It turns out dreams do come true, provided you take out an ad declaring what your dream is in a popular trade publication that covers things relevant to your dream and that you’re OK with only some of the dream coming true. That’s what happened to Eric D. Wilkinson, the guy who took out a full-page ad in The Hollywood Reporter back in November so he could pitch his idea for a Die Hard sequel. No, his Die Hard: Year One (which involved John McClane going to prison for a crime he didn’t commit and then breaking out when terrorists stage a riot) isn’t getting made, but he did just sign a real-life Hollywood deal to make a different movie—and it’s all because of that Die Hard ad.
Apparently, after some incredibly attractive and intelligent websites wrote about his pitch, the story began spreading throughout the internet and eventually drew the attention of Avi Lerner, an actual Hollywood producer who has worked on The Expendables and Olympus Has Fallen. Lerner asked Wilkinson if he had any non-Die Hard ideas, and now a production company has optioned a script written by Wilkinson and his writing partner, Richard Schenkman. The screenplay is titled The Devil, and it’s reportedly a “high-concept” story about the mythical Jersey Devil that terrorizes southern New Jersey. Wilkinson sees it as a “potential horror franchise” and says the idea is “one of [his] favorites.”
In the end, though, we can all take a lesson from this: If you take out an ad telling people about something you want and get The A.V. Club to write about it, then someday you’ll sort of get that thing you want.