Home Alone Pitch Meeting

* Main
* Transcript

**Home Alone Pitch Meeting** is the eighth episode of the Pitch Meeting series on Screen Rant.

## Description

See how the classic Christmas psychopath movie Home Alone came to be in this pitch meeting!

## Cast

* Producer Guy - Ryan George
* Screenwriter Guy - Ryan George

## Notices

* Screenwriter Guy uses a copy of *Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting* by Syd Field.

**Producer Guy:** I was told you had a movie idea for me.

**Screenwriter Guy:** Yes sir, I do. See last month my wife and my brother went on vacation together alone.

**Producer Guy:** *[condoling]* Oh, my god. I'm so sorry.

**Screenwriter Guy:** No, what? Don't be sorry! They- They accidentally forgot me at home.

**Producer Guy:** *[confused]* Are you *sure* that's what happened?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Well yeah, of course. Why else would they not bring me on a vacation to Paris?

**Producer Guy:** All right, I mean… okay.

**Screenwriter Guy:** And so you know I got to be home all alone!

**Producer Guy:** *[resigned]* That's… That's- That's- That's great, buddy.

**Screenwriter Guy:** It was great! I ate candy, I watched movies, I went grocery shopping all by myself!

**Producer Guy:** Okay to be honest I'm not getting what the movie idea is and I'm- I'm getting a little sad.

**Screenwriter Guy:** Right so I was thinking if I'm having such an amazing time imagine if this happened to an eight-year-old kid!

**Producer Guy:** *[dumbfounded]* You wanna make a movie where… a child's wife cheats on him?

**Screenwriter Guy:** What? No, no, I want a kid to be accidentally left at home while his family goes on vacation.

**Producer Guy:** I guess my question is how… would that ever happen?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Well his family leaves on a vacation and they don't realize he's not with them.

**Producer Guy:** Yeah but okay it just seems like a really really really really improbable thing.

**Screenwriter Guy:** Oh yeah, yeah, I'm well aware.

**Producer Guy:** Okay, so…

**Screenwriter Guy:** Well I was doing some research and there's this thing in storytelling called "the suspension of disbelief".

**Producer Guy:** What's that?

**Screenwriter Guy:** *[reading from* Screenplay*]* They say that the audience "sacrifices realism and logic for the sake of enjoyment".

**Producer Guy:** Oh, so the audience will kind of just overlook unrealistic things?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Right so I think if we exploit that to like an extreme level, w- we're good.

**Producer Guy:** Huh. Interesting.

**Screenwriter Guy:** So I think I figured out like the perfect storm of unrealistic coincidences to get this premise off the ground.

**Producer Guy:** Alright, you got me, I'm listening.

**Screenwriter Guy:** Okay so first off, the kid has to be part of a huge family. Like it has to be big enough that you wonder if they've ever heard of birth control. Plus some uncles and cousins can be there too. They also all have to be really mean to the kid so he can wish that they would disappear. Then they *also* have to accidentally throw his plane ticket in the trash. Then they *also* have to make him sleep in the attic so they don't see him when they're leaving. There also has to be a huge storm the night before the departure that knocks out the phone lines so they can't contact him when they're gone. That storm *also* has to knock out the power. That way their alarms can shut off in the night and they wake up late for their flight. *Also*, the kid needs to sleep so heavily that he doesn't hear fifteen people running around and yelling. There also has to be a random little kid that shows up at the exact moment they're doing a head count so they can get it wrong. Then we have to have nobody think of him even a little bit until they're mid-flight.

**Producer Guy:** So they really have to be like an awful family.

**Screenwriter Guy:** They have to be the *worst* family. Oh yeah, also then the kid has to wake up and think he's magic because he wished that they disappeared and they did.

**Producer Guy:** Wouldn't he just make the connection that they were supposed to leave on a trip that morning?

**Screenwriter Guy:** You'd think so, but if we have him not understand what an airport shuttle is he can look at their cars and be like "There's no way they could have gotten to the airport without those".

**Producer Guy:** So he thinks he magically erased his family from existence?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Right.

**Producer Guy:** So just to be clear, we need to have *all* those *extremely unlikely scenarios* play out *one after the other* just to get this kid alone at home by himself?

**Screenwriter Guy:** That's right.

**Producer Guy:** And this, um, "suspension-"

**Screenwriter Guy:** "Suspension of disbelief".

**Producer Guy:** Right, with that, people will just be okay with *all* of that?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Pff, apparently, yeah!

**Producer Guy:** *Aaaaaaaaaaaall* of that. … All of that.

**Screenwriter Guy:** Yeah! Pretty cool, right?

**Producer Guy:** Well, then, awesome! *[brushes his hands together]*

**Screenwriter Guy:** Heh.

**Producer Guy:** So tell me more about this kid, um-

**Screenwriter Guy:** Kevin McCallister. Well you know how his family is the worst?

**Producer Guy:** Yeah, I imagine he's like the only nice one in the family?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Oh no, he's also the worst.

**Producer Guy:** Oh, he is?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Yeah, he calls his mom a dummy, and he's really snarky with everyone. He's also unable to pack a suitcase like it's the end of the world for him to do that.

**Producer Guy:** And how does he get over the trauma of the situation?

**Screenwriter Guy:** The trauma?

**Producer Guy:** Well I mean in Kevin's mind he's essentially just killed his family with a wish, I imagine that's gonna be hard for him to come to terms with.

**Screenwriter Guy:** Actually, super easy, barely an inconvenience.

**Producer Guy:** Really?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Well I probably should have mentioned before that Kevin is a… mm, uh… a psychopath.

**Producer Guy:** Oh?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Oh yeah! We're talking complete disregard for the physical and emotional well-being of everyone he comes across in his life. And he talks to himself, kind of a lot.

**Producer Guy:** So he's happy that they're dead?

**Screenwriter Guy:** He's thrilled! He has a little eyebrow celebration thing and then he does all the exact same stuff I did when I was home alone except I didn't shave.

**Producer Guy:** Does anything else happen or do we just watch a kid go crazy at home by himself?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Well I'm glad you asked 'cause that's where things get really interesting.

**Producer Guy:** How's that?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Well it turns out that two burglars have their hearts set on breaking into the McCallister house.

**Producer Guy:** So why this house in particular?

**Screenwriter Guy:** One of them mentions something about it probably having some VCRs.

**Producer Guy:** VCRs are great!

**Screenwriter Guy:** And they always will be! So these guys think that the house is empty because they've been casing the joint.

**Producer Guy:** Oh no.

**Screenwriter Guy:** But Kevin finds out that they wanna break in.

**Producer Guy:** So he calls the cops?

**Screenwriter Guy:** No. Well, eventually.

**Producer Guy:** Eventually? Why not right away?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Because of the psychopath thing.

**Producer Guy:** Ohhh. I don't get it.

**Screenwriter Guy:** Well the bandits break in but Kevin is like some kind of genius. Like he set up a bunch of intricate deathtraps that they walk into one by one.

**Producer Guy:** But you said the kid was freaked out about packing a suitcase, like that was too much.

**Screenwriter Guy:** *[remembering]* Oh, right.

**Producer Guy:** And now he's like a deathtrap engineer?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Yeah, no, that's a mistake. I'll- I'll change the suitcase thing, that doesn't make any sense.

**Producer Guy:** Nah, it's probably fine.

**Screenwriter Guy:** You sure?

**Producer Guy:** Eh.

**Screenwriter Guy:** It's no problem. I could change it to something that makes the whole deathtrap engineer make sense.

**Producer Guy:** Nah, keep the suitcase thing, it's all good.

**Screenwriter Guy:** Okay, so he's too stupid to pack a suitcase but… he's- he's great at traps.

**Producer Guy:** So what happens with the robbers?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Well they somehow survive a bunch of very very fatal injuries.

**Producer Guy:** Wow.

**Screenwriter Guy:** Yeah and in the middle of the robbery it seems like they forget that they wanted to rob the house and now they just wanna murder this child.

**Producer Guy:** It becomes about murder?

**Screenwriter Guy:** It seems that way, 'cause at a certain point Kevin just leaves them alone in the house and they don't take anything.

**Producer Guy:** Just focused on the kid, no more VCRs.

**Screenwriter Guy:** Yep. So at the end they get arrested 'cause they tried to break in and murder a child; it's very dark. And then overnight he manages to clean up all the traps including some stairs covered in tar. And then his family comes back the next day and immediately ignore him again.

**Producer Guy:** Hm.

**Screenwriter Guy:** What do you- Wh- What do you think?

**Producer Guy:** Well I think it *might* have *some* potential…

**Screenwriter Guy:** But?

**Producer Guy:** But it's missing something, some kind of big selling point.

**Screenwriter Guy:** D'you have anything in mind?

**Producer Guy:** Well we could try the Christmas play, I mean that rarely works but-

**Screenwriter Guy:** What's that?

**Producer Guy:** That's when you make a movie take place at Christmas time even if it has almost nothing to do with Christmas time.

**Screenwriter Guy:** So people think "Oh, this is a Christmas movie, I have to watch it".

**Producer Guy:** Exactly.

**Screenwriter Guy:** Will that work, if I just add in a couple of random Christmas elements?

**Producer Guy:** Well it's certainly not gonna be a Christmas classic but it's worth a shot.

*[cut to headline: **12 Best Christmas Movies of All Time**]*