How a dorky monster joke turned into a billion dollar movie franchise

Since it’s getting close to Halloween, here’s a gruesome story for you: A while back I read an interview with old school screenwriter Curt Siodmak who wrote a lot of the scripts for the old timey day monster movies everyone has heard of, if not seen. And in his interview he told the story about how he got the idea for a movie that, if you adjust for inflation, sequels, longevity, reboots, merchandising, conventions, books, comics, spin-offs… has been probably worth billions collectively. An idea that came about, quite frankly, as a joke. What happened was this: He was sitting at the Universal commissary (back during WW2) with a friend who was drafted and wanted to sell his car. Apparently, back then, you really couldn’t get a car since car companies only churned out war material. So this was a chance to get a car during a time when cars were not easy to get. The problem? He didn’t have the money. But, what he did have was a sense of humor. And he made a joke to another guy at the table (a movie producer): “Frankenstein Wolfs the Meat Man, I mean, Meets the Wolf Man.” His friend (the producer) didn’t laugh. Instead, the guy came back to Curt’s office a couple days later and asked Curt if he’d bought the car. Curt said he’d need another job to pay for it. And the Producer said, “you have a job, ‘Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man.’ You have two hours to accept.” Personally, I love hearing stories like that. It’s also why I tell anyone who will listen: Write ALL ideas down and be obnoxiously paranoid about it. Great ideas can be extremely fragile and fleeting. And it only takes one to change the trajectory of your business and life. I have lost count of how many books, offers, Email Players issue, stories, emails, headlines, themes were generated by a stray thought — or even a brain fart — that I stubbornly captured, so I would not forget it. In some cases, I let such ideas marinate for months or even years before using them. But use them I do. And I highly recommend doing the same in all your marketing-related endeavors. Speaking of monsters: One of my pursuits is fiction writing. And back in 2013 I started writing the first of what would become a nine-part series of horror novels I call “The Enoch Wars” — with my own twisted “takes” on various monsters from zombies and vampires, to demons and the devil, to werewolves, ghouls, Frankenstein’s monster, and even the Tarasque (from ancient French lore and my childhood fascination with him since my Dungeons & Dragons days back in the 80s…) and more, I lost track of how many monsters I put in these dayem books. But I think I got all the fun ones, plus one or two I invented. Anyway, I put the first of stories (Zombie Cop) free in the Enoch Wars app. It’s in there in eBook, audio book, and even screenplay format. I also have a bunch of other content inside the app as well. Including content about the writing & business sides of my fiction. It’s all inside the free Enoch Wars app. There is no opt-in required, but you will need a smart phone or iPad. Here’s where to get it: [( Ben Settle This email was sent by Ben Settle as owner of Settle, LLC. Copyright © 2024 Settle, LLC. All Rights Reserved. No part of this email may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from Settle, LLC. Click here to [unsubscribe]( Settle, LLC PO Box 1056 Gold Beach Oregon 97444 USA