Pitch, Please Eight
Welcome back to Pitch, Please, where I pitch sure-to-be film successes inventing movie premises based on prompts that I write with a little help from my old friend, the internet. Last time’s prompt was:
Sawyer Jackson was a simple, down-home lawyer content to pass his days in paperwork and folksy charm. But that was before he was handed a case that would change his life. When a teenage runaway from the wrong side of the tracks come to him with a problem he knows he can’t ignore, Sawyer will have to take to the courtroom and answer one of the great questions of our age: where’s Waldo?
In a searing legal drama, he’ll fight for truth, defy the odds, and stun the jury with his hyper-realistic Scottish Accent.
So, all rise and let me present exhibit A, your next legal drama phenomenon:
Witness for the Defense
Sawyer Jackson is a southern gentleman and mild-mannered attorney. But in a system full of mild-mannered, southern gentleman attorneys, he’s had a quiet, uneventful career. Until, that is, local teen Marta Handford is accused of murder in the town of Jacksonburg. Marta was caught with the victim’s blood on her hands after trying to perform first aid. The good news is, a witness found the victim before she arrived and saw her perform first aid. The bad news? He’s completely disappeared.
For Jackson, this means one thing: the Missing Witness Rule. Without their key witness, the prosecution is placing the burden of proof on Jackson to prove Marta is innocent. But against a team of folksy, down home prosecutors, how will he make his case heard? Jackson will need to find his witness and a new voice if he’s to save Marta from prison.
Justice takes the high road. For his new voice, Jackson will take to the Highlands.
“What d’ye see in the phot’agraph, lassie?”
“People? So many people…”
“Do ye or do ye no see a man in a stripey white n’red jumper, lass?”
“Objection, your honor! Leading!”
“Yer’ honor, it’s more than a wee bit important to the case we establish our witness’s whereabouts, aye?”
“Objection overruled… for now. You had better be going somewhere with this, Jackson.”
“Where is he, lass?! WHERE IS WALDO?!”
Separate truth from lies. Separate giant barber poles from Waldos. Find…
The Witness for the Defense.
Want to be a part of movie history? Feel free to help me fill in the blanks on this next prompt in the comments or on Twitter @SharpeWrites with the hashtag, #pitchplease.
Next time’s prompt is:
It’s the groundbreaking documentary of the decade! Go undercover with an award-winning team of journalists as they uncover the seedy underbelly of the ______________ industry. With shocking interviews and first hand footage of _____________________, you’ll never look at __________________ the same way again.