A cop suffering from multiple personality disorder discovers a plan to detonate a dirty bomb in 2 hours, what he doesn’t know is: the perpetrator is his alternate persona.

Don't worry.

These are just very useful tools to improve and develop your idea... and don't fail. Just as Logline.it.

This is what I wanted to tell when I wrote:

"This is why final loglines are almost always different from initial. If not, this can means two things:
1. You where lucky,
2. You lost a lot of chances to improve your story."

>>Contrary to Blake Snyder , I think there is no bad ideas in cinema or litterary...

An alternate POV: "Test Your Story Concept"

Tony Edward's logline is better because it makes your hero more dynamic; and your story better outlined, with more mistery and suspense.

This can be helpful to develop your story.

According to your own premise, you can say "all the clues to a complot by an elusive terrorist".

DID are related to a childhood trauma. Your hero will have to find why his alternative part wants to make a dirty bomb detonate.

Hi Knightrider1984

I also think your premise could work and you could write a great movie with it ("Donald" 's Kaufman original idea is also great because there is 3 opposite people struggling each others physically into the same person and it's a weird parody).

Contrary to Blake Snyder , I think there is no bad ideas in cinema or litterary (I'm sure his idea for "Twinkle" was great).
It's just a matter of imagination to make any idea great. Sometime we have, sometime not. Sometime we need months or years to compile the good story that will make our starting idea great.(*)

It seems you have not a 90' story to put on you logline for now. Keep it in the back of your mind. Perhaps you'll find it terrific one day.

(*) This is why final loglines are almost always different from initial. If not, this can means two things:
1. You where lucky,
2. You lost a lot of chances to improve your story.

"Adaptation" is not really a DID story. It's more likely a "mise-en-ab?me" story. You can find the screenplay here:
http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Adaptation.html (second draft, free)
http://fr.scribd.com/doc/2171461/Adaptation-Final-Script (final, 5+$)

An other interesting thriller about DID is "Secret Window" with J. Depp. Sreenplay here :
http://www.hundland.org/scripts/SecretWindow.pdf

Here is a selection of best DID movies :
http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-movie-characters-who-suffer-from-dissociative-identity-disorder-split-personality.php
As you see, thare is not many cop stories!

There are also movies about other psychologic diseases, often paranoia, sometimes schizophrenia (e.g. A Beautiful Mind)

Just for pleasure, I recomand you to watch this movie : "Fantasma d'Amore" by Dino Risi, with Marcello Mastroiani and Romy Schneider:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082364/

HI dpg.

I also have Adaptation in my favorites

I was talking about "The Three" by Donald Kaufman of course.

I think the premise could work, maybe as a parody of all the tropes the Charlie Kaufman character derides in "Adaptation".

Hi Knightrider1984,

I don't think it's a bad idea -- I just think the logline makes it feel a little obvious... Kind of giving away the ending, which might be because of "...what he doesn't know is...". Yes, it reminds me of a couple of things (apart from 'The Three' I'm also reminded of 'Angel Heart' one of my faves...), but as William Goldman says (I'm probably paraphrasing, but...) "if you can make it work DO IT"...

Anyways, below is just my spin -- best of luck with it.

'On his first case back from sabbatical due to a nervous breakdown, a hard nosed detective finds all the clues to an elusive serial killer point straight at him.'

Own a DVD of the movie, have a heavily annotated copy of the "Adaptation" shooting script. It's one of my favorites.

INT. EMPTY BEDROOM - NIGHT

Kaufman types.

KAUFMAN (V.O.)
Kaufman jerks off to the book jacket
photo of Susan Orlean.

Donald appears in the doorway with a script.

KAUFMAN
What?! What do you want?

DONALD
I finished. My script. I'm done.

Kaufman stares at his typewriter, doesn't say anything.

DONALD (cont'd)
So would you show it to your agent?

Kaufman grabs Donald's script and throws it on his bed.

DONALD (cont'd)
Thanks. Also, I wanted to thank you for
your idea. It was very helpful. I
changed it a little. Now the killer cuts
off body pieces and makes the victims eat
them. It's, like, I once saw this
picture of a snake swallowing it's tail --

Kaufman collapses, puts his head in his hands.

KAUFMAN
Ourobouros.

DONALD
I don't know what that means.

KAUFMAN
The snake is called Ourobouros.

DONALD
I don't think so. But it's cool for my
killer to have this modus operandi.
Because at the end when he forces the
woman, who's really just him, to eat
herself, he's also eating himself to
death.

KAUFMAN
I'm insane. I'm Ourobouros.

DONALD
I don't know what that is.

KAUFMAN
I've written myself into my screenplay.
It's eating itself. I'm eating myself.

DONALD
Oh. That's kinda weird.

Oh yeah dpg.

Have you read it?

>>>And don?t forget: It?s only a pitch. Donald?s screenplay was never written!

Uh, Donald turns his pitch into a finished script,"The Three" submits it to his brother's agent who is wildly enthusiastic about it, thinks he can sell it for "high-sixes against a mill-five".

I'm intrigued by the premise because of my own extensive study and observation of psychopathology, but it would be a challenge to pull off. Perhaps the story might work better as a parody of the plot schtick about serial murderers and multiple personalities that Charlie Kaufman derides.

Funnily enough I thought that, but sometimes you have to just get a bad idea out your head, so you can almost prove to yourself that it just isn't going to work. Only is rare circumstances it turns out the bad idea comes good. Sometimes it's almost as if the the idea has a mind of its own, pleading its case for why the idea is great, and until you get it out there, you can't prove it wrong...so feel I have done that now.

Also, if I am being honest, I don't think I would have had fun writing this, and if I wasn't going to enjoy writing it, how can I expect people to enjoy watching.

However, I thought: Well, maybe I am wrong and the idea is right? Which is the great thing I like about this site is you can find that out before your 50, 60, or more pages into your screenplay.

Although I would argue that amnesia is more over used. Haha

Appreciate the feedback, thank you. Good luck with your project, looks good, and looks to have gotten a lot of positive feedback.

DONALD (CONT'D)
Hey, thanks a lot, man. Cool.
(flicks on light, then in pitch
mode:)
Okay, there's this serial killer, right --

Kaufman groans, lies down, pulls the covers over his face.

DONALD (CONT'D)
No, wait. See, he's being hunted by a
cop. And he's taunting the cop, right?
Sending clues who his next victim is.
He's already holding her hostage in his
creepy basement. So the cop gets
obsessed with figuring out her identity,
and in the process he falls in love with
her. Even though he's never even met
her. She becomes, like, the
unattainable, like the Holy Grail.

KAUFMAN
(through a blanket)
It's a little obvious, don't you think?

DONALD
Okay, but there's a twist. See, we find
out the killer suffers from multiple
personality disorder. Okay? See, he's
really also the cop and the girl. All of
them. It's all him! Isn't that crazy?

Donald waits, proud. Kaufman pulls off the covers.

KAUFMAN
Look, the only idea more overused than
serial killers, is multiple personality.
On top of that you explore the notion
that cop and criminal are really two
aspects of the same person. See every
cop movie ever made for other examples of
this.

DONALD
Mom called it psychologically taut.

" Look, the only idea more overused than serial killers, is multiple personality. On top of that you explore the notion that cop and criminal are really two aspects of the same person. See every cop movie ever made for other examples of this."

Don't worry Knightrider1984, this is a bit exaggerated . (Tony Edward will give us the list of these movies)

And don't forget: It's only a pitch. Donald's screenplay was never written!

Sounds a bit like Donald Kaufman's pitch for 'The Three' from the movie Adaptation...

Hi Guys,

This is a very interesting idea, full of unexpected opportunity, because DID is a large and complex subject, poorly understood.

DID nature and diagnosis are already evolving and controversial.

Some interesting details are:
- DID is the most severe stage of dissociative diseases which begin with very common benign dissociative experiences like daydream.
- It is very difficult to diagnose and often mistaken with a severe depression (Which is a benediction for a screenwriter who as to create a cop!)
- People with DID may live more than two states? or identities?, although these are all parts of the same unique personality.
- The true primitive identity? is rather passive, introverted, while alternative are stronger and can be intrusive.
- True and alternative states or identities may be more or less impaired.
- They can have their own age, sex, or race; postures, gestures, ways of talking, etc...

The best known case in cinema is in ? Psycho ? of course, but there are also several movies with Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (e.g. Mary Reilly with J. Roberts & J. Malkovich), etc... Werewolves are an evocation of DID.

In most of these movies, the hero is the real primitive identity of the person, while his alternative state is the antagonist. Sometimes they are rather either both a hero (Mary Reilly) or both the antagonist (Psycho).

I think that there is no movie in which the Hero is one of the alternative identities, while the antagonist is either:
- An other alternative identity while the primitive real identity is not a main character.
- The primitive real personality controlled by a second alternative identity.

Some interesting links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissociative_identity_disorder

http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/dissociative-identity-disorder-multiple-personality-disorder

http://psychcentral.com/lib/dispelling-myths-about-dissociative-identity-disorder/0009785

http://psychcentral.com/library/dissociation_intro.htm

When a detective with a split personality discovers that a biological warfare bomb will detonate in two hours, he must persuade the conspirator -- his alternative personality -- to reveal where it is and how to deactivate it.

Notes:
Two hours: Why not unfold the whole story in real time? Or not as long as the time limit is short enough to ratchet up dramatic tension--the urgency of the ticking clock.
DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder), aka: split personality, is not the same as nor is it a subset of schizophrenia.