Idea: Famous For 15 Minutes: The Movie
[This post is part of an idea dump.]
In 1968, the catalogue for an Andy Warhol exhibit in Stockholm first featured the quote, “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.” Well, now we’re in the future. And speculation about the future is the stuff of sci-fi movies. So here’s my concept:
The movie’s working title is “The Warhol Paradox.” It starts in 1968, just a few months after Warhol’s Stockholm exhibition, when Valerie Solanis marches into The Factory and opens fire on Andy Warhol. But in the alternate universe of the movie, Warhol doesn’t survive. He is murdered.
Solanis goes to trial, but is acquitted on the grounds that she’s insane. Or some other reason. But she’s acquitted. There is a public outry which leads to the great Pop Art Riots of 1969. Cans of Campbell’s soup are thrown through store windows. Paintings of American flags are burned in the streets. Looters steal silk screen supplies from craft stores. Police officers are unsure how to deal with the unruly crowds, and things get out of hand. The sidewalks are covered with pools of blood or possibly tomato soup it’s kind of hard to tell.
The people revolt and overthrow the government. And now the pop artists and surrealists are in charge.
Jump ahead 30 years. It’s the future, 1999, and society is built around Pop Art. But power corrupts, and over the past 30 years the artists have become drunk with power. Warhol’s prediction that everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes is now a mandate. Every day, 360 people are chosen by the government to become world famous for 15 minutes.
One day, two young high school kids are chosen, a boy and girl who happen to attend the same school. But they don’t want to be world famous. They’re part of the emerging privacy advocacy movement that wants to return to a time when people could be anonymous their whole lives. So they run.
They meet a group of privacy activists that help people like them through the Velvet Underground Railroad.
The two of them become the most wanted fugitives in the world. And this, paradoxically, makes them famous.
That’s all I’ve got so far.
Comments
At least make this a book!
Posted by: Brian | February 7, 2013 4:08 PM
You just wanted to type “Velvet Underground Railroad,” admit it.
Posted by: Adam Rex | February 7, 2013 4:19 PM
I VOLUNTEER AS TRIBUTE!
Posted by: Joel | February 7, 2013 4:44 PM
It’s the David Lynch version of Harrison Bergeron.
Posted by: Tim Cooper | February 10, 2013 6:11 PM
Helpful information and style of posting. I’m sure I’ll check back on this website down the road and see just what
else you have got in store! ;-) I’m likely to find if I just will be able to find out nearly anything concerning hulu movies free!!
Posted by: movies streaming online | February 12, 2013 4:03 AM
Banksy should be the leader of the privacy rebels…
Posted by: JDog | February 14, 2013 6:21 PM
Great stuff. Glad you’re doing the idea dump, I missed all these clever ideas.
Posted by: George Coghill | February 16, 2013 12:06 PM