Hello, and welcome to the studio demands in an exercise Should I start over?
Jim Burzelic:I like how you started with a
T.C. De Witt:Hello, Jim. We're gonna do a studio demands it for silence of the lambs. You know what's a franchise? Like, think of how many
Jim Burzelic:It is.
T.C. De Witt:There's, like, five films for that. Mhmm. Alright. Let me do the intro here.
Jim Burzelic:Okay.
T.C. De Witt:Welcome to the studio demands it, an exercise in creative thinking where we will challenge ourselves to conceptualize, pitch, and craft a film based on the stipulations of a hypothetical Hollywood overlord. We talk movies all the time. In particular, we complain about the choices made in blockbusters. And, of course, as any good nerd does, we automatically assume that we could do better even with the demands and restrictions that clearly must have been put on the production. I am TC DeWitt, and joining me as always is my cohost, Jim, pizza beard Berzelik.
T.C. De Witt:Hello, Jim. How are
Jim Burzelic:you? Hello. I'm I'm good.
T.C. De Witt:Pizza beard.
Jim Burzelic:Right? It's hard to be upset with this pizza beard.
T.C. De Witt:Now is it now the the audience is gonna wanna know. Do you have a a beard made of pizza? Do you have pizza in your beard? Like, why why
Jim Burzelic:did why did they call pizza was if my beard was made of pizza Mhmm. It would have pizza in my beard.
T.C. De Witt:Okay. Like okay. Yes. That is true. Yeah.
T.C. De Witt:Would you but would you is that how you shave? You just eat your beard?
Jim Burzelic:Yes.
T.C. De Witt:That seems gross.
Jim Burzelic:It does seem that way. This seems like a
T.C. De Witt:troma film.
Jim Burzelic:And it is. This seems like a
T.C. De Witt:troma movie. Right? Like This is quite gross. Pizza beard. Yeah.
Jim Burzelic:I mean, that was a whole gag in Oh, Spaceballs. Yeah.
T.C. De Witt:Pizza of the Hut.
Jim Burzelic:And he he ate himself to death. Is Spaceballs good?
T.C. De Witt:Like, Mel Brooks has an acquired taste, and I don't know. That'd be something to go
Jim Burzelic:back to.
T.C. De Witt:I suppose. Like, is his style of humor, his style of parody, does it hold up? I I want because I haven't watched any of his his movies in quite some time. So I wonder.
Jim Burzelic:At least amongst the circles I find myself in, I'm gonna say yes. Blazing Saddles comes up all the time.
T.C. De Witt:Young Frankenstein.
Jim Burzelic:So I think in general, yes. Not every single one of them is a quotable Classic. Yeah. One I'm reminded of is Life Stinks.
T.C. De Witt:That's where he's a poor guy and he gets
Jim Burzelic:He's a rich guy.
T.C. De Witt:He's a rich guy and
Jim Burzelic:he Maybe becomes poor. Gotcha.
T.C. De Witt:I remember the ads for that. I never saw it. Remember when commercials were a thing?
Jim Burzelic:I remember when commercials were a thing.
T.C. De Witt:Yeah. Was complaining about that last time we hung out that Yeah. I was I was watch someone I was with was watching Forrest Gump on TV. So there was commercials every five minutes, and it was driving me crazy. Especially because the dude had a Blu ray player and Forrest Gump sitting right.
T.C. De Witt:All he had to do was just pop that bad boy in. No more commercials. Yeah. Oh, yay yay. Okay.
T.C. De Witt:So welcome back. We're doing something special today.
Jim Burzelic:Oh.
T.C. De Witt:This will be our first audience choice. Oh. Yeah. So so where do we begin? We we have a ridiculous pile of studio properties that we we will draw from through the episodes that have come to this point.
T.C. De Witt:And and we have had a few occasions where our studio audience has chosen based on our list.
Jim Burzelic:Yeah. It was like we gave them a multiple choice.
T.C. De Witt:Here are the ones that here's what I would pick. Here's what Jim would pick. Here is, you know, the the option from from the audience. But today, we actually have from Lee Alley, enjoy the show. I have a movie franchise you could do.
T.C. De Witt:And he he's gonna state it here. So, again, for those who might be new to the new new to the the show, what we're gonna do is we're going to be given a movie that that either existed or could exist, and we have to think what would the studio want well, first, we're gonna try to think what the studio would want to actually have a successful film.
Jim Burzelic:Uh-huh.
T.C. De Witt:And we will inject into it what we think would
Jim Burzelic:make a good movie. Okay.
T.C. De Witt:So this is a good one. This is good one. So I have not given any thought. I've only seen what it is. So today, Lee Alley from the studio oh, and and that reminds me.
T.C. De Witt:He we have to have our listeners hashtag their studio. Yeah. Okay. Because Leah picked one, and she had her better than the book productions.
Jim Burzelic:That's right. Yep. So we're gonna find out what Leigh's studio's
T.C. De Witt:name Leigh, once you hear this episode, comment, tweet at one of us, go up to the studiodemandsit.com, or you can find us at studiodemands it on Twitter, and let us know what your studio name is. I I think Alley Films, it's at, like, a bowling alley.
Jim Burzelic:I don't know if, I I know Lee. Lee is Lee is one of my old old friends. Oh. Alright. Cool.
Jim Burzelic:And I I I'm gonna I'm gonna do it anyway. I'm not gonna ask permission. I'm gonna ask for forgiveness. He actually has a podcast of his own.
T.C. De Witt:Oh, cool. Yeah. Funny way.
Jim Burzelic:About role playing games. It's called Roll of the Dice. Roll roll as in r o l e. Pun. Yeah.
Jim Burzelic:It's good. Yeah. And they they talk about role playing games, and it it it's it started sort of like as a for for new new game masters and new gamers, like, kinda like a how to kinda thing.
T.C. De Witt:Like a one zero one kinda Sort
Jim Burzelic:of, and it's grown into more than that. It's definitely good for anyone who
T.C. De Witt:Alright, cool.
Jim Burzelic:Just loves talking about games, and that's what they do Roll of the dice.
T.C. De Witt:Roll of the dice. Lee Alley. I don't thank you. Good plug for him.
Jim Burzelic:And So maybe it's Roll of the Dice Studios.
T.C. De Witt:Oh, there you go. Alright. Well, today, the studio demands enjoy the show. I have movie I have a movie franchise you could do. Home Alone, and the studio is demanding that Macaulay Culkin come back as Kevin McAllister.
T.C. De Witt:And and one more demand from the studio, Kevin is home alone, not his kid.
Jim Burzelic:Okay.
T.C. De Witt:So Kevin is once again home alone. Okay. Where to begin?
Jim Burzelic:So I think we should begin with acknowledging that I believe Funny or Die or or College Humor, one of the one of the the online comedy networks Mhmm. Mhmm. They did something like that.
T.C. De Witt:Was he like a cab driver or an Uber driver or something? Because I seem to remember they did a short film where he's like a crazy man.
Jim Burzelic:Oh, I just I remember a scene of adult Michele Culkin jumping on a bed.
T.C. De Witt:Okay. Oh oh, no. That was for Google, the Google.
Jim Burzelic:Was that what it was for?
T.C. De Witt:Yeah. Yeah. They did so McCullough Culkin has gone back to do a couple Home Alone. They did a series of commercial, some ads for Alexa or Google. What's the Google dot?
T.C. De Witt:What is it? Cortana? No, that's Microsoft. Well, it's the Google Home device thing, and it was him reenacting moments from his and Joe Pesci did a couple of
Jim Burzelic:them as well.
T.C. De Witt:Oh, did he? So they had a whole series of it. But Funny or Die at College Humor actually did do a short where he is like a cab driver or an Uber driver, and he's clearly suffering from some severe PTSD.
Jim Burzelic:Okay.
T.C. De Witt:And he like it's a lot of cursing, and he makes shifts like a weapon to save him. And I I can't remember. You know, this is this is what happens when you're working on the fly here, but it does exist out there. Additionally, there are sequels to Home Alone. Yeah.
T.C. De Witt:So Home Alone one, obviously, the the classic that is. Home Alone two, Lost in New York.
Jim Burzelic:Yep. Right?
T.C. De Witt:Then there's a Home Alone three, which does not star Kevin McAllister or McCloud Culkin. The McAllisters aren't in it. It's a kid who's homesick from school. French steward, I believe, is in it, and they're, like That
Jim Burzelic:sounds right.
T.C. De Witt:Robbing the neighborhood. Then there's a Home Alone four, which is Kevin McAllister, but it's a new actor. And it was released as a straight to home release Yeah. Movie, but it was intended to be a pilot.
Jim Burzelic:Oh.
T.C. De Witt:And it is horrible.
Jim Burzelic:Oh, no. It is it is Is that why we never saw a Home Alone TV show?
T.C. De Witt:Shit. Like, they approached Daniel Stern to reprise his role, he was, like, offended by the script. He was like, absolutely not. And I've I I watched it because I had one of my nephews was, like, into it at the time, so he was watching all four of
Jim Burzelic:them. Mhmm.
T.C. De Witt:And when that one came up, was like, didn't know there was a fourth one. It's atrocious. Kevin is a little turd. His parents have gotten divorced. So he lives with his mom who is poor, and then he goes to live with his dad who is super freaking wealthy and like, wealthy, and that's the house that's gonna get robbed, and it's terrible.
Jim Burzelic:Why? It's so bad. Why? I do Why would that be the why set that up?
T.C. De Witt:I do not know. So that maybe, like, the season arc is him trying to get his parents back together. I don't know.
Jim Burzelic:Are are they suggesting that divorced parents more often forget children?
T.C. De Witt:I don't know. I don't know. It's it's atrocious. Right? So let's work under this Wow.
Jim Burzelic:I'm I'm I've been I I can't stop thinking about Home Alone four now.
T.C. De Witt:Don't seek it out. But let's work under let's do so studios So
Jim Burzelic:I'm oh, go ahead.
T.C. De Witt:Hollywood has a has a system now. Mhmm. It's the soft reboot. It's the forget all the bad ones. We're just doing a sequel to the good ones.
T.C. De Witt:Yeah. We discussed this with Terminator. They did it with Halloween. Mhmm. They they're proceeding to do it with other franchises as well.
T.C. De Witt:Just forget the bad ones. This is a sequel to the last good one. So this is number three. Right? So that's what we're gonna create here is is a is a Home Alone three.
T.C. De Witt:Kevin McAllister is back, and he's Home Alone. Okay. So you
Jim Burzelic:have bust. Nodding. I'm nodding. That's great for Great audio. Audio.
T.C. De Witt:Great audio.
Jim Burzelic:You you
T.C. De Witt:have to say it.
Jim Burzelic:Nodding. Nodding. Nodding. Nodding. Nodding.
T.C. De Witt:Nodding. Okay.
Jim Burzelic:So you you dropped a couple when you were making the stipulations, you you gave me a couple ideas. Mhmm. So so he's an adult who's being left home alone, and you said not not his son. Yeah. But I like the idea of him having a family that has left without him.
Jim Burzelic:Okay.
T.C. De Witt:Now now do you think it's a matter of I guess you could if he's just kind of a like, just I just wanna be alone. Just I think hook. You know? How, like Sure. Peter Bannon yells at his kids, can you be quiet for just one minute?
T.C. De Witt:That's really mean. But he just wants the weekend to himself, so he convinces his family to go, or is he a dick about it and they, they leave without him? Like, why why is he
Jim Burzelic:all I see what you're saying.
T.C. De Witt:Fine. We'll go on this vacation without you. When I come back, I want a divorce.
Jim Burzelic:Well, it actually, yeah, it makes him it makes him a a a more of a a not so great guy, but maybe that's the point is he grows to become a good person as most. I actually, I guess, is this gonna be a Christmas movie?
T.C. De Witt:I I demand it. I demand this to be a Christmas release.
Jim Burzelic:Okay.
T.C. De Witt:Actually, let's take a second here. Home Alone would never get made today. The the movie we got back in the nineties, right, would never get made today. It I I don't know about that. Be made as a as a it would definitely wouldn't be one of the highest grossing movies of all time.
T.C. De Witt:Because when it came out, it was one it was, if not the highest grossing movie of all time, very close to the top. Sure. And it's I I just don't think that style of movie could exist as a tent pole anymore.
Jim Burzelic:I I think it has to do well, you could argue that that's because of Home Alone.
T.C. De Witt:Like Home Alone ruined it? Like, went and done?
Jim Burzelic:Fan kids movies and family movies Mhmm. Are different now. They they tend to right. They're they're usually animated, not that they were not animated previously, but I'm I'm thinking, like, like, the Despicable Me movies.
T.C. De Witt:Yeah. Minions.
Jim Burzelic:Stuff like that. And then The Pixar films.
T.C. De Witt:Like, family films do tend to be. Because the live action ones I can think of are garbage. Didn't I reference monster trucks last episode? Yes. You did.
T.C. De Witt:I've never even seen it. Or have I? Look at this tattoo.
Jim Burzelic:Oh, wow. That's a perfect recreation of monster truck.
T.C. De Witt:I know. I love it. Shh. Don't tell anyone.
Jim Burzelic:The the other thing is or the other types of family movies that are being made now, the the live action ones, tend to resemble the other fun movies that kids wanna see that are coming out that aren't necessarily for kids, like superhero movies. Or Right? Or action movies, like Well, no.
T.C. De Witt:Jungle, Jumanji two.
Jim Burzelic:Yeah. Yeah. Things like that. So they're not maybe I'm wrong. I could be missing a whole slew of movies that that just isn't that I'm just blind to.
Jim Burzelic:But I kinda feel like like that more kinda grounded kid in a scenario movie is is Animated. Well, I mean Boss Baby. How that was really yeah. That it's animated. And and and what's word I'm looking for?
Jim Burzelic:Hyperbolic. Not hyperbolic. Exactly.
T.C. De Witt:Fantastical. Yeah.
Jim Burzelic:Right? Like, there there's some fantastical element to it, not just, a kid's left home alone, and he's precocious.
T.C. De Witt:Mhmm. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. I think it's too simple of an idea now. And that slapstick comedy stylings style doesn't really work anymore.
T.C. De Witt:I I don't think that it's it's what people want from live action anymore. People don't want Sure. The frying pan to the face electrocuted skeleton.
Jim Burzelic:When's the last time that worked?
T.C. De Witt:I don't know. If you think of the early Harry Potter movies, the first one at least, second one, first and second one, it's like you know, we get a wand up the nose of the troll, and we get to
Jim Burzelic:I don't know.
T.C. De Witt:Like, I don't think that style of comedy, that sort of family film works in a live action anymore. But I I want this has to be live action. The studio is saying Absolutely. Capitalize on this. But now we kinda run into a problem of escalation.
T.C. De Witt:Right? Die Hard as Die Hard can't exist anymore. John McClane now has to save the world. Mhmm. And even if you wanna recreate Die Hard, it's in a skyscraper with the rock, and it's technologically off the charts.
T.C. De Witt:Or it's, Olympus has fallen, and it's this hyper superhero level kind of action movie.
Jim Burzelic:Mhmm.
T.C. De Witt:So Home Alone as the protect the house I I don't know. Let's let's find a way to make that I think you can
Jim Burzelic:do it. So I the thing is so the initial pitch, I think, makes Kevin sound super awful, But the idea is by the end of the movie, he's learned his lesson Mhmm.
T.C. De Witt:To be a family man. Like, family comes first.
Jim Burzelic:And so the idea is sort of like he was in the first one. He's he's this selfish guy who works hard to get his family nice things and is super annoyed by them. Right? Because they're always bothering him. He he works hard and so when he when he comes home, he just wants to relax, not fix this thing or drop the kids off here or anything like that.
Jim Burzelic:So he's getting he's super annoyed and he just wants a holiday
T.C. De Witt:I got it.
Jim Burzelic:To himself.
T.C. De Witt:I know how we can make him less of an asshole. Go ahead. Continue
Jim Burzelic:to And so family vacation is planned, and this is his opportunity. And and he he actually it's unlike the previous movies, he actually causes the mix up. Right? Mhmm. He has to be away for business at not at the last second.
Jim Burzelic:So he's not ditching what happened. It's right before they leave. Right? And so he says, oh, I'll meet you there. And so so it it would be this this switcheroo that he pulls where they leave just as he comes home.
Jim Burzelic:He waits a little while because they're all gone. Mhmm. And then he calls his wife who's, like, already at the airport on the plane on their way. They can't turn around. They can't come get him.
T.C. De Witt:Right.
Jim Burzelic:And it's a to a faraway place, super expensive. And so then when they finally talk, he's like, I got home. I tried getting here in time to get to you, but you guys were gone.
T.C. De Witt:Now in Now they're in they're in Portugal and they're not coming back.
Jim Burzelic:Yeah. Something like that. And and so Kevin gets Kevin's now off the hook, and he has the house all to himself for a whole week and a half or whatever. And you go into I I the beats can be really similar to The original. The yeah.
T.C. De Witt:Yeah. Okay. I'm gonna throw this at you. I think I have a way because we're we're we're risking something here. A little kid being an a hole can redeem himself by coming of age as the original movie is.
T.C. De Witt:He he he learns to appreciate his family. Sure. Right? Making a husband who's an asshole to his wife and his kids, that's a long road for him to redeem. And it has worked.
T.C. De Witt:I mean, if you look, if wanna go shaggy dog, if you wanna go do the original and the shaggy DA and the Tim Allen one.
Jim Burzelic:Right? I was actually just thinking Adam Sandler's remote movie.
T.C. De Witt:Okay. Yeah.
Jim Burzelic:It wasn't the it wasn't that bad.
T.C. De Witt:No. No. No. Not the movie. You just said Adam Sandler, and I felt compelled to groan.
T.C. De Witt:Sorry. Yeah. So let me give you this. He's not a husband or maybe he was a husband. Maybe he's divorced.
T.C. De Witt:Maybe he is estranged from his family already. He's an uncle, and he is a dick to his brother and sister or his sister-in-law and his brother. Right? And their kids. And he's uncle Kevin, and he's just annoyed by his nieces and nephews, and he wants to get rid of them.
T.C. De Witt:And to to make it so that he has to save the house, but to escalate it to a bigger level, he could be the landlord or the groundskeeper or the janitor of a condominium like a complex of buildings. Like like what?
Jim Burzelic:No. I'm I'm I'm
T.C. De Witt:So he's he's he's like the lazy dirtbag super at at, like, five buildings, and he's he's let his brother and and sister or what he's let some family move into the complex, and he's just constantly put off by them. I didn't I didn't ask you to move here to be my friend. I don't wanna be an uncle. I'm a dickhead. Right?
T.C. De Witt:Like and the kids are trying to reach out to him. And there's that there's that moment of his sister saying, you know, maybe if you were a nicer person, you'd still be married. Maybe if you were a nicer person, you'd still be connected to your your so now he he has to reconnect with his he'll learn to appreciate his nieces and nephews and his brother and sister or his brother and sister-in-law, what have you. And then you have that it's little John McClainey that in the end, then he can contact his wife and kids and maybe show up on the doorstep for the epilogue of the movie that he shows up like, hey. Merry Christmas, and reconnects with his family who maybe don't even have lines.
T.C. De Witt:Right? So now we I I think it's easier to redeem an asshole uncle as opposed to asking us to forgive a dickhead husband who basically forces his family away. What do you think?
Jim Burzelic:It's an interesting angle. I like the the mirroring to the original involving his siblings, and I kinda like the idea of it starting with the reverse, where his older brother's a big jerk to him and stuff. You reverse it, and now that they're older, he wants to be nice.
T.C. De Witt:Oh, just make it Buzz. Yeah. Buzz is he's he's a dickhead to Buzz. Like, Buzz is just a big, geeky, balding Yeah. Kinda chubby
Jim Burzelic:Oh, you know, we grew up together. You're my brother. I I wanna take care of you. And, like, why are you doing this to yourself? You can do better.
Jim Burzelic:He's like, you don't tell me what to do. And in the meantime, he's he's sleeping on Buzz's in in Buzz's guesthouse or something.
T.C. De Witt:What what do you think of the idea of of, like, five buildings?
Jim Burzelic:Like, it's an
T.C. De Witt:estate or it's like a a block, essentially.
Jim Burzelic:Honestly, I feel like that's a little too diehard escalation.
T.C. De Witt:Okay. Okay. It's just okay. What about super for just a single building now? So if it can
Jim Burzelic:How do you get rid of all of the tenants?
T.C. De Witt:Yeah. Good point. Okay. He had a whole building to play with in New York because they were remodeling it. Right?
T.C. De Witt:So perhaps okay. I gotcha. I gotcha. Okay. Here we go.
T.C. De Witt:Kevin blew all his money in a development deal to build an apartment complex, and and it tanked. He didn't pass code. He cut corners. So the building is can is no one's allowed to live in it. So he's let Buzz and his family move in, and he lives on the Ground Floor.
T.C. De Witt:And maybe there's a homeless guy who lives somewhere in the building that could be the person he connects with. Because, you know, there's always that there's the bird lady in the second one. So he has a whole I'm not I'm not seeing that. No. Okay.
Jim Burzelic:I'm sorry. That no. And That's alright. If if you got if you got more more for it, I'll I'll I'll definitely I'm all ears.
T.C. De Witt:Well, it
Jim Burzelic:needs For the person he has to connect to Yeah. I like reversing it. So the whole time so I'm I'm the angle I'm seeing it from is it's a house similar to the one he grew up in.
T.C. De Witt:Mhmm.
Jim Burzelic:Actually, it would be kind of Poetic. Would it be funny if it was the same house?
T.C. De Witt:That he was.
Jim Burzelic:Buzz got the house. Because I I don't know why. I feel like it should be Buzz's house because he's he's the uncle. Right? So he doesn't own it.
Jim Burzelic:He's he's now there. So that's of sort of house sitting, not really. So he's in this house, and the thing is the old man is no longer with us. Mhmm. Instead, there's a family has moved in.
T.C. De Witt:Okay.
Jim Burzelic:And it Kevin McAllister isn't an old man, but he's kind of now the the curmudgeonly one that the kids are like, oh, what's going on with
T.C. De Witt:that He's shoveling salt on
Jim Burzelic:the Yeah.
T.C. De Witt:What are are you looking at?
Jim Burzelic:And by the end of the movie, he comes to realize, oh, I've become this curmudgeon because he sees this family interacting, and there's probably a beat where they come to his rescue in
T.C. De Witt:some way. Okay. I like where that's going. I like the connecting with a maybe it's a young a kid connecting with an old man. A young girl.
T.C. De Witt:Let's keep it diverse here. I was actually seeing siblings. Like, okay, twins. We'll get a boy and a girl. Yeah.
T.C. De Witt:And they're multiethnical. Yes. Ethnical? Yeah. Ethnical.
T.C. De Witt:Here's my problem with just the house, though. Okay. Is that enough? Like, it's it's a big house, and we saw that in the first one. But you have to think, we're in 02/2019.
T.C. De Witt:This movie is gonna come out, you know, '20 02/2022. That's why. Right? Sure. The house is gonna have smart technology.
T.C. De Witt:It's gonna have, you know, a leaf, you know, change the temperature thermostat, control the lights with the computer. Like, is the house big enough for the the the big act like, whole end of this movie. Right? Like and and we'll get to who the bad guys are, but I'm just thinking even, Escape from New York or Lost in New York, Home Alone, Escape from New York, it's a combined franchise. That's a different episode.
T.C. De Witt:Oh, man. Your gears are turning. There's steam coming out of
Jim Burzelic:your ears. I love it so much. That's so dumb. I love it beyond belief.
T.C. De Witt:Make an may put a pin in that.
Jim Burzelic:Kevin McAllister. Eve. I heard you died. Yeah.
T.C. De Witt:I just lost an eye. Look. They they even knew they couldn't do the house again. They had to get a bigger a a bigger place. They had to raise the stakes.
Jim Burzelic:I think that's sequelitis. I think that's the notion of we have to raise the stakes. I don't think they had to. Now Kevin was still a kid. They were playing specifically on that they were they were they were trying to to recapture what they had just gotten.
Jim Burzelic:There's reasons why you had to change the location because Kevin was still pretty much the same kid.
T.C. De Witt:Yeah.
Jim Burzelic:Our main character, despite being the same person Mhmm. Is a different person.
T.C. De Witt:He's an adult now, yeah.
Jim Burzelic:And the idea, I think, thematic idea we're going that I feel we're moving toward here is the whole thing's sort of inversed Mhmm. While while still being the same. That's terrible. That's
T.C. De Witt:what No.
Jim Burzelic:No. I
T.C. De Witt:got it. I got it. It's the house again. Yeah. Right?
T.C. De Witt:Okay. We're gonna get both our ideas here.
Jim Burzelic:Okay.
T.C. De Witt:The house is the centerpiece of the But it's fifty
Jim Burzelic:years in the future, and it's super huge now.
T.C. De Witt:And in the sky. Yeah.
Jim Burzelic:It's a it's a Jetsons house.
T.C. De Witt:No. No. No. We're gonna get both here. It's it's the house.
T.C. De Witt:The action goes to the house. And right when you reach the climax of the house, almost recreating the beats of the first one Uh-huh. They go to the neighbor's house and then the next neighbor's house. And so that's the so now we get the neighborhood, the multiple buildings, and it we've now escalated it to two, three, four locations. So now it's the neighborhood itself that's at risk and not just his singular house.
T.C. De Witt:I think that if there was no indication that in the advertising that people would come to expect they know how the movie's gonna end, and suddenly we launch into another act of going through more traps and more you're not liking it.
Jim Burzelic:No. I'm I'm just I'm just wondering why one house isn't enough.
T.C. De Witt:I I just I because because I can
Jim Burzelic:think of movies. Like, if it's if it I can think of movies where adults basically hunker down against a siege to the house. Because that's essentially what it is, right? It's a siege movie Mhmm. To make it sound way bigger than it is.
Jim Burzelic:And the house that house in particular is already pretty big, right? Like, you lay out each room. Actually, thinking about the movie, there are rooms that are iconic because of it, right? Like, the kitchen plays a specific role. The foyer is I've never seen a more important important foyer.
T.C. De Witt:It is the the the most important foyer
Jim Burzelic:Yes.
T.C. De Witt:In cinematic history. Maybe. The Scarlet O'Hara come down a a stairway to the no. Don't get
Jim Burzelic:me She does, and then it gets burned down
T.C. De Witt:at one What about the foyer sound of music where they're sync?
Jim Burzelic:So long. Fare with.
T.C. De Witt:It's the most important foyer in cinematic history.
Jim Burzelic:It is. It, like, it comes up over and over again. It it's it's there at the it's it's there at the beginning when Kevin first sees
T.C. De Witt:Joe Pesci.
Jim Burzelic:Joe Pesci.
T.C. De Witt:The pizza guy.
Jim Burzelic:Yeah. All of that stuff. And they keep coming back to it. And now I can't stop thinking about foyer.
T.C. De Witt:I wish I had one. Yes. It'd be nice. Okay. Let's I will I will relent.
Jim Burzelic:No. No. No. I'd I'm I'm worried I'm worried about making it bigger and it turning into there's there's something there's something personal personal about defending the home. Right?
Jim Burzelic:If it becomes the neighborhood, I I feel like now it's it's it's delving into into a different theme. Okay. It becomes more about community then, and it maybe that's that's the direction to go. Mhmm. But it's it's I I feel like the theme is supposed to be family.
T.C. De Witt:Yeah. I I agree. Now that I'm now that I'm thinking about it, I think it might be the wrong call to to rope in other people to help them. It should be Kevin versus the villains learning a lesson through the process of being alone. I just I'm trying to think how a movie of this style could exist now and appeal to the masses.
T.C. De Witt:And maybe it's just a matter of what the traps are, what the what the gags are. And we and I don't know. There's there's movies of this ilk, I think, that I don't know. That will compare to where we are now in terms of this style comedy. Sure.
T.C. De Witt:And Melissa McCarthy stars in all of them. So so there's Spy. Yep. And there's a
Jim Burzelic:So slapstick still still exists.
T.C. De Witt:Yeah. So maybe that means Paul Feig is gonna direct this and she'll be in it. I don't know.
Jim Burzelic:Melissa McCarthy is Kevin McAllister.
T.C. De Witt:So the the the question here is, who's the villain? What is the villain scenario?
Jim Burzelic:It's Melissa McCarthy. It's Michele Culkin
T.C. De Witt:versus take a hit to the face. She could take a hit to the face and sell it.
Jim Burzelic:God, I I hate that I really like that.
T.C. De Witt:I didn't I didn't intend that for for that to happen because I was just trying to think of but you know what? She's the right person for this to be her and, I don't know, Mai Rudolph. Do we want who's her so who's the Daniel Stern in this scenario? Because she is clearly the Joe Pesci of this scenario. Kate McKinnon.
T.C. De Witt:Yeah.
Jim Burzelic:I think that's Oh, yes.
T.C. De Witt:Melissa McCarthy and Kate McKinnon are the the bad guys in this. Yeah. What are they doing? What are like, they're not just robbing the house. Do they need does Kevin have something that they need?
T.C. De Witt:Is it more about is it less about getting something from the house and specifically getting him? Like like Okay.
Jim Burzelic:That's not that's that's not a terrible direction. My first inclination is they are trying to rob the house, but it can't just be the wet bandits again. Right. So the idea that comes to my mind is they actually work with Buzz, And he he's high up enough that that
T.C. De Witt:he has an uncle,
Jim Burzelic:and they are trying to steal something from him to either sabotage him Yeah. Or get ahead or both. This lends to the
T.C. De Witt:Uncle Frank theory. Do you know the Uncle Frank theory?
Jim Burzelic:That he orchestrated
T.C. De Witt:home orchestrated and hired the wet bandits. Yeah. And there's, like about that. There's clues in the background. Seriously, look this up.
T.C. De Witt:This is fantastic. Uncle Frank home alone theory, he was the mastermind behind it all. Like, when they're all on the phones in the airport trying to get home, he's off to the side, like, yelling at someone. He's like, can't get through. Like, what's he up to?
T.C. De Witt:So now so so Melissa McCarthy and Kate McKinnon work for Buzz, and they are retrieving maybe it's a thumb drive, you know, the classic. Maybe it's a CD because Buzz is an idiot. We need a CD ROM.
Jim Burzelic:Maybe. I I A laptop. Actually, their CD ROM reminds me too much of current events.
T.C. De Witt:So they're they are attacking they are attacking the house to specifically steal something from
Jim Burzelic:us. Something. Yeah. I I think so.
T.C. De Witt:Oh, okay. So so let's say the the goal is to get that one the MacGuffin, the one single singular thing. But but I don't know. Kate McKinnon's a klepto, and she keeps trying to get oh, we can also steal these candelabras. Oh, we cannot it's like, just we're we're just here for the thing.
T.C. De Witt:Stop trying to steal the the lawn jackie. But it's a great lawn jackie. Like, she's there to, like, really rob the place, and Melissa McCarthy is motivated to get the one thing. So then they have this constant conflict.
Jim Burzelic:Yeah. Actually, I yeah. I like that once they get in the house, one of Melissa's, like, like, driven to find the one thing. Yeah. And kids are, oh, it's fair.
Jim Burzelic:This is this is a nice home. Look what look what they did with this room.
T.C. De Witt:Look at these bound books. They have so many bound books. Do you think this is worth anything? It's it says it's a first printing. It's a it's Jurassic Park.
T.C. De Witt:Put it down. Oh, oh, I'm gonna keep it. I'm just gonna keep this one. She's just, like, lugging around stuff by the end. So so they are there to retrieve MacGuffin.
T.C. De Witt:Right?
Jim Burzelic:Mhmm.
T.C. De Witt:And Kevin is there to stop them. Now we've we've entered a problem area here. Melissa McCarthy can take a hit. Kate McKinnon is hilarious. Do we wanna watch Kevin McAllister assault these two women for twenty five minutes?
Jim Burzelic:Oh, no.
T.C. De Witt:There there's an issue here. Right? Like, is this
Jim Burzelic:falling into a a misogyny hole.
T.C. De Witt:Yeah. Is is that a problem? Is it not? Why don't we think about that? Let's take a quick break here.
T.C. De Witt:We're gonna throw an ad to Six Five Media. Let's we'll come back with more thoughts on Home Alone three.
Jim Burzelic:Hey. I'm Max Olmsted. And I'm Jordan Johnson. And we're here to talk about
T.C. De Witt:the Tap Hat Balloon Show.
Jim Burzelic:Yeah. It's a sketch comedy series. Each episode is a wacky new thing that will just fill your heart with joy. Comes out every week. Listen to it.
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Commercial:You can subscribe to the Top Hat Balloon Show on iTunes or YouTube, or visit its website at tophatballoonshow.com.
T.C. De Witt:You can see them. Right? I can. I can totally them. As the villain.
Jim Burzelic:So The scene the scene near the end after they've been hit with all kinds of stuff, and and Joe Pesci's going up the stairs, holding his arms up, trying to block, yelling out.
T.C. De Witt:Don't you do it. Don't you do it.
Jim Burzelic:I can see Melissa McCarthy doing the same Yes.
T.C. De Witt:So is it oh, man. See, I don't know if we're the right people to answer that question.
Jim Burzelic:We're probably not, but we're the only ones here.
T.C. De Witt:Good point. For the one time we don't have a studio audience of the woman sitting next to us. Leo, where are you?
Jim Burzelic:So so here's why I'm going to posit that it's okay.
T.C. De Witt:Okay.
Jim Burzelic:Because what's hurting them, what's doing these things are it it's security measures. It's not Kevin trying to hit women. Okay. Does does that does that make sense? Yeah.
Jim Burzelic:It's Kevin trying to stop intruders. In this case, the intruders are women. Sex is not to kill you. However thematically, right, one could read it as, oh, well, I guess it depends on how villainous we make them because, really, what we've set up going with the plot we have is these are just women trying to get ahead in the business world where they're already behind. Yeah.
Jim Burzelic:So who are we to
T.C. De Witt:Oh, but let's
Jim Burzelic:beat them down?
T.C. De Witt:What about what about this? Like, because
Jim Burzelic:they They are doing crime. Yeah. Like, one way or another, it's crime.
T.C. De Witt:Let's try this. Could we have a moment of confrontation before the assault where it's like, hey. Don't you come back here. I don't wanna see your face. Oh, we're coming back.
T.C. De Witt:You no. You better not. We are I I really don't wanna have
Jim Burzelic:to hurt you. No. You should hurt me. Go ahead.
T.C. De Witt:Bring it. Like, if they just tell him it's okay, essentially. Like, if
Jim Burzelic:I mean just I I see what you're saying. I don't know if that makes I don't know if that actually if your characters say it's okay. No. It's fine. I don't think like, if if I hit you, is it misogyny?
T.C. De Witt:No. It's misogyny if you don't.
Jim Burzelic:I I don't know if that actually makes it so.
T.C. De Witt:So okay. So that that is an obstacle. That is it. That is an obstacle. But I do they're so perfect for it.
Jim Burzelic:They really are.
T.C. De Witt:And so now it's like and if we if we go with the he's a bad uncle learning to understand his family, like, that that thematic element of it, whether he's he learns to miss them, that that maybe they're the the attack on the house, I don't know, something that he has to grow to appreciate. Because in the original, he learns to miss his mom and his family because they're not there, and he starts feeling lonely without them. So that's probably where we need to go with this as well. Sure. That he misses his nieces and nephews running around.
T.C. De Witt:He misses his bruh like, he he's left to to handle some of the business elements that Buzz was taking care of. So because just like Kevin starts doing the shopping and he starts cleaning the house, so maybe he, out of boredom, starts looking and crunching the numbers. Cause he is a smart kid. He just never applied himself. Right?
T.C. De Witt:Maybe he figures out how to balance the budget. Maybe he figures out how to help Buzz's business just by happenstance when he finally applies himself just over the course of the story. Right?
Jim Burzelic:Sure.
T.C. De Witt:So maybe maybe and I don't know. Maybe we could go
Jim Burzelic:Well, so it comes right because because I think it's it's more than just learning to be a mature adult. Yeah. Right? Have the whole the whole intro is where we're supposed to be showed how annoyed he is with the family. Mhmm.
Jim Burzelic:So I'm thinking if right. We can make the property a little bigger. Maybe he really does live in a guesthouse or a pool house or something out
T.C. De Witt:out back. Okay. So we do have a little more space to play in. Lives above the garage. Yeah.
T.C. De Witt:Fancy style.
Jim Burzelic:And and with and with the family being gone, that means he get he gets the whole big house to himself. Because in the whole intro, like in the first movie, we see how busy and chaotic it gets, and so we see him getting annoyed with everything. And so eventually, in the quiet moments of the movie when our thieves are not rating it Yeah. He's, like, we have these quiet moments where he's, like, he's bored of the television or opening gifts to himself, and he, like, looks over over at, like, the side where two two of his nibblings that's the word for nieces and nephews. Really?
Jim Burzelic:Okay. Word of the day, everybody. Were were being annoying, playing, doing doing something earlier. Mhmm. And he looks over and he gets sad.
Jim Burzelic:Like, we could even go so far as to he attempts to kind of recreate the play himself. Like, he gets out whatever micro machines and then Yeah. And and he, like but he, like but he pushes it away because it's not the same. It's not the same Yeah. Him playing.
Jim Burzelic:He wants these annoying kids to be doing it and and getting in the way.
T.C. De Witt:And the okay. So, yeah, I like where this is going because he he would learn to miss them. Well, how do you feel about that that idea that Kevin is smart enough he just never applied himself? Oh, how about this? Let's say him and Buzz kind of formed that were inherited the company from their dad.
T.C. De Witt:He passed away and left it to both of them, and Kevin screwed up big and hurt the company. And now Buzz has been trying to rally this whole time. When Kevin, out of boredom, starts crunching the numbers or looking at whatever what have you that sort of leads to the MacGuffin, he could realize, wait a minute. Buzz isn't a bad businessman, and I didn't screw up. Someone inside the company screwed up.
T.C. De Witt:And that's what Kate McKinnon and Melissa McCarthy are coming for is the proof, like some sort of element of proof that that that would bust them for stealing from the company or stonewalling the car insider trading. I don't know what have you. But so so now Kevin is protecting the proof he needs to save his dad's company, to save to to to hey, Buzz. You're not a bad businessman. Me and I'm not either.
T.C. De Witt:And they're there to steal that evidence, or at least that's what most McCarthy wants, whereas Kate McKinnon's stealing everything along the way. Does that kinda give us a our general plot then of, like, the villain plot, at least? What do think of it?
Jim Burzelic:Mostly. I the one angle, I I just it it separates them more, but I wanted to say it out loud just in case it you like it more or or you have something
T.C. De Witt:Go ahead because I have a curveball I'll throw at you later.
Jim Burzelic:So They're not actually involved with the same company at all. Mhmm. It's corporate espionage. Oh, They're from a rival company, and they're trying to sabotage this other company. Okay.
Jim Burzelic:And one other thing is I'm not married to it being Buzz running a company or it being their their their dad's company or anything like unless that was a part of the movie and I just am forgetting that. Being a businessman involved with business, I think is okay. Mean, owning the business feels a bit much
T.C. De Witt:to Whatever the hell.
Jim Burzelic:Don't know. It it it it pushes the Okay. Maybe I could be wrong here.
T.C. De Witt:It's just a matter
Jim Burzelic:of I'm I'm willing to bend on this one. It's just
T.C. De Witt:a matter of the fact that mister McAllister was able to afford an entire Paris trip for all his family, nieces and nephews alike, to go overseas for Christmas, and he was able to follow-up that next year with another trip overseas. So he's clearly rolling in the dough. So I'm just saying he has a pretty good business going, whatever he's
Jim Burzelic:up That's that's true. That is that is very true.
T.C. De Witt:Okay. So I I guess now it's like I mean, we don't have to sit here and contemplate how he's gonna just assault these women. But if we're if we're okay with Melissa McCarthy and Kate McKinnon taking a hit from Kevin and he's not attacking them, he's defending himself, then I I I feel good about this movie so far. Could there be an element here? So here's another curveball I wanna throw you.
T.C. De Witt:Something else to consider. Mhmm. Could Kevin be the bad guy? Could could he could he like, he's already like, he's a bad uncle. I'm saying, like, let's look at this from a completely different angle.
T.C. De Witt:Could he be involved with the crooks who were stealing, and then he was like, I don't want any part of this life anymore. I'm gonna go live for my brother. I'm giving up on this life of crime. And now his his old partners have come to to collect.
Jim Burzelic:To rob him?
T.C. De Witt:Yeah. So then we could go a matter of Melissa McCarthy and a male counterpart as opposed to Kate McKinnon, and now it's a little less sexist.
Jim Burzelic:So
T.C. De Witt:We're here to kill you, Kevin. McAllister, we're coming for you.
Jim Burzelic:Thematically Mhmm. That doesn't work as well. So in Home Alone Mhmm. One of the reasons thieves, robbers, house burglars Mhmm. Work
T.C. De Witt:as the bad
Jim Burzelic:guy yeah. Wet bandits.
T.C. De Witt:Wet bandits.
Jim Burzelic:Work as the bad guy, and why Kevin needs to defend them is because these are strangers coming into his home to take from his family. Mhmm. So the the very people he's coming to appreciate are who are being robbed and he is defending.
T.C. De Witt:Yeah. This is my home, and I'm gonna defend it.
Jim Burzelic:If you have them if you if if we have the the villains, the antagonists coming to affect Kevin directly Mhmm. That doesn't play into the theme.
T.C. De Witt:Okay. Okay. Good. That is an awesome point, and I I would definitely take that in consideration. So my idea of Kevin being the the target Mhmm.
T.C. De Witt:We're gonna save for Home Alone four. Back to New York.
Jim Burzelic:Yeah. Yes.
T.C. De Witt:We have
Jim Burzelic:Actually, that would work. We can have the same villains come back really mad. To get them. After the last yeah.
T.C. De Witt:Which is thematically similar to Home Alone two. Yep. Home Alone we got you Home Alone three and four, Lee. How do you feel about that? Because now it's Kevin running for his life against oh, let's do it.
T.C. De Witt:It's Home Alone four. Okay. So he's in New York. Yep. They get out, and they just want to get him.
T.C. De Witt:This is like a this is a list.
Jim Burzelic:Wait. Wait. Are are we done with three? Did we finish it?
T.C. De Witt:Well, I don't know. What what are we missing from?
Jim Burzelic:We're we're I I honestly, we're miss we're missing the actual beats. We're missing the actual what fun traps would there be?
T.C. De Witt:Oh, boy. That's that's such a that's a brainstorm session in itself. Like
Jim Burzelic:Oh. Oh, I forgot a thing I thought of earlier. And so rather than a pool house
T.C. De Witt:Mhmm.
Jim Burzelic:If it's going to be the same house and not just a similar house Yeah. A similar house probably makes more sense. But if it's the same house
T.C. De Witt:Mhmm.
Jim Burzelic:Right? Even whatever. I'm I'm quitting at this Same house. To to the callback that I wanna go for is, what if the basement's been furnished and that's where Kevin lives?
T.C. De Witt:He's by the furnace.
Jim Burzelic:He's not actually afraid of the furnace anymore. If anything, he's annoyed by the all the dang sound it makes.
T.C. De Witt:He put googly eyes on it. He's got a face. Yeah.
Jim Burzelic:Okay. So
T.C. De Witt:he lives in the basement uncle Joey style?
Jim Burzelic:Yeah. Yeah. What else? What other beats can there be? Actually, at first, I was like, oh, you're right with the the high-tech security.
Jim Burzelic:I think the high-tech security could play into it. And at first, that's what would alert him to two people skulking around the house.
T.C. De Witt:Okay.
Jim Burzelic:Yeah. And then the thing that leads him to create his own traps is one of the times they disarm the security. So they have ways of just undoing all of it. Like, oh, no. That's not good.
Jim Burzelic:I gotta get some paint cans.
T.C. De Witt:We gotta go analog on this. I've done this before. I know. I know. Gotta get that that shot to the camera because I don't know.
Jim Burzelic:Oh, god. Yeah. The fourth wall break. I forgot about that.
T.C. De Witt:Which I realized after many viewings of John Hughes movies, that's his trademark. Because John Hughes wrote Home Alone one. Oh. And Chris Columbus directed it. And Chris Columbus was
Jim Burzelic:Okay.
T.C. De Witt:John Hughes' apprentice, essentially. Oh. Or protege. And, John Hughes' trademark is the fourth wall break. Every every movie he has has Yeah.
T.C. De Witt:It's the, like, ducky looking to the camera at the end of 16 Candles, Kevin screaming directly into the, yeah, Ferris Bueller, obviously. Like, that is his trademark is the fourth
Jim Burzelic:wall break. So No. No. It it's not the the screaming
T.C. De Witt:This is my house. Yeah. Don't don't be scared.
Jim Burzelic:Feel the animals. Or yeah. There there there
T.C. De Witt:were a couple of Yeah. He's like, this is it. Don't get scared now. Something like that. Yeah.
T.C. De Witt:So, you know, this is it again. Don't get scared again now. So, yeah, I like the idea that he has to go analog because the the the two bandits here have Mhmm. Disconnected the technology. I I mean, we do some classic stuff like the paint cans, like the the pipe over the banister.
T.C. De Witt:I don't know. I this like, the digging into, like, the gags, like, all the traps and whatnot, feel like that's a whole other other conversation.
Jim Burzelic:That that's right. That's choreography Yeah. At the at this point. Yeah.
T.C. De Witt:Because, like
Jim Burzelic:I guess we don't have to have we don't have to plot those. I was just thinking maybe we could think of some fun gags here on the show. Well,
T.C. De Witt:it's interesting because the gags don't quite they aren't necessarily informed by the plot. Right? Like, the gays just like, go room to room. What can we do in this room? Blowtorch.
T.C. De Witt:Mhmm. Nail on the stairs. Is Heat heat the heat the the handle of the door the doorknob.
Jim Burzelic:Is Buzz still really into tarantulas?
T.C. De Witt:Dude, get the tarantula. I wanna hear Kate McKinnon scream as a tarantula is put on her. Right? Yeah. The so, like, the the attack or the attacks.
T.C. De Witt:The the traps themselves aren't really plot motivated. They just are what they are. Right? There's a couple that are, like the the tarantula itself is a it builds up to that through the course of the whole movie.
Jim Burzelic:The challenge of this one, is Kevin was a kid, and so there were kid oriented traps, things around the house, toys, stuff like that. There was there was a Rube Goldberg element to them. Yeah. Now Kevin's an adult, and Kevin could do adult traps, which could be very not funny and deadly.
T.C. De Witt:Yeah. So there's a problem right there.
Jim Burzelic:So so that that's I I think the the the only reason I'd really wanna sorta Okay. Spend some time on this is to kind of establish the types of I got it. The types of traps they
T.C. De Witt:would be. I got how we can set this up. I got how we can establish the sort of traps he would set that wouldn't be these murder machines. Mhmm. If the opening of the movie, he has some sort of Rube Goldberg device so that he can lazily not do things.
Jim Burzelic:So that's okay. That's what he
T.C. De Witt:still does? Yeah. We see that he has made a life of making complicated machines that, you know, pop toast from think of the opening of Back to the Future, if you will. Right? He can get the furnace to stop making noises by clicking a button and So we see right from the beginning that he's still capable of making Tinkertoy Lego micro machine devices so that when it comes time to
Jim Burzelic:But then they would have to be modern toys.
T.C. De Witt:Right. And that's a problem as well because because
Jim Burzelic:they're all iPads.
T.C. De Witt:Exactly. Well, maybe that could be his complaint. Kids don't play with the good stuff anymore.
Jim Burzelic:So he has to get them out of the attic or out of basement? He already has
T.C. De Witt:them in the basement, all his old stuff. Like, his his nephew keep and niece keep coming down. His niblets, if you will
Jim Burzelic:Yeah.
T.C. De Witt:Come down to play with the old junk. And Buzz is like, what did I spend $700 on an Xbox two if you guys are just gonna come down here and play with Legos? Oh, the Legos are fun, dad. Yeah. The Legos are fun, dad.
T.C. De Witt:Kevin, you're not helping.
Jim Burzelic:Meanwhile, Kevin is playing the Xbox.
T.C. De Witt:The Xbox. Yes. What what did you do with with the the the tablet I gave you? Oh, I traded uncle Kevin for for this. And he has, like, a Rubik's cube with missing stickers.
T.C. De Witt:Sure. And Kevin's just on the bed like Explain angry birds. That was my
Jim Burzelic:Oh, it is. I I identified it
T.C. De Witt:Thank you.
Jim Burzelic:Immediately. I I didn't feel I I I thought it was so clear I didn't need to call it out. Thank you.
T.C. De Witt:Thank you
Jim Burzelic:very much. Yeah. So
T.C. De Witt:if we say it was right from the get go that he plays with old stuff and has Rube Goldberg devices, then that's what he can do to defend the house. Okay. Even to the point of overkill. Like, there could even we could lampshade it, Melissa McCarthy could scream like, well well, like, go into a room. Watch.
T.C. De Witt:Watch. Watch. Watching. Watching this thing. Watching this thing.
T.C. De Witt:So The whole Clang.
Jim Burzelic:The whole time the whole time going, no.
T.C. De Witt:No. No. No. No. Then right when it's about to happen, Kate McKinnon watched in room like, hey.
T.C. De Witt:What'd you find? And bam. And then they both get taken out. Melissa McCarthy could say something like, Why are going to all
Jim Burzelic:the effort? Why are you going to all the effort?
T.C. De Witt:And then crawl out of the room into the next one, she's like waving her hands like, Check for tripwires. Check for tripwires. This kid's got a problem. He's not a kid. He's a grown man.
T.C. De Witt:Are you sure? Because these are a lot of toys. He's a grown man.
Jim Burzelic:Right? Yeah. I want I wanna watch that. I really wanna watch that.
T.C. De Witt:She's the right person for it. This is good. Okay. So I think that solves the trap issues. I think so.
T.C. De Witt:And and We
Jim Burzelic:just didn't we also didn't resolve exactly what it is that the neighbors finally do to either help or or just what truly inspires Kevin to to that? To to Okay.
T.C. De Witt:Let's let's His heart to grow three sides. Brainstorm. Brainstorm. Could he Buzz has bought his kids technology, and Kevin either plays with it or he just tosses it out and the neighbor kids have the good stuff. So, like, I don't know.
T.C. De Witt:Buzz gave his kids a taser or something, and that's what he no. No. I'm what's
Jim Burzelic:I guess How do we suck
T.C. De Witt:them in for the end here?
Jim Burzelic:So he scares the kids, right, because because I I don't know. I like the idea of of the reverse thing. So he scares the kids a couple times, at least once on purpose Mhmm. Once on accident, feels a little bad about that. So then there's there's a third time.
Jim Burzelic:The kid he sees the kids outside, he goes outside, they're they, like, maybe run over there, very apprehensive, and then he makes friends with them, they make a snowman or something. Yeah. Right? So friends established, cool, I think that's kind of resolved. That all happens along the path of him missing his family.
T.C. De Witt:Snowman's great. He could hit don't lose your thought. He could hit put a bunch of snowmen in the backyard, and, like, do you remember in The Office when Dwight was pranking Jim?
Jim Burzelic:No. I I didn't see
T.C. De Witt:that one. He he does.
Jim Burzelic:I just think of Calvin from Calvin and Hobbs.
T.C. De Witt:So he has, like, a series of snowmen, and most McCarthy's taking a rake and, like, knocking them down or, like, a shovel and knocking them down. And she goes, like, the last one she hit has some sort of, like, electrified pull in it, so she's
Jim Burzelic:like That's terrible, and it's going in the movie.
T.C. De Witt:That's okay, Aaron. So but how does how do the kids come to his rescue in the end?
Jim Burzelic:Yeah. That that's the only thing
T.C. De Witt:I'm not
Jim Burzelic:sure of.
T.C. De Witt:Could could okay. Throw throw on something out here.
Jim Burzelic:The kids call the cops. No. No. No one else had done that.
T.C. De Witt:Maybe maybe Kevin could be because there's a joke in the Google Ads where he's jumping on the bed and he, like, throws his back out and
Jim Burzelic:he's like, gotcha.
T.C. De Witt:Yes. Yeah. Make an appointment. Okay. So maybe that's drying from this.
T.C. De Witt:I'm just gonna throw the idea out because I'm it's coming to me. But if he, takes pills for something, maybe has a bad heart or some something that he like, they've he finally has victory, and then that injury flares up, and now Melissa McCarthy and Kate McKinnon are on him, and the kids could come to his rescue with his you know, like, here, mister McAllister. He's hurt. He needs his pills. He needs his pills.
T.C. De Witt:Like, we're not heartless. Let him have his pills. And, like, the kid maybe they're not really pills. Maybe he doesn't have a problem, but it's, like, establish that maybe. And then it's, like, I don't know, sugar pills that he's like, I don't need these, actually.
T.C. De Witt:Like so but it's just enough of a distraction that the kid's like, he needs his pills. He has a bad heart. Oh, there you go. The kid could tell him he has a bad heart. Like, you have a bad heart, mister.
T.C. De Witt:Oh. And he's like Oh,
Jim Burzelic:that's incredibly sappy.
T.C. De Witt:And he's probably gonna be first time. If he says you have a oh, you think I have a bad heart? You think my pills? I need my pills. And he, like, collapses, and the kids run away like, mom.
T.C. De Witt:And he just gets up, and he's like and he pulls out some PEZ or something. So then at the end of the movie, he could be like, they have him dead to rights. He's like on the ground. He's like, and the kid runs in. He's like, his heart, he has a bad heart.
T.C. De Witt:He needs his pills. And he, I don't know, gives him a pellet gun or a cell phone to call 911, or, like, the kid runs to him to give him his pills, and that's enough for I mean, you have Kate McKinnon. Sure. Hey. We're not heartless.
T.C. De Witt:Let him let him have his pills. We didn't come here to kill the kid. He's not a kid. He's a grown man. And that that that's the moment where the kid saves him and allows him that last moment to get the one up on the bandits.
Jim Burzelic:Okay.
T.C. De Witt:Not bad. Bad heart.
Jim Burzelic:Right? I have I have a suggestion.
T.C. De Witt:Go for it. I the studio wants to hear it.
Jim Burzelic:We established earlier and actually throughout Mhmm. The neighbors don't like him
T.C. De Witt:Okay.
Jim Burzelic:At all. And by the end of the movie so our our bandits have done something to make sure that security, that the police don't come by the house, or or they find out that actually Kevin has been enough of a disturbance that the police won't come There he goes. To responses to this house.
T.C. De Witt:We don't we don't answer calls to this neighborhood anymore.
Jim Burzelic:At the end, finally, the police do show up, and neighbors are there, and they're all looking accusingly. The thing is, they're they're there oh, because our our ladies have accused him of something or other.
T.C. De Witt:Assault?
Jim Burzelic:That's a little
T.C. De Witt:too serious. Yeah. That's a little too serious. Yeah. Yeah.
Jim Burzelic:But, basically, the police are there are there to arrest Kevin because of their accusations. Mhmm. And the kids basically come up and or or the the family next door that has had a change of heart or or something like that comes over, and they they are his alibi. They they say, no. It's actually them.
Jim Burzelic:It sounded way better in my head. It sounded super triumphant.
T.C. De Witt:You're not in the wrong spot here because it could be a matter of of that pills moment. He needs his pills. He needs his pills. And slip him. Could be a bad idea.
T.C. De Witt:Throwing it out there. The talk boy. Record them confessing their crimes.
Jim Burzelic:That's kind of so terrible it could work. Oh.
T.C. De Witt:That the kid cut, like you know, we have the niece and nephew playing with the old toys. Maybe he gets he he finally gets fed up and dumps all the a bunch of his old toys in the backyard, and that's what he sees the kids going. Early on
Jim Burzelic:as an attempt to forget his family. Yeah.
T.C. De Witt:And then and then the neighbor kid gets a box of the old stuff, and he chases them away with my heart my heart moments so that later, after they've had their three beats, they come in. He needs his pills, his bad heart. And then the kid's, like, has the talkboy and shows it to him. It's a little clunky and big. Maybe we could figure out a sleeker version of it.
T.C. De Witt:But so Kevin could be like, thanks, kid. You know, what was this all about? Why are you doing this? And Melissa McCarthy monologues and Kate McKinnon adds too much information, and then they have it. So when the police show up, the kids will be like, wait.
T.C. De Witt:Wait. He's innocent. Listen to this.
Jim Burzelic:Yeah. Sure. Sure. Yeah. I'm I'm not entirely sold, but it can definitely go in the first draft at at the
T.C. De Witt:very least. Yeah. Yeah. Because you could have a moment of hearing the recording and and Kate McKinnon being like, yeah. Is that what my voice sounds like?
T.C. De Witt:Why does my voice always sound weird? Why do people like, you hear it differently in your head, and then you hear yourself recorded. I know when I edit these podcasts, I'm like, why do people wanna listen to me for an hour? And that's just And that's
Jim Burzelic:why I let you do it.
T.C. De Witt:Uh-huh. I was gonna do the editing. Yeah.
Jim Burzelic:So I don't have to hear me.
T.C. De Witt:So that I think that's it. We have and then the family comes back. The house is in good condition because the neighbor kids and Kevin fix it all back up. Yep. He apologizes to Buzz.
T.C. De Witt:He gives his niece and nephew Christmas presents that are some neat toy that calls back to the beginning of the movie. The the sister-in-law is like, you know, Kevin, you're alright. And they've Yeah. They've reconciled. And the last moment could be Kevin calling his ex wife, Holly style from from
Jim Burzelic:Oh, I I want a final gag. Kevin does forget, and, ideally, he forget he forgets to clean or, actually, that happened in the first one. Right? Mhmm. Yeah.
Jim Burzelic:Forgives him
T.C. De Witt:clean Buzz's room.
Jim Burzelic:Buzz's office or something.
T.C. De Witt:In second one, he racked up all the charges on the credit card. Yeah. So there has to be that final Yeah. Kevin. Oh, man.
T.C. De Witt:Okay. Actually, we we we know Melissa McCarthy's gonna be in this. Right? And Paul Feke feels like the right guy to direct this since he does the majority of it. I don't think
Jim Burzelic:I'm not sold on him.
T.C. De Witt:I think I know who would be a better director for this. Shane Black.
Jim Burzelic:I mean I mean, yes.
T.C. De Witt:Could he do it's Christmas. Could he do a PG-thirty? Has he ever done a family movie? Iron Man three?
Jim Burzelic:I mean, I don't see why he couldn't.
T.C. De Witt:I was just thinking, like, the what this movie I don't know. I think
Jim Burzelic:Heaven was Like a like a nice guy without swears is what you're thinking. That's what you're thinking.
T.C. De Witt:So, I mean, we'll get Ben Falcone in here. Let's let's write it with him. That's, Melissa McCarthy's husband.
Jim Burzelic:Sure.
T.C. De Witt:Let's have I think we we get this. This is I wanna see this movie.
Jim Burzelic:I think this would
T.C. De Witt:be This would be hands down superior to four and way better than three. I wanna see it's Home Alone three.
Jim Burzelic:So, I mean, we so that was catching up on on actually finishing three. I I am satisfied. I I'm I'm good with turning that into the studio.
T.C. De Witt:I hope this I am I am very excited to see how the studio feels about this new Christmas this Christmas classic we have just created here.
Jim Burzelic:Did we wanna say anything more about Four?
T.C. De Witt:Yeah. I mean, we have time. Let's talk about it a little bit. Why not? Okay.
T.C. De Witt:Let's delve into four here. I don't know if we need to go the full nine and, like, develop the whole movie, but we got time here. Let's let's let's talk a little bit. Okay. I like the idea of them getting out of prison and wanting to kill him.
Jim Burzelic:Just Just straight up murder?
T.C. De Witt:Like, that that could be like, Melissa McCarthy's like, we need to get him.
Jim Burzelic:We need to get him.
T.C. De Witt:And then Kate
Jim Burzelic:McCanada mean? Yeah.
T.C. De Witt:That's exactly it. Melissa McCarthy's like, we're gonna get him. Yeah. That's right. We're gonna murder him.
T.C. De Witt:Hold on. I said get him. I didn't say murder. Well, what do you mean by get him? Well, you know, just make him pay for for for what he did.
T.C. De Witt:Yeah. Yeah. Like murder. And, like, Kate got real hard in prison. She's got a teardrop tattoo.
T.C. De Witt:She she wears a she wears a bandana now. Like, she's she's all in orange as nubuck.
Jim Burzelic:A finger for each month we did in prison. Jeez. What did prison do to you?
T.C. De Witt:I said get him.
Jim Burzelic:I'm I seriously don't understand what that I still don't understand what that means.
T.C. De Witt:It it writes itself. I mean, we write that, and they'll go to town
Jim Burzelic:on it.
T.C. De Witt:Yeah. They got it.
Jim Burzelic:Okay. I like that, EDA. So so the premise, the reason we go to New York is because Kevin has done such a good job. Buzz has brought him on Yeah. And they're going to do a deal, and now I'm gonna give you your apartment building or complex or whatever Yes.
Jim Burzelic:That they're going to they're they're they're going to check it out because their company wants to look into buying it or something like that.
T.C. De Witt:See how wide my eyes are. They're
Jim Burzelic:so wide.
T.C. De Witt:Buzz is the businessman. Kevin's the head of security development. That's ridiculous. He is in charge of securing like, he goes in to check out, like, hey. You can break in through this window.
T.C. De Witt:He's he's Robert Redford from sneakers. He's become a security expert. He's he's an expert on how one would defend a building. Yeah. We're gonna need cameras here, here, and some micro machines over here.
T.C. De Witt:Micro machine.
Jim Burzelic:I could I could fit an entire Hot Wheels racetrack through here.
T.C. De Witt:But, yeah, I like that. They go to New York for a business acquisition, and Buzz now trusts Kevin.
Jim Burzelic:Well, yeah. So that's the premise. Something happens where either they have to travel separately, and Buzz either, like, gets on the wrong plane and now he's on a long trip or something
T.C. De Witt:Kevin has to do
Jim Burzelic:the gets called away or yeah. Something like that. Mhmm. And so he has to do the alone. But it's great for Kevin because he gets the amazing suite that hotel they're staying at.
Jim Burzelic:It's all to himself. And he has to go to the building and and all the, you know, all the all the New York things.
T.C. De Witt:So so for Buzz getting pulled away, maybe one of the kids has a recital that got moved or a play or an a a kid
Jim Burzelic:is not a bad dad, so he is going, Kevin, you can do this.
T.C. De Witt:And Kevin says, you need to go see your kids. Go to your you need to go to this thing. Don't skip it. I got this, man. Trust me.
T.C. De Witt:Trust me. I can do this. I can handle that. You sure?
Jim Burzelic:Gives him some side eye.
T.C. De Witt:Yeah. It's like Buzz?
Jim Burzelic:Sighs and he goes.
T.C. De Witt:Yeah. And he's like yeah. And so so Buzz being the good and Kevin encouraging him, be the good father. Go to this thing. So that shows that Kevin has grown since, like, he's embraced his new love of family once again.
T.C. De Witt:So now he has to do the deal alone. Right?
Jim Burzelic:Uh-huh.
T.C. De Witt:And I think the so this could be a good or a bad thing because a lot of comedy sequels, pretty much all of them, suffer from giving the wrong character the spotlight.
Jim Burzelic:Sure.
T.C. De Witt:Pitch Perfect one, pitch perfect movie. Pitch perfect two and three, too much Rebel Wilson. Hangover one, perfect movie. Hangover two and three, way too much Zach Galifianakis. Don't give the side character the spotlight.
T.C. De Witt:They were the sidekick for a reason. So I'm gonna pitch this as potentially what this movie could be. Uh-huh. The a plot is Melissa McCarthy and Kate McKinnon. Like, the the plot is Kevin going to New York and dealing with all this thing, but we follow them more than we did than we do Kevin.
T.C. De Witt:I don't know. What do you think of that? Like, giving them the the more more time on screen? Because Kevin's plot is simple as that. He picks up the he he goes to this thing for Buzz.
T.C. De Witt:He screws
Jim Burzelic:it up. That's true. Right. Right. There's no lesson to learn here.
T.C. De Witt:He screws it up, and now he has to, make up for his mistake to try to win the deal back. Like, that's as simple as it is. He he he enjoyed his freedom a little too much and was lazy, or he he botched it. And he's like, oh my god. I proved I proved myself to be the screw up I've always been.
T.C. De Witt:I have to make it up to him. I'll get this deal. I'll get this building. Okay. Whatever the case may be.
T.C. De Witt:That's pretty much it for him. And now it's a matter of, not not, not losing the deal, not losing the building, and they're there to kill him. No. Just kill. Get him.
Jim Burzelic:Get him. We're just gonna get in. Right.
T.C. De Witt:With this gun. No. Put that away. Where did you even get that? I bought it from a guy.
T.C. De Witt:What guy? What what guy? What guy? Point at the guy. Don't don't don't point with that.
T.C. De Witt:Don't point with that. She's over there. Over there. Stop waving that around.
Jim Burzelic:So Yeah. I I I I I like that idea.
T.C. De Witt:This this plat's a bit thinner, though. Like, we don't have
Jim Burzelic:It is.
T.C. De Witt:The meat
Jim Burzelic:here. Well, it because this this
T.C. De Witt:more say we weren't gonna overdevelop this, but why not?
Jim Burzelic:Well, it's it's because this this is, right, this is less a the theme of of family family mattering or, right, Ohana? And it's more it's more a a burglary of errors Yeah. Is is what it is. And and that's okay. Mhmm.
Jim Burzelic:Right? Comedy of errors are are are good, fun stories all on their own. Yeah.
T.C. De Witt:So it's I
Jim Burzelic:don't think I don't think that's bad.
T.C. De Witt:And and it's it's say, like, protect the building from or just get away from them and lay all the traps for them to get and and that's something that you have to forgive the first movies for is this leap in logic. Why don't you call 911 right away? Why don't you just call the freaking cops?
Jim Burzelic:Oh, well, I I think I think at least with with our third one, we kind of built that in. Mhmm. You have That Kevin's have you have the neighbors don't like him.
T.C. De Witt:Mhmm.
Jim Burzelic:And the thing is our our thieves are only assaulting Kevin's house. Right. No other house. And it's it's two ladies. What there's no way they're robbing you.
T.C. De Witt:That's sexist. They It is. Women can be robbers too. We can be bandits.
Jim Burzelic:So so there's that. The thing is the the neighborhood secure like, literally, I'm imagining, like, like, a security company Mhmm. Does drive bys regularly for the, you know, ADT and security, whatever. All the security that houses normally have, they've also learned to to not respond to this to this guy. And then that could extend as far as the local police.
Jim Burzelic:That might be a bit much.
T.C. De Witt:That if this acquisition is just in the city that they're already in, oh, McAllister, we've heard about you. I don't know if that works. Yeah. Like, but that's the thing. In the first one, you just take the leap of logic why he doesn't call the cops.
T.C. De Witt:They kind of he's a kid. He's afraid of of getting in trouble.
Jim Burzelic:Oh, you mean the the actual first movie?
T.C. De Witt:Yeah. Yeah. Why does he get in trouble? Alone, Home Alone two. Like, he's a kid.
T.C. De Witt:He's afraid. Like, he doesn't wanna get in trouble.
Jim Burzelic:Well, the the what's established for that is it's unsaid, but Joe Pesci was dressed as a cop.
T.C. De Witt:Right.
Jim Burzelic:Yeah. So it's possible Kevin doesn't think
T.C. De Witt:I don't know. Trust the cops. Yeah. So,
Jim Burzelic:like That
T.C. De Witt:was the
Jim Burzelic:early nineties. 09/11 was still new to kids. Perhaps he didn't even
T.C. De Witt:know. Yeah. Well, okay. It's just a matter of of in this fourth one, the back to New York, Home Alone four back to New York.
Jim Burzelic:The other big theme of that first one is Kev Kevin insists he can do things on his own. Mhmm. He's a big boy. And so if you were to have him do the logical thing, like Call the Cops Yeah. That undermines that theme.
T.C. De Witt:Okay. I I I think I got an idea here to to to fill out four.
Jim Burzelic:Okay.
T.C. De Witt:Oh, man. Okay. Okay. Okay. Let's get through this.
T.C. De Witt:I don't wanna lose a thought here. Okay. We're adding a third story.
Jim Burzelic:Uh-oh. Okay.
T.C. De Witt:So we got Buzz and Kevin's story. Kevin takes the deal. He screws it up. He enjoys the penthouse. Yada yada yada.
T.C. De Witt:Yep. We have Monce McCarthy and Kate McKinnon who just wanna get him. Uh-huh. Right? In the it's another robbery situation.
T.C. De Witt:A new villain is is going to get steal something from, I don't know, from the building itself. Hold on a just gonna
Jim Burzelic:I'm listening. Yeah. But yeah.
T.C. De Witt:And and the this new villain is, a Hans Gruber smart villain, and Kevin isn't getting in his way. Kevin isn't even aware that it's happening. It's the bumbling bandits that keep, what are you do what are you doing here? I'm gonna I'm gonna say, you're gonna steal from this kid? You do not wanna steal from this kid.
T.C. De Witt:We're here to kill him. We're here to get him. Like so now you have this, look. We just we're gonna get in the building. You can have him as your target.
T.C. De Witt:We don't care about him. We just wanna get the thing in the building. Could it lead that is all just brainstorming. Could it lead to Kevin having to team up with the bandits to take out the bad guy?
Jim Burzelic:I don't know.
T.C. De Witt:No? Okay. Don't like it?
Jim Burzelic:Okay. No. No. I'm not a fan. I'm not a fan.
T.C. De Witt:I'm just trying to think how do we fill out this fourth movie? Because right Sure. It's super weak right now.
Jim Burzelic:What if what if there is some role reversal and the building they're looking at isn't empty? Mhmm. There are people who live there. There are families who live there. Maybe one family, maybe two families.
Jim Burzelic:It's very rundown, not many people left.
T.C. De Witt:Okay.
Jim Burzelic:And Kevin, especially now that he's alone without Buzz, Kevin is the one who's kind of raiding their home.
T.C. De Witt:He's just going through these people's houses
Jim Burzelic:and stealing stuff? Not thematically, I'm I'm trying to right? Like, these people are they're they're very very potentially going to be evicting these people Mhmm. Who we can establish don't have anywhere else to go.
T.C. De Witt:Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Now you're getting now we're getting somewhere.
Jim Burzelic:Yeah. Yeah. That So so in in a figured so in a figurative way Yeah. Kevin is the the the invader. Right?
Jim Burzelic:He's he's there to to uproot their lives.
T.C. De Witt:What are you all worried about? We're gonna pay you for your homes. We're not just kicking you out on the streets. You're gonna get money for this. Like, but mister, this this is our home.
T.C. De Witt:Like, he doesn't get it. Like, he's like, you'll be together. You'll still have all your stuff. You'll still have all your stuff.
Jim Burzelic:In the movies, you don't get compensated well
T.C. De Witt:for that I don't if
Jim Burzelic:they are. That's how nice Kevin is. But, like Well, maybe that's what he thinks, but maybe
T.C. De Witt:he didn't see
Jim Burzelic:the deal or things like that.
T.C. De Witt:Okay. I like this because now we have a a community to protect. Mhmm. But I now I don't know if the band's wanting to murder him or get him.
Jim Burzelic:They don't want to it enough here? Saying that word.
T.C. De Witt:I is that enough now for him to have to defend against? Like, now now I don't know if our our villains are enough here. Right? Because I think that's great that he screws up the deal. He he tries to make up for it.
T.C. De Witt:He's gonna kick all these people out thinking they're gonna be fine. He's the bad guy without realizing it because he thinks, hey. You're gonna be fine. Right? We have this this entire building with people in it that he needs to defend.
Jim Burzelic:So
T.C. De Witt:Now the bad guys don't think are I love the idea of Here.
Jim Burzelic:Let how's this for convoluted idea? So he realizes, oh, no. I'm the bad guy here, at I don't know what point in the movie he learns that. And so he puts together a plan Oh,
T.C. De Witt:the Yeah.
Jim Burzelic:He puts together a plan to to save the building for the family. He's basically going to sabotage the deal. And so he does he he's like, I I had he does something where he has all the families leave for a weekend Mhmm. Something like that, while he sabotages it in some way to make the company that he is contracting for or whatever.
T.C. De Witt:Well, no, this will make up for his screw up. Like, he was supposed to go to a meeting to buy the building and screwed screwed it up. So now the best way to get the building is to lower the property value on it, get all the people out, so then he can get away like, he screwed up his deal that Buzz trusted him with. So now he's like, okay. How can I get this deal to work?
T.C. De Witt:Get all these people out of here. Right?
Jim Burzelic:That wasn't what I no. I I was basically, he's gonna sabotage the deal and leave the building to the families, essentially.
T.C. De Witt:Oh, I see. Okay. I misunderstood.
Jim Burzelic:They can
T.C. De Witt:work shutting the door because the goddamn neighbor dog went shut the hell off.
Jim Burzelic:And it didn't even help.
T.C. De Witt:I I can barely hear it.
Jim Burzelic:Oh, really? Oh, good. Because I can hear everything.
T.C. De Witt:So he's gonna sabotage the deal?
Jim Burzelic:So, yeah, he's gonna sabotage the deal so that the families can stay in their homes.
T.C. De Witt:Mhmm.
Jim Burzelic:But to do that, he needs them to leave for for whatever reason. Right? That that's that's that's our our what what's the word? I forget the what the
T.C. De Witt:the word for it. The the Our contrivance.
Jim Burzelic:Contrivance. Yeah. That's our contrivance to to get the building empty so Kevin can set up his Rube Goldberg things so when our our ladies show up, they fall for it again.
T.C. De Witt:I think
Jim Burzelic:And they can even say that.
T.C. De Witt:Yeah. I I can't no. I think we can I we go with this?
Jim Burzelic:And and the way I'm imagining the ending, after all is said and done Mhmm. Our our revenge adjective, whatever. I stop trying to talk fancy. After the the thieves are arrested again Mhmm. And the families come back to say thank thank or actually, I guess they wouldn't thank him just yet, Buzz shows up.
Jim Burzelic:He's like, what? Kevin, what's happened?
T.C. De Witt:You really messed this up.
Jim Burzelic:And he's super mad at him and stuff, and Kevin's like, you know what? It's okay. Mhmm. And then, like, like, dude, like, like, he looks he looks behind him or something Mhmm. And he sees the families are together, and they're in their homes or whatever, and they have Christmas trees.
Jim Burzelic:And Buzz sees it, and he doesn't say anything, but you can see he's like, oh, Kevin did it for the right reason.
T.C. De Witt:Okay, Kevin. That all works. And I I I wanna toss this one little more element in here to try to to fill out this a little bit. He's getting everyone to leave. He's going to sabotage us so they all get to stay.
T.C. De Witt:Right? That's the pitch?
Jim Burzelic:He he he's he needs to lower the lower the value of the building in the eyes of the or the property in the eyes of the company attempting to acquire it.
T.C. De Witt:Okay. Could there be a third element here of someone who realizes that all the tenants have left the building? Some, like, scummy street level crook who is like, hey. Now's my chance to to steal all this crap from it's much like the wet bananas from the first one. Everyone's gone for Christmas.
T.C. De Witt:It's it's it's our it's our candy store. So, hey. All the tenants have left from this building. Hey. It's our Christmas day.
T.C. De Witt:We can we can so now we have this new it's, again, going back to that idea of, like, a a villain with more agency because Musa McCarthy and Kate McKinnon coming to get Kevin is great. I think there's so much humor that can be derived from that, but I don't know if that's still strong enough for Kevin to have to defend himself through the course of a whole building. But if there's a street level crook or a street level duo or trio that realizes the building is empty, that is then going to go through there, then you have five people for Kevin to torture. You have a whole building for all of them to go through because it's not just the two bandits, but it's also the three thieves, and he's taken them all out one by one. So you kinda get my remember I I if you of course, you remember.
T.C. De Witt:I said it five minutes ago. Of this third element trying
Jim Burzelic:to I'm I'm still not sold on a third element. I think how do you establish them as living in this slapstick type mentality that these characters from the previous movie do?
T.C. De Witt:Right? That that is that
Jim Burzelic:Now maybe that's on me for imagining all street level thugs as very very truly violent. Mhmm. But that that to me is is sort of the like like, we're we're taking the Three Stooges and putting them in judgment night.
T.C. De Witt:No. No. Think of this. These are the kind of idiots I I cannot remember what movie this is from. I know that Anthony Anderson's in it, but it's a dummy who steals an ATM, and it's empty.
Jim Burzelic:I don't know that one.
T.C. De Witt:It's a it's some it's it's a I might be the first barbershop if I I don't know. I'm digging I'm grasping at straws here. So if they are incompetent thieves that like, we stole all these ATMs. Yeah. Pop them open.
T.C. De Witt:Empty. Empty. Empty. Empty. Where did you steal these from?
T.C. De Witt:The ATM factory. Yeah. Like, if they're
Jim Burzelic:They're just pumping them out.
T.C. De Witt:They're just pumping these things out. They fill them like, if they are incompetent but cruel, if you know? Because, like, most McCarthy and Kate McKinnon are are dummies, but they're not I mean, Kate McKinnon wants to, like, murder Kevin McAllister. But if if they are proven to be incompetent and maybe one of them is a little too vicious and violent, that might give we're gonna steal from this, we're gonna get we we got booted from this building. I don't know.
T.C. De Witt:Some element that makes them more of a threat than our two goons. I don't know if that's the right way to go. We might you I could be wrong. Maybe we do have enough.
Jim Burzelic:Think there there might be something there. Mhmm. I don't think it's just more thieves. Yeah. Maybe something along the lines of so it it would it would involve reversing Kevin's plot again.
Jim Burzelic:Mhmm. Because I think if you had other people trying to sabotage that trying to sabotage the deal. Right? Like, ah, this is a this is a big property deal. If we're if we're here to sabotage this if if we're gonna sabotage them, then we can buy it for ourselves.
Jim Burzelic:And so then Kevin has to
T.C. De Witt:Oh, so they're,
Jim Burzelic:like fend them off.
T.C. De Witt:They're white collar criminals as opposed to
Jim Burzelic:Honestly, the the I I was imagining Melissa and and Kate were white collar criminals as well Yes. I did. In the first one.
T.C. De Witt:Yes. Absolutely.
Jim Burzelic:I So the big lesson here is Kevin makes just hardens criminals. Just encountering Kevin McAllister
T.C. De Witt:Turns you into it.
Jim Burzelic:Just oh, you get you get so hard as a criminal.
T.C. De Witt:Check this out.
Jim Burzelic:That's a bad anyway.
T.C. De Witt:Home Alone three. Yeah. He's the neighbors don't like him because he lowers property value. He just he just does He's
Jim Burzelic:a cooler for for land ownership.
T.C. De Witt:Yeah. He he lower he creates, like, lower property value just by his mere existence. Right? So that's what he can apply to the apartment complex.
Jim Burzelic:Soils the land. He's like,
T.C. De Witt:I need to lower the property value? Trust me. I know what I'm doing. Like
Jim Burzelic:So it's not that he's security. It's that they No.
T.C. De Witt:No. He's still security.
Jim Burzelic:But
T.C. De Witt:in an in an effort to lower the property value so that he can then buy the building or or I mean, that's it. Maybe he screwed up the buy, and now the only way he can purchase is with money what money he has as opposed to the money Buzz gave him. Oh.
Jim Burzelic:Oh. Well, maybe okay. Maybe they're they're there to do the right thing. They wanna buy the building and keep it for the family Mhmm. Families.
Jim Burzelic:Right? They don't wanna tear it down.
T.C. De Witt:That's what Buzz and Kevin wanna do. Yeah. Yeah.
Jim Burzelic:But Kevin messes up that deal because he was jumping on the bed in the hotel and ordering room service instead of instead of going to the meeting as Buzz trusted him to do. Mhmm. So he lost the deal to this other group, these other slimy jerks
T.C. De Witt:Mhmm.
Jim Burzelic:Who are are gonna total oh god, they're so excited they're gonna go and they're gonna just take down this building. So then they're gonna go to the I don't know why they're doing it, but they're they're gonna go to the building to do a thing. I don't know. Like Reasons. The contrivances, they own can only buy the building if everyone is already out.
Jim Burzelic:They don't own it. They're not allowed to evict people, so they need to do something to drive these people out.
T.C. De Witt:Okay.
Jim Burzelic:Kevin decides, no. I'm gonna defend them. So, you know, get out families just for the weekend.
T.C. De Witt:Me. Merry Christmas.
Jim Burzelic:Yeah. And, like like, he buys them he buys them fancy hotel rooms.
T.C. De Witt:He's using
Jim Burzelic:he uses money. So at the end, Kevin, you drove up the hotel room. Why
T.C. De Witt:did you get every room at the plaza? It's a great hotel. It's the fanciest in New York. That's it. That's it.
T.C. De Witt:There it
Jim Burzelic:is. Right. So so then so yeah. So now we've added two or three more slimy white collar dudes who are trying to drive off these families.
T.C. De Witt:And they go through all the traps.
Jim Burzelic:They go through the traps as well as the other two.
T.C. De Witt:Melissa and Kate. Just so they can have that moment of, we're gonna get him. No. No. We came here to get him.
T.C. De Witt:You get in line. No. No. No. We do you know what we just went through?
T.C. De Witt:Well, we went through
Jim Burzelic:it twice. We get to get
T.C. De Witt:him first. And they're just arguing, Kevin just slinks away.
Jim Burzelic:So the thing I the scene I really wanna have is there's a point actually where Melissa and Kate get him.
T.C. De Witt:Mhmm.
Jim Burzelic:And Got you. Yeah. That like like, that's what they do. And then, like, they might say a couple things, but otherwise, they don't know what to do.
T.C. De Witt:Okay. Now that we got them, what are we gonna do? Any ideas? Well, wouldn't let me be really
Jim Burzelic:mad at you. I had
T.C. De Witt:an idea, but you wouldn't let me bring my machete. We're not gonna
Jim Burzelic:I told you we weren't going
T.C. De Witt:to get it. Well, what's the definition of get
Jim Burzelic:How about just some light dismember dismemberment?
T.C. De Witt:Oh, I could bite his finger off one by one. That's a great idea.
Jim Burzelic:And then he's gone.
T.C. De Witt:And then oh, wait. Hey. Where'd he go? The the elevator door's shutting.
Jim Burzelic:Yeah. Something like something like that.
T.C. De Witt:I like it.
Jim Burzelic:Does that work? Yeah. Alright. We made we made two
T.C. De Witt:home aloans. Two home aloans for you. Yes. I wow. I'd honestly Oh god.
Jim Burzelic:Oh god. I don't know what it's gonna be about. But No. Because everything
T.C. De Witt:You're not doing a trilogy.
Jim Burzelic:No. It's I just the title. Yeah. It's it's it'd be Home Alone five.
T.C. De Witt:Mhmm.
Jim Burzelic:Homes alone, the s in homes is a five.
T.C. De Witt:Mo it's a mobile home car chase at some point in the movie. Vin Diesel plays the bad guy.
Jim Burzelic:Oh god. Yeah. No. Well, I don't know about the chase, but definitely now that you said it, it has to be. The fifth one is about a trailer park A trailer park of mobile homes.
T.C. De Witt:Oh my god. Home Alone is empty. The furious.
Jim Burzelic:They're all empty for for we haven't come up with that yet. And Kevin has to hold off more.
T.C. De Witt:Land developers. More land developers.
Jim Burzelic:All these dang land developers.
T.C. De Witt:I think we have certainly come up with a better third and fourth movie than existed. I did not expect us to do a a fourth one, but I am so happy we did. That was amazing. Okay. With that said, I think we've come up there.
T.C. De Witt:Let's do the social stuff real quick.
Jim Burzelic:Okay.
T.C. De Witt:You can find us at studiodemandsit.com. We're on Apple Podcasts, Google Play. Please subscribe. Please hit us up with some comments, and let us know what you demand as a studio. Yes.
T.C. De Witt:Hit us up on Twitter at studio demands it. You can find me at t c's big head. Jim?
Jim Burzelic:I can be found at Toubac Waxon.
T.C. De Witt:I wanna do a huge shout out to Six Five Media for everything they've been doing for giving us a a a place to run wild with our movie ideas. Yes. So thank you so much to Six Five Media for that. Check out the Top Hat Balloon show. I believe that was the ad that was in here.
T.C. De Witt:Not, another Zelda podcast is fantastic as well. Some great content coming out content coming out of there. But I think that's it. I think that I think we've Kevin McAllister quite the the franchise of films, and I think we honestly came up with a a blockbuster, like a a worthy Yeah.
Jim Burzelic:Like like, it would be considered, like, sort of like a dark horse kind of thing. Like, I don't think people would necessarily think this movie is gonna be Yes. A tent pole blockbuster.
T.C. De Witt:That's Star Wars.
Jim Burzelic:But it's gonna be one of those movies like, oh my god. That was a lot of fun.
T.C. De Witt:Like like Jumanji. Like, Jumanji two was a huge surprise success. Like Yeah. I think I think with the right talent and I think Melissa McCarthy and Kate McKinnon were the what that was the linchpin to all of this.
Jim Burzelic:Yeah. And I didn't even do
T.C. De Witt:that intentionally. That just
Jim Burzelic:came out.
T.C. De Witt:Yep. But as soon as that planted that seed planted, oh, man. This this vine grew. Alright. Well, Jim,
Jim Burzelic:thank you
T.C. De Witt:so much.
Jim Burzelic:This is a of fun. You.
T.C. De Witt:And I wanna give a big thank you to Lee
Jim Burzelic:Oh, yes.
T.C. De Witt:Of us this this property. Thank you
Jim Burzelic:very much, Lee.
T.C. De Witt:You so much, Lee. Cool. We'll be back again soon with another demand, maybe even your demand. So hit us up and let us know what you wanna do. That's it for this episode.
T.C. De Witt:We'll be back next time. And to improve the world of cinema, I'm TC.
Jim Burzelic:I'm Jim. And that's That's our podcast. That's the end. We did it. We did.
Jim Burzelic:Yeah.
T.C. De Witt:K. Bye.