Robert Cain
Forum Replies Created
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Rob’s Pitch Fest Pitch
Hi, I’m Rob Cain and I’m a multiple Nicholl Finalist and Semi-Finalist writer who has done paid screenwriting assignments.
Today a have a fish-out-of-water family comedy called “Pilgrim Phil.”
It’s about a divorced dad who’s desperately hoping to patch up his relationship with his 13-year-old at this weekend’s father-daughter camping jamboree, but he’s made a misguided Thanksgiving wishbone wish that left him stuck in 1621 as a Plymouth Rock Pilgrim.
The budget range is $15 to $30 million.
For the male lead I’d like to approach someone like Paul Rudd or Seth Rogen. For the main supporting female role I’m thinking Meryl Streep, Andie MacDowell, or Elizabeth Banks.
In Act I, Phil is having a really rotten Thanksgiving. His career as a cranberry sauce executive is failing, his family sucks, and his attempt to patch up his failing relationship with his 13-year-old daughter has backfired. When he gets the turkey wishbone he makes a wish that Thanksgiving had never been invented.
Act II. Phil omes to he finds that his wish has flung him back in time to 1621 Plymouth Rock, before the first Thanksgiving. He meets a 13-year-old Native American girl who helps him adjust to life in colonial times, and to figure out that to get back home he must invent Thanksgiving so he can make the wishbone wish that will take him back home.
Act III. Things don’t go well for Phil: the Native Americans are skeptical of his plans, and the Pilgrims accuse him of being a witch and sentence him to burn at the stake. He relies on his knowledge of the future to avert disaster, throw a successful Thanksgiving feast, and make the wish that ultimately takes him back to the future to regain his daughter’s love.
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Rob’s Query Letter
Dear Producer,
How can you patch up your relationship with your 13-year-old at the father-daughter camping trip when you’re stuck 400 years in the past?
PILGRIM PHIL is the one family holiday comedy that Hollywood never gave us, ‘til now. Think “Elf” meets “Back to the Future” at Thanksgiving.
Phil is a struggling junior cranberry sauce salesman who’s having an especially rough Turkey Day. His career is going nowhere; his ex-wife has remarried to a rich, talented, super nice guy who totally outclasses him; and worst of all, his relationship with his beloved 13-year-old daughter Rachel has grown distant and sour.
Phil has a long-awaited chance to patch things up with Rachel this coming weekend at the father-daughter camping trip, but when he gets the wishbone at the Thanksgiving dinner table, he makes an ill-considered wish that turns his entire life upside down. The seemingly innocuous words “I wish Thanksgiving had never been invented,” backfire, and Phil finds himself flung through time to ye olde Pilgrim days of 1621.
There he meets orphaned, 13-year-old Native American girl Oiguina, who teaches Phil three important lessons: how to appreciate the blessings in his life, how to be a better father, and how to get back to the future. To return to 2023 in time for the camping trip, he merely has to convince the reluctant natives and dimwitted Pilgrims to help him invent Thanksgiving so he can make the wishbone wish that will take him back home.
If you like the concept, I’d be happy to send you the script.
Besides being a multiple Nicholl Finalist and Semi-Finalist honored screenwriter, I’m also a dad who knows the pain of seeing his relationship with his 13-year-old daughter change and begin to slip away.
Drop me a note or call me if you’d like to learn more.
310.663.8811
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Rob’s Synopsis Hooks
What I learned from this assignment: I see how the building blocks of the hooks and concepts I’ve been developing are the raw material for the bigger marketing pitch. Using those building blocks made writing the following synopsis fun and easy.
Pilgrim Phil Synopsis
Great news! This weekend you’ll finally get some one-on-one time to patch up your failing relationship with your daughter. The bad news? You’re stuck in 1621 as a Pilgrim and have no idea how to get back home to 2023.
Finally, it’s the Thanksgiving family comedy we never realized we were missing!
Phil is a struggling junior cranberry sauce salesman who’s having an especially rough Turkey Day. He’s stuck in a dead-end job working for his obnoxious younger brother; his recently divorced wife has remarried to a world-class neurosurgeon/opera singer/super nice guy who outclasses him in every way; and worst of all, his relationship with his 13-year-old daughter Rachel has become distant and sour.
Phil has a long-awaited chance to patch things up with Rachel this coming weekend at the father-daughter camping trip, but when he gets the wishbone at the Thanksgiving dinner table, he makes a wish that inadvertently turns his entire life upside down. The seemingly innocuous words “I wish Thanksgiving had never been invented,” backfire, and he finds himself flung through time to ye olde Pilgrim days of 1621.
The first person he meets is an orphaned, 13-year-old Native American girl who teaches Phil how to appreciate the blessings in his life, how to be a better father, and how to get back to the future: he must convince the reluctant natives and dimwitted Pilgrims to help him invent Thanksgiving so he can make the wishbone wish that will take him back home.
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Rob’s High Concept and Elevator Pitch
What I learned from this assignment: Figuring out the marketing hooks felt like a daunting task, but they came quickly and easily when I finally sat down to figure them out.
Tell us your High Concept and Elevator Pitch.
1. How can you patch up your failing relationship with your 13-year-old at this weekend’s father-daughter camping trip when you’re stuck 400 years in the past?
2. How can you tell it in the most interesting way possible?
Dilemma – The hapless, bullied main character is stuck 400 years in the past and wants to get home, but here in 1621 he is a respected leader of the community.
Main Conflict – He must figure out how to get back to modern-day Massachusetts from 1621 Plymouth colony.
What’s at stake? – The main character’s life in 2023 and all his relationships, especially with his estranged 13-year-old daughter.
Goal/Unique Opposition: He’s an ineffective cranberry sauce marketer who must invent Thanksgiving to make the wishbone wish that will take him back home.
2. Using the 10 Components of Marketability, what is your Elevator Pitch?
Finally, the Thanksgiving-themed comedy we never realized we needed. It’s “Elf” meets “Back to the Future” on Turkey Day.
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Rob’s Synopsis Hooks
What I learned from this assignment: Figuring out the marketing hooks felt like a daunting task, but they came quickly and easily when I finally sat down to figure them out.
Tell us your High Concept and Elevator Pitch.
1. How can you patch up your failing relationship with your 13-year-old at this weekend’s father-daughter camping trip when you’re stuck 400 years in the past?
2. How can you tell it in the most interesting way possible?
Dilemma – The hapless, bullied main character is stuck 400 years in the past and wants to get home, but here in 1621 he is a respected leader of the community.
Main Conflict – He must figure out how to get back to modern-day Massachusetts from 1621 Plymouth colony.
What’s at stake? – The main character’s life in 2023 and all his relationships, especially with his estranged 13-year-old daughter.
Goal/Unique Opposition: He’s an ineffective cranberry sauce marketer who must invent Thanksgiving to make the wishbone wish that will take him back home.
2. Using the 10 Components of Marketability, what is your Elevator Pitch?
Finally, the Thanksgiving-themed comedy we never realized we needed. It’s “Elf” meets “Back to the Future” on Turkey Day.
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Rob’s 10 Most Interesting Things
1. The hero is a cranberry sauce marketing executive who has forgotten the true meaning of Thanksgiving.
2. The villain is the leader of the Pilgrims, who feels threatened by the hero and accuses him of being a witch so he can burn him at the stake.
3. The dramatic heart of the story is about how the hero is given a second chance to repair his relationship with his estranged 13-year-old daughter.
4. A major hook of the opening scene is the question of why a man who looks every bit like a Pilgrim speaks in modern vernacular.
5. The first major turning point comes when the hero makes a wishbone wish that lands him, in fish-out-of-water fashion, in 1621 Plymouth Plantation.
6. Setup / betrayal: The ally who has promised to help the hero get back to 2023 betrays him and tries to convince him to stay in 1621.
7. A major emotional dilemma for the hero is that if he leaves behind the young Native American girl who has become his surrogate daughter, she will almost certainly become a victim of the massacres that he knows wiped out her people.
8. Setup / surprise: The hero’s entire goal is to get a Thanksgiving wishbone so that he can make a wish to return to 2023, but at the climax he selflessly decides to give his wish to the young native girl so she can have her wish instead (a seemingly crazy but heroic act of selflessness).
9. Setup / surprise: When she receives the wishbone, the young girl makes the wish that returns the hero back to 2023 (another heroic act of selflessness).
10. Setup / surprise: Finally back in 2023, the hero thinks it was all a bad dream, but he soon finds that all the positive values he learned and embodied in 1621 have changed his life for the better in 2023.
Other things that could interest a producer:
1. Comedies are in vogue, with 40% of the box office this year (double their typical 20%).
2. This is a highly contained, budget friendly story, with few locations and a limited cast.
3. Holiday-themed family comedies are usually highly successful—e.g., Elf, Home Alone, The Santa Clause, A Christmas Story, Bad Santa, Scrooged, etc.—but there is a dearth of family comedies about Thanksgiving.
4. This story is designed to lend itself to multiple sequels.
What I learned doing this assignment is that it can be valuable to look at my story from the perspective of the buyer or audience member, in order to hone in on the qualities of the story that matter most.
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Rob Producer/Manager
1. How will you present yourself and your project to the producer?
This is a commercially focused project designed to fill a vacuum in the market: the lack of Thanksgiving-themed family comedies. The script is highly contained, with a limited cast and a small number of locations, so the budget can be scaled down or scaled up as needed. The lead roles are written to offer actors the opportunity to play complex characters with humor, warmth, and pathos. The emotional heart of the film is an uplifting message about the importance of family, forgiveness, and gratitude for being alive in a world full of beauty and wonder.
2. How will you present yourself and your project to the manager?
I have written 9 scripts, 7 of them feature screenplays, and nearly all have won highly prestigious awards. Several have been optioned. I focus on original IP that is intended to be broadly commercial and targeted at four-quadrant audiences. I have been a producer and studio executive in the past, so I have a deep understanding of the business side of the motion picture industry, an extensive network of contacts, and a highly collaborative work ethic based on long experience working with talent, executives, producers, and other writers.
3. Answer the question “What I learned today is…?”
It is helpful for me to see the differences in the journeys of writers, producers, and managers, and to explicitly tailor my pitches to the specific type of individuals who hear them.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 8 months ago by Robert Cain.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 8 months ago by
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Rob’s marketable components
What I learned doing this assignment is that there are many more elements to the marketability of my project than I had previously thought. While I may choose to highlight only one or two of those elements in any given pitch, I have several more to draw upon if/when needed.
1. Current logline: When a down-on-his-luck cranberry sauce maker wishes on a Thanksgiving wishbone that the holiday had never been created, he is flung back in time to 1621 Plymouth Plantation, where he must re-invent the holiday so he can make the wish that will take him back home.
2. Two Components of Marketability for selling this script.
D. Timely – Finally, a perennial Thanksgiving comedy!
I. Similarity to a box-office success. “Back to the Future” (budget $19M; WW box office $383M).
3. Brainstorm to elevate those two components:
Timely: There are dozens of Christmas-themed movies that are beloved and rewatched by millions every year. But there is no equivalent for the Thanksgiving holiday, no film that truly captures the essence of what Thanksgiving is all about. Pilgrim Phil attempts to change that, in the guise of a family comedy.
Similarity to a box-office success: This is actually a melding of two hit comedies, “Elf” and “Back to the Future,” with the elevating angle of a heartwarming story about the importance of family, gratitude and love.
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Genre: Family comedy
Title: Pilgrim Phil
Concept: When a down-on-his-luck cranberry sauce maker wishes on a Thanksgiving wishbone that the holiday had never been created, he finds himself flung back in time to 1621 Plymouth Plantation, where he must re-invent the holiday so he can make the wish that will take him back home.
What is most attractive: There is a need in the market for a perennial, feel-good Thanksgiving-themed movie, and this story aims to fill that need with a heartwarming, four-quadrant comedy.
Who I will target first: I will first target producers because I know quite a few personally, and I believe with the right pitch I’ll be able to get many of them to agree to read the screenplay.
What I learned today is to have a success mindset, and that there are no rejections, only opportunities to learn and improve.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 8 months ago by Robert Cain.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 8 months ago by Robert Cain.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 8 months ago by
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Hi everyone,
I’m Rob Cain. I’m currently finishing up my 9th script, 2 of which are TV pilots and the rest–including the current one–are features.
My goal for this class is to take my current script out to the market, as soon as I feel it’s bulletproof, and get it set up for production in 2024.
One thing that’s unique about me is that while doing research for my first screenplay, a story about the 1960s Space Race between the U.S. and the USSR, I sneaked into a Russian military base and was caught and arrested at gunpoint on my way out. No more of those situations for me, thank you!
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As a member of this group, I Robert Cain agree to the following:
1. That I will keep the processes, strategies, teleconferences, communications, lessons, and models of the class confidential, and that I will NOT share any of this program either privately, with a group, posting online, writing articles, through video or computer programming, or in any other way that would make those processes, teleconferences, communications, lessons, and models of the class available to anyone who is not a member of this class.
2. That each writer’s work here is copyrighted and that writer is the sole owner of that work. That includes this program which is copyrighted by Hal Croasmun. I acknowledge that submission of an idea to this group constitutes a claim of and the recognition of ownership of that idea.
I will keep the other writer’s ideas and writing confidential and will not share this information with anyone without the express written permission of the writer/owner. I will not market or even discuss this information with anyone outside this group.
3. I also understand that many stories and ideas are similar and/or have common themes and from time to time, two or more people can independently and simultaneously generate the same concept or movie idea.
4. If I have an idea that is the same as or very similar to another group member’s idea, I’ll immediately contact Hal and present proof that I had this idea prior to the beginning of the class. If Hal deems them to be the same idea or close enough to cause harm to either party, he’ll request both parties to present another concept for the class.
5. If you don’t present proof to Hal that you have the same idea as another person, you agree that all ideas presented to this group are the sole ownership of the person who presented them and you will not write or market another group member’s ideas.
6. Finally, I agree not to bring suit against anyone in this group for any reason, unless they use a substantial portion of my copyrighted work in a manner that is public and/or that prevents me from marketing my script by shopping it to production companies, agents, managers, actors, networks, studios or any other entertainment industry organizations or people.
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Robert Cain
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