Writing Prompt: Movie Pitch

The city council in the small rural Ohio town really only needed two words to agree to the movie producer’s pitch to film in their community: increased tourism. It was going to be a romantic comedy, and that always brought in more people. Just look what Bridges did for Madison County. It had quite a big budget, but they figured that most movies cost tons to make, so it wasn’t that odd. It would be a wonderful opportunity for their out-of-the-way village, and a wonderful story: a graphic novelist and a marine biochemist meeting and bonding over charity work at a puppet show for a children’s hospital.

The first screening was attended by the entire city council and the prominent members of the community, and to say that they were a bit surprised would be an understatement. There certainly was a love story, but it took a back seat to all of the explosions. The scene that was the most normal was the rehearsal for the puppet show, when the protagonists met for the first time and flirted, playfully maneuvering their puppets to “bite” one another. At least it was normal, until the puppets leaped up of their own accord and chased away the children in the audience. They weren’t sure how a Zombie Batman coming to life out of the drawings of the graphic novelist would increase tourism, but the scientific laboratory that was invented by the screenwriter could perhaps paint the community in a good light: the female protagonist, a local girl, worked there, and if it weren’t for her unsanctioned experiments attempting to make sharks fly, the zombie Batman and the cannibal Muppets would never have been defeated.

They weren’t quite pleased with the characters constant conversation about how lucky they were to be in a rural area. They would have been if not for the fact that the reason was that it would give the protagonists more of a chance to unleash the flying sharks to stop the zombie Batman and cannibal Muppets before they reached a more population-rich area.

It was an entertaining movie, and if it had been shot in any other place in the country, most of the audience members would have been able to enjoy it quite a bit more. As the credits rolled and the city council chairman got to his feet, he cleared his throat to address the rest of the council about what would be their next step: an angry letter to the movie studio or a lawsuit? Though, when he began to speak, the mayor, who was gathering up his coat in the seat next to him, leaned over and said, “Well, I guess Godzilla movies don’t exactly keep people from visiting Japan.”

http://writingprompts.tumblr.com/post/33157972729/616-two-word-movie-pitches-another-sample