Does the world need another _____ movie?

I have to admit, one of my biggest frustrations as a reader is that so much of what I read lacks any sort of originality. True, Hollywood tends to look for the same types of movies, and if one serial killer movie happens to hit it big, you can bet that similar films will be a hot ticket.

But my frustration comes in when dealing with a mundane genre and a lukewarm premise. For instance, I read TWO scripts last week about disgraced cops who have to put aside their differences to crack rampant corruption in the police department before they become the patsies for the impending internal affairs investigation that's close to catching the real cops who are on the take.

There was nothing original about this - the characters were bland, the plot was slow-moving and derivative, the action scenes too few and far between. Honestly, if I waited another week to write up this post, I probably would have forgotten both of these scripts! (Or I'd have confused them with the two dozen similar scripts I read earlier this year.)

I get that the writers worked hard on their scripts, but I doubt there are few readers who wouldn't conclude that effort was wasted. So when you're working on your new spec, please ask yourself one simple question:

"Does the world really need another one of these scripts?"