novel

5 Theories For JJ Abrams’ Mysterious “Stranger” Trailer

Screen shot 2013-08-19 at 2.58.05 PMJJ Abrams, director of the recent Star Trek movies and upcoming Star Wars sequel (AKA the busiest person ever), recently released a mysterious trailer simply called “Stranger.”

The trailer is black-and-white, confusing and shows a man with a stitched mouth staring at us with horror-movie eyes. Speculation has erupted (at least in my mind), which is all part of Abrams’ classic marketing ploy, which he calls ”the mystery box.”

That said, I have 5 barely concrete theories on what this movie is actually about. If you haven’t seen the trailer yet, check it out below:

5. The Twilight Zone

Back in June, Abrams’ production company announced they were making a mini-series based on one of the last scripts of The Twilight Zone, which could be called “Stranger.” They have not yet announced the story or details for this production, making this a top contender.

4. S

In October, Abrams is coming out with his first book (co-writing at least) and it’s called S. We know little about it, but here’s a clue courtesy of the publisher:

”In his first-ever idea for a novel, Abrams conceived of and developed a multi-layered literary puzzle of love and adventure. At its core, we have a book of mysterious provenance. In the margins, another tale unfolds: hand-scribbled notes, questions, and confrontations between two readers. Between the pages, online, and in the real world, you’ll find evidence of their interaction, ephemera that brings this tale vividly to life.”

That last line mentions evidence found “online,” which could explain this YouTube video.

3. Believe

It’s possible that this is a tease for Abrams’ upcoming sci-fi series on NBC about a supernatural girl and her bodyguard (who just escaped prison) dodging “evil forces” out to get them.

2. Frankenstein

The black-and-white motif, the stitched face and the “men are erased and reborn” line all point to a possible remake of Frankenstein, though there’s nothing official about this project yet. We know that this can’t be The Crow, since that movie is already coming out next year apart from Bad Robot.

1. Cast Away 2: Wilson’s Revenge

The end of the trailer says “Soon he will know.” Will+Soon=Willsoon. Willsoooooooon!!!!! Science.

Like what you read? Connect with me further via twitter @JonNegroni. I’ll follow back if you seem like a real person. You can also subscribe to this blog by clicking the “follow” button in the top-left corner.
Don’t forget to check out New Professional News, a list of headlines essential for any new professional, updated daily at 8am.

Be Pickier About What You Write

This isn’t a commandment, since you can obviously do whatever you want. Still, I can’t help but advocate for more selective writing among my likeminded peers.

No one is great at every type of writing. They may at least be decent at every type of writing, but no one absolutely excels at every single type of outlet there is for the written word, and if I’m wrong about that, please guide me to that person so that I can be their lifelong disciple.

My example is that I hate writing novels or even short stories. It’s odd because I love coming up with ideas, settings, and fleshing out characters. I love coming up with unique plot devices that bring a story together and present something completely new and exciting to the reader. When it comes to actually writing out the story, however, I can’t do it. I can’t find the filler details and craft a rich, cohesive story. I’m just too impatient.

I’ve wasted a lot of time trying to ignore this flaw by believing that if I just put more effort into it, I’ll eventually just teach myself to like writing novels. That’s almost as absurd as how that sentence sounded in my head.

A problem we run into as writers is that  we can’t help but get excited by our own work. We take pride in our accomplishments because for us, the epitome of who we are is translated best by how we can translate that for other people. When we’re successful, we don’t want to just share it with the world. What makes us different is that we constantly want to get better.

We push ourselves. We experiment. We do whatever it takes to not just master what we’re already good at, but excel at types of writing that don’t come as easy. There is nothing wrong with this at first, but here’s the problem:

when we focus too much on evolving, we stagnate.

It’s counterintuitive, but our pride easily becomes arrogance when we decide that since we are good at one type of writing, we must be “God’s gift to writing,” when really, we’ve just gotten lucky and haven’t really reached the threshold of clarity we believe we’ve reached.

In my case, I can’t write novels because I’m too impatient and I can’t write for the media because I am too biased. This is the reason I chose Public Relations as a career, since I can be as biased as I want with a press release, and writing advertising copy is a challenge I welcome every day.

So, be pickier about what you write. Before you decide to delve into the harrows of a new medium such as journalism, advocate communications, or even a screenplay, figure out what you need to do to hone the craft you already own. A master of everything is a master of nothing and all that.

Like what you read? Connect with me further via twitter @JonNegroni. I’ll follow back if you seem like a real person. 

Don’t forget to check out THE JON REPORT every day, updated at 8am for a list of today’s main headlines as selected by my editorial team (me) 

-JN