Pitch Your Movie: Travis’ “Facedown Angels”

Today, Travis from the blog The Movie Encyclopedia is pitching his movie in continuation of 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 and don’t forget to rate the pitch at the bottom!

Previous Pitches:

• Andrew Robinson’s “Untitled Joss Whedon Project“
• Anna’s “Truth and Lies”
• Novroz’s “Sunset Mystery“
• Kai’s “The Time Jumper“
• Peter’s “Untitled Hallstrӧm Project“
• Marc’s “Once Upon a Time in Z-West“
• Ruth’s “Hearts Want“
• Castor’s “Hλlf Life“
• Heather “Ambassador 51“
• Next: Andrew K. on Thursday

A T-Rav Studio Production presents:
A Christopher Nolan Film

Written and Produced by Travis McCollum

Logline: In a city where the lines of good and evil are blurred, how far will two men go to save the one’s they love?

Cast and Characters

Donnie Wahlberg-Donnie plays Alexander Nexus, a detective who has seen it all. After his parents were murdered by the mob, Alex swore to avenge his parent’s death by dedicating his life to stopping crime no matter what the cost. He’s mostly a loner, coming off to everybody else in the prescient as a bit of a creeper; his only friend is his brother Jake, who’s made some bad choices in his life. Despite Jake’s problems, Alex loves him and always looks out for his little brother.

Ryan Reynolds- Ryan is Kane Stryker, a fairly new cop who has been transferred over from narcotics due to some problems involving missing drugs and getting into a fistfight with a fellow officer. Chief Harrison assigns Kane to be Alex’s new partner (who died mysteriously a few months ago) and tells Alex that if Kane screws up it’s on him. Kane is still recovering from a cocaine problem he developed during his time at narcotics, but underneath all of his flaws he is a good cop who wants to do the right thing.

Bradley Cooper- Cooper is Dennis Rogue, the head of one of the biggest mob syndicates in Los Angeles: “The Rogues Gallery.” As evil as he is charming, he has no problem stepping on whoever he needs to, and will kill without remorse. After inheriting the syndicate from his father (who slipped and “hit his head”) Dennis has only been in charge for a year but in that year has wreaked havoc on the city. His right hand man is Jake Nexus, brother of Alex Nexus, and when Dennis doesn’t want to get his hands dirty or has to run to a meeting (mostly the latter since he loves getting dirty) he makes Jake do his dirty work. A definition wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Michael C. Hall- Michael is Jake Nexus, the younger brother of the decorated but haunted Alex Nexus. After his parents murder, Jake started acting out and refused to listen to his brother. As Alex went down the right path, Jake continued his spiral into darkness. Eventually, Jake joined up with “The Rouges Gallery” and became Dennis’, the new head of the family, right hand man. Despite working for the wrong side of the law, he is closer now to his brother than he ever was, mostly since his brother keeps him from doing anything incredibly stupid (aka send him to prison for life).

Morgan Freeman- Morgan is Christian Tremors, the head of the other major mob syndicate in Los Angeles: “The Tremors.” He’s been in charge of the Tremors for almost 45 years, inheriting the syndicate after his father died of natural causes. While he may be the head of a mob syndicate, Tremors works more to benefit the community, rather then destroy it like Dennis. He runs multiple charities, gives out turkeys at Thanksgiving, and is on good terms with the governor, the mayor and the chief of police. Every month the aforementioned people pay Tremors a small sum and each month Tremors tries his best to end Dennis’ evil reign so that the only mob syndicate in Los Angeles is one that stands on some form of moral grounds.

Jack Nicholson-Jack is Chief Harrison, the police chief of the LAPD. He has been in charge longer then he wants to remember and has forgotten more about police work then most of the rookies will ever learn. He’s a bit of a hothead, getting enraged easily when people screw up, but he can be calm when he needs to be. War hero and decorated officer, Chief Harrison is a great inspiration to all LAPD officers and to the city of Los Angeles itself.

Rose McGowan and Anne Hathaway-Rose and Anne are Jane and Jackie Kilpatrick, notorious bounty hunters and occasional hitwomen. Jane (Rose) is a trained sniper, expert in all things blade related (machete, knife, katana) and a 5th degree black-belt in 4 different martial arts. Despite that she is the calmer of the two sisters and is more upfront with her intentions. She’s blunt, doesn’t bullshit around, likes to get in and out of a job as quickly as possible and move on. Jackie is a lot less predictable. One minute she’s this sweet girl who you’d want to hang out with and the next she’s breaking your neck or strapping you to a metal coiled bed sending 1000 volts of electricity into your body. She is as cute as she is demented and is a pathological liar. The only person keeping her under control is her sister and even then that can be pretty difficult. Jackie also has a tendency to get into situations she can’t lie her way out of and needs her sister to come rescue her.

Keira Knightley-Keira is Alice Woods, an arms dealer who is in talks with Dennis to bring a lot of highly illegal and very dangerous weapons over to the US from where she’s at. She plays a pivotal part in the climax and ending but is rarely seen.

Plot

ACT I
Alex and Jake are two brothers on opposite sides of the law. Alex is a decorated but haunted LAPD detective and Jake is the right hand man of Dennis Rogue, the head of one of the most dangerous crime syndicates in Los Angeles. Alex is working as a detective to try and avenge his parents death and Jake is trying to run from it. Despite being on opposite sides of the law, they look out for each other, sometimes much to the chagrin of the other. Sometimes Alex will turn the other way when Jake breaks the law and sometimes Jake will give Alex some information about crimes going down later. It’s a good system and they work well together, despite a rocky upbringing and an even rockier relationship.
Back at the station, Alex gets assigned a new partner since his last one mysteriously disappeared. Chief Harrison brings in Kane, a recovering drug addict with a bit of a violent streak and tells Alex to keep Kane under control, or his days are numbered. Harrison has had it up to HERE with Kane and Alex always keeps getting new partners, mostly since Alex is a bit of a loner and doesn’t really like anyone. Kane is initially a bit of a smartass to Alex, but once Kane realizes that Alex doesn’t take to kindly to smartasses, Kane stops and acts serious (a change for him).

While this is happening, in a downtown apartment somewhere Dennis Rogue, Jake and a few henchmen are interrogating a man who has apparently been talking to police (it was really Jake but Jake isn’t saying anything). Dennis, Jake and the henchmen try to beat a confession out of him but when he doesn’t bend, Dennis brings in the man’s family. Jake tries to talk Dennis out of doing anything stupid but Dennis doesn’t listen and shoot’s the man’s family. The man, completely broken by what he just saw confesses (to something he didn’t do) and promptly gets a bullet through his skull.

The next day we see Alex and Kane at the apartment surveying the scene. Kane thinks it’s a murder/suicide, but Alex knows better. He looks on the man’s person and finds what he was looking for, a small statue of an angel facing down, a trademark of Dennis Rogue. Alex has a grudge against Dennis, partially due to turning his brother to crime but mostly due to the fact that Dennis’s father killed Alex and Jake’s parents (Jake is unaware of this fact).
While the scene surveillance is going on, we cut to the other mob boss Christian Tremors as he talks to Jane and Jackie Kilpatrick. He wants to hire the two ladies for two reasons: First, Dennis has become a giant pain in his side and is a whirlwind of destruction and chaos. Second, Tremors believes that Dennis is in talks with a London based arms dealer Alice Woods, who wants to bring illegal weapons into the United States for Dennis to use. And nobody brings illegal weapons into his city! The women agree to the job, Jane doing the research and surveillance, and Jackie going undercover as the girlfriend of one of Dennis’s men.

When Alex and Kane get back to the station, Kane wants to settle a score with a dealer that has just been let out of prison. Alex wants to focus on Dennis and getting revenge on him, but agrees to help Kane since Kane refuses to go further with the Dennis case until he brings down this dealer and will go alone if he has to…and Alex can’t let him do that.

On the way to the dealer’s house, Alex asks why this dealer is so damn important and Kane explains that this dealer killed his girlfriend Jocelyn when Kane refused to cover up for him anymore. The reason why he wouldn’t cover up for him anymore? The dealer wanted to sell to kids and underneath that messed up and angry exterior, Kane is still a good cop. But the night after Kane stopped helping, the dealer came in and blasted Jocelyn with a shotgun (thinking it was Kane) and left. Kane was severely messed up by what happened.

When they arrive at the dealer’s house, the dealer is apparently ready for them and starts firing on them with an AK. Kane decides to go around the back of the house while Alex distracts the dealer. Kane eventually sneaks in through the back and up the stairs where the dealer is at. Alex takes some time while the dealer is reloading to call for back up. Right as the dealer is loading his gun, Kane dives at the dealer and takes him down. He handcuffs him and tells Alex to wait outside, it’ll be a minute.

Kane then drags the handcuffed man to his bathroom and sticks his head in the toilet. He brings the man up to breathe and then lifts him up and places his head on the side of the shower, head facing down. He takes off the toilet water tank cover and brings it down on the dealer’s head, shower stomping him essentially. Kane is mortified by what he just did and quickly rushes out of the house, telling Alex to drive.

ACT II
A week has passed since the incident at the dealers and neither Alex nor Kane have said anything to the chief or any other officer about what happened. As they sit and do paperwork, Jake has now started a relationship with this girl Jackie, whom Dennis has also taken a liking towards. Dennis’s discussion with Alice Woods is going well and she will be dropping off the first shipment at the end of the week. Jackie hears this and promptly tells Jane. Jane then goes and tells Tremors who then calls Chief Harrison. Tremors and Harrison talk for a while about the way things were and how Dennis is a blight on both of their existences. Harrison then calls in Alex and Kane and tells them that they are in charge of bringing down Dennis and this arms dealer Alice before something terrible happens. Alex reveals to Harrison the small angel statue and that seals the deal for Harrison, who tells them to go immediately.

Alex and Kane arrive at the meeting place, the LA Docks, and wait for the others to arrive. Dennis, Jake, Jackie (and Jane without anyone else seeing her) soon arrive and before you know it, Alice does too. Alice and Dennis talk about the kind of weapons they are handling and while they are talking about that, Jake gives Alice the suitcases of money that were promised. As Jake turns around he gets a gunshot right through his chest from Jane.
Things soon go to Hell with everyone scrambling and shooting at each other. Alice and Dennis’ two henchmen go down in the process but Dennis himself (along with Jackie) escapes. Alex and Kane rush over to check on Jake, who dies in Alex’s arms. Alex gets hysterical and just loses it when this happens. Kane tries to reassure Alex but to no avail.
Alex eventually composes himself and quickly gets in the cruiser and speeds off without Kane. Kane is left at the docks and as he is leaving he bumps into Jane. Jane asks Kane if he’s a cop or one of Dennis’s men and when he replies cop she walks away leaving Kane confused as to who this mysterious woman is.

Alex is chasing after Dennis and Dennis is shooting back at him. In the middle of all this firing, Jackie injects Dennis with a tranquilizer and Dennis goes down. Jackie tells the driver to take them to the “other” safe house (this insinuating that the driver was in on it) and they speed off in the opposite direction, losing Alex in the process.
Kane arrives back at the station around the same time Alex does and Alex is furious. He storms Chief Harrison’s office and demands that every man in this station tries to find Dennis. Harrison tries to calm him down but to no avail. Harrison then starts yelling right back at Alex, which promptly shuts him up. Harrison explains that his brother chose this life of crime and that dying was one of the risks he probably was going to have to face. He asks Alex if he saw who exactly it was that shot his brother. Alex could have sworn it was Dennis but now that he thinks about it, he’s not 100% sure. Alex then goes down to the morgue, where an autopsy is being performed on his brother (who was picked up along with Kane shortly after the encounter with Jane)

Kane then passes by Alex to talk to Harrison himself. He tells Harrison about the night at the dealer’s house and Harrison seems to not be too worried about it. Harrison explains that we all do things we aren’t proud of and that if that dealer really did murder his girlfriend that maybe he deserved it.

Alex arrives at the morgue where the mortician says that Jake was shot from an angle that was elevated off the ground and that it couldn’t have been one of the people with Jake at the time. Kane then walks in and tells Alex about the woman he saw after Alex had left. Alex gets pissed off and says they need to find Dennis now and that hopefully when they take him down, they will also take down this mysterious woman.

ACT III
Alex and Kane arrive at Dennis’s where Dennis greets them with a small army of men. After finding a way into the mansion (thanks to some help from the nearby Jane, without them realizing it of course) they track down Dennis and Jackie in Dennis’s training room. They all start firing until all the lights are shot out and the place goes dark. Alex sees Jackie (thinking it could be the woman) and rushes after her while Dennis and Kane duke it out.

Eventually a door opens and Kane gets tossed a knife. Kane sees that it’s the woman from before but has a more pressing issue in the form of Dennis, who has also pulled out a knife. Together they have an epic knife fight a la Resident Evil 4 (for people who haven’t played it, it’s full of slow motion and awesome close calls). Kane eventually kills Dennis and when he turns to talk to Jane, she’s no longer there. So he rushes after Alex to tell him that the real woman is there.
We cut to Alex chasing Jackie through the mansion until they reach the indoor pool, which only has one way in and out. Jackie has run out of bullets and Alex only has two left. Alex interrogates her, asking her if she killed his brother, but as soon as she says it wasn’t her, he shoots her (for lying of course) and then promptly gets shot by Jane in the back. Kane sees this and shoots her, hitting her in the shoulder. Kane goes over to Alex who says that Tremors hired the women. Jane then brings her gun up, but in his last act, Alex shoots Jane in the head.

Kane gets up and leaves, quickly driving over to Tremors house where Tremors and Harrison are having coffee. Tremors and Harrison try to explain that casualties are part of any job like theirs to which Kane responds by shooting them both and saying “I guess they are.”

END