Don't Go Chasing Waterfalls (of Spiders)

Sometime back I blogged about a fictional exchange between Dave and I in which he commented on an idea I'd written about. In it, the discussion went something like this:

CHARLIE
Well, what did you think about what I wrote???

DAVE
It was okay. Kinda verbose. And the waterfall of spiders thing... I'm not really feeling it. And the characters suddenly got all flippant and light on us. The tone's wierd. But I like the rest. You know... the line where the character asks what direction they're heading. That works. Let's tweak the rest, though. I'm not sweating it.

The humorously fictional exchange was based on a REAL one, related to our un-named May-December Romance/Bollywood Musical/American-Beauty Remake, that went something like this (months ago, as I agonized over the now infamous waterfall scene):

CHARLIE
Well, what did you think about what I wrote???

DAVE
It was okay. Kinda verbose. And the waterfall of spiders thing... I'm not really feeling it. And the characters suddenly got all flippant and light on us. The tone's wierd. But I like the rest. You know... the line where the character asks what direction they're heading. That works. Let's tweak the rest, though. I'm not sweating it.

So last week I tossed the latest iteration of the waterfall scene to Dave. I hadn't quite finished it yet, but after swapping out a tentacle monster for underwater zombies for killer whirpools, I finally stumbled on something basic that I thought would work. Dave read the 2/3 of a scene I'd written and liked it, but I was taking too long so he took it back to finish up.

Cut to 24 hours later. I'm in a meeting at work and my cell rings. Its Dave. I assume that him calling can only mean that Verbinski has agreed to do SIEGE. I duck out of the meeting and answer.

CHARLIE
Hello?

DAVE
Bugs! Bugs, dude.

CHARLIE
Huh?

DAVE
The waterfall scene. What if it were bugs. Like... not monster sized bugs or anything... just you know... scary bugs.

CHARLIE
Like...oh... spiders?

DAVE
EXACTLY! Killer idea, huh?

CHARLIE
Yeah... listen... you may remember awhile back I did a draft of this with spi...

DAVE
Right. Bugs! I'm glad you like it. Love ya, babe.


(CLICK)

So bugs it is. Killer idea, Dave.

- CHARLIE