Pitch Your Movie! Novroz’s “Sunset Mystery”

Novroz from Novroz’s Favorite Things is pitching her movie today 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 and don’t forget to visit her site!

Previous Pitches:

• Andrew Robinson’s “Untitled Joss Whedon Project“
• Anna’s “Truth and Lies”
• Next: Kai on Thursday

It’s time for me to pitch my movie

If you are not one of the bloggers who join Castor’s Hollywood Fantasy Draft, then you need to read my introduction first.

I never read a movie pitch before and following the example given by Castor ended up making me confused, so I decided to write it in my own style, the way I used to write my book or movie reviews. Do criticize me if it is not good.

My movie will be based upon a Manga by Chie Watari. The Manga was title Shiryo no Hanayome, I chose the last story in that manga, the title is Sunset Mistery, and change some of the characters’ names and their death sequence. The genre of this movie is Psychological Thriller.

Logline

7 people came into a big castle with maximum protection, one of them is the lawyer who sent them the invitation. One of the wealthiest men in the country will give them something for the good deeds they did for his family in the past. That ‘something’ is not what they think it is because their good deeds are actually their sins.

Synopsis

Nami Kaneda is invited by a lawyer who works for the late Sabro Helmest to come to his castle. The invitation is given to people who had helped Mr. Helmest in the past. He is planning to give them inheritance.

Nami is brought into a castle with high walls equipped with barb wire and lots of fierce guard dogs. Nami is very surprised to see all those protections. She is introduced to other guests, Dr. Samuel Byrne, head of a hospital, and his wife; Alex as well as Tony and Matt. All the guests are taken to see Mr. Helmest’s art collections, including his collection of torturing instruments and horrible wax statues.

On the first night, Alex dies in the same way as one of the wax statues. The next morning, a video by Mr. Helmest tells them that Alex had run over his mother. The police could not identify the driver but he had hired a detective to find the truth. Mr. Helmest tells them that the way Alex died is the perfect inheritance for her sin.

The next day, another person dies in a same horrible way. Nami remembers what had happened to her when she was still a kid. A young boy helped her from drowning. She was saved but the boy was killed. That boy was Helmest’s son. Is that why she received her invitation?

Who will survive from that horrible game whose mastermind is already dead? And who are the real perpetrators?

I have written the synopsis, now I will explain the character of each cast and why I pick them. Along with this explanation you will also know who the perpetrators are. These actors will be lined up based on the order of their appearance.

1. Yukie Nakama will play Nami Kaneda. Yukie has the perfect innocent face to play as Nami. Nami is a girl who has been living alone since her teen because her parents had passed away. She is a lonely but nice girl. She believes that no one inside that castle is the perpetrator. She believes that everyone is good. When she realizes her ‘sin’, she is trapped in a guilty feeling toward the boy who had helped her and decides to kill her self.

2. Ewan McGregor will play Ernest Reed, the lawyer. He is the one who sends the invitation to everyone involved in Mr Helmest’ will. I choose McGregor because he seems like a lawyer type. He is going to play the role where people might suspect him as someone involved in the killing spree, but in truth, he has no idea at all. He is also the victim of this game.

3. Kathy Bates will play Mrs. Johnson, the housemaid. I choose Kathy Bates for this role because she can pull this straight face as the mysterious housemaid. She will be the main suspect throughout the movie. She knows who does the killing but she herself doesn’t involve in the murdering process. She remains as the loyal housemaid before and after the death of Mr. Helmest.

4. Cillian Murphy will play Tony. Cillian is a great actor that can change into anyone he wants, he is the perfect one to play Tony because Tony is a man with many expressions. At the beginning he acts as surprise, confuse, and afraid as everybody else. He also suspects one of the guests. He is really nice to Nami. He even helps stopping Nami from killing herself. After seeing Nami’s suicide attempt, he starts to rethink all his action. He really care for her, it’s not a pretend act anymore. Before the end of the movie, he shows his real expression of hate toward everyone but he stops his own aunt from killing Nami.

5. Tom Hanks will play Dr. Byrne. Dr. Byrne is an arrogant and corrupt doctor. His main purpose of becoming a doctor is nothing but money, he has no compassion toward his patients. He is invited to the castle because of a malpractice done toward Mrs. Helmest. He was freed of all charges because he has people that protect him from the law. He is reluctant to fulfill the invitation but his new wife convinces him to come.

6. Nicole Kidman will play Mrs. Byrne. I choose Nicole because she is a great actress and I believe she can play this character really well. Nicole has to put 2 faces for her role. She married Dr. Byrne only for this purpose, to bring him to the castle. She has to act as arrogant as her husband, but she has to put a scared face and start distrusting everyone when the killing spree starts. In the end, she has to put her real expression of hate and distress because everyone in her family has passed away. She is actually Tony’s aunt.

7. Gaspard Ulliel will play as Matt. Matt was a gang member who often fought and bullied people. He had left that dark path of his life few years back. But during his reign in his gang, he and his brother once involved in a fight with a man and his brother stabbed the man. That man was left to die, he was Mr. Helmest’s Brother.

8. Noomi Rapace will play as Alex. Alex is a glamour woman whose line of work is prostitute for class people. Her sin is not prostitution, her sin is killing Mrs. Helmest.

9. Liam Neeson will play as Sabro Helmest. Although Mr. Helmest had planned this horrible act before he died, he does not need to be played by a horrible looking man. In manga itself, Mr. Helmest was drawn looking like a wise man and that’s why I choose Liam Neeson to play this role. Neeson will only play his role through video recorder.

Well…I’m going to close my movie pitch now. I guess you can pretty much guess how the story will go. Peter Jackson was chosen as the director because he is one of the best directors that can turn great book into great movie. I’m going to choose a screenwriter as well, it’s going to be Fran Walsh, her adaptation of The Lord Of The Rings is awesome, I’m talking as a TLoTR (book version) fan…and trust me, I’m very cruel in judging movies based on books that I like so much.

Now… will you watch this kind of psychological thriller?

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