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I have a fascinating idea. There's literally nothing I can do with the idea. I was actually going to try and pitch it to Warner Bros. but I'd have to hire and agent through the writer's guild and there aren't any that are close by. I was hoping maybe one day I could afford to borrow the play rights so I could do the idea, but for now it's just a little fanfiction I'd like to share.
Okay so, some of you may be aware of the original ending of the 1986 film, Little Shop of Horrors. First off for those of you who have never seen it, I recommend renting it on YouTube (about 4 USD) and giving it a watch before proceeding to read the post
Anyway, the theatrical version, the one most are familiar with, ends with Seymour and Audrey getting married and living happily ever after destroying the Audrey II. The way the story was meant to end was in the scene where the plant bates Audrey, he tells her that she should, "join her dentist friend and Mushnik...inside." He takes Audrey and hurts her terribly before Seymour comes to the rescue. Audrey tells Seymour that she is going to die soon so she wants to be fed to the plant to help him receive fortune and fame. Seymour does as he's told and is afterwards compelled to end it all. He climbs a tall building and starts to jump but his attempt is interrupted by a salesman. (Jim Belushi's character, Patrick Martin, who was played by Paul Dooley until the ending changed and he was not able to come back to re-shoot.) The salesman tells Seymour that he would like to sell Audrey II plants by taking leave cuttings. Seymour refuses and rushes back to the flower shop to kill the plant so that it won't take over the world. In the meantime, frustrated salesman Martin claims that a "vegetable is public domain." This is to establish that he will take leave cuttings to market the plant regardless of what Seymour says. We then end up with the iconic musical number Mean Green Mother (in this version, Seymour shoots at the plant but the bullets go bouncing off its surface to establish that it is far too late the execute this threat.) except once the building comes down, Audrey II pulls Seymour from the rubble and eats him. (A fun fact about this scene is that the song ends with the same tune that plays at the end of the Grow For Me scene when the plant grew for the first time. The Audrey II even proceeds to strike a similar pose once Seymour is all the way in his mouth.)
After this takes place, another song begins with the Chorus Girls standing in front of a large American flag.
Start here if you know both endings
Talk of a sequel is usually conducive through those who have only seen the happy ending and want to see the rest of Seymour and Audrey's story, especially while there's another alien plant in their garden. Me? I just want to know why all those people fed the plant!!
Sure, the song states that owners of the plant fall victim to manipulation through wild offers but at the same time, that doesn't really make sense. Seymour DISCOVERED the plant. That's why he had so much to gain from it. As far as everyone else is concerned the novelty would wear off because you'd see at least two or three Audrey II's in every home if not every other home. Plus I believe most people would be absolutely petrified if their plant not only started talking but also begged them for blood, but that's only if it ever gets strong enough to do so. Seymour found the secret to the plant's health on accident. Most people would go through their own little "Grow For Me" segment before eventually throwing it away. And overall I just don't think there could be a large enough volume of people feeding hungry plants for the world to be taken over. A certain amount of noticeably large Audrey II plants in a world where these things are hellishly hard to take care of would turn a lot of heads and the word would get out insanely fast, fast enough to where there'd be national emergencies to clear out as many plants as possible.
But of course, this is a cautionary tale overall. All these details don't necessarily have to be touched on as long as one understands that they should just not. But is there a way to take this further? Deeper? Is there a way to show the true HORRORS of greed tenfold???
Well, as I thought about why the conclusion of the movie didn't make sense on a plot level, I was listening to the finale on my phone taking a walk, "But whatever they offer you, don't feed the plants!" I got this image in my head: Scientists singing this warning. That's when I came up with this concept, a sequel/prequel right before the world is taken over by hungry plants.
The shop had been destroyed, nothing of Seymour remained except his glasses. Police come to investigate the situation only to find Patrick Martin and his team about to collect the leaves. What's this? A murder case?? No. Martin regales the tale of the last time he had spoken to Mr. Krelborn. He ran off mad as he refused to let him reproduce the plant. It is suspected that Krelborn had killed himself in an attempt to destroy the plant. This is supported by Krelborn's attitude during the first airing of "Seymour Krelborn's Gardening Tips," when Seymour refused to allow anyone to be present during the feeding of the plant. Yes, this was the case of a mad man obsessed with his own discovery. One detective is not satisfied with the conclusion. He wishes to know why he can't find anyone to question. (this would be a great call back to the 1960s version) The shop had become a shrine to Seymour (which Mrs. Shiva could also appear as a wink to the 60s version) so the detective returned to the scene at night time to investigate further. He begins to trace the disappearances of Orin, Mushnik and Audrey to the plant but gets eaten before he can figure out what exactly is going on.
It isn't too much longer until the plant starts to sell all over the country after Martin's lawyers fight to legalize the marketing of them. As seen in the video, the plants sell like hotcakes but there is a universal agreement that the plants are nearly impossible to take care of. With Seymour not around, no one knows how to keep their plants alive. As a result, the sale of the plants start to drop.
To keep this business afloat, a team of plant scientists are recruited to find out the secrets of the Audreous Dos and get them to grow. This is where we meet our main character, a female scientist who wants to prove herself to her male team. (this isn't feminist propaganda, it's simply an important part of the story)
Obviously she is the one who discovers what the plant eats. The stuff in between is currently a blur but she eventually decides to feed the plant a solution that contains a small percentage of human blood as a means to be a notable female plant scientist in history. She starts to see the damage she's caused when she sees how big people's plants are getting. She tries to warn everyone that the plant eats people but no one listens to her, showing that the awards she had gotten from her Audrey II were artificial. Once it is already to late she finally hosts a public service announcement which is the song, "Don't Feed The Plants."
Again, I don't have all of the details on me at the moment but I thought it'd be a really cool idea to put on screen if I had the power. Thoughts?
Okay so, some of you may be aware of the original ending of the 1986 film, Little Shop of Horrors. First off for those of you who have never seen it, I recommend renting it on YouTube (about 4 USD) and giving it a watch before proceeding to read the post
Anyway, the theatrical version, the one most are familiar with, ends with Seymour and Audrey getting married and living happily ever after destroying the Audrey II. The way the story was meant to end was in the scene where the plant bates Audrey, he tells her that she should, "join her dentist friend and Mushnik...inside." He takes Audrey and hurts her terribly before Seymour comes to the rescue. Audrey tells Seymour that she is going to die soon so she wants to be fed to the plant to help him receive fortune and fame. Seymour does as he's told and is afterwards compelled to end it all. He climbs a tall building and starts to jump but his attempt is interrupted by a salesman. (Jim Belushi's character, Patrick Martin, who was played by Paul Dooley until the ending changed and he was not able to come back to re-shoot.) The salesman tells Seymour that he would like to sell Audrey II plants by taking leave cuttings. Seymour refuses and rushes back to the flower shop to kill the plant so that it won't take over the world. In the meantime, frustrated salesman Martin claims that a "vegetable is public domain." This is to establish that he will take leave cuttings to market the plant regardless of what Seymour says. We then end up with the iconic musical number Mean Green Mother (in this version, Seymour shoots at the plant but the bullets go bouncing off its surface to establish that it is far too late the execute this threat.) except once the building comes down, Audrey II pulls Seymour from the rubble and eats him. (A fun fact about this scene is that the song ends with the same tune that plays at the end of the Grow For Me scene when the plant grew for the first time. The Audrey II even proceeds to strike a similar pose once Seymour is all the way in his mouth.)
After this takes place, another song begins with the Chorus Girls standing in front of a large American flag.
Start here if you know both endings
Talk of a sequel is usually conducive through those who have only seen the happy ending and want to see the rest of Seymour and Audrey's story, especially while there's another alien plant in their garden. Me? I just want to know why all those people fed the plant!!
Sure, the song states that owners of the plant fall victim to manipulation through wild offers but at the same time, that doesn't really make sense. Seymour DISCOVERED the plant. That's why he had so much to gain from it. As far as everyone else is concerned the novelty would wear off because you'd see at least two or three Audrey II's in every home if not every other home. Plus I believe most people would be absolutely petrified if their plant not only started talking but also begged them for blood, but that's only if it ever gets strong enough to do so. Seymour found the secret to the plant's health on accident. Most people would go through their own little "Grow For Me" segment before eventually throwing it away. And overall I just don't think there could be a large enough volume of people feeding hungry plants for the world to be taken over. A certain amount of noticeably large Audrey II plants in a world where these things are hellishly hard to take care of would turn a lot of heads and the word would get out insanely fast, fast enough to where there'd be national emergencies to clear out as many plants as possible.
But of course, this is a cautionary tale overall. All these details don't necessarily have to be touched on as long as one understands that they should just not. But is there a way to take this further? Deeper? Is there a way to show the true HORRORS of greed tenfold???
Well, as I thought about why the conclusion of the movie didn't make sense on a plot level, I was listening to the finale on my phone taking a walk, "But whatever they offer you, don't feed the plants!" I got this image in my head: Scientists singing this warning. That's when I came up with this concept, a sequel/prequel right before the world is taken over by hungry plants.
The shop had been destroyed, nothing of Seymour remained except his glasses. Police come to investigate the situation only to find Patrick Martin and his team about to collect the leaves. What's this? A murder case?? No. Martin regales the tale of the last time he had spoken to Mr. Krelborn. He ran off mad as he refused to let him reproduce the plant. It is suspected that Krelborn had killed himself in an attempt to destroy the plant. This is supported by Krelborn's attitude during the first airing of "Seymour Krelborn's Gardening Tips," when Seymour refused to allow anyone to be present during the feeding of the plant. Yes, this was the case of a mad man obsessed with his own discovery. One detective is not satisfied with the conclusion. He wishes to know why he can't find anyone to question. (this would be a great call back to the 1960s version) The shop had become a shrine to Seymour (which Mrs. Shiva could also appear as a wink to the 60s version) so the detective returned to the scene at night time to investigate further. He begins to trace the disappearances of Orin, Mushnik and Audrey to the plant but gets eaten before he can figure out what exactly is going on.
It isn't too much longer until the plant starts to sell all over the country after Martin's lawyers fight to legalize the marketing of them. As seen in the video, the plants sell like hotcakes but there is a universal agreement that the plants are nearly impossible to take care of. With Seymour not around, no one knows how to keep their plants alive. As a result, the sale of the plants start to drop.
To keep this business afloat, a team of plant scientists are recruited to find out the secrets of the Audreous Dos and get them to grow. This is where we meet our main character, a female scientist who wants to prove herself to her male team. (this isn't feminist propaganda, it's simply an important part of the story)
Obviously she is the one who discovers what the plant eats. The stuff in between is currently a blur but she eventually decides to feed the plant a solution that contains a small percentage of human blood as a means to be a notable female plant scientist in history. She starts to see the damage she's caused when she sees how big people's plants are getting. She tries to warn everyone that the plant eats people but no one listens to her, showing that the awards she had gotten from her Audrey II were artificial. Once it is already to late she finally hosts a public service announcement which is the song, "Don't Feed The Plants."
Again, I don't have all of the details on me at the moment but I thought it'd be a really cool idea to put on screen if I had the power. Thoughts?