Screenplay & Film
The imaginary friend to a teleplay writer learns he's no longer needed but before accepting the reality, he does extraordinary things in order to save their friendship.
Milton and Darwin are back at it again only this time things are not so slapstick for the two guys. Milton has a lot going for him unlike in the previous, "Shut Up, You!". His teleplay, "Spencer Jones: The Cubicle Chronicles" is in production and he's the head writer on set. They have a week to finish shooting the last episode of the first season and he's just been given revisions by the new boss. Rather than being frustrated like usual, he's fine with it. On the other hand, Darwin is furious. When Darwin confronts Milton with his anger, Milton just ignores him and calls his new girlfriend Victoria. Darwin soon starts to realize he's being forgotten about. Instead of being faded away, he set up a new plan to revive the friendship. He goes to lengths to get the attention of Milton but nothing works. Darwin comes to the realization that his time it up and he has to accept what's about to happen.
Lj Ugarte, who played Darwin back in 2018's "Shut Up, You!", came to me about doing a follow-up. He's been doing interviews for other projects and his portrayal of Darwin always pops up. Also, a lot of people who seen the film on Amazon Prime contacted him about wanting to see more. This is particular made my day only because my intention was to create a short film that felt like an episode in the middle of a season. I wanted people to be like, "where are the other episodes?", and they did. I thought it was very intriguing. I told him I'd think about it. And for a few days, I let the idea stew. I knew I didn't want to do a follow-up in the sense of "the next adventure of Milton and Darwin", because it would have been too similar and "Shut Up, You!". I wanted to step it up and throw people off track. It would obviously be in the comedy genre because of the nature of Darwin. I knew I wanted to have Milton's teleplay get produced by the studio. His teleplay would be a dramedy and it would bring my character, "Spencer Jones" for a previous short film I did back in 2013, "Spencer Jones: The Cubicle Chronicles"; which is the story Milton talks about in "Shut Up, You!". And the new film would round it out making it an unexpected trilogy.
I wanted the next installment to be a drama with some bit of comedy. I wanted Darwin to be the main character and have Milton be more of a minor part of it. The question I wanted to answer is, what does an imaginary friend do when their imaginer doesn't need them anymore? That's it. I told a friend the idea and she brought up, "The five stages of grief". So that was the outline. I also wanted Spencer Jones in the teleplay to be dealing with similar issues in the series that was being produced.
I called Lj with the idea of the story. I could tell it wasn't what he expected but was definitely excited. I then told him I wanted to shoot a tease since we had some sort of a following. I wanted the tease to showcase Darwin at his psychiatrist, which will be somewhere in the film. And I wanted the psychiatrist to be played by Darwin himself. Since he was was imaginary he really wouldn't come in contact with anyone else than Milton. Milton would still have an important role in the film. But like any grown-up, he has his priorities and is focused on the production of his teleplay and his girlfriend, who Darwin is extremely jealous of.
I hope the film is what people enjoy as well as want to see the previous two. These characters are becoming near and dear to me and I hope I can do them justice.