THEME: MOV

PUB DATE	WEEK	TITLE	SYNOPSIS	THEMES	LINKS TO THIS CONTEST	WINNER	LINKS TO RESULTS OF THIS CONTEST (usually published 2-4 Weeks later)
August 29, 1993	26	CASTING ABOUT FOR AN IDEA	Name a political person (past or present) and the TV or movie role in which he or she could have been cast.	MOV POL TEL	Text file | Contest image
April 10, 1994	58	PLAY IT AGAIN, DENZEL	Bring Casablanca into the 1990s. Write the opening of a plot outline, in 120 words or fewer.	MOV	Text file | Contest image
September 3, 1995	129	REMAKE US HAPPY	Come up with alternative story lines to movie titles, new or old.	MOV	Text file | Contest image
October 22, 1995	136	NEW END IN SIGHT	Come up with new endings to make literary classics more suitable for Hollywood in the 1990s.	MOV	Text file | Contest image
January 11, 1998	252	MAKE YOUR MOVIE	Propose people who were the secret inspiration for famous movies.	MOV	Text file | Contest image
May 30, 1999	324	A PREQUEL OPPORTUNITY OFFERING	Come up with a "prequel" to some classic film or work of literature. You must produce a title and a brief plot summary, which of course must take place prior to the main action of the original work.	MOV	Text file | Contest image
July 9, 2000	357 (XXIV)	Coming to a Bad End	Take some immortal line from literature or film and ruin it by adding a short phrase or sentence.	MOV	Text file | Contest image
August 20, 2000	363 (XXX)	It's Your Movie	Take the title of any movie and make it the answer to a riddle.	MOV JOK	Text file | Contest image
March 25, 2001	394 (LXI)	Life in the Blurbs	Come up with a blurb used to sell a real or imagined book or movie that would be likely to have the opposite of the intended effect.	LIT MOV	Text file | Contest image
April 29, 2001	399 (LXVI)	IT PAYS TO BE GENDEROUS	Write a short film description that could persuade a woman that the guy movie he wants to see is really close to being a gal movie, or vice versa.	MOV	Text file | Contest image
October 7, 2001	422 (LXXXIX)	Taught Language	Come up with lessons learned from (1) the movies, (2) popular songs, (3) romance novels or (4) the comics page.	MOV MUS LIT COM	Text file | Contest image
October 14, 2001	423 (XC)	Roling With Laughter	Take a character from one movie, use him or her to replace a character in a second movie, and then explain how this change would affect the second movie.	MOV	Text file | Contest image
February 24, 2002	442 (CIX)	Titletales	Take any real book or movie, change one word slightly, and describe the resulting new product.	LIT MOV WOR	Text file | Contest image
June 30, 2002	460 (CXXVII)	Pompous Assets	Come up with the first paragraph of a review of a real book or movie, past or present, that is narcissistic, pretentious, and self-aggrandizing.	LIT MOV	Text file | Contest image
July 14, 2002	462 (CXXIX)	Cast Away	Come up with a terrible bit of miscasting in a movie or TV show, past or present, real or imagined.	MOV TEL	Text file | Contest image
September 21, 2003	524	Around Things Moving	Take the title of any book or movie, rearrange the words, and explain what the new book or movie is about.	LIT MOV WOR	Text file | Contest image
May 15, 2005	610	MASH	Find two well-known movies, plays, or TV shows whose title have a significant word in common, combine their titles, and describe the hybrid.	MOV LIT TEL WOR	Text file
June 12, 2005	614	In-Stock Characters	Pitch us an idea for a summer movie featuring two or more of the provided characters.	MOV	Text file
August 28, 2005	625	Haven't Seen It	Make up a new plot for an existing movie title.	MOV	Text file
November 27, 2005	638	The Little Bummer Boy	Come up with an idea (and title, if you like) for an original Christmas movie or TV special that provides an antidote to all the sap, and give us a brief synopsis.	MOV TEL	Text file
February 26, 2006	651	Show Us Some Character	Add a character to a book or movie and tell us what happens in it.	LIT MOV	Text file | Contest image
May 7, 2006	661	Name Any Good Movies Lately?	Give us a funny new title for an existing movie.	MOV	Text file | Contest image
December 17, 2006	693	Everything Being Sequel	Give a brief scenario for the sequel to a well-known movie.	MOV	Text file
July 29, 2007	724	Abridged Too Far	Sum up a book, play or movie in a humorous rhyming verse of two to four lines.	POE LIT MOV	Text file
June 7, 2008	768	The Events Described Herein Are Entirely Fictitious	Come up with fictitious movie trivia.	MOV TRI	Text file
June 21, 2008	770	A Knack for Anachronism	Take a famous historical moment, literary passage, or movie scene and place it in an entirely different age.	HIS LIT MOV	Text file
January 9, 2010	851	Going to the shrink	Downsize the title of a book, movie or play to make it smaller or less momentous and describe it.	LIT MOV	Text file
May 29, 2010	871	Remarquees	Change a movie title by one letter (or number, if the title includes a number) and describe the new film.	LET MOV	Text file | Post e-version
February 27, 2011	908	Recast away	Fire an actor or actress from a movie or TV show, past or present, and offer a replacement for the role.	MOV TEL	Text file | Post e-version
July 17, 2011	928	Play feature	Use the title of a movie as the answer to a riddle or other question.	MOV QUE	Text file
October 2, 2011	939	MASH 2: The Retread	Combine two movie titles and describe the result.	MOV	Text file
November 13, 2011	945	Laugh-baked ideas	Cleverly depict a person, event or phenomenon of the 21st century — real history as well as scenes from movies, books, videos, etc. — using edible materials, and send us a photo of your creation.	PIX HIS MOV LIT	Text file | Contest image
June 3, 2012	974	Eat our dust!	Write a limerick humorously describing a book, play, movie, or TV show.	LIM LIT TEL MOV POE	Text file | Contest image | Post e-version	Chris Doyle	Text file | Contest image (pub 7-1-12) Text file (pub 8-19-12)
February 10, 2013	1008	Switched reels	Re-arrange all the words in the title of a movie, and describe the resulting work. (Conversational text)	WOR MOV	Text file | Contest image | Post e-version
July 14, 2013	1029	Ditty Harry	Write a descriptive theme song for a well-known movie, set to a well-known tune.	MOV MUS POE	Text file | Contest image | Post e-version
December 1, 2013	1049	Be rating	Come up with a new movie rating and describe it.	MOV	Text file | Contest image | Post e-version
June 1, 2014	1074	Let's go parody-hopping	Describe a stage or movie musical in a parody of a song from a different musical.	POE MOV	Text file | Contest image | Post e-version
April 3, 2016	1169	Be caustic by acrostic	Review or otherwise describe a movie, book, play or TV show (or Internet equivalent) with words whose first letters spell out the name of the work. (Conversational text)	MOV LET	Text file | Contest image | Post e-version
October 2, 2016	1195	Don't change a letter!	Alter a movie title only by changing word spacing, changing capitalization, and adding or deleting punctuation marks, accents, etc., then describe the result. (Conversational text)	MOV	Text file | Contest image | Post e-version
May 21, 2017	1228	That movie is SO about you	Name someone who was the "secret inspiration" for a certain movie. (Conversational text)	MOV	Text file | Contest image | Post e-version
August 6, 2017	1239	MASH 3	Combine two movie titles and  describe the result. (Conversational text)	MOV	Text file | Contest image | Post e-version
October 1, 2017	1247	Script tease	Offer a quote from a script whose title you've given a different plot.	MOV	Text file | Contest image | Post e-version
August 5, 2018	1291	Film flam -- movie anagrams	Rearrange the letters of a title of a movie or play to make a new title, then describe the new work. (Conversational text)	MOV LET	Text file | Contest image | Post e-version
October 7, 2018	1300	Botch office sensations	Add "13" to an existing movie title, and some humorous trouble to the plot. (Conversational text)	MOV	Text file | Contest image | Post e-version
March 17, 2019	1323	Selected shortened subjects	Delete one or more letters from the beginning or end (or both) of a movie title and describe the resulting movie.	LET MOV	Text file | Contest image | Post e-version	David Peckarsky	Text file | Contest image | Post e-version
October 13, 2019	1353	What's playing at the retroplex	Change a movie title to its "opposite" by reversing one or more words; then describe the new movie. (Conversational text)	MOV WOR	Text file | Contest image | Post e-version
June 7, 2020	1387	Movie clips -- drop letters from the middle of a title	Delete one or more letters (they must be consecutive) from the middle of a movie title, and describe the resulting new movie. (Conversational text)	LET MOV	Text file | Contest image | Post e-version
July 26, 2020	1394	Two movies, one line	Cite a real or coined line, or give a description, that could work for two different movies, plays or TV shows. (Conversational text)	MOV	Text file | Contest image | Post e-version
May 16, 2021	1436	Haven't seen it: Fun with movie titles	Misinterpret a movie title in a supposed plot description. (Conversational text)	MOV	Text file | Contest image | Post e-version
YEAR 31 BEGINS