Groundhog Day

February 3, 2025

"Dig this: Sometimes I'll have a knotty problem, I'll chew, I'll chew and bam! I solve it. It was so simple! And after congratulating myself for my cleverness, it then occurs to me how long I had been an idiot."

— Danny Rubin

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There was a spark in my head

Yesterday was Groundhog Day, again.

Of course, the reason we all have a lot more cultural references for the phrase "Groundhog Day" than we once did is that in 1993 Bill Murray starred in a movie called "Groundhog Day" in which his character, Phil, had to relive the same day over and over and over.

This might be among the most deconstructed movie ideas and scripts of all time, to the point that the screenwriter who wrote it, Danny Rubin, wrote a book called quite literally: How to Write Groundhog Day.

It was only the second script Rubin ever wrote, if I am reading his book correctly. The first was a screenplay that he called "Silencer," and which had been "optioned" but not filmed, and Rubin's agent had pushed him to write a script that he could use as a calling card to get more meetings with producers.

"Silencer" eventually became the somewhat forgetable thriller "Hear No Evil" -- coming out a month after "Groundhog Day."

Anyway, as Rubin tells the story, he came up with the idea for "Groundhog Day" while reading Anne Rice's "The Vampire Lestat" in a theater as he waited for another movie to start.

"I liked how by using vampires she was basically just creating humans, but with a couple of rules changed. For example, they're just like humans except that they can live forever. ... I continued thinking about an immortal life and how a person in that situation might change -- or would they? ...

Then the lights came down and the movie started, and I don't remember what it was because I wasn't paying attention to any of it. Couldn't focus. There was a spark in my head."

It took Rubin about seven weeks to come up with a complete outline, and then four days to write the script itself. By the time he finished, the agent who had suggested he write a script like this had left the business to become a schoolteacher.

So, Rubin sent it to another agent, who said he couldn't take him as a client but might want to show the script to some directors and producers. One of them happened to be Harold Ramis, who loved it, which made it a lot more feasible to get a deal with Columbia Pictures, which led to Bill Murray signing on -- the whole nine yards.

You might imagine: This whole story speaks to me, as someone who packed up all his stuff in a used Kia Sportage and drove 3,000 miles to Hollywood to become a screenwriter at one point, only to have life take some unexpected turns.

But here I am, still writing every day. And it only feels like I'm repeating the same day some of the time!

(I kid, I kid. Well, mostly.)

I recommend his ebook, especially if you're interested in writing -- and the business of writing. Even though Rubin's experience was a while ago now, it's quite instructive. Plus, given that almost everyone has seen Groundhog Day, many of us multiple times, it's very easy to follow.

Anyway, we need a quote, and I love this one from Rubin. It's actually from a Reddit AMA he did a while ago. It applied to writing —- but maybe to a lot of other things as well:

"Dig this: Sometimes I'll have a knotty problem, I'll chew, I'll chew, and bam! I solve it. It was so simple! And after congratulating myself for my cleverness, it then occurs to me how long I had been an idiot.

I think that is the level of joy and hate in my writing. Usually, I like it while I'm writing it, I doubt it mightily when I reread it, and when I pick it up a lot later I think, "Damn. This was good. What's wrong with everybody?"

Have a great day. Make it different from yesterday!

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Bill Murphy Jr.

Groundhog Day

February 3, 2025

There was a spark in my head

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