Script Idea: “Self Help”
There is a story behind this story. I was hanging out with JOHN PONZIO and this guy named LIAM in John’s Apartment in Hollywood. Liam and John were bantering around ideas and talking about making a film about a dead body. I should not probably say more but while they were doing that my brain latched onto something they said. They wanted it to involve escaped criminals. I thought what if it was at a CAMP for women and started writing in my journal while they were talking back and forth comedic ideas for their idea. They I think were drunk or high. I was sober. Anyways the next time I saw John on set I read him this idea. Things got odd with us after that. I think maybe because I did not hook up with him. I stayed over and slept with him but all clothes stayed on.
this is SELF HELP:
“Self Help”
by Laura Ann Tull
A self improvement trips turns deadly for three movie executives when two strangers arrive.
At a film executive meeting Producer Angela Star and Deborah Cohen fight over who is responsible for their latest box office failure. How they each step on each other’s toes and try to do the other’s job. Simone, the President, fed up with their antics, instructs the ladies that they are required to attend a self help program at a Camp in Northern California with a self help guru named Jake Carson. She will also be going in a quest to get the three of them to start working together again in stead of ripping each other up.
The ladies each respectfully pack for their trip. They have been given a specific list of items. Each packs according to their character. Angela is flamboyant and messy. Deborah is ordered and minimalistic. Simone is efficient and stylish yet a bit down to earth.
Jake the camping instructor is preparing for the trip. We see a large object heading for his head. Jake falls. He is placed in the trunk of a car, tied up and restrained from talking. We see hands going through papers on Jake’s desk. They show the camp itinerary. We then see two men, Tattoo and Benjamin, getting into the car containing Jake.
Tattoo and Benjamin are escaped convicts on the hunt for a hidden score. It is somewhere at the CAMP. But to gain access they have to join the self help retreat. Benjamin takes Jake’s place and Tattoo rents a cheap hotel a few miles away to hold JAKE.
As the film progresses we learn that they had a third partner. A woman. And that one of our retreat guests is not who we think she is. By the end of the weekend only two come out alive. But do they survive better off than when they started?
