Pitch Your Movie! Andrew Robinson Untitled Project
Andrew Robinson from gmanReviews is the first to pitch his movie in our month long blogathon (Check the schedule) following the Hollywood Fantasy Draft we conducted recently. Please share your thoughts and any insights you have in the comments. I will now make way for Andrew who is going to pitch his “Untitled Joss Whedon Project”
The Logline
“It’s a movie where Evan, a psycho depressive girl, who has just broken out of her hospital meets Andrew, an obsessive technology geek who thinks that he’s alone in the world because none of his business ideas ever work. They fall in love from the first time their eyes meet. Yes it’s another indie romantic comedy, but it’s also a musical written and directed by Joss Whedon.”
The Outline
Notes: This is a basic outline and it deals with the main plot-line with 1/2 extra side threads that I haven’t fully thought out. I want this movie because I love rom-com musicals and I can’t wait to see more Joss Whedon musicals. If that’s what you want you may think the plot below is weak, but with Joss Whedon attached, the couple action-like scenes that I have planned and the musical side will be awesome. I also would like to claim that with Whedon helming the film I expect to see Nathan Fillion, Anthony Head, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Alan Tudyk all make a cameo just for fun in the film.
The Characters
 |
Andrew Garfield is the young man who’s working in a mind numbing programming job with a big named technology corporation. He has seemingly good thoughts everyday for how to make money but they always seem to fail because he never allows them to become full blown ideas. |
 |
Donald Glover is Andrew’s best friend since College and he also happens to work with Andrew at this big named technology corporation as a sales representative. Donald’s character is the people savvy individual who is always making quick gags at the stupid things that Andrew says and Andrew never quite gets the joke but doesn’t care. |
 |
Oliver Platt will play Andrew’s father who is married to Olivia Williams. Platt is an alcoholic who never seems to pay his son any mind. After years of working in a car factory, that is no longer alive, he sees his sons work and dreams as silly and not worth much. |
 |
Olivia Williams is the overly loving mother that Andrew needed throughout his childhood since his dad was always out late drinking. She’s a bit too constricting at times, which is why he decided to be on his own so early in life (having moved out on his own at the age of 18). She’s also an enthusiastic horticulturalist. |
 |
Evan Rachel Wood, after watching a homeless man kills himself, has a nervous breakdown and is admitted to a psychiatric hospital. After having been diagnosed with a horrible depression she’s then forced to have been kept in the hospital against her will. She then breaks out and meets Andrew in the middle of the night after escaping the hospital. Her mental issues go past the regular breakdown and when she has conversations with everyone she sees everyone singing and dancing as if everyone’s in a Broadway musical. |
 |
Felicia Day is Evan’s friend since they were five-years-old and Evan’s family moved into the house beside her. She’s the likeable quiet girl who believes that everyone wants to do well. |
 |
Neil Patrick Harris is Felicia’s husband who sleeps around. He’s a famed neurologist who’s completed numerous ‘impossible’ surgeries. Towards the end of the second act his wife guilts him into fixing Evan’s head and her problem after she finds out about his infidelities. |
 |
Max Records is Neil and Felicia’s 11-year-old son. He’s is a cool scheming child that’s always getting into trouble at school but is also a brilliant con man (I wonder where I got this from?) and a believer in people who do what they are. |
 |
Sharto Copley plays the role of the Greg. Greg is a homeless man who roams around the park that is opposite building that Andrew works in. Greg and Andrew have become friends of sorts and Andrew tends to spend his lunch hour outside in the park and he eats with Greg every afternoon. Greg claims to be a famed writer who got cleaned out by his wife but Andrew never seems to find any confirmation of this story. Andrew and Donald think that the man is a small level of crazy, but harmless. Greg will have a ridiculously large beard, and play the role of the wise man who gives Andrew advice through the film. |
Themes
- Love unconditionally: Through the characters of Felicia and Neil we see how no matter how strange things can get in a relationship when you are in love you try to make it work and you love someone unconditionally. I’m not condoning infidelity, but in the case of Neil we (as well as Felicia) see that this characteristic isn’t something that came about just because she was there, it’s something that was always embedded in his character and it’s not anything about her, which is why in the end she begins to understand and starts to play into it with the relationship.
- Intelligence out of school: With the character of Max who’s so much more mature than his age and is someone who understands people a lot more than you would expect someone of his age. With him we see how a school book isn’t the only way to be smart. We also see this in the character of Donald who actually flunked out of school which is why he’s a sales rep rather than a techie like Andrew.
- Believing in yourself: With Andrew constantly doubting his ideas and never seeing his concepts to their full potential, he never seems to get them right and why he never succeeds.
Plot Breakdown
Prologue: Here we see Evan have her mental breakdown after seeing this homeless man kill himself and being put into the psychiatric hospital.
Act One: We open with getting to know Andrew at work and his life, including where his friend Donald fits into his life. We see a cool action scene where Evan breaks out of the hospital cut together with Andrew on his way home from work and it eventually hits the point where they cross paths and immediately ‘fall in love’ <insert song>. During the rest of this act Andrew spends his time finding out who Evan is and getting to know her and getting close to her. Evan’s friend, Felicia, spends her time trying to help her friend after knowing she should get her back to the hospital. The act ends with Evan and Andrew actually starting to be in a relationship.
Act Two: We open with Andrew finally finding out about all of Evan’s mental issues. He begins to start pushing for her to go to doctors, who she doesn’t trust anymore after her experience at the hospital, to try and fix this. With all characters starting to intermingle we see things like Neil talking to Andrew and Donald about his conquests and things like his willingness to share his playbook of how to nail chicks and not get caught by the misses. We see things like Donald and Neil start to be best of friends and starting to kick it off, and Max and Andrew doing good together after Max tries to con him into doing something stupid.
Act Three: We open with Neil talking about all the risks of what he has to do to fix Evan. After a long argument, Evan goes out and doesn’t come back. We then deal with a sequence where the police and everyone go out to find her. The movie ends with Evan being found and Andrew and Evan ending in love. She makes a comment about how horrible a singer she thought Andrew was.
Epilogue: Neil and Felicia resolve their issues with Neil’s infidelity and they start looking for extra partners and we see Donald using Neil’s plays in a bar and all.
So I guess the final question is would you like to see this movie?
33 Comments
Very good pitch structure wise but I tend to wait for these kind of films to be released on dvd/bluray. This one might be in front of that line thanks to Joss whom I am a big fan of.
Sounds like it could be great! I especially love the cast. Nice to see Olivia Williams, Sharlto Copley and Felicia Day in particular.
I think being more descriptive about the characters and plot would have helped make this pitch better. You would definitely need to explain why they fall in love, simply stating that they suddenly fall in love doesn’t cut it lol. So let me ask you this:
- Why do they fall in love?
- Why is Evan having mental issues? Watching something disturbing can be shocking but to lead to a nervous breakdown and being all around freaked out is something else.
- It seems to me like the major conflict of your movie (Evan’s mental issues) is not being resolved here. She simply runs away, then the guys find her and everything is fine?
- It seems to me like Donald and Neil among others are completely extraneous in the big picture of this movie
I enjoy the basic canopy of connections you’ve created, and the back round of the characters, but two things left me wondering……
1. I’m not much for a love at first sight kind of romance, but with Joss as the director I could kind of see making that part plausible. Still, what aside from kinetic energy drew them to one another?
2. How aside from the girls mental disorder does the musicality fit in with the other characters? Won’t it be difficult for the rest of the film to work if shown from everyone elses point of views?
I dug the idea though and I really liked the casting NPH and the character created for him.
Let’s see if I can make everyone love this…
@Castor
1. Why do they fall in love? Well they actually fall in love later in my view. The idea of ‘love at first sight’ is more infatuation than love. So why they get to fall in love is because of said infatuation. Why they fall in love is made up of the experiences they have together after the infatuation… I know this is a round about way of saying I hadn’t thought of the full structure of events when coming up with the general idea.
2. Why is Evan having mental issues? Watching something disturbing can be shocking but to lead to a nervous breakdown and being all around freaked out is something else. This is one of those questions where all I have to say is that we’re talking abt a Joss Whedon film. I know that in the real world it probably wouldn’t have created this huge psychological problem, but I was trying to create a plausible reason for the musical and make something unique about the character Evan plays. This is one of those questions which ivariably will have to answered with the annoying response of ‘it’s a movie’ response.
3. It seems to me like the major conflict of your movie (Evan’s mental issues) is not being resolved here. She simply runs away, then the guys find her and everything is fine? Well her mental issue is that she’s created this issue on her own. She’s had such a hard time with the imagery of death that she doesn’t want to deal with reality in the same way she did before. This is usually treated with months to years of psycology (hence why she was in a hospital), but it’s resolved (as stated above) when brilliant Neurosurgeon (played by NPH) operates on her at the behest of his wife.
4. It seems to me like Donald and Neil among others are completely extraneous in the big picture of this movie NPH was always meant to be a low key character with about three real scenes. Donald on the other hand has to play the role of Andrew’s right-hand man. He definitely can be seen as a side-kick and doesn’t really have much to do other than throw in some good gags and be a listening ear when Andrew is being a whiny bitch about it all. However, when all is said and done his character really is more than that and it’s about execution more than the idea behind his character that will make it special.
@Heather
1. I’m not much for a love at first sight kind of romance, but with Joss as the director I could kind of see making that part plausible. Still, what aside from kinetic energy drew them to one another? What brings them together (at first) is the draw of that first meeting. The two bump into each other and Andrew is enamoured. She’s busy on the run, but in the next couple scenes when they meet again (again by chance) she remembers him and he charms her after awkwardly trying to explain some technobable that noone will understand. Eventually, after dismissing the idea all this time, she begins to think of all the reason why she shouldn’t like him (and she can’t find anything) and decides to give it a shot (with reservations of course) which is why in the end when she finally falls in love she truly loves him… by the third act.
2. How aside from the girls mental disorder does the musicality fit in with the other characters? Won’t it be difficult for the rest of the film to work if shown from everyone elses point of views? Thank you Heather… you’ve finally spun me into the wonderful world of rewrites. So now the story will be told by Evan. The film’s prologue is now extended another 3 mins with the camera guiding up into the sky and Evan closing the book on the story and say something to the effect “and that’s how I met my husband and fell in love for the very first time”. That way the audience will know that the story is being told by Evan and also why she remembers everything in song and dance
.
I hope these answers sound ok… hit me up for more I’ll be checking the page all day
shit I meant epilogue in the last answer there…
I dig the idea, too, and the cast of Sharlto and Andrew Garfield is great! I too have similar questions along the same lines that have been raised here, but perhaps you’re still mulling that over, Andrew? I’m usually not fond of mental issues theme in movies, hits too close to home for me and families that do have to deal with this kind of thing know that this isn’t funny, in fact it is quite painful. Don’t mean to knock your idea though, obviously there have been movies that deal with this sensitive issue before and do them well.
I know that in the real world mental disorders/issues aren’t fun, and I’m not trying to make fun of it here. I don’t know how to say what I want to say without making a few people in the crowd raise angry fists at me. I just want to look at this from a light hearted perspective. I don’t want to take the idea of my character’s mental problem and make it the end of the world while at the same time I’m dont want to call it completely stupid and not worth worrying over.
What I hope to say is that I’m not poking fun… and I just want people to enjoy the story that’s here without preying too hard on the mental issues.
Understood, and I totally get that you’re not making fun of the matter, so I for one am not ‘raising angry fists’ at you at all. It’s more of a preference thing whether we want to see movies with certain themes or not.
nice casting of the parents here and of Ms. Wood. I’m not a big fan of musicals or musical rom-com’s, but I enjoyed reading the outline to this. It is different and the approach is fairly original. It doesn’t read like it would be open to musical numbers, so I’d be curious to see how that fits in or if it even works. Copley is a big talent and needs to be used more effectively.
It’s not the kind of movie I usually watch. Love story is so not my thing….however I will still watch it in DVD because I want to see Sharlto plays as homeless man.
@Castor Should we make the plot the way Andrew makes it? If so, I need to rewrite my post a bit.
Mine’s written differently Novroz! It’ll be up on the 2nd. I ain’t changing it. I say make it your own!
Assuming Castor got it… he’s ignoring me!
I got it Kai
Power failure for the last 7 hours
Mine will be up before yours…but I’ll take your advice, I’m not sure I have time to change it anyway.
Be as creative as you would like Novroz (and everyone else). You do not have to follow his structure or anyone else. Also do not hesitate to use pictures or artwork if you wish.
YES! CHAOS! I LOVE IT!!! haha
SAY YES TO WHIM! SAY YES TO CHANCE! SAY YES TO CHAOS!!
Everyone. Calm. Down.
Artwork…too bad I’m not that creative
At least this gives me an idea of what to expect for tomorrow. Good pitch, Andrew.
I will not include this detailed plotting of the story.
You have to detail the plot of your story!
I did a detailed opening and set up and summarized the end of Act 2 and 3.
Looking forward to your pitch Kai!
To be honest, I did not think this was enough detail to truly sell the pitch. It’s up to you Joel.
Of course I’ll give you a breakdown on the plot. But I doubt I’ll be able to do it in act structure.
I’d see that…it sounds delightful, but…the Max Records character sounds like one of those wise-beyond-their-years kids you see in sitcoms and movies (*cough500daysofsummercough*).
Whedon doing a musical is…well…music to my ears.
Great breakdown, with interesting characters. Would definitely hope that the movie would focus more on Evan than Andrew.
Usually, I can’t stand musicals, but Whedon’s musical Buffy episode totally won me over so I could see myself giving this a chance. I think a lot of Joss Whedon fans would expect some sort of fantasy element and could be disappointed, but no doubt he’d win them over too.
This is a well presented pitch, Andrew. Nice work.
Just one question: will the homeless guy get a song before he kills himself?
no he wont… songs wont start until Act One…
Andrew – I think the essential part of this film is your cast, and you’ve got a great one. If Hollywood has shown us anything, it’s that great actors can sell anything. Personally, I think if the style of this film is much like Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along Blog, then your “love at first sight” and other character connections and themes will work just fine. It’s all about setting up audience’s expectations early on so that they can accept whatever you throw at them. Maybe Evan and Andrew are destined to fall in love because they both eat apples and listen to Patsy Cline before they meet each other – think of Sleepless in Seattle.
My only note would be that I don’t think we need to see everything that happens to the characters in order to appreciate or understand them. For example, I’m not sure we need to witness the homeless man getting killed that sends Evan insane. It may be more interesting to see her at the tail end of her stretch in the institution, and through clever dialogue find out why she was admitted. Likewise could be said of Neil’s infidelity, unless it happens to be a recurring event throughout the film.
Personally, I’m just excited to see Oliver Platt belt out a few notes.
Josh Whedon knows a thing or too about bringing strange plot points together in a believable way. He was overlooked, I think, this last season for giving what’s arguably the strongest direction of any episode of Glee with Neil Patrick Harris guest starring no less.
Interesting, eclectic cast. Like the cast the film has a lot of interest attached to it but it doesn’t grab me. Depends what you’re looking for I guess.
Trackbacks