Equity investor(s) are sought to fund a marketable and socially relevant dark comedy revenge film, KANGAROO COUCH, which could be described as "Thelma and Louise make a snuff film starring Harvey Weinstein." My full screenplay pitch/plot summary is included below.
2021 Manhattan Film Festival-winning producer/director Andy Stapp of Texas has read KANGAROO COUCH, called it a "hell of a story, very satire, with good lines
and great character development." He already had me cut 12 pages to save $150K in production costs. Now it's leaner and meaner. After reading the latest 12.0 version of the script, Andy told me if I can raise $1.5 million, he will cast and shoot the movie. He figures 2 good name lead actors and the obviously Harvey-inspired topic will carry the film and draw serious buzz.
Sales and distribution experts say $3M to $5M is a sweet spot for indie films, so an even more attractive budget of $1.5M gives us an edge in the market, Stapp says. He just released his horror-sci-fi film DESTINATION MARFA (starring Tony Todd of CANDYMAN and Stelio Savante of INFIDEL) to Amazon and on DVD in every Walmart in America on Aug. 3, 2021. Not only did it win Best Horror at the 2021 Manhattan Film Festival, but also Best Sci-Fi at the Los Angeles Sci-Fi Film Festival and Honorable Mention at the Athens (Greece) Film Festival. A link to the trailer for Andy's film is included at bottom.
This is an opportunity for investor(s) to own up to 50% of the movie, earn an executive producer, producer or co-producer film credit, and partner on an LLC that will be formed specific to the KANGAROO COUCH film project. It is likely we will form the LLC in Texas, where Andy is based and plans to shoot most or all of the film.
Current tax code (extended through 2025) helps mitigate the inherent risk of investing in films, with 50% to 75% tax write-off permitted in the same year as film investment.
SCREENPLAY AT A GLANCEKANGAROO COUCH
Feature film, Rated R
92 pages (1 hour, 32 minutes)
#MeToo vigilante revenge story with dark humor
Producer/director: Andy Stapp (DESTINATION MARFA, 2021 Manhattan Film Festival winner)
Writers: Jack Chaucer and Stacey Simmons (script consultant)
Budget: $1.5 million (set by Stapp)
** Equity investors sought so we can cast and shoot this movie in 2022: $150K for 5% ownership of film/net profits and co-producer credit; $300K for 10% ownership of film/net profits and producer credit; $1.5 million for 50% ownership of film/net profits and executive producer credit.
SCREENPLAY PITCH/PLOT SUMMARY BY SCREENWRITER JACK CHAUCERI’m a screenwriter and journalist from Litchfield, Connecticut. The spark for my feature script KANGAROO COUCH came from feeling awful for the scores of actresses abused by Harvey Weinstein. Because I’m a journalist, I respect that 3 of them kick-started Harvey’s downfall, but the screenwriter in me wanted those women to get justice not only in a court of law, but also cinematically. So I channeled a combination of Aubrey Plaza and Rose McGowan for the female lead, and created a cathartic, vigilante #MeToo dark comedy. Anti-hero Charisma De La Garza is a damaged actress/director who breaks the law to trap movie mogul Hank Wallace as the unwitting lead in her revenge film. She exposes him as a serial sex predator and inspires other victims to take action. Film comps: There are shades of BOMBSHELL, I CARE A LOT and PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN, but Kangaroo really is its own animal, pun intended. The tone for KANGAROO COUCH shifts from unhinged to vulnerable due to Charisma’s obsessive and emotionally scarred pursuit of justice on her terms. There’s also dark humor: Charisma kicks off her plot by masterminding the heist of Hank’s actual casting couch, and once the power shifts in her favor, she and her accomplices revel in taking him down. But in the most important confrontation scene, it is Hank who appears to get the last laugh.
In the first act, Hank is a titan of Hollywood and Charisma is flailing. She’s haunted by his sexual abuse during a private script reading years earlier. She’s keeping the pain bottled up inside, hitting the wine bottle too much and thinking about jumping off a freeway bridge before an LA cop intervenes. We find out later that cop, So Yang, has his own PTSD issues, but he helps comfort Charisma in her moment of crisis. They not only become more than friends, but later accomplices. Charisma also bonds with actress Gabriella Palmer, who was sucked in by Hank’s “champion-of-female-led-films” reputation only to be assaulted by him in a N.Y. hotel suite after he used one of his female assistants in a honey-pot setup. Hank also threatens to ruin her career if she makes a big deal about what happened. Gabriella and Charisma first meet in alcohol rehab, share stories about Hank and begin plotting. They don’t feel they stand a chance against such a rich and powerful adversary by going the traditional legal route, so they recruit other victims and set in motion what Hank later disparages as a “kangaroo couch” trial.
The trap is sprung on the normally relaxing island of Curacao. Hank is invited to lead a master class in film production for actresses interested in getting behind the camera. Only actresses he hasn’t violated yet are visible to him initially, but it doesn’t take long for Hank to misbehave. He gropes an actress from behind during a beach party while several are cooing over a people-friendly wild pig in search of food – yes, wild pigs visit the beaches in Curacao. I witnessed this myself. So the wild pig is a gentleman and Hank is the real pig. After the violated actress calls him out on it, Charisma and Gabriella reveal themselves and congratulate Hank on landing the lead role in their snuff film. Later, with Hank held captive by hired guards, Charisma exposes his predatory record at the beginning of a live-stream fight in which a UFC female champ from nearby Venezuela pummels Hank in a cage match. Video of the fight quickly goes viral back home, catching Hank’s handlers flat-footed and off message. Charisma & her crew then take Hank by boat to a flat, uninhabited island off the coast. “That has to be a mirage,” Hank says. “No,” Charisma replies. “Shit just got real, Hank.” Appearing on shore is his long-lost couch, stolen weeks earlier from his office suite during a fake bomb threat orchestrated by Officer Yang, who’s now out on disability and an active accomplice in Charisma’s plot. Again with cameras rolling, Hank is subjected to an electric branding iron that leaves the words “sex offender” burned into his back. Then with Yang pointing a gun at him, Hank is forced to sit on his couch and face Charisma’s interrogation. But as she recounts the painful details of his assault – topped off by his insult “just because your mother named you Charisma doesn’t mean you have any” – Hank denies her truth at every turn and mocks her until she collapses in the sand from her reopened wound. Gabriella comforts Charisma and lashes out at Hank. Burnt but unbroken, he staggers off feeling a sense of victory until a shot rings out. He falls to the ground, completing what appears to be a snuff film. The shooter, Yang, then looms over him and finally speaks: “Your mother should’ve aborted you long before she named you.” FBI agents from Aruba later arrest Charisma and her accomplices.
In the third act, Yang turns in his badge and becomes the first to plead guilty. He tells the judge about his own mental health struggles since being the target of a hate crime while on the job. He shares how Charisma supported him during a dark time, talks about his unsuccessful attempt to get her to report Hank’s assault and his decision to help his girlfriend get justice anyway. We also see flash-back visuals of Yang tending to Hank’s gunshot wound so he would live to rot in prison. “Unfortunately,” Yang admits, “that is where I also belong.” Charisma and Gabriella plead guilty, too, but Charisma completes and releases her short film to the dark web before reporting for prison. Hank is the only one to plead not guilty, but he resigns as head of his movie studio to fight the mounting sexual assault charges against him. Clips from Charisma’s film get shared on the regular web and go viral on social media. Charisma receives a prison fan letter from a college student named Aubrey, who was inspired by Charisma’s brave stand to report she was the victim of a date rape a year earlier. Aubrey forms a group called the Charismatics, who protest against Hank outside his trial. After he’s found guilty, Hank becomes the butt of jokes in prison. In contrast, a national TV news magazine show wants to interview Charisma at her prison. When asked why she didn’t just report Hank to the police instead of going the vigilante route and risking prison, she says, “I wasn’t ready to go public with it then. I felt others would judge me and shame me, and he would just end up winning in the end.” Charisma sums up her journey with, “It’s a shame we had to become criminals to take down a criminal, but the system is rigged against the victims, especially in the situation I was in and the other actresses were in – and that’s the biggest crime of all.”
This script is protected by U.S. copyright and registered with WGA East. The full screenplay is available for investors to read upon request.
Best,
Jack Chaucer (pen name)
John Cullen (real name)
203-606-2172
[email protected]Below is the link to the eerie trailer for Andy Stapp's new film, DESTINATION MARFA, so you can get a sense of what he brings to the table.
Next, we look forward to seeing what he can do with my powder keg of a script ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp1WFqLmBP4