? - and the horny couple are ostracised and exiled, but they find happiness because of their mutual love for Doctor Who.

 

[Hypoxia]

... today in America it's hard to find groups of people who have death feuds with each other within the mainstream. <snip> Of course for Lit, does death really have to be on the line for a story like this? Can it simply be two rival businesses (case in point, Ed O'Neill in Modern Family and his chief arch-rival) or two rival schools? Churches?

From my plot outline above: one "kills or at least seriously discommodes a member of the rival faction". He's linebacker at Feenis High School, she's cheerleader at Dorcas High, and he crushes her quarterback in scrimmage, becoming most-hated by Dorcas students. Or he plays bass with a surf group while she sings with a punk band, and he accidentally blows out her lead guitarist's eardrums, arousing her fans' rabid ire. Churches might be trickier.

You people are all much better informed than me, but I would love to see the story set in the original Shakespeare time frame.

Sure, just take the R&J Cliff Notes text, change the ages, add lots of fucking. Easy-peasy.

A science-fiction convention in sunny California. Star Trek fans meet Star Wars fans. Much animosity. But, amid all the hatred and vitriol, a cute girl in a Princess Leia gold bikini gets the hots for a hunk dressed as Data. Hot sex happens between the star-crossed lovers. Furious reaction from both sides on learning of this unnatural coupling. The warring sides unite in gang-banging Leia - who wouldn't? - and the horny couple are ostracised and exiled, but they find happiness because of their mutual love for Doctor Who.

Now we've got something! That takes my rival-gaming-groups idea a step further. For a TGFB (thin girl, fat boy) twist, she's Deanna Troi and he's Jabba The Jutt. He accidentally squishes Data's pet tribbles, earning the undying wrath of all Trekkies, but Troi sees his inner beauty, yada yada.

 

[maria1966]

bump.

 

[MrRandyWatson]

From my plot outline above: one "kills or at least seriously discommodes a member of the rival faction". He's linebacker at Feenis High School, she's cheerleader at Dorcas High, and he crushes her quarterback in scrimmage, becoming most-hated by Dorcas students. Or he plays bass with a surf group while she sings with a punk band, and he accidentally blows out her lead guitarist's eardrums, arousing her fans' rabid ire. Churches might be trickier.

Probably requires a town small enough that churches have a shit-ton of influence.

The two largest churches are a Catholic church that's very close to a powerful diocese and bishop and a Protestant church, probably Methodist or Baptist and a mega-church. He's the bishop's nephew and set to enroll at the seminary to become a priest. She's the granddaughter of the powerful minister and engaged - not her idea - to a politician's son. Add in whatever other differences you feel are necessary to take the tension up to eleven.

In a city largely segregated by religion, the two met while seniors in high school, he at a prestigious Catholic school and she at the mega-church's school. The two schools meet for, say, an important high school basketball game. They sneak off somewhere, exchange a few words - and fuck.

No one knows about it, but he puts in an application to college in another city the next day, and she gets into a fight with her fiancé. The two schools meet again in the state tournament, and the game turns violent, with one of her school's teams giving a teammate of his a concussion, knocking him out of the game. In retaliation, he punches out the offending player, getting himself suspended and jeopardizing the seminary admission. The opposing player is in the hospital.

Due to a miscommunication, he hears that she is in the hospital, and due to further miscommunication, he believes she's dead. Angrily, he tells his family everything, including the fact that he's not attending seminary. After a bitter fight with them, he announces he's moving elsewhere.

He gets to the airport to board the plane - and she's on the same plane but he doesn't realize it until they land. They get a taxi and make love in the back, not knowing where they are going - and the taxi crashes, causing both of them serious injury.

At the end, the two are in then hospital together surrounded by family, who are learning to make peace with one another after a close call with their children.