Top Ten Geeky Stories Whose Time Has Come

I haven’t done one of these in a while, and the Zeitgeek is an ever-shifting ether of popularity, burnout, excitement, and eye-rolling that calls for revised Top Ten lists of mashups and elevator pitches. So, here are the Top Ten ideas for series or movies designed to capture tomorrow’s geek viewing dollar!

10. The Vampire – Yep, my first entry is a link to my pitch for a Universal Monster’s shared universe pitch, building off 199’s The Mummy. It’s shameless self-promotion… which is *very* 2023.

09. Cloverfield/Godzilla/Gamera/Pacific Rim: “World War Kaiju” – I don’t care if it makes sense or not. If we can have Monarch and Godzilla Minus One at the same time, we can multiverse kaiju stories to our heart’s content.

08. The Last of Us: Gotham – So, what is riding out the fungapocalypse like in a city already filled with crazy? Do it as an animated Elseworlds movie, kill Batman and the Joker both in the first 5 minutes, and let the second-stringers fight it out. Oracle and the Riddler team up. Ivy wants to make the whole thing worse. Robin becomes exclusively carnivorous. Harley just hits things with a bat. Hilarity ensues.

07. Money Heist: Squid Game – Yep, those loveable thieves set their sites on the gambling money of the deadly Squid Games. Netflix would make a mint. Then cancel it after 2 seasons. Which, honestly, might be for the best.

06. Dungeons & Dragons Cartoon Live Action: Maybe we get another D&D movie. Maybe we don’t. But the characters from the cartoon remain popular, and a live-action version of their exploits as adults would be worth at least one season on Hulu.

05. Invincible Zombies: Both DC and Marvel have done “zombies” stories set in their superhero universes, so it’s a proven concept. And for goodness sake, if anyone could come up with some cool zombie stories for supers, it’s Robert “Walking Dead” Kirkman… who happens to have written the Invincible comic! It’s a perfect match.

04. CSI: Metropolis – Yep, I’ve pitched this before. but set it in the universe of Patterson’s “The Batman,” as a spinoff/season two of the Penguin TV show? It’s a really natural fit.

03. The Pugsly Files – So what IS Wednesday’s little brother doing while she’s off at the Nevermore Academy? Well, I’d argue he should be doing, you know, “Stranger Things” with his own set of younger oddballs and outcasts.

02: The Starfinder Movie – There are several movie companies that could use a big scifi franchise. RPG media is growing in popularity. Starfinder is already popular, well-thought-out, and brimming with potential connected plots. And, based on the historic record, Paizo is MUCH less likely to have a huge PR shitstorm right before a movie based on their IP comes out.

01: DC Vs. Marvel Movies: – Look, DC movies are rebooting. Marvel may reboot soon. Neither is currently catching the wave of excitement Marvel got ramping up from Iron Man to Avengers: Endgame. So, what could moviemakers put on the screen that would have that same fanshock and excitement?

At the end of the next Doctor Strange movie, Doctor Fate walks into the Sanctum.

Or Alias: The Spider shows up in the Spiderverse. Wonder Woman runs into Marvel’s Thor among the gods. The Green Lantern Corp seeks out Captain Marvel. Fury learns about a multidimensions threat, picks up a red phone and calls Amanda Waller. The point is, you end a movie with a stinger suggesting the Big Two are combining forces for a multimovie plotline?

You get butts in seats opening day of the next film. AND you still have Amalgam to go to after running this combo into the ground.

Patreon
I have a Patreon. It helps me carve out the time needed to create these blog posts, and is a great way to let me know what kind of content you enjoy. If you’d like to see more Movie Pitches, or Pathfidner 1st edition, Starfinder, or ShadowFinder content (or more rules for other game systems, fiction, game industry essays, game design articles, worldbuilding tips, whatever!), try joining for just a few bucks and month and letting me know!

If you prefer, you can drop a cup of support in my Ko-Fi. It’s like buying me a cup of coffee, but more convenient!