CENTURY CITY –-- Carl Kincaid, a studio executive, was sitting with his feet up on his desk on day, eyes shut, when he was suddenly struck by a passing thought. In fact, it was more than a passing thought.

 "It's like nothing I'd ever experienced before," claims Kincaid, as if he'd witnessed a U.F.O. landing. "It blew me away! I mean, just think of it… really think of it: a thought… a virtual brainstorm... a real thought! I felt all warm and tingly and God damn alive! I wonder if this is what all those creative types experience."

 Like Thomas Edison in the throes of a revolutionary discovery, Kincaid immediately summoned his secretary, Mary Lou Schmitt, into his office. He wanted her opinion on whether or not it was normal to think such things, whether or not the idea had merit, and whether or not he should tell any one else about it.

"He was certainly very excited," Schmitt says, "His face was all flushed and his pupils were dilated. At first it scared me 'cause I knew he'd never had an original thought in his life and I didn't know what it might do to him. I asked if he wanted some water, but he couldn't decide, so I brought him some bubbly. I told him to sit down, and he just stared blankly and said, 'Do you think so?' He always does that. Honestly, the guy can't make up his mind without a whole staff of minions. Finally, he calmed down a bit —-- at least enough to tell me his idea."

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"At first it scared me 'cause I knew he'd never had an original thought in his whole life, and I just didn't know what it might do to him."

 —Mary Lou Schmitt, Executive Secretary

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"OK, so here it is," she remembers Kincaid saying, "it's like 'man bites dog' but with a twist: Dog… bites… man. Get it?!"

"But," Schmitt responded, "hasn't that already, you know... been done?"

"Well," said Kincaid, "if it has, then we'll do the sequel. Now… who could we get to play the dog —-- Brad Pitt?"