I am trying to create an animated pilot. I submitted these concepts to Adult Swim, and they showed some mild interest in my other concept Dance With Grandpa, but it hadn't been developed enough. This pilot, The Chosen Ones, is much more developed and I'm fonder of it. So I am developing both, in the hope that some interest will be shown in them. A pilot script has been written for both.
I can offer no money right now, but whatever you create I can use it and this will be one hell of a project.
If you can help out with any animation and art in any way, please email me at tygerbug (at) yahoo.com. I am a filmmaker and director of seven no-budget features and over thirty shorts. You can visit my site at orangecow.org.
Some clips of my earlier animated work:
http://www.orangecow.org/videos/squiffytoon.rm
http://orangecow.org/videos/mort.rm
So ... here's the info ...
(Juliet and Cody)
Buying groceries. Sharing an apartment. Saving the world from intergalactic war.
It's not easy being twentysomething these days.
The CHOSEN ONES
A sitcom.
Cody and Juliet share an apartment, though they?re not going out or anything. Rex lives next door, but he?s not just their weirdo neighbor ? he is also an extraterrestrial crimefighter, saving the world from evil aliens, who are hiding everywhere. So they?re now hanging out with an alien, a robot, and a woman who seems to think she?s a cat. They watch TV and save the world on a regular basis.
(Alternate titles: Apartment Galactica, Generation of Filth)
Pilot Episode Plot
The world is under secret attack. Alien beings are hiding everywhere, their only thought to destroy life on earth as we know it. And Rex Roper is the only man who can stop them.
But that's not important yet. Meanwhile:
Cody, a young geek, has lost his job, and his parents have finally kicked him out of the basement he's been living in all his life. He finds himself homeless, filthy, and out on the street. He meets a poet/singer, Juliet (or Razor), who is pretending to be homeless to find out what it's like. Cody and Juliet have only been talking for five minutes, and haven't particularly hit it off (actually Cody is convinced she hates him), when suddenly Juliet suggests they get married. Cody, having nothing better to do, agrees. The two don't actually get married legally, but they become good friends and do some stupid shit together. (She says it's good to be "married" to someone just in case she ends up old and alone someday. Like having a spare tire.) Then Juliet goes off on a date, leaving Cody behind. He gets depressed, but when she comes back (from the unsuccessful date), she has another impulse: since both of them need apartments, they move in together.
continued in next post ...
Hourlong pilot screenplay:
http://orangecow.org/1ocp/Chosen Ones Pilot.rtf
Hi there. I'm still at it.
I've deleted some of the old posts so I can update you here ...
I still need help with this!
I need some talented animation-style artists to help me create an animated storyboard - an animatic or leica reel - for this pilot.
I can't quite handle the heavy load of artwork this project will require - well, I suppose I could, but I'd rather get help with it!
Basically we'd be drawing out the entire script, line by line, only indicating the most important poses. It's an ideal job for someone who likes drawing in the animated style, but isn't usually an animator.
If you're up to it, we will also be creating a fully-animated trailer for the series, and possibly a couple of short animated scenes as well.
I am not currently offering any pay - but it would be a chance to be part of a great project. Read the script, and see if it interests you.
Thanks!
They quickly realize that there is something strange about their apartment building. There may be strange creatures or aliens or ... something all around. Then they meet Rex - and that's the strangest experience of all. Rex, who lives in the apartment opposite them, is a paranormal crimefighter. He is incredibly wealthy, and a genius with access to technology from all across the universe, but he lives in a crappy apartment "because that's the last thing they'd suspect." His apartment is like the batcave - with a huge computer database of non-human criminals living on the planet. It's his job to protect earth from evil supernatural, extraterrestrial, paranormal and mutant beings. And he likes doing it.
They are afraid of Rex at first, but he soon becomes their friend and often pops into their apartment. (Cody and Juliet's apartment is where most of the action takes place, a la any standard sitcom.)
They also meet one of Rex's creations, a small robot named Lionel. Lionel is slightly rebellious and doesn't get along well with his "father," Rex ... and in later episodes comes to live with Cody and Juliet.
They also meet Jefferson, a grey alien in a white suit. Calm and intelligent with a dry wit, Jefferson is Rex's best friend, and was the one who showed Rex that there were aliens and other beings living on earth, and helped train him to fight them. Jefferson has shared some of his and other planets' advanced technology with Rex, and shares some of it with Cody and Juliet to make their lives easier ... but he avoids sharing more than a little bit of it, because he doesn't think humans are smart enough to use really advanced technology without destroying it and using it for evil. Cody, Juliet and Rex prove him right whenever he unveils a new "toy" for them to use ... and promptly use it destructively.
Jefferson is lonely and spends much of his time trying to get a date with an earth woman. He finds he usually scares them away, and he has to use that Men in Black memory eraser thing ª.
Throughout the series, Cody and Juliet remain just good friends. They both go out on dates with various people ... although there is very slight sexual tension between them, so that they do get jealous when the other has a steady girl/boyfriend. It's pretty clear that whatever happens, Juliet is going to be the most important female in Cody's life, and vice versa.
There is also some sexual tension between Juliet and Rex, mostly early on.
continued ....
Juliet's best friend (shown quickly in episode 1 but not introduced until episode 3) is Rowena. There is something strange about Rowena. She is a hyper-intelligent businesswoman and environmental crusader. But she is leading some sort of double life. When she meets Rex, she stands back and hisses eerily. He recognizes her, of course. They are arch-nemeses. But there is also sexual tension between them. She is human, but genetically engineered for extra agility and strength - a mutant. They have a long history. She is the Catwoman to his Batman. They get along when she's doing good, but not when she's doing evil.
Cody falls for her immediately, in a pathetic way. She has no interest whatsoever in him ... he is the ... er, little mouseman to her Catwoman.
As the series goes on, Cody and Juliet will have to help Rex out in his efforts to clean up the city, and will actually do some heroic things.
On one of these occasions, Cody will do something impressive enough that Rowena actually takes notice of him, and they will wind up going out for some time, which will make Rex and Juliet very very unhappy.
On a similar note, plenty of Juliet's dates will turn out to be supervillains.
Oh, and in the season finale, there's something about a prophecy ... are Cody and Juliet not just ordinary geeks, but rather the Chosen Ones?
continued ....
The Characters -
Cody - Insecure, neurotic struggling writer/painter/wannabe detective ... Very messy but ironically also a neat freak. A romantic, but clueless about women. A sci-fi geek. Impulsive, when he gets a creative urge he'll seize on it until he's lost interest. A really nice guy at heart. Pretty intense and rarely as boring as he looks. He's a little bit pathetic, but then so was Luke Skywalker in the first film, and he still saved the universe, so maybe Cody has a chance. His other goal is to be a famous game show host. Or something. (Alternate names: Colby, Simon, Alvin, Peter, Ernie)
Juliet Hamilton (Razor) ? An introverted poet, artist, photographer and singer. Not a very good one. This could make her a bit pretentious except that she is insecure and mostly lacks ego. She avoids people, supposedly because she thinks the general public are sheep and idiots, but also because beneath the fake bravado she's terminally shy. She is also impulsive, and does whatever the hell she wants when the mood strikes her - which is why she proposed marriage to Cody within five minutes of meeting him on the street. She has wondered all her life why she keeps going out with such freaks of nature - wondering if the guys she's gone out with are really human. As it turns out ... some of them weren't.
Rex Roper - He fills the wacky neighbor role, but is also the hero of the series. Eccentric millionaire playboy genius, and earth's only hope against invasion by depraved and bizarre creatures. Don't worry - he's smarter and stronger than he looks. For this character, imagine Bruce Wayne combined with Kramer. Doing Fox Mulder's job. His apartment looks small and normal from the outside, but when you enter it, it's this huge expansive fortress and mansion. Which is pretty weird really. It was created with Jefferson's help to be bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. He has a supercomputer a la the Batcave and lots of crazy technology, cool stuff and goodies - sentimental mementos of his battles with aliens and mutants outside the law. (Alternate names: Hal, Nick, Clark)
Jefferson - A grey alien with a theatrical attitude. Rex's best friend, they met many years ago and Jefferson showed Rex that there were aliens and mutants on the planet earth, and showed him how to fight them. He becomes friends with Cody, even though Cody is at first racist against aliens, because both have something in common - they're both pathetic at attracting earth women. Cody, Juliet and Rex all try to set Jefferson up on dates. Jefferson's attempts at picking up women usually just result in him wiping the woman's memory after she rejects him ... (or he rejects her for being weird and not his type) ... and her waking up with half-memories of an alien abduction. We find out in a later episode, when Jefferson's family comes to visit, that Jefferson is insecure about his intelligence - by the standards of his planet he's actually an idiot. But on earth he's a genius, because he can show off the knowledge of what every idiot on his planet knows ... rather like Kal-El coming to earth and suddenly being a Superman. Well, he wants to come to earth and be thought of as a genius. If Rex/Cody/Juliet ask nicely, Jefferson might help them out by sharing some of his (or some other) planet's advanced technology ... so Jefferson seems like a wacky inventor in some ways (even though none of the inventions are actually his) ... he is very good at repairing and creating spaceships, electronics, that sort of thing. On his planet he was the equivalent of an auto mechanic with a high school education. Do NOT bring this up around him. It's supposed to be a secret.
Lionel B-4 - Built by Rex. The apartment's helpful little robot. Nerdy even by robot standards. Generally sweet like a family pet. But has a bit of an attitude, like a teenage son. Rebels against his "father," Rex, in episode 2 or 3. Spends more and more time at Cody and Juliet's, until he becomes their robot. Well, his own robot. He is an independent robot. Yes, that's it.
continued ...
Rowena - Juliet's best friend. Rex's former lover and worst enemy. Beautiful, successful, talented, brilliant, wealthy, ambitious law student, businesswoman and environmental crusader, Rowena Lovett comes from a wealthy family and seems to have the world on a string, with everything going for her. But she's leading a double life. Kidnapped by Canadian Nazi scientists in the 1980s, her genes were altered. She was given super strength, super agility, and an indestructible iron skeleton. (Which makes her magnetic, to her annoyance. She sticks to refrigerators, and magnets stick to her.) She was brainwashed and trained to do evil, for some big faceless corporation and a bunch of evil aliens - an experience so convoluted and unbelievable that she has chosen not to clearly remember it. She escaped, and returned to her normal life, but ever since then she has been fighting evil aliens and mutants, and trying to prevent evil corporations from destroying the environment. She met Rex some time ago, and they realized that they were both doing the same thing - fighting paranormal crime. But her methods have a dark side, and she will steal, kill and commit crimes to help fund her work, and do what she thinks is right. Rex doesn't approve of her methods, and calls her a criminal too. But of course he was (is?) in love with her, and all their arguments and fights to the death have a sexual tension about them. Clearly, she and Rex are either going to kill each other, or have a lot of sex and get married, or both. Probably both. Cody finds her very attractive. She finds Cody pathetic and not worth paying any attention to whatsoever, but after Cody shows a little bit of heroism (the only thing Rowena finds attractive) they wind up going out, unexpectedly, in episodes 6-8 or so. (Alternate names: Lenora, Athena, Cassandra)
("Counter girl" - minor guest star character)
Think plotlines which use some sci-fi ideas to really throw into contrast the characters' different personalities, insecurities, and quirks - make them as clear and clashing (and interesting) as possible - and comment on real obsessions in our society. Or just dumb little things .... the little niggling details of everyday life. Much as Seinfeld did.