RIP Proposal

Original Television Series Pitch to Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon

Title

Bluebeard  (I am still trying to come up with a more creative name.)

About

Rhetorical Genre: TV show pitch/treatment

Literary Genre: Thriller

Sub Genre: Psychological Thriller

“Split” meets “Sherlock”. Bluebeard is an original series, hour-long thriller about a wealthy businessman who instills terror throughout a small American town as he descends into madness. One brilliant, strategical detective strives against many adversities in order to stop this man from consuming the lives of the innocent with his monstrous actions.  

I am going to be writing an original television series pitch to the production departments of Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon. I am young aspiring director trying to get my first big project through a well known outlet such as Netflix. The series Bluebeard will serve as an origin story of the character Bluebeard from the tale written by Perrault. As the show progresses, so does his psychological instability and his dangerous relationship with his first wife. The show will depict his transformation into the monster he is in the original fairy tale, however Bluebeard remains the antagonist in the series. The series Bluebeard has a cool twist, this adaptation will actually take place in modern America. The protagonist and hero will be a police detective, who struggles to find proof of Bluebeard’s crimes. In the end of the series, she will be forced to face Bluebeard in a suspenseful struggle between life or death.

Characters:

Athena Wicks

Athena is a young woman who is strong willed, very intelligent, and is passionate about what she does. When Athena was a teenager, she knew that she wanted to help people in life. She fell in love with criminology and the police force because she realized it was the perfect vehicle for her to follow her passions. Due to her strategic and analytical mind she found her place early as a young detective. Although she loves criminology, her true passion is to help people, even if that means going beyond her own jurisdictions. Athena also excels in martial arts so she can take care of herself if her work ever proves to be dangerous. Athena has had a difficult time in life because of an incident that occurred when she was 14 years old. Both her parents were killed, and she was severely injured in a car accident caused by a drunk driver. Her high school and college education were incredibly hard without the support of her parents, but these unfortunate obstacles have shaped the strong person she is today.

Alexander Crow

Alexander Crow is the real name of the infamous “Bluebeard”. Alexander inherited a fortune along with his father’s business, he resides in his huge luxurious mansion planted on private property deep in the forest outside of town. Alexander has had a very troubled past which has left his very personality scarred. His father was a successful businessman but also an egotistical maniac. His father murdered his wife (Alexander’s Mother) under the assumption that she had an affair with his best friend, although this wasn't true. When Alexander was very little, he accidentally witnessed his father stab his mother to death. This left a serious psychological scar which led him to display psychopathic tendencies. As he grew older he learned to hide his dark twisted side underneath the face and personality of “Alexander Crow” in order to function in society. He has so far lived a somewhat normal life being a newlywed and a successful businessman, however his psychological conflicts will begin to destroy the confines in which his dark twisted tendencies lie.

Desmond Choi    

Desmond is a smart, clumsy, and dorky young man who is a rookie at this detective thing. He was assigned to be Athena’s partner, so she could teach him the ropes. For someone who has high attention to detail he is very accident prone which provides for some comic relief in the series. He admires Athena very much and strives to be a detective as good as she is someday.

Chase Rucker

Chase is the Chief of Police in town, but he isn’t a very good one. Chase is an older man around his 60s, but he has reached a stage in his life where he feels empty, he feels as though he is losing his sense of himself and who he is. Constantly finding people to blame for undesirable things in his life, he is often an asshole. In order to legitimize his own sense of authority, he often makes ignorant and rushed decisions, however he knows too many people that hold power in the small town for him to be asked to resign. He himself holds a large amount of clout in the town, which is unfortunate for most people because of his bigoted personality. Chase is a huge obstacle for Athena because he displays many traits that reveal him to be a mild sexist, so she is constantly trying to work around that. This guy isn’t above screwing people over either.   

Josephine Crow

Josephine is the wife of Alexander Crow,

Setting

Bluebeard will take place in a small American town surrounded by a thick forest. Athena lives in a small townhouse at the center of town, and Bluebeard resides in his large mansion planted on private property that is located deep in the forest. This setting is a modern reflection of the setting in the original fairy tale.

Plot Summary

Alexander Crow has just recently gotten married to his wife Josephine and she has moved into his mansion with him in the middle of the forest. Having a prominent feminine figure in his life since his mother, has revived some troubling memories of his past. In a way Josephine reminds him of his mother, or what little memories he has of his mother. This fuels his inner conflicts that he has successfully repressed in the last couple of years. He can feel the boundary between his two personalities breaking down, the dark cynical thoughts and voices in his head are occurring as they did in his teenage years. As he struggles to deal with this inner conflict he is getting very stressed and aggravated. This stress coupled with his underlying psychopathic tendencies has made him unstable and dangerous when aggravated. As a series of events unfold Alexander eventually loses his mind and kills his first victim. He is horrified with what he had done but at the same time it served as a catharsis for him, satisfying his inner conflicts. However it is not long after before he claims another victim, and another. Alexander becomes a complete psychopathic serial killer all the while trying his best to leave this side of him outside the front door when he comes home to his wife, because in the end he finds comfort and support in his marriage.

Athena is introduced as a relatable character who is dealing with her own inner conflicts. It is suggested that she lost both her parents when she was little, but reasons are unknown until it is revealed through the clips of her background story. It is obvious that the loss of her parents still haunts her when she sees parents with their children around town. Athena had just closed a case and was congratulated by her staff and the chief of police. Her last partner had moved to California, so she was waiting for a replacement soon. Desmond Choi is assigned to be her partner and she has to save him more than once throughout the series due to his clumsiness. The two characters eventually grow close and Athena sees him as family, sort of like a little brother.

Athena is assigned to investigate a recent homicide that occurred just outside of town. As soon as she begins to find some leads, another homicide is reported to have happened deep inside the forest surrounding the town. Athena eventually accumulates enough information to suggest Alexander Crow as a suspect. However one day she discovers all of the evidence she had was destroyed, and her leads won't speak a word. She goes to the Chief of Police for help, but he shoots her case down, “No proof, no leads… no case. It’s just a waste of time and resources”. He tries to direct her away from the idea that Alexander Crow is a suspect, because he has a lot of wealth and business in the town; not only is it unlikely and unrealistic, but it would be an absolute struggle to prosecute him. The Chief of Police is also making Athena’s job hard for her, because he is constantly trying to arrogantly legitimize his authority over her to prove a point. She doesn't give up and tries even harder to find evidence on Alexander. After a suspenseful encounter with Alexander, she is absolutely certain he is the killer. Around the same time a third homicide has been reported in town. Athena eventually meets Alexander’s wife, Josephine Crow,  and questions her husband’s behavior. The wife becomes skeptical about her husband but she quickly loses her skepticism in order to maintain her happy relationship. Desmond relays some interesting information to Athena, and she discovers that the Chief of Police has been following been stomping out leads and evidence throughout her case. He was intentionally trying to undermine her case, because he was being bribed with a ton of money by Alexander Crow. Athena again tries to tell Mrs. Crow that she is in grave danger of being murdered by her husband, but Mrs. Crow won’t hear anymore and politely ends communications with Athena. One day Mrs. Crow decides to do her own investigating and what she discovers is horrifying. She immediately calls Athena but just as Josephine begins to frantically explain everything she discovered… the phone cuts off. Alexander cut the phone line and broke her cell phone. “You were in contact with that detective? How could you? I trusted you and you betray me like this? I gave you everything you wanted and yet you betray me like this?!” Alexander yells at his wife. Josephine attempts to escape her husband, and in the struggle she throws anything she can find at him, including a can of blue paint she had been using to paint the inside of their bedroom. The paint splatters all over his thick beard painting it blue, symbolizing his transformation into a monster, he is now Bluebeard. Athena and Desmond decide to go above their legal jurisdictions and they rush to Bluebeard’s mansion, they know they can’t trust the police force because of the Chief. Athena is driven by her need to help people, her need to save people's’ lives, because she is far too familiar with death. Athena is determined to save Josephine and stop Bluebeard from hurting anyone else. To her horror she discovers that Josephine has been stabbed to death by Bluebeard, reflecting an almost identical picture to his past. Bluebeard manages to incapacitate Desmond and disarm Athena while injuring her. Athena limps into the foggy forest for safety, but Bluebeard is not going to let her escape. In his mind she lured his wife into betrayal. Athena realizes that her only option is to fight as she watches this man approach her. A man who has blood on his hands, sleeves, and his forehead, while his beard is splattered with bright blue paint. He is holding an antique cutlass covered dripping in blood, prepared to use it again. In a violent and suspenseful fight, Athena kills Bluebeard, ending his reign of terror over the town.

Rhetorical Strategies

The background stories of Athena and Alexander will be shown in clips throughout the series serving as parallel stories for the audience to follow, and at the same time building the depth of the characters. You will begin to understand the characters more as their background stories unfold.

In the original fairy tale the protagonist was a woman but in the end she wasn’t the hero because she still had to be saved by “men”, her brothers. In my adaptation I wanted to keep the protagonist as a woman but empower her so she is strong enough to be the hero as well, she doesn’t need to be saved by a man. I also made a character who is mildly sexist who holds a position of authority (Chief of Police), this presents a secondary struggle for the main protagonist, masculine authority vs feminine authority. This way the series could appeal to a more specific demographic composed of young women around the world.

My adaptation will possess an underlying metaphor that reflects the American political scene of 2017. In the original fairy tale, Bluebeard is introduced as very wealthy, but it is never explained how. I solved this question by making the character inherit a fortune along with a business from his father. How does this sound familiar? Then I characterized the Chief of Police to display traits of being bigoted, ignorant decision maker, and someone who has cheated people. Both antagonists combine reflect President Trump, one has inherited a fortune, and the other displays his infamous personality traits. My audience is going to be primarily composed of Millennials, and majority of Millennials vote democratic. Keeping this in mind I designed Athena( the protagonist) to relate to this demographic. In a way this represents the struggle between Trump and young America, this underlying metaphor will speak to and engage the majority audience on a completely different level.

In regards to my rhetorical genre, I am going to have to speak in a very confident, direct, and professional tone. This is basically a business pitch and I am speaking to an audience that have to make business decisions, so I must keep that in mind when producing my language.

Not only do I have to speak to the audience of the show, more importantly I have to speak to the audience judging my pitch.

Works Cited

        

    Catone, Josh. "How to Use Google Search More Effectively [INFOGRAPHIC]." Mashable. Mashable, 24 Nov. 2011. Web. 23 Feb. 2017.           

            14, 2015 Priyanka Mattoo December. "How Exactly Does Someone Pitch a TV Show?" Splitsider. N.p., 14 Dec. 2015. Web. 02 Mar. 2017.           

            Written by Stephanie Palmer Stephanie Palmer Was a Film Executive with MGM Pictures and The Hollywood Reporter Named Her One of the "Top 35 Executives Under 35." She Is the Author of the Best-selling Book Good in a Room. She Has Helped Many Writers Get Age. "How To Pitch A TV Show - TV Pitch Template And TV Pitch Examples." Good in a Room. N.p., 27 Jan. 2017. Web. 02 Mar. 2017.           

            "You Are Witnessing the Birth of a Global TV Network," Netflix CEO Reed Hastings Said Wednesday. The Streaming Service Was Already Available in about 60 Countries, and He Announced That Another 130 Countries Had Just Been Added. "Countries Where Netflix Is Now Available." CNNMoney. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2017.           

            JasonsA2Media Follow. "Codes and Conventions of the Thriller Genre." LinkedIn SlideShare. N.p., 10 Sept. 2013. Web. 02 Mar. 2017.