Day 41

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Day 40

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Day 39

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Day 38

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Pure Genius — Day 37

Genre: Comedy / Drama

Premise: An Apple Store is opening in one of China's brand-new "mega-cities" much to everyone's delight. 20 years ago the city was a sleepy hamlet of several hundred thousand people, but now, thanks to China's incredible economic boom, it has 20 million inhabitants. Naturally, getting its first Apple Store is a huge source of pride for the city, signalling their arrival as a global destination. 75,000 people apply for only 300 spots as store employees.

Our story follows the plight of 6 young winners, as they train for their new jobs. Each becomes a kind of local celebrity among their friends, family and community, and must deal with all of the temptations and trials that come with their new found success. As opening day comes, we watch all 6 perform with remarkable professionalism and pride. They are not only good at their new jobs, they are perhaps some of the best Apple employees in the world.

The store is a huge success.... until, a few months in, when a blogger notices that there is no official Apple Store listed in that Chinese city on Apple's website. It turns out that the entire Apple Store—from the products and the furniture, down to the slate flooring and the poor unsuspecting employees—is one giant, elaborate knock-off. As the store is closed by the authorities, and the city is disgraced, the 6 employees must deal with the fallout and disappointment of having achieved so much only to have it ripped away.

Background / Inspired by:  Chinese authorities find 22 fake Apple stores - BBC News

The Tree Fort — Day 36

Genre: Drama

Plot:  It is 1942 in rural Long Island, NY. A mother and her 8 year old son and 1 year old daughter watch as the father heads off to join WWII. Early in the war, before US troops even see action in Europe or North Africa, the father becomes a commando and is sent on a raid in Europe behind enemy lines. When the word comes back that the father and his unit were killed in action behind enemy lines, the mother's and son's world falls apart.

The boy refuses to believe that his father is dead, and retreats to the family's backyard. The father had helped his son start to build a tree house in a majestic oak tree before he left for the war, and the boy now throws himself completely into the project. Working night and day for weeks, he turns the simple tree house into something else altogether: a nearly impenetrable fortress. The boy spends more and more time in his treetop fort. He begins covering the walls and ceiling with newspaper clippings about the war, plotting rescue plans and looking for clues as to his father's location, convinced that he must be alive and is being held as a prisoner by the Axis.

As the boy's world becomes ever more insular and imaginary, the mother is left to cope with the harsh reality of having no breadwinner, and two children to feed, including an infant. The local grocer is a lecherous and dark man, too old to be drafted. He is one of the only men left in the town, as most of the other men the mother's age are either married, or been sent off to war, or both. The grocer has had his eye on the woman for years, and now that her husband is dead, he begins making overtures to her, and bringing her family free food. The boy distrusts the man, and is angry at his mother for allowing the courtship. He believes his mother is "betraying" his father.

Time passes, and the war rages. It has now been two years since the father died. Though she does not love him, to ensure care for her children the mother has begun a serious relationship with the grocer. The boy and the man keep their distance from each other. But one day, the boy believes he catches the grocer trying to sexually abuse his young sister. He tries to tell his mother what he has seen, but she is furious with the boy. He has been living in an imaginary world for two years, she tells him, he must grow up. Later that day the grocer proposes to the mother and she accepts.

The grocer is now ascendant as the man and unchallengeable authority of the household, and confronts the boy, telling him that he is powerless to stop him from doing whatever he wants. He tells the boy to shut his mouth, or else he will hurt his mother. The final straw comes when the grocer announces that once they are married, the new family will move to his much larger home. The boy refuses, saying that he will not leave his tree fortress behind—that he must stay there and wait until his father returns. The conflict comes to a boil and the grocer takes a can of gasoline and a match to the tree, setting it ablaze... Just as the long lost soldier / father comes limping up the driveway, truly back from the dead. 

As the shock reunion and final accounting begins, it quickly becomes apparent that what has been lost by all can not be recovered. With the tree blazing in the background, the now hysterical boy escalating the situation and screaming for blood, and 4 distraught worlds colliding, the resolution heads towards a violent showdown.

The Countdown — Day 35

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Premise: A man wakes up in a panic late one night with a countdown clock in his head: 21 Days, ticking down one second at a time, as if God himself had programmed it into his mind. He can't ignore it, or stop it, and as it ticks down a sense of dread and certainty begins to fill the man more and more. What happens when the countdown clock reaches zero? Is it his own death? The end of the world? He only knows that when the clock reaches zero, something terrible will happen... and that he must do something to stop it, whatever it is.

Forged — Day 34

Genre: Drama / Psychological Thriller

Plot:  A woman is named as the new Director of a major Modern Art museum that has fallen a bit behind the times. The appointment is the toast of the art world since the woman's mother, now in her 80s, had previously served as the director of the same museum for nearly 30 years, achieving legendary success in her time.

One day, during her first few weeks as museum director, a deranged man comes in and slashes a priceless masterpiece with a razor blade. As the man is dragged away and arrested he shouts things about the museum's dark legacy, and the righting of injustices against him. The museum's conservationists begin the delicate work of repairing the masterpiece, hopeful that it can still be saved.

Late one night, a few weeks into the restoration process, one of the chief conservationist's calls the director down to the basement repair shop and drops a bombshell. After three weeks of close inspection the conservationist is convinced that the legendary painting is actually a forgery. He walks the director through his findings step by step, until she is convinced. The director asks the man to keep his discovery between the two of them for now while she investigates further. 

The director begins a quiet inquiry in to the provenance of the work, and to her dawning horror, discovers that it was actually just one of at least 40 masterworks purchased through unverified channels over a 20 year period. The works in question are some of the museum's most prized possessions, with a total insurance value in the Billions, and all of them were acquired during her mother's tenure as director.

As the museum presses charges against the man who defaced the painting, he falls unexpectedly silent in court and refuses to speak in his own defense. But some troubling details begin to emerge about the man. He is a Greek national and for a time was suspected of associating with a ring of world class art forgers.

The director approaches her mother with all this this troubling news, but her mother demurs. As her daughter presses the issue, the mother takes offense, and tries to convince her daughter that she is on a witch hunt. Drop the charges against the lunatic and forget about the one painting that is a confirmed forgery, she advises. If the daughter goes digging looking for dirt who knows what she could find? And even if there are no other forgeries in the museum's collection, if the daughter expands the inquiry, she risks destroying both women's reputations in the process. 

But the director is compelled to see it through. Eventually her investigation reveals that her mother and the slasher have met, in fact, numerous times. A private detective brings the director even more disturbing news: he believes the slasher is not just associated with a forgery ring, but in all likelihood he is himself the most infamous, never-been-caught master forger of the last half century.

The implications are devastating. Is it possible that the mother and the infamous forger were working together as partners, swindling one of the greatest institutions in the world out of millions of dollars? If so, where did the money go? Can the great institution survive if the truth comes out? By the time the daughter unearths the truth, that her mother and the master forger were intimate for many years, she has an even greater fear: Is it possible that the forger—who is on the verge of destroying the director's career, her mother's legacy, and the museum itself—might actually be her father?

Killer Creative — Day 33

Genre: Action / Thriller

Back story: Sam Cortez is Hollywood's number one armchair military strategist, and the name of his one-man company—Killer Creative—says it all. Sam imagines destruction and builds battle plans for the movie industry that no audience has ever seen before. When the producers of the film "Olympus Has Fallen" needed to create a 40-minute, realistic terrorist assault on the White House, they knew Sam was the only guy who could pull it off. Although his movie work is loved by audiences world-wide to the tunes of billions of dollars, unfortunately for Sam, his is a mostly anonymous craft, and so he is seldom credited or compensated on par with his contribution to a film.

We first meet Sam as he is sitting in a bar watching the academy awards. An action movie that he wrote an extensive battle sequence for has just won for best screenplay. As the movie's sole credited "screenwriter" stands on stage and thanks everyone but Sam, Sam raises a glass to the TV, "You're welcome, asshole." "The only good thing about that movie was the action scenes," offers the craggy bartender, unaware that he's speaking to the invisible man who actually wrote them. Sam grimaces and gets down to the serious business of getting drunk by himself.

Inciting incident:  A few days later, two well-known television producers approach Sam. They tell him they know that he's the real brains behind Hollywood's brawn, and then make him an unbelievable offer: they are developing a TV series about the invasion of America by highly organized terrorist forces, "like a five-season-long cross between Red Dawn and Homeland." They want Sam and Killer Creative to help them map the arc of all 5 seasons, from breaching U.S. borders in season one, to identifying the targets necessary to cripple the country in seasons 2-3, and finally, to asserting control and governing the populace through brutal occupation in seasons 4-5. If Sam accepts the gig, not only will they give him a full writing and executive producer credit, but they will even consider making him a show-runner, if he's interested—all for a princely sum. Finally, Sam's moment has arrived. He dives in with both feet.

For six months Sam toils night and day, barely coming up for air as he writes one season arc at a time. The schedule is grueling and lonely, especially since development of the massive project is still embargoed, so he can't talk to anyone about it. But every two weeks, he sends his new material off to the producers, and a few days later he gets notes back from them: Have you thought about this? ...What about that...? This part seems unrealistic, based on XYZ... Although the notes are always curt to the point of rudeness, to Sam's astonishment, their strategic and tactical insights are brilliant, and it helps Sam push his craft to the next level. Finally, he finishes, and as he looks back over the six months of writing, Sam realizes it is the best work he's ever done. Exhausted but exhilarated, Sam clears a place on his mantle for five seasons worth of Emmys and smiles. He calls the producers, who are equally elated, to give them the good news. They make a plan to meet for brunch the next day to all celebrate, and so Sam can ceremoniously hand over the final pages.

1st act turning point:  The producers sit down at a table in an outdoor restaurant in L.A. They are barely there 2 minutes when a waiter recognizes them both as two of Hollywood's biggest power players. The waiter runs to the kitchen and comes back with a TV pilot he wrote in hand, and proceeds to sit down and pitch the producers, despite their vehement protestations. Sam is running a few minutes late, but parks across the street. As he approaches the restaurant a black and white LAPD police cruiser pulls up and the officers get out. Sam sees the officers walk over to the table and then, unexpectedly, after a brief verbal exchange, the police officers pull their weapons and execute both producers and the waiter. As screaming people run out of the restaurant in all directions, Sam dives behind a parked car, his heart racing. One of the officers pick up the pilot script from the dead waiter's hand and quickly swivels to look around, suddenly agitated. He spots Sam, who makes a bolt for it. As bullets whiz by him, Sam dives down an alley and barely gets away. 

Sam jumps in his car and races to get home. As he turns on to his street, there are fire trucks everywhere and his apartment building is ablaze. Ditching his car, Sam runs three blocks to his bank, where he empties his savings account of every penny he has—a few thousand dollars. Two police officers enter the bank just as Sam is at the teller, adding to his agitation. He gets the money, slinks out of the bank before anyone can confront him, and jumps into the back of a cab. He gives the cabbie $300 and tells him to drive into the desert taking the least traveled roads. Two hours later, Sam jumps out and checks into a highway motel. What the hell is going on and what do I do?!  For the rest of the day and night Sam watches the news in his room with the curtains closed, as the terrible restaurant shooting unfolds. Several people captured the attack on their camera phones, and there is even footage of Sam beating a hasty retreat. Sam fears he may be somehow implicated in the shooting.

And then, the news is interrupted by even more terrible news. The newscasters are visibly shaken. There has been an explosion at a border crossing from Mexico. Then two. Then one near Vancouver. Then three near Montreal. The united States is under terrorist attack on both borders. Sam's mind reels. How is this possible? This is no coincidence. It's exactly how the invasion begins in the script he's written for season one of his show. And then he understands. Why the producers and the waiter sitting with them were murdered. Why the cop was agitated when he realized the pages he was holding weren't Sam's final pages. Why his apartment building was destroyed. Why the six-months of notes he got back on his writing were so creative. So insightful and proficient in the art of asymmetric war. The notes were from whomever hired the producers, a darker shadow of himself. Sam Cortez is peerless in his craft—and he has just scripted the invasion and destruction of the United States, and handed it over to.... whom exactly??

As the film unfolds, Sam races to find a way to contact someone in the government who will listen to him and heed his foresight about the invasion that is unfolding. But the country is in paralytic shock. Across the nation people are glued to the television, and the government and police forces are completely overwhelmed attempting to deploy everywhere, as the fog of war and panic quickly derail America's response.

Sam knows he can't simply turn himself in to a police station somewhere, since the terrorists hunting him will reach him quicker than anyone in the government who might take his claims seriously. But the clock is ticking. The border attacks were just diversions from the true incursions, and legions of foreign fighters are sure to be streaming in from other entry points on both seaboards. Sam is the only person who knows what the invaders know. And so he may be the only person who can help devise a plan to counteract the invasion, IF he can survive long enough to find someone in the government who will listen to him, while there's still time to act.

The Triton — Day 32

Genre: Action

Premise: It is the near future. Hannah Remus is the captain of the Triton, the world's newest and most incredible luxury cruise liner on its maiden voyage. One morning, as the Triton is passing through the South Pacific, it is attacked by a Chinese submarine. With the attack upon the Triton, World War III has begun. Within minutes the American mainland is targeted in a series of crippling surprise attacks by the Chinese and their allies. The United States is down for the count.

The Triton billows smoke and begins to list. The Chinese submarine captain, certain the Triton is finished, surfaces his boat, to let his crew go on deck and watch the death of the American age and the dawn of a new Chinese era with their own eyes. But on board the Triton, Captain Remus has sprung into action. Prior to her entry into the civilian cruise industry, she was a captain of a Destroyer in the U.S. Navy—a sub-hunter by training and instinct. As she galvanizes the Triton's crew and civilian passengers to shore up the damage below decks and put out the fires, she does the unthinkable and presses her majestic ocean liner into the role of attack vessel. She has the engine room give full speed and turns the Triton directly towards the surfaced Chinese sub.

Flabbergasted and in disbelief, the Chinese captain sounds the alarm to dive, but with most of his crew out on the deck, his boat has neither time nor maneuverability to escape, and the giant Triton slams into the sub head on, it's prow punching a seam directly down the middle of the submarine. In less than a minute's time, the sub sinks below the water and breaks apart.

With many Chinese sailors bobbing in the waves, Captain Remus and her crew must make a difficult decision. Do they save their aggressors, and rescue as many souls as they can, or leave them to their fate? Remus takes stock of their situation: alone in the south seas, with little to no expectation of help from the U.S. Navy, no weapons on board to guard any Chinese prisoners that they might take on, and the very real threat that the Triton herself may yet sink. Remus makes the hard call and, puts the lives of her civilian crew first. The Chinese sailors who tried to sink the Triton are left to their fate.

The damage to the Triton is extensive, and it is taking on water. The ship is too far from mainland U.S. or Hawaii to make it back. Their only hope is to press on and try to find refuge in Australia, or if they can not make it that far, to run aground near some South Pacific island that will give the passengers a fighting chance at survival.

Along the way, captain Remus must dodge Chinese military patrols using every trick in her book, chart a safe course, conduct ad hoc repairs to keep the Triton from slipping below the waves, and transform her civilian crew and passengers into a battle-hardened team, capable of delivering their own salvation.

The 99th Problem — Day 31

Genre: Drama / Action

Logline 1: American Gangster meets Funny Games

Premise: A hip-hop mogul is targeted by an inner-city gang. The gang breaks into the mogul/rapper's home armed to the teeth and hold him and his Victoria Secret model wife hostage. The mogul, who is well know for rapping about the Good Life that his millions afford him, at first believes that he is being targeted for his wealth, and that he is the victim of a simple robbery / extortion. But through the course of the hostage situation and film, it becomes clear that the gang leader has a deeper motivation and plan.

Before he made it big, the mogul had been a very successful gang-banging, drug dealer in his youth. It turns out that the gang currently holding him and his wife hostage is from the same projects where the mogul grew up. The gang leader's mother was a junkie, who overdosed when he was just a child. The gang leader blames the mogul for his mother's death, and intends to make the mogul answer for his long forgotten—or worse, long celebrated—sins. 

Cupid's Meteor — Day 30

Genre: Comedy / Adventure

Premise: It is 1934. A poor Russian miner wants to propose to a beautiful woman in his town, but she is above his station, and he has no money for a ring to impress her. One night he sees a meteor fall and impact the side of a mountain. As a miner he has heard that meteors often times produce diamonds on impact. This is his chance to get a gem big enough to impress his one true love!

He has two big impediments: first, the meteor has struck the side of a mountain, and he will have a hell of a time reaching it. And the second thing is that the clock is ticking. Certainly, many people have seen the meteor and it's just a matter of days or hours until the local Soviet functionaries show up and close off the site so that any spoils can go to the USSR. The miner assembles a crack team (his three best miner buddies, most of whom are constantly inebriated), and they set out on donkeys with their mining gear to see if they can score a few diamonds, and help their buddy get the girl.

Bottled Up — Day 29

Genre: Social Science Fiction / Dark Comedy

Premise: Brooklyn, the year 2050. Healthy living has conquered the world, and nowhere more so than Brooklyn, NY. It's been 20 years since anyone in the borough has had a cigarette, tasted gluten, sat at a desk for more than 30 minutes straight or missed more than 2 consecutive days of yoga. The craft beer revolution is over, its victory complete, although along the way it replaced most of the alcohol content of beer with vitamins and essential minerals. Monsanto and Budweiser are distant memories, the ratio of car lanes to bike lanes is 1:6, and 90% of all energy is renewable. It is paradise for many. But not for all.

Every week a small group of eight poets in their 20s meet in the basement of a Park Slope food co-op to share their work with each other and provide moral support. After several months of anguished meetings they all agree: of the multitude of things that now grow in Brooklyn, poetry doesn't seem to one of them. Every writer present is creatively blocked, and the poetry they do produce in dribs and drabs is flat and lifeless. If one or two members of the group were blocked, it might be understandable enough. But ALL of them? And for their entire careers as young, would-be poets...? What is going on?!

Finally, one night, someone stands and proposes the unthinkable: what if all of this healthy living and mindfulness of body and spirit have somehow closed the channels to creativity? To test the hypothesis, the group list their favorite poets from the last 100 years or so: Charles Bukowski... Dylan Thomas... Dorothy Parker... Jack Kerouac. My god. Everyone's eyes widen at the realization. ...They were all DRUNKS!  Is that what's missing? Does the creation of good poetry require inebriation?

Everyone in the room despairs. Alcohol is still legal, of course, and for the most part easy enough to acquire. But drinking is so unCOOL. The only people who drink these days are somewhere between the ages of 55 and 70, at which point the drinker drops dead of cirrhosis of the liver. Everyone present has at least one raspy grandparent or older aunt or uncle to remind them of why alcohol has fallen so far out of fashion. ...And yet. 

They weigh their options and agree that nothing could be worse than the soulless, poetry-free lives they are currently leading. Their desperation is so complete that maybe drastic action is the only way. And so they make a pact, a solemn vow to one another, that they will become drunks—so that they might become real poets. Not casual, pinky-out cocktail sippers, or even weekend binge-drinkers... but hardcore, liquor-bottle-by-the-bedside, slurring-at-the-bank-teller, wetting-themselves-in-the-paddy-wagon, full-time alcoholics—with notepads or tape recorders at the ready to catch inspiration and advance their art, of course. It is the only way to save themselves, and maybe even poetry.

But how to do it? None of the young poets have any experience with drinking, let alone being full blown alcoholics. Where should they begin? 

One of them hits upon a brilliant idea. In the past there was a popular organization called Alcoholics Anonymous that helped people trying to combat their abuse using a 12 step program. Apparently, If the steps were properly "worked" they could help lead even the most slobbering, obliterated drunkard into a life of sobriety. So what if the group of poets just took the 12 steps and ran them in REVERSE, negating every principle of AA along the way? Wouldn't that deliver them from their prison of sobriety to the blissful state of inebriation that fueled the poetry they so admire?   

And so, battle plan in hand, they begin. They start with the (inverted) 12th step, spreading the word to anyone who will listen that they intend to become alcoholics, "and you can too," if you want to follow their lead. By the time they get to the ninth step of AA—making direct amends to anyone they've wronged—and invert it, they are now actively seeking to hurt or upset people with whom they are in good standing, or better yet, complete strangers. 

As they progress, disregarding social norms and intentionally hurting others and themselves, their poetry does indeed begin to improve, much to their elation. But being a drunk is harder than they could have imagined, and with each descending step the moral difficulties and questions increase. Yes, the bottle is deep, and its legendary grip is real. But beyond that, most of the poets are now mainlining an even more powerful and addicting drug, as they experience creativity and praise for their work for the first time. 

Some call it quits, and others press on. For those who press on, the literary world takes notice and their poetry and methods are increasingly lauded, greasing the slope of their descent. For the most hardcore of the poet-drunks, their target is clear. To reach the first step: "to admit that we are powerless over alcohol — and that our lives have become unmanageable," and then, hopefully, cross beyond the steps to the space where only the purest poetry can flow. For all of them, the journey and its lessons are vastly different than they imagined it would be, and by the end each must account for what they have gained or lost, and for the impact upon society that their experiment has had.

The Fall — Day 28

Genre: Drama

Premise:  A distraught man jumps from the roof of a six story building, attempting to commit suicide. As he plummets, time seems to slow... But rather than his own life flashing before his eyes, one by one he relives the lives and memories of each of his neighbors as he falls past their windows. Does he strike the pavement and die, or does something break his fall and he survives? In either case, by the time he reaches the ground, the man who lands is not the man who jumped, and his understanding of the life he has led and its meaning is completely transformed.

Red Scare — Day 27

Genre: Comedy

Premise: Burnt out and eager to escape the craziness of city life, Claire Lennon, a grade-school teacher from San Francisco, accepts a teaching position in a small town. As part of the history curriculum for her 6th grade class, she needs to introduce the idea of Communism to her students, but the 11-year-olds couldn't be less interested. Who the heck cares about Communism? Everybody knows Islamic Terrorists are the only bad guys we have to worry about anymore, one of the kids offers by way of explanation for the class' disinterest. Shocked, (and feeling quite old), Claire resolves to find a way to help bring history alive for her students.

After striking up a flirtation with the school's drama teacher, Hank, a handsome man and former professional actor, Claire decides to kill two birds with one stone and proposes that the kids stage a play dramatizing the Russian Revolution, with Hank's help of course. "If you like Game of Thrones," she tells her students "you are going to LOVE the Russian Revolution. There are just as many characters, twice the intrigue, and ten times more blood." Finally, she has their attention, and the kids throw themselves into the production enthusiastically.

Unfortunately for Claire, the school's German teacher Gerte also has an unrequited crush on Hank the drama teacher, and doesn't like Claire moving in on her territory one bit. Gerte decides she must crush Claire, and secretly declares war on the unsuspecting interloper. Gerte's master-stroke is simple enough: she raises the alarm that a teacher from San Fransisco is preaching Communism, and has begun indoctrinating the impressionable students—going so far as having the students star in a "victory play" about the Russian Revolution. The school and the community predictably explode in controversy, placing Claire in the middle of a firestorm.

At first Claire finds the controversy too silly to engage with, and simply hopes it will blow over. But on her first real date with Hank at a fancy restaurant in town she receives a shock when the manager comes out and tells her that unfortunately they can not serve her since she has been "blacklisted." Soon, under pressure by parents whom have been whipped into a frenzy by Gerte the German teacher, the superintendent of schools and the mayor create a commission to look into the allegations of the new Communist Threat.

As the the town's hysteria spirals out of control, and the comic-tragic parallels to actual history continue to increase, the students get a taste of just how easily history can repeat itself.... and ultimately, they must come to the rescue of their teacher—and save their town from itself—before its too late.

Zombie Problems — Day 26

Genre: Comedy / Horror

Logline: The Walking Dead—from the Zombies' perspective.

Premise: Phil and Rita live in constant terror. All around them, lurking in the shadows, armed to the teeth, and moving at lightening speed are predators who hunt them without conscience or remorse: human beings. Phil and Rita, like most of the planet, are Zombies. Though numbers and time may be on their side, the human scourge infesting the earth refuses to let them live in peace, and is engaged in a steady pogrom of zombie extermination. 

Despite their numerical superiority, the zombies have many handicaps. They have the attention span of goldfish. There are some communication barriers among their people, since grunting and gnashing of teeth is still a young language. And most of all there's the hunger. The relentless, punishing, totally distracting, never-ending hunger for—of all things—human brains. Of course a human could never understand the perversity of this. But imagine for a second that you are a human, and the only thing that you can eat to survive is the gallbladder of Great White Sharks. Sure. There's plenty of Great White Shark gallbladders available in the ocean. Here's a fork and a snorkel. Good luck with that. And from Mississippi to Mongolia that's how zombies live EVERY. DAY. If there's a Zombie God, he's got a pretty dark sense of humor.

Rita and Phil only know two things—mostly because that's all their 10 second attention spans will allow. Thing #1: They are HUNGRY. And thing #2: They love each other. That's why when Phil is snared by a human booby trap and carted off in a truck one day, Rita knows that she must overcome her limitations and mount a rescue mission for her one true love:  BRAINS....  No, wait.... PHIL. ...Phil.

Can Rita stretch her attention span far enough to hatch a rescue plan? If yes, will she then be able to unite her people and focus them long enough to pull off the daring rescue? And the question that terrifies Rita most: if she doesn't act quickly enough, will her memory of Phil fade away, leaving her merely with her hunger for more brains? This is Rita and Phil's love story, and the story of a long oppressed people who must finally rise up and defend their right to exist, or else lose the earth they have inherited.

INTERMISSION #1 — Day 25

So here we are! 

It's been 25 days and 25 movie pitches and I thought this—the 1/4-way mark—would be a good time to reflect on how this crazy project is going so far, and share a little of my hairbrained process with you. If I had to describe the process so far in one word it would be: SERIOUSLYDAMNHARD.  ...And pretty rewarding too, of course!  But HARD is the first word that comes to mind. Here are some of the random things people have asked me, or that I've discovered / found interesting along the way:

How do you feel about your particular project choice?

I'm definitely proud of myself for picking something so tough. I am not a writer by trade, so even figuring out how to put antennae out in the universe to get original story ideas is totally new to me. Of course, learning HOW to find ideas has actually been one of the most fun parts! That said, if I ever do another 100-Day project..... (assuming I survive this one).... I might choose something a little more visual, and meditative / cathartic... Like drawing a meaningful object in my house. Or sculpting something in clay with my eyes closed for 5 minutes every day. The cognitive burden of having to come up with basically one original story or story-thread every day has been the hardest part.

How many pitches are you actually writing?

In terms of volume, I've found that I need to generate more than one idea per day, because inevitably, at LEAST 50% of the ideas I come up with are too cliché, dumb or uninteresting to be salvaged into even bare-bones movie pitches. So I now carry a tiny little Moleskine notebook with me everywhere I go to jot down ANY idea, thread or phrase that might spark inspiration. Which is very ironic. As a designer by trade I've spent years thinking: "Gosh, those little Moleskine notebooks are so cool. But honestly, who needs little notebooks to get through their life?" The answer is ME, now that I'm trying to write a movie pitch every day. Without my little Moleskines I would be LOST. Not even kidding. I also take long, solo walks on Saturday or Sunday AM to try to get 4 or 5 ideas in the hopper. Some of those ideas survive to become pitches and some don't, but the weekend walks really do help keep my brain focused on the task of generating at LEAST one idea a day.

Where do you start? How do you get the ideas?

This has come as a surprise to me: but most of these pitches—probably ALL of these pitches—began with a question. So, a funny title might pop into my head out of seriously NOWHERE... (No Jersey, Day 18), and I'll laugh and say to myself, "OK. What the hell is that about? What does that title even mean?" And the only way to find out is to sit down and start writing. In other cases the question is less about a phrase or a title, and more of a "what-if" scenario, such as: "What might a ZOMBIE'S experience of the Zombie Apocalypse be?" (This will be the post I write for tomorrow, Day 26, no title yet.) And then, as I sit down to write—to find what the answer might be—I will have to ask a second question:  "Wait. What Genre is this?" ...Comedy, I think. This one feels like comedy. ...And the writing and discovery will flow from there.

A precious few of the pitches have actually arrived in my head as complete films, with a clear three-act structure and subplots and all. The two that popped into my head 90% complete were Texas Hold-Up (Day 5) and The Captain (Day 13). I feel like I could write the first draft of either of those scripts in just a few short weeks because the basic story and structure of each is so clear in my mind. That's not to say that they would be GOOD first drafts. Just that those narratives somehow presented themselves to me more or less fully formed.

One of the most unique movie pitches—and the only "idea" that I happened upon this way—is We All Thought It Was A Bad Idea At The Time (Day 10). I was out on one of my Saturday morning walks, trying to force my brain to generate more than ONE damn good idea for the day, and I ducked into the Strand bookstore for a little visual inspiration / respite from mentally writing. I was standing on the mezzanine landing, looking through art books when I overheard two women talking as they walked up the stairs. One woman said to the other:  "None of us thought it was a good idea... Abstract artist becomes plastic surgeon..."  That's all I heard before they were gone. And I thought... Holy shit. ABSTRACT ARTIST BECOMES PLASTIC SURGEON!!!! What a fucking amazing movie idea!!!  Then all of my doubt set in: "Am I ALLOWED to use an idea that I stumble across like this? What if she's just quoting a cartoon in the New Yorker this week?!" Ultimately, my wife said it best: "Who CARES even if it IS a New Yorker cartoon or something? No one's written that movie script yet, so it's yours to make." My wife is WISE, and so I heeded her advice and turned it into a movie pitch. "But what should I call the movie?" I asked myself. Then I remembered the first sentence the woman in the Strand spoke. Talk about meant to be. (By the way, I still don't know where the hell the woman got the phrase from, or what she was talking about. I am still really curious—but mostly I'm just grateful!!)

Do you know how they all end?

Some, no. But I think for the most part, yes. For example I don't know what the final SCENE of Manna-1 is (Day 12). But I DO know whether it's a happy or sad ending, and more or less what the Manna-1 crew will go through and what happens to them, ultimately. Also, I know how (or I should say IF) the ladies of Texas Hold-Up (Day 5) get away with the money. Or don't.

Do you have a favorite?

Why not ask me to pick my favorite child?! ...HA. Kidding. Yes, I have some that I like more than others. The premise for We All Thought It Was A Bad Idea At The Time (Day 10) seriously cracks me up, ("Abstract Artist Becomes Plastic Surgeon.") I think I could have soooo much fun writing that one, and it's high on my list of pitches to develop into full scripts when this damn 100-day marathon is over.

Manna-1 (Day 12) surprised me because when I sat down to write that I had almost NO idea what I was writing about... just something about a Mars colony.... maybe.... But by the time I was done I could see the arc of the movie quite clearly in my mind. I think it would be a tough one to live with while writing because of how dark the story would almost certainly need to become, but it's very close to the kind of dystopian science-fiction films that I most like to watch, (Children of Men, I Am Legend, Oblivion), so I feel compelled to develop that one at some point.

Texas Hold-Up (Day 5) and The Captain (Day 13) both make me smile, and as mentioned, I think they would pour out of me rather easily, (though I'm sure that's a laughable assessment. No script "pours" out of anyone. Or at least not out of this newbie.)

The Desert Game (Day 15 ) has a spare, haunting beauty and a core message of unity that I think could be amazing as a film / script. But I'd have to do a shit-load of period research before tackling that one. It feels like it's full of opportunities to ring false, or be glib, and I have no interest in being glib about WWII, a war that my Grandfather fought in and whose long shadow still very much hangs over our world and geopolitics today.

In some ways the movie pitch I'm most proud of is the first, Jesus of Hollywood (Day 1). The idea for that (Jesus comes back—but he's stuck in the MOVIES!) has been rattling around in my brain for probably six months, and I think it shows in the depth and complexity of concept. But for the last half of a year the idea really WOULDN'T work in my head as a traditional three-part structured script, with proper plot points and act changes, etc. I figured it was probably more of an art project, either a play that Robert Wilson might develop, like Einstein on the Beach, (I worked with Robert Wilson for two years immediately after graduating from RISD).... Or it might even just be a series of panels / paintings / photos... Like the 5-part series of allegorical paintings "The Course of Empire" by Thomas Cole.

....So I was very, VERY surprised when I sat down to start writing Jesus of Hollywood and (WHOA!!!!!) it actually worked as a structured script. I still can't quite believe it. The big downer is that such a film script will be SO dead on arrival... could you imagine the legal wrangling and licensing that would be necessary for that movie to get made?? Almost certainly couldn't happen. And yet, think of how many people would pay to see that film precisely BECAUSE they already have a connection to so many of the classic movie scenes being repurposed to tell this new tale. I also like that the movie, if done right, could work for both secular audiences and devout Christians alike, (despite its tongue-in-cheek premise, the moral at the end certainly does not contradict the traditional teachings and message of Jesus Christ—take care of each other, value life more, sacrifice for each other as I have sacrificed for you.) Commercial viability be damned. I think I'm gonna have to write this sucker, just to get it out of my head.  

In closing:

....So that's it for now. I am kind of dead-exhausted, and can't believe I'm only ONE QUARTER of the way through this 100-Day project, but (so far) I am refusing to say die. I feel like I have no good ideas left in me, or hanging in the air around me, I should say. But on the other hand, I didn't feel like I had 25 ideas for movies in me 25 days ago.... So there's that. And that is very, very encouraging.

I'm planning to check back in again for Intermission #2 at the 50-day mark. Thanks for hanging in there with me. Hope you've enjoyed the trip so far, and here's to the next 25 movie pitches!!!

-Chris

Shakespeare's Players — Day 25

Genre: Fantasy / Adventure

Back story: For 400+ years a group of English actors have roamed the earth as immortals. Their immortality was not their choice—it was bequeathed to them, without their knowledge. But they have all gained immortality the same way: each was the first actor to play a role in one of William Shakespeare's new plays. The first Hamlet. The first Othello. The first Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. If they starred in the first production of a Shakespeare play, they can not die.

For many of them, it took several decades to realize that they were in fact immortal. The first sign was a string of unbroken good luck among the players. Many miraculous escapes occurred from accidents that should have claimed their lives. Within a few years or so, the players noticed that they no longer seems to grow sick. While Shakespeare was alive they joked with their playwright about the good fortune and strong constitution of his players, and he would smile and nod. Eventually, as the years passed and their friends and family around them aged, it seemed that the actors did not. But by the time they realized just what they had become, Shakespeare had already died, and taken any hope of answers with him.

As each player realized their immortality, they began to seek each other out. Some embraced their transformation, but most found it a curse, watching their loved ones wither and die. They also could no longer procreate. Whoever had a child before opening night might have a bloodline full of descendants. Whoever had not procreated, never will. The act of becoming immortal upon Shakespeare's stage seemed to bring sterility.

One of the most bitter legacies for the players is that they are the ultimate boys club. No women played parts in Shakespeare's plays. Young boys or effeminate men played Desdemona, Juliet, Lady Macbeth. Of course, some of the players found love among each other. But to have traveled the centuries without any women their same age and experience was a soul crushing burden for all of them. And for most of them, they are eternal bachelors, destined to lose any love they find with mortal women.

The players have a theory among them: They believe that Shakespeare sold their souls in return for immortality for his work. 38 plays passed down through the ages, with the actors from each trapped, wandering the earth. Their cycles of closeness and emotional distance from each other have ebbed and flowed over the centuries. But they meet at least once a decade, in the shadow of the Globe Theater in London, to commemorate their curse and raise a glass in honor and anger at Shakespeare.

Theirs is a small, tightly-knit group, less than 200 men. Throughout all the years, every player has been accounted for and knows every other—except one.  The actor who played the first Iago was lost to time. After the first run of the first Othello production, Iago disappeared, never to be seen again. Some of the players think he escaped the immortality curse, and died in their Elizabethan age. Others think he may have been shipwrecked, and lies trapped beneath a boulder on the bottom of the sea, wriggling to get free for all eternity. Each man's thoughts on Iago are like their thoughts on God or their predicament: most of all it reveals their own inner nature, and little of the actual world.

Inciting incident: The players have gathered for their once-a-decade dinner on the bank of the Thames. They share stories of their travels and lives around the world, and, as always, speculate about their place in it and when they might be released from their immortal coil. As they sit down to dine, a cloaked figure interrupts their meal. Slowly, several of the figures stand as they recognize the stranger. It is Iago.  "Hello brothers," he begins "I apologize for my long and unkind absence. But I bring good tidings. Our Bard, William Shakespeare, is alive. He is my prisoner. And your long, fruitless walk upon this earth is over. I alone have the key to end your immortality, and I am here to share it with you."

The March — Day 24

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Logline 1:  Cold Mountain + Misery  (+ 50 Shades of Grey)

Plot: It is November 1864 and the civil war rages. Atlanta has just fallen, and General Sherman and his Northern army have begun their march to the sea. As a military maneuver, it is unprecedented. Sherman's army operates deep in enemy territory, foraging for their food as they go rather than relying upon supply lines from the North, and causing as much wanton destruction as possible in the process. Their goal is simple and brutal: to punish the South and make the continuation of war so costly to the Southern civilian populace that the Confederacy is forced to surrender. It a new birth for Total War.

Corporal Clinton Meacham is a Union forager and forward scout. Advancing ahead of Sherman's army, he is the eyes, ears and finder-of-provisions that help guide the rolling destruction. One day, deep in back-country Georgia, his unit is ambushed by Confederate guerrillas. Most of his men are killed in the ambush, and Meacham is severely wounded, rolling down an embankment into a marsh. The sole survivor of the unit sees Meacham fall, and retreats, reporting back to his superiors that Meacham and the rest of the unit have all been wiped out.

But Meacham isn't dead yet. The rebels come across him unconscious and bleeding out. Rather than kill him, they decide to take him hostage to see if he has any useful intelligence to give up before he dies. Unclear about how wide a front Sherman's approaching army will present, the men wrack their brains. If their county and all of the surrounding counties are soon to be saturated with Union soldiers fully engaged in ransacking, it will be difficult to hide a wounded Union soldier somewhere that he won't quickly be found. And they may not even be able to move quickly enough with the body to avoid being overrun.

Then one of them strikes upon a brilliant idea. They will take him to the house of Lem and Sarah Cooper. The Cooper house is just a few miles away, and directly in the path of the approaching army, but it is further into the marsh and away from most of the orchards and livestock where the Union soldiers are likely to focus most of their foraging energy. With good luck, in a few days, the Union army will pass through the county and the men will return for their prize, assuming he has survived.

There is a hitch though. Lem Cooper is serving with Confederate regular forces near Savannah, leaving Sarah alone to tend their property. Though Sarah is well know to the men as a true daughter of the South, the last 2 years with her husband away and in constant danger have taken their toll on Mrs. Cooper. Will she be up to looking after a dying enemy prisoner by herself? The men have no other options. They quickly set out with Meacham in a makeshift stretcher and make it to the Cooper house by late afternoon. Sarah greets them, listens to their plan, and without protest or elaboration, accepts the difficult task. The men tie Meacham to a bed, in case he should wake up, and head off to harass the approaching Union soldiers. The plan to draw the advance units away from the Cooper property, if possible, and promise to return as soon as the Union forces have passed, hopefully not more than a week. Then they depart.

Sarah spends the first night sitting in a chair, watching Meacham as he dies. The following morning, she stands and begins to treat him. By the second day she has wrapped his wounds and Meacham's condition seems to stabilize. And then, on the the morning of the third day, Meacham wakes up. The first thing he sees is Sarah. She is stunning. Though they are enemies, and he is her prisoner, there is clearly a strong attraction between them.

So begins a tortured dance of hatred and lust between Meacham and Sarah. The first phase of their relationship is one of cold inquiry and curiosity. Each tries to conceal their attraction and instead focuses on the roles they are trapped in, that of captor and prisoner. Each night is filled with high tension as the sounds and devastation of the foraging Union army fill the air around the Cooper property.

Meacham and Sarah's relationship enters it's second phase in the middle of the second week, when two of the rebels return, bloody and bruised. The rest of their comrades have been killed in skirmishes, but the rebels believe the bulk of the Union army has passed. They are back to take possession of their prisoner. Sarah seems cordial at first, until she draws down on the two men with a rifle. She will be keeping the prisoner until he is completely healed. And perhaps, she suggests, as a bargaining chip to trade should her own husband be captured by the enemy, as Sherman's army is now heading directly towards Lem Cooper's division in Eastern Georgia. The 2 rebels are besides themselves, and incensed. But for now they decide they would rather let this crazy lady have her way and keep their lives. They depart with a threat to return again, on less bargaining terms.

And so the second phase of their relationship begins with Meacham hopeful that Sarah's actions mean she has begun to sincerely care for him. And indeed, it seems that she might—as the sexual tension now becomes action, and Sarah begins to take liberties with her bound prisoner. But as Sarah's passion for her captive rises, so too does her willingness to inflict pain upon him. Here, trapped in her home, is a flesh-and-blood avatar for the privations she and the South have suffered. Here, also, is a man that belongs to her as surely as a slave. A man who is more or less directly responsible for taking her husband away from her the last 2 years. Slowly, Meacham starts to understand that his captor is not as in control or stable as she first seemed. Though intoxicated by the chemistry and sexual interaction growing between them, Meacham starts to fear that Sarah might actually kill him if he isn't careful. Meacham decides to try and escape. He does so one night, and Sarah runs after him, only to discover that Meacham has been caught by a group of rebel soldiers, including the 2 guerrillas who had promised to return.

The rebels tell Sarah that they were heading to the Cooper house to collect their prisoner, by force, if necessary, but they also seem strangely respectful. The soldiers ask if they might all return to the Cooper house for a night before they move on in the AM. She agrees. When they arrive at the Cooper house, one of the rebels tells Sarah the other reason they've come. They've received word that her husband was killed by Sherman's forces just outside of Savannah. He was burned alive, so there will be no body to return to her. Sarah seems to be in complete shock. The men sit her down, settle in for the evening, and wait for the outburst they know must soon come.

In the middle of the night, Sarah knocks out the guard and Meacham, and drags Meacham out of the house. She bars the door, and sets her own house on fire, killing all of the screaming confederate soldiers inside and burning her home to the ground. Sarah is now completely mad. Act III, and the third phase of Meacham and Sarah's relationship, takes place in the barn on the Cooper property, where the two adversary / lovers live out their final act.

Can Meacham escape? Does he even want to? Will Sarah set him free? Will the two lovers have to kill each other to be free, or might they (and their connection) both survive the madness and war consuming them? Whoever lives and whoever dies, the tragedy of these two lovers is almost certainly inescapable.

Good News From The Other World — Day 23

Genre: Science Fiction / Psychological Thriller / Horror

Plot:  The patients of a mental hospital in the Arizona desert have been going haywire for weeks. The staff is at wits end, and none of the doctors or visiting specialists can figure out what's wrong. As a last ditch effort, they reach out to a local Navajo medicine man and shaman who specializes in mental illness, Dominik Redcloud. Middle aged with striking looks, Redcloud is both salty and wise, like a Native American cross between Dirty Harry and the Dali Lama.

From the moment he is called upon by the hospital, the local Navajo tribal council protests. Redcloud is an outsider's outsider, and does not represent the orthodoxy of the Navajo healing arts. Choosing to go beyond service to his own Navajo people, Redcloud has spent the last 20 years traveling the world studying with other indigenous shamans and deepening his spiritual practice, and only recently returned to Arizona. While in Africa he received a vision that he would be needed in a great contest and must return home to prepare to be called. Now shunned by the Navajo, he has returned to discover that he is truly a man with no nation.

During his travels and field studies, Redcloud has specialized in mental illness. Like the Dagara people of Africa, Redcloud has come to believe that mental illness is a kind of a spiritual crisis, and should be regarded as "good news from the other world," signaling "the birth of a healer." Mental illness, as he has observed it, is actually the result of an entity of the spirit world trying to bond with a human being. The person going through the crisis has been chosen as a medium for a message to the community that needs to be communicated from the spirit realm. If the integration can be assisted, a person of higher consciousness can be born—a new healer. But If the two energies can not be reconciled, then the person suffers as the spirit tries to force the merge, and ultimately both human and entity can be lost. The shaman's job is to try and smooth the integration, and as a result, save lives and produce more shamans / healers.

So when Redcloud walks into the hospital ward, what he sees stuns him. In the worst case scenario, for a patient in extreme pain and emotional distress, a single entity may be impatiently trying to force integration. But in this ward, all around each patient are multiple entities desperately trying to claw their way into the person and integrate themselves. It looks like a feeding frenzy.

Of course, only Redcloud has the eyes to see what is happening, so he must be careful what he says to the hospital administrators. But he offers that he can indeed help, and after several hours of cleansing spiritual practices in the ward, many of the patients start to calm down as Redcloud builds a physic buffer allowing each patient a bit of respite from the onslaught by the entities. Though the hospital staff are dubious of the man and his unexplained methods, they are thrilled with his results. Redcloud has calmed the patients for the first time in almost a month, and so the hospital asks the eccentric healer to stay on for a few weeks to see if he can make the fix stable and lasting.

Redcloud agrees for his own reasons. Something is terribly amiss in this small corner of the Arizona desert, and Redcloud intends to find out what is setting these bizarre forces in motion and help as much of the ward's patients as he can. He suspects he has found the great contest that his vision told him he must return and face.

One by one Redcloud sits with each patient over several days, keeping their tormenting spirits at bay, asking questions and soothing each patient as he tries to get to the bottom of what is causing all of this. None have direct answers for him. But all seem to have the exact same time frame for the onset of their distress: the spirits descended en mass and the patients' agony collectively began 21 days ago.

Finally, after making his way through all of the highly agitated patients, there is only one man left, sitting quietly on the far side of the room. Redcloud has not even noticed him until now, because the man has been eerily quiet and sedate during the healer's time at the ward. Even more puzzling, the man does not seem to have any spirits circling around him. Redcloud can't see the man's aura or get a reading on him from across the room, so he approaches the man to attempt a better look into his spirit. But a sharp look by the silent man lets Redcloud know it would be unwise to approach much further, and stops him in his tracks.

Instead, Redcloud leaves to talk to the hospital staff. Who is the man? They don't know. He was found in the desert naked and hasn't said a word since he was brought in. The other patients for the most part seem to avoid or ignore him. When was he brought in? He was found one month ago, and brought to the ward 21 days ago. Redcloud's mind clicks in recognition. The timing can not be coincidence. Whatever is happening to the patients, the silent man is somehow an important piece of the puzzle. Redcloud plans to stay the night and observe the silent man and the ward over the closed circuit video as they sleep.

In the middle of the night, Redcloud decides to take a closer look while the silent man is sleeping. He enters the darkened ward, approaches and gets close enough to stare into the silent man's spirit. And for the first time in his life, Redcloud experiences true terror. The man's black eyes pop open and he sits up in bed, just as Redcloud sees a truth about him: the man HAS no soul. Only a dark malevolence swirling in a sea of unintelligible thought. Redcloud falls backwards on to the floor in surprise and fear. Suddenly, every single patient bursts awake as the entire ward screams in a chorus of extreme agony. Redcloud kicks his way backwards and runs out of the room as the silent man slowly rises out of bed and watches him run.

Redcloud struggles with the terror of what he now knows. The silent man has no soul because he is not a man. And he has no earthly spirits trying to merge with him, because he is not of the earth. The silent man is an alien being. One of pure evil and malice. Redcloud is convinced that the swarm of spirits torturing the patients are in fact trying to warm them, and mankind, about the danger that has descended into its midst.

But what is the silent man after? Is he simply the first scout of a broader alien invasion? And how can he be stopped? Now that Redcloud has unmasked the silent man, he knows he is in true danger. And neither the hospital staff nor his Navajo people are inclined to believe or aid him.

Redcloud must find help. He seeks out the most revered orthodox Navajo healer, but the man will not see him. As Redcloud turns to leave in defeat, he meets the healer's 22 year old granddaughter. Though she does not practice medicine, Redcloud recognizes that she has deep power within her... And most importantly, a mind that is still open enough to be an ally in the spiritual battle ahead. They agree that saving the patients is the key to battling and defeating the silent man, and together the duo set out to defend both mankind and the spiritual realm of earth from the alien evil in their midst.

Background / Inspired by: This article:

http://earthweareone.com/what-a-shaman-sees-in-a-mental-hospital/