Scrap Movie Idea Stockpile (Collection 4)

1.    Mid-Life to the Extreme - Five late middle-aged women (either divorced or widowed) who are childhood friends and longtime adrenaline junkies prove time and again to the younger generations that they still have drive and stamina even as they have just become grandmothers. Undertaking the extreme sports of surfing, cliff diving, mountain biking, snowboarding and skydiving; we follow them as they travel around the world to explore their family time, their love/sex lives, and their friendship that is both tested and made even stronger by their long favorite activities done together as friends that lead them to enroll in competitions to keep their families afloat during good and bad financial times.

2.    A Tale of Two Churches - An experienced, world-weary investigative journalist for the Houston Chronicle is dispatched to investigate a competition/war of ideology between two competing large churches in the Piney Woods of Southeast Texas on opposing sides of Texas State Highway 105. Presuming both to be entirely corrupt and out to swindle innocent peoples' money, she is amazed as the Spirit of Hope Church reveals how it builds its congregation and donations through a racially integrated, eco-friendly, sex-positive, egalitarian family focused on doing good in communities. The more conservative and bombastic Zion Knights Assembly, though, is amassing a deadly army to massacre cities.

3.    You're A Lucky Kid, Charlie Brown - Based on Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts comic strip, this animated adventure takes Charlie Brown out of his unlucky losing streak for at least one movie. On the last day of school before summer, Charlie Brown finds a field full of four leaf clovers that he takes a few just for the heck of it. Suddenly, he finds himself enjoying a streak of good luck from being able to kick the football, scoring a win with his baseball team, and even earning a kiss and respect from the Little Red-Haired Girl. But when word gets out that Snoopy's cousin Spike has been taken by sinister animal testers, Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang must set off on a dangerous journey to save Spike.

4.    Flush - Based on the young adult book by Carl Hiaasen, young Florida Keys natives Noah and Abbey Underwood's environmentalist father Paine is in the slammer for sinking Dusty Muleman's gambling boat the Coral Queen because Paine believes Dusty has been illegally dumping the sewage into the waters of the harbor while moored in port. So far nobody has been able to catch Muleman in the act and the man himself has bamboozled nearly every prosecutor in some way or another. But Noah and Abbey, along with their thought-dead Grandpa Bobby, Coral Queen bartender Shelly and former shipmate Lice Peeking devise a plan to catch Muleman red-handed with a plot to track the sewage with dye.

5.    George, Alan and Yahel - A Divine Comedy of a troperiffic stoner buddy road flick of epic and potentially controversial proportions in the grand tradition of the Road to... series and Kevin Smith's Dogma; we follow three secret human avatars of the Abrahamic religions' deities - George Oliver Daniels (the Christian God), Alan Lahoud (the Islamic Allah), and Yahel Wehman (the Jewish Yahweh) on a road trip through the United States in search of enlightenment. When they declare war on a collective of televangelists perverting their words to justify their own insecurities and squeamishness to the masses; George, Alan and Yahel find themselves on the run having pissed off their false prophets.

6.    Eleven Toons and an RV - In this spiritual successor to Who Framed Roger Rabbit?; all of Hollywood is out of whack when Mickey Mouse (Disney), Bugs Bunny (Warner Bros.), Tom and Jerry (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer), Woody Woodpecker (Universal), Felix the Cat (DreamWorks), Heckle and Jeckle (20th Century Fox), Betty Boop (Paramount), Mister Magoo (Columbia) and the Pink Panther (United Artists) come to life and file lawsuits for their studios' copyrights over them to be revoked - effectively divorcing them from their companies. Renting an RV with an aspiring young animator named Meghan accompanying them, they set off on a journey around America with shady studio types in hot pursuit.

7.    The Magic School Bus - Inspired by and based on the beloved books by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen; we start on the planet Spectrum - home to the Timekeepers - in its dying days. Just before it is destroyed by their father's archenemy the Deceiver, young sisters Valerie and Fiona are rocketed towards Earth in a sentient school bus-shaped spacetime ship with their guardian iguana Liz towards planet Earth. Adopted by the Frizzle family of Walkerville, the Frizzle sisters become teachers at Walkerville Elementary. With the Deceiver arriving and planning to destroy the Earth; Valerie Frizzle, Liz and the Bus must enlist the help of their eight students to use science and magic to defeat the Deceiver.

8.    G-Force: Battle of the Planets - A seven-and-a-half hour epic cut into three films based around the classic 1972 anime Science Ninja Team Gatchaman adapted into English as Battle of the Planets, G-Force: Guardians of Space and Eagle Riders. It is the middle 21st Century and the intergalactic terrorist organization known as Galactor is moving to rule the stars and destroy the Earth by taking its natural resources - all under the command of Berg Katse and Gel Sadra. The Intergalactic Science Organization (ISO) creates a high-technology team of five ninja superheroes called the G-Force or Gatchaman who are mentored by a man called Red Impulse to take the fight back to Galactor and its mecha.

9.    A Force Strong With Them - Shakespeare In Love, For All Mankind and Homer's Odyssey meet and coalesce to craft the story that was just as epic as the film that it produced in an unfiltered manner. In 1973 and with the release of American Graffiti nearing, young filmmaker George Lucas and his producer Gary Kurtz discuss plans for a little galactic fairy tale called The Star Wars which would later be his Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope. Through archive footage and recreated scenes, we can see and reflect on early stages of the story as well as the time from the first treatment in 1973, the first script in 1974, casting in 1975, filming and visual effects in 1976 to the release on May 25th, 1977.

10.    The Adventures of the Little Engine That Could - In a live-action/animation hybrid (Supermarionation-inspired) musical inspired by the children's book by Watty Piper but with more realistic bases for the characters, Tillie is a young 4-4-0 tender engine who helps move trains about her rail yard and prepare them for trips to towns and cities over on the other sides of the mountains. When a charity train has a freak breakdown going over the mountains, Tillie rushes into action to save the day. After succeeding because she remained determined and did not give up, she earns the respect of her peers and they have some adventures all through the course of a year in the lives of Tillie and friends.

11.    Looney Tunes: The Race for Acme Acres - In a live-action/2-D animated film featuring the classic Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies characters; Bugs and Lola Bunny, Daffy and Melissa Duck, Porky and Petunia Pig, Granny, Tweety Bird, Sylvester and Penelope Pussycat, Elmer Fudd and his daughter Elmyra, Yosemite Sam, Tazmanian Devil, Pepé Le Pew, Wile E. Coyote, Road Runner and Marvin the Martian live in the neighborhood of Acme Acres built by the Acme Corporation. When the evil Acme Chairman decides to sell and redevelop the neighborhood into a mall, Bugs and Daffy organize an international race by all methods of transportation to foil the chairman's plans and buy back Acme Acres.

12.    Shogun King Mori and the 108 Pearls - In Kamakura period Japan, eight female ronin samurai maidens are entrusted to raise and train in the ways of the Samurai the young orphan shogun Mori. The tyrannical thunder god Raijin is amassing cults of followers who are willing to build themselves into an effective army and navy to take to the seas and cross the lands to rule Japan. Mori and his eight maiden protectors - Asuka, Chihiro, Emiko, Haruka, Kimoko, Makoto, Sakura and Tomoko - must journey across the lands to collect 108 pearls (12 for each of them) to summon the mighty dragons and horned tenma horses to grant each of them 11 wishes and to save Japan from the Raijin army.

13.    Welcome to America - 13-year-old Fayah Quadri and her English-fluent moderate Muslim family move to the city of Sanford, Florida to escape the turmoil and Islamic civil war that has engulfed the Middle East. In preparation to attend Seminole High School, Fayah's mother Rafika and father Husam Al Din look around for good-paying jobs while trying to allow Fayah room to grow and be her own person and not let Islam dominate everything in her life. Through getting to be friends with fellow classmates Gregory, Samuel, Minako, Logan, Nyota, Isabelle, Arturo, and Pavel; we mostly follow Fayah across five acts from her first week of school to going on the freshman field trip at the year's end.