Facade

TAGLINE Because staying alive comes second to keeping it together. COMPS/TONE - Facade is a modern take on the Hitchcockian spy-thriller. It’s tone blends Jason Bourne’s pacing with the comedic punctuation of Marvel movies. BUDGET - $15-$30MM RATING - Hard PG to Soft PG-13 DESCRIPTION - This feature spy-thriller uses suspense, action, and awkward comedy to explore the mental illness of anxiety as a disability. Follow De'Vonte Reed as he desperately works to keep it together where staying alive is secondary to staying in control of himself. ​ SYNOPSIS - KENDRICK REED, a 28-year-old black man, suffers from an anxiety disorder, but he’s not going to let that or his boss at the aeronautical engineering lab where he works keep him from his dream of inventing a world-changing tech. When Kendrick finds himself on a rare date with LIN FITCH (32) a strong-willed black woman, SPECIAL AGENT HARPER (55) of Homeland Security interrupts to inform Kendrick his wife has been killed and has mixed him up in international espionage involving a stolen prototype. The only issue... he's not married. When Kendrick inherits the dead woman's overnight bag full of ordinary-looking item, the spies believe she has given him the prototype. In order to stay alive, he must uncover the real prototype and demonstrate how it works, all while keeping it from falling into the wrong hands. To complicate matters, he discovers his date, Lin, is one of the spies willing to do anything to recover the prototype. At the story’s midpoint, Kendrick stumbles upon the truth – that the bag itself is the prototype in disguise. He also learns his employer hired the spies to recover the prototype from Kendrick but that a foreign spy has infiltrated their ranks. Kendrick decides he needs to stop running and return the prototype. Culminating in a dramatic chase, Kendrick, who is not a pilot, has to fly a plane running out of juice and must use the prototype to power the plane mid-flight. When the spies finally corner Kendrick and Lin, they learn that the person directing the spies from the shadows is Special Agent Harper, that she is not dead, and that she is actually a foreign spy. After a shoot-out involving Kendrick, the spies, and Harper - the prototype is recovered, Harper is apprehended, but Kendrick is shot in the arm. In his hospital room, Kendrick is kept drugged to prevent his panic attacks and is not allowed to leave. Lin sneaks in disguised as a nurse and helps Kendrick escape.