We read on the Internet the other day that Rom Coms were dead. Maybe so! None of us here watch many movies that aren’t Alien(s) or don’t have Russell Crowe in them, so we don’t know.
But it reminded us of a thought we had elsewhere about an Internet rom-com we’d like to watch:
This rom-com features an artsy, writerly pair, maybe one’s an adjunct English professor with a couple of published chapbooks and the other is a photographer who picked up web design and never dropped it, who met via Craigslist, maybe (one was selling an old appliance?), or maybe via some community weblog — and together they cook up a scheme to create a blog about a 40 day romance between total strangers that hopefully goes viral with the goal of a quick book sale and then selling a rom-com screenplay out of the book.
But!
The blog of their “true” 40 day romance is contrived from start to finish, with plenty of story arc and rich design. It’s completely made up! To attract links and clicks!
The arc of their real life romance is no arc at all; there is no romance. There’s no hate either. Rather, it’s a caper movie, but instead of stealing something, they have to figure out how to convince everyone that what they have is valuable enough to pay for, which involves a secondary, “real life” fake romance, to convince the Hollywood exec types they’re authentic beneath the fake blog romance. So it’s Victor/Victoria and Adaptation with a sprinkling of The Player*.
Depending on the focus group screenings, we may or may not decide to have them fall in love, for actual reals, at the end.
Oh also? Starring Russell Crowe.
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*We haven’t actually seen any of these referenced films (note absence of Alien and Crowe), but according to IMDB, they’re appropriate references.