Do you have what it takes to produce Hollywood’s next summer blockbuster?
In the comments field here, tell us the three vital elements necessary to propel a fake film pitch into box office nirvana.
In this week’s issue of Arts & Leisure, Brooks Barnes examines the problem of “frankenfilms,†Hollywood’s $100 million extravaganzas that are made by committee. Jordan Roberts, a veteran Hollywood script doctor, helped The Times develop a pitch for a fake summer movie, “Red, White & Blood,†where “The only thing faster than her car is his heart.†Read the pitch below and tell us here which three elements it needs to become the movie everyone is raving about. Then compare your ideas with the suggestions of real producers, writers and other movie insiders.
A gang of gorgeous young car thieves, on the run from authorities in multiple countries, is forced to aid a terrorist organization when several of their girlfriends - and one husband â€" are kidnapped. To save their lives, the thieves agree (teeth clenched) to cooperate with a high-stakes mission: Against all odds, they are to secretly commandeer the president’s motorcade as he drives to the Capitol to deliver the State of the Union address.
Once the president (Ryan Reynolds? Mark Wahlberg?) is taken hostage in a thrilling heist, Congress waiting, they will force him to recite a very different speech â€"one that harshly denounces America to the world. A media circus commences, with cable pundits immediately suspecting a Chinese plot.
But the plan goes haywire. One of the car thieves, the only one without a kidnapped mate â€"Spike, a total babe (Angelina? Charlize?) â€" finds herself alone with the president! , guarding him. And then the truth comes out: Spike is actually Emily, the first girl the president ever loved, long ago, back in Ohio.
We cut back and forth to their earlier love affair: two young troublemakers, one magic summer. But come September they arrive at that fateful night when the future president had to make an impossible decision. Does he follow his heart? Or does he veer onto a straight-and-narrow political path? He leaves Emily sobbing in a car they stole together. (She still has it.)
Their love has been re-ignited. So close. So hot. But, in the end, they both realize that America must come first. Spike/Emily knows what she must do: She must turn on her thief-mates and save the president. No matter what. To show her important arc of selfish to selfless, she will â€"during a climactic gun battle __ take a bullet for the first lady (Gwyneth?) and single handedly bring down the terrorists.
She dies in the sobbing president’s arms as he brushes blood-soaked hair from her face.Her body is carried away, and everyone, including the president, salutes her.
