American graffiti 3 the prequel

OK.... I cant even began to tell you fellas how much time Ive wasted thinking about how damn cool this would be!

 

I think it would be great as well, but here's another problem: what's the "hook"? I mean any writer will tell you that a story has to have a conflict of some sort. In AG, it was the underlying and undeniable fact that all the main subjects were growing up, some moving on, some staying, and Curt was trying to decide which road to take in life. So in our "Fantasy League" movie, what's the problem we're working out? I mean in most people's lives, the whole "coming of age" thing is the first real crisis, so what could have happened before that?

 

that is a good point. the cool car stuff would be easy to write but a general plot would take some real creativity. lets see if some hamb members will chime in on this for some more plot ideas. there were some examples of very creative writing skills in this thread.

 

bump>>

 

A bunch of punks from an import gang hassle one of the old rodders who's minding his own business at a coffee shop. After reminiscing, kicking through ashes of the old hang-outs, looking through old pics and visiting the cemetery where many rodders from the Vietnam war, accidents, cancer, etcetera lay buried, he wonders if any of the old guys are left. He starts looking them up and manages to get them together for a big money street race against the import gang.

There would be all the details of what happened to the old geezers, depressed lives now renewed by a challenge and purpose, etcetera. Old geezers trying to come up with money to match the almost unlimited funds of the drug dealing import car gang.

All the reminiscing would be a way to slip in great clips of real history.

The Import gang would also sell the movie to another generation that movies are marketed to these days as well as various subcultures.

Some Low Rider guys might be in there trying to decide who to be allied with which would further expand the audience.

Then some infamous Bikers could end up doing security for the big race and keeping the cops busy or distracted further expanding the audience.

All these groups could have well known walk-ons that would draw interest and a box office.

 

Dearest Chumlee,
Lucas based AG on his experiences growing in NoCal and it was his ode to those bygone days. As a matter of fact, he based the coupe on one that he had. Personally, I would love to see a AG prequel showing a teenage milner building the coupe. Bet he ran a flathead at first but it wasn't good enough to be the fastest in the valley so he chunks it and drops in a new mouse motor which was a popular thing at the time and still is.

 

Should a prequel ever be made I think it would be cool to see Bobby Meeks and Jazzy Nelson passing through town on their way to a race meet. Bobby Meeks builds Milner's flathead and Nelson shows him how to get floatless 97s to work. Milner then blows everything in sight into the weeds and has no need for a mouse.

 

"Coming of age" doesn't happen overnight, and especially not just on that night in the original AG. So, want crises, want conflict? Hows about some of these ideas - all still in keeping within the theme of the original movie.

• 
  
  Crisis - didn't Milner drop out of school? When? Why? How'd he get into the hot rod scene?
• Crisis - Driver tests! Enough said about that. . .
• Crisis - 'Beach music' was just starting. Weren't Jan and Dean doing some of it in '58/'59? I know, a lot their early stuff wasn't beach stuff but I'm just saying...
• Crisis - The loss of Buddy, Richie, Big Bopper and others. Is this what impacted Milner caused him to dislike beach music? Where was John (LeMat), what was he doing on "the day the music died"?
• Crisis - How did Steve (Howard) get that '58 Impala with a then-new 327 in it (wasn't '62 the first year for 327s? How did a high school kid get his hands on a new one, or was Terry just telling Debbie a story, and the car really had a 283 or 348 in it)? Had to be some issues leading up to Steve getting that car - what job did he, a high school senior, have that enabled him to afford such a ride? Was it his first car? Who built it for him?
• Crisis - What about Curt's ex-girlfriend (was it Wendy)?
• Crisis - Debbie's old boy friends. Expand, develop?
• Crisis - What about the blonde in the TBird? Why was she out trolling & teasing the teen boys?
• Crisis - Pharoahs - Why? How? When? Interfacerolleyes with Holstein and/or other law enforcement persons? Where did the Merc they drove come from - what's the story on it?

The "hooks" are there - lots of 'em. Even at their young ages none of those kids just happened to be the way they were on that night in '62. Seems a good writer could give us their earlier "coming of age" experiences,and the conflicts of being young teenagers they had to "work out" that turned them into what they were in the original AG.

 

Sounds similar to " Gran Torino "

 

Is there a section for "wannabe screen writers??????

 

i am not quite sure of the intent of your question. the scope of this thread is to have fun discussing the idea of a prequel. yes this thread is open to any to any level of screen writing skill. if you have an idea please feel free to express it. if the idea of a prequel bothers somebody then this is not the thread for them.

 

Wow! I had know idea there was a 2nd movie! What rock have I been under.... I think I watched the first one a 1000 times when I was a kid. Ill have to pick one up online!!!

 

Ive seen him on TV at F1 races.

 

Good stuff here, as hard as it is to process the movie was not just about John M and his Hot Rod, it was a comming of age during the last of the "innocent period" in america, before JFK Vietnam RFK and all that happened after, which they tried to show in more american graffiti.

A show just about Milner would be cool for us but that is about it, and actually John was refered to by Steve as being a hanger on type, "Do you want to be like John for the rest of your life, you can't stay 18 forever." Now we know alot of people who would like nothing mroe than that, and Milner was my hero type growing up, (born in 67)

That being said you would have to include the others and theri development like what was posted earlier or you have no chance of people other than hot rooders seeing it.

Or leave it up to everybodies imagination on how things progressed...

Still it makes interesting reading.

 

i agree. i have mentioned milner more than other characters in the movie simply becuase he was my favorite. milner was just an example of part of a prequel.

 

Hmm, and all this time I thought it had a 348 with three deuces in it. I guess I need to watch it again.

 

Lucas had a car and raced around. It flew off the road and his seat belt broke and threw him out just before the seat was crushed against a tree. It made him wonder about the force that saved him.

Milners car was supposedly a copy of a local car in his home town.

He worked for Shelby before getting fired. So he went to film school.



You're right about the last part. No more graffiti.

 

Maybe he bought that engine hot from the Pharaohs who were ripping off newer cars.

 

Bump>>

 

What about Toads referance too the 58 impala being better than Darrel Starbirds "Moonglow"
Steve was a rich kid who did he pay too do the kustom work on his car?
and how did Curt find that gawd awful Citrone of his?
Falfa drove a Field car whats a field car? we all know what it means. Falfa was from out of town mabey up north from Bakersfield you know Cowboy hat and all. I like the earlier post about toad wreckin a bicycle into things before he got his scooter that made me laff.
And let us not forget about Candy Clark she was a hottie and didnt even know it ?She thought she looked like Sandra Dee. Her high school days could be interesting
I really think this movie could be made I would defanatly pay too see it and buy a DVD
I think the most that I got out of the original Ag movie was the cars ,the music ,and the actors . It was a great representation of how I grew up even though I grew up in the 70;s each person in the movie reminded me of someone I grew up with
It was the ultimate comming of age movie of all time I think a new prequil would haft too have all of these things too be succesfull. Music Cars and Actors all Accuratly represented in the era that the prequil is set upon.
Just include me in the new movie Hell Id even be Toad hahahahah
Bud Ellis kustoms

 

who's keepin track and writing this all down in a edited version ?


and music? and 5 storylines all at once



lets do it!!!!

 

Bakersfield is south of Modesto by about 130 miles....a bit far imo for a street race, but the cowboy hat and high buck car are key....my guess is family owns a dairy in Hilmar, almond orchard in Ripon or a tomato farmer from Merced (after all Richard Ruth's shop is there now....I know, not then though)....LOL

Louie

P.S. Our very own Anderegg Roadster could make a guest appearance, as the gang wanders through a car show in nearby Turlock in Dec '54 where the future '55 AMBR winner places second at the show......LOL

P.S.S ....or Milners flatty powered coupe races and loses to a little yellow t coupster (yup Anderegg car) at Kingdon in Lodi, so he decides to upgrade to the chevy powerplant.....

 

back to the top!

 

Screen writer, who me? Nope. Tech writer? Yup! Where do we sign up ?

Wouldn't it be boss to do something like that?
Or cool? Or bitchin'? Or as we used to say back then in out town - Whoppa-Dow!

By the way, just how old was Milner in '62? I don't recollect it ever being mentioned but would guess maybe 20? If so, he'd have been only 13 in '55.

Now, remember when he and Carol were walking thru the junkyard he said something about a kid got wrecked or killed in '55? What a memory!

Did anyone notice that '61 Pontiac in the stack of junkers? Hmmmm. It would've been only a year old; I wonder what happened to it? It didn't look that bad but could only see part of it.

 

the american graffiti paperback book said milner was 22

 

I can so dig this HAMB dude’s, so glad y’all posted this! And so crazy, HAMB’rs must share a brain!In ’07 cruisin back from Turkey Rod Run, I was flippin out from lack of sleep and half way thru my second bag of Fiddle Faddle when I had this same idea…my thought was to give the movie a Stand By Me feel, ending with them be-friending Milner who goes through the movie as an outlaw car club gang member who ends up going legit. I always read into the movie characters, they seemed so opposite?Like what brought them together, some prior event? Like you said Sport Fury, Milner was 22, he was also a greaser, gearhead and someone they all seemed polar opposites of. That’s the question I’d like Lucas to answer, and I’d like him to do it Old Skool through old equipment just like traditional hot rodders live to do, shot with Panovision camera’s and equipment for the grainy, wet color look I love so much about that movie. I’d like to see Milner run with the outlaw rodders tearing the main drag up being chased by Holstien trying to catch him and the other rivals in the act. And like Milner said he was just quick enough to stay out of the boneyard!

 

Yepp they were quite the motley crew. Steve and Laura preppy jocks, Kurt a presedental hopefull, Toad the dork, and Debbie kinda slutty , Carol too young too be out so late, pharos were thugs , Cowboy Falfa lookin for some racing action and of course our hero John Milner.
I too wonder what would bring all these people together for one night? Of course back then in a small town everybody knew everybody and gossip and rumers would be flyin
Id give anything too be able too go back too simpler times like these. Yes I know its just a movie but alot of it seems plausable
Kool Music kool cars and kool guys and gals what more could a person want?

 

I reminisce about the good ol' days like most of us, but I get out and support the local Car Clubs as well, because the good ol' days are still being made and things are what you make them.

I'm in Maryland and The Karb Kings in Baltimore area and the Fredericksburg, Virginia area put on some good parties with ol' skool flavor with a new skool twist. Being an old skool biker, tattooed women aren't new to me anyway.

 

If you want the good ol' days come out to Bonneville, El Mirage or Maxton. The good ol' days are still happening.

 

There's a few of Lucas' student movies at Youtube.

This one has a Lotus 23;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-cvJq3m7pw

I noticed one editor was Mike Padillo. One of the Pharoahs was Manuel Padillo.