DIE TRYING 028

Publish, Project or Perish

Author

Michael Barnes
April 16, 2026

In partnership with

One crafty writer’s never-say-die quest to tell a story for the page or screen.

Hey! I’m that guy trying to sell my latest screenplay, publish it as a novel or die trying.

In DIE TRYING, you will get an unvarnished look at a bitterly honest writer struggling to make it. No name-dropping or Hollywood phoniness. Just the facts ma’am on what the media landscape really is like behind the curtain.

In TODAY’S ISSUE, we throw chum out the boat to attract sharks.

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MOVIE IDEA TIME

A logline is a one or two-sentence summary of your script that you pitch to Hollywood managers, agents, development executives and producers to hook their attention and hopefully get them to represent you or buy the damn script once written!

The logline is the kernel of your script. I wanted to share some loglines with you for potential screenplays to gauge which ones elicit interest and as a fun exercise.

All of these ideas are registered with the Writers Guild of America/West(one union representing screenwriters), so don’t try to steal (Registration #: 2338488)!

WOULD YOU WATCH?

From acid trips to throuples, here are some movie ideas.

TRUMP TRIPS

An octogenarian clown show of a wannabe dictator mistakenly ingests LSD in a swanky Russian whorehouse. The world will never be the same.

DIE HARD ON A PLANE

A menopausal air marshal is hired to protect a CIA flight shepherding $500 million on pallets of cash to a rogue Middle Eastern nation and must prevent the flight from getting hijacked and the cash stolen.

BILLY WILDER’S THE APARTMENT WITH KIDS

A broke content creator grows a heart after becoming the nanny to a tech titan’s precocious daughter and plotting to push out the rich CEO’s current wife and become #2.

SHALLOW GRAVE WITH A THROUPLE 

Two size queens (one gay man and his straight female bestie) must dispose of the corpse of a well-endowed Hollywood producer who overdoses after a menage a trois.

BORAT MEETS THE FLORIDA PROJECT

An amoral wannabe screenwriter moves into a Sunshine State subdivision and must con his way into cash so he can complete a screenplay that will get him out of Floriduh.

Would you pay money to see any of these? Hit reply and let me know! 

Or send me your idea (after registering with the WGA/W), and I will publish it in a future newsletter.

THIS WEEK IN DIE TRYING

CHUM ANYONE?

If you’re reading this because you write, read, develop or sell scripts:

Is it Consider, Pass or Recommend on any of the above loglines?

Hit reply. I read every response.

—Michael