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Found a 1980s shelved script about a paperboy in a Kansas town and I can't stop thinking about it
Last week I was helping my uncle clean out his attic in Wichita and stumbled on a dusty box labeled 'movie stuff'. Inside was a full script dated 1987 called 'The Paper Route' about a 13 year old kid who discovers his quiet Kansas town is actually a sleep experiment run by the local diner owner. The script had notes from a producer saying it was too close to some Stephen King vibe and they shelved it right before filming was supposed to start in June that year. I read the whole thing in one sitting and honestly the ending where the kid rides his bike through a tornado of newspapers gave me chills. It's such a specific small town feel that modern movies just don't capture anymore. Has anyone else ever stumbled on an old unmade script in a weird place and wished someone would finally shoot it?
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dakotab931mo ago
That script sounds wild in the best way, and the newspaper tornado ending is such a perfect image. I remember reading an article a while back about all these unmade scripts that just sit in boxes or studio vaults forever, stuff from the 80s that got killed because it felt too much like whatever was hot at the time. There was actually a whole thing about a movie called The Dionaea House and a bunch of other scripts that leaked online and fans kept begging for someone to make them. The sad part is most of these never get made because by the time the rights clear, everyone who cared is gone or the moment passed. Small town horror from that era just hits different too, like the diner owner running a sleep experiment is so creepy and so specific. Somebody needs to dig that thing out and actually shoot it.
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