Destine To Be
Jessica Baxter is a smart headstrong college bound
teenager who has family, love and friends. Jessica thought
with these things life would be perfect but when her family
is disturbed by the return of her brothers long lost father,
love is lost when she chooses a college education over being
a teenage mother and the friendship dies when she pushes her
best friend away for trying to give her advice that she
takes as criticism.
Jessica knows something has to be done. Will Jessica do
what she has to do to save her love life and friendship or
will she start new in the different world called college?
Jessica’s best friend Tiffany Shamberger has problems of her
own. She wants to go to college but she is worried about
leaving behind her teenage sisters that she has been raising
ever since her parents divorce and her mother turned into a
party animal traveling all over the world forgetting that
she has three daughters at home.
She is also having guy problems she is torn between two
loves, Darren Jones the love that would die for her and
Jessica’s older brother Chris Baxter who is a playboy who
won’t take no for an answer. Will Tiffany leave her sisters
behind to better her self or will she stay behind and do
what her mother has chosen not to do? Chris Baxter is tall,
brown, handsome and extremely intelligent. To look at him
you would think he has the perfect life, raised by a dentist
and a lawyer he has it all, almost. Chris has known since
the age of eight that Jason Baxter the man who loved and
cared for him all his life is not his real father. Chris
wants to find the man who walked out on him before he had a
gender but he is afraid that he will disappoint his father
who raised him.
Nikki Baxter is the young divorced mother of two (Jessica
and Chris). She has been a successful single mother and a
dentist for some time now. Just when she thinks her life is
just a career and children thanks to her daughter she
discovers that her long lost best friend Tracy McCord has
been closer than she ever would have dreamed. They are
reunited just in time. Tracy wants to become a career woman
instead of living off of her ex-husbands money and Nikki is
just the person to help her. Just when everything is going
good Nikki’s life is interrupted and she has to face more
than her long lost best friend she has to face pain and
anguish from her past, the man who left her sixteen and
pregnant almost twenty years ago. Is all this drama Destine
to be?
The cast: Jessica Baxter (Kyle Pratt)
Jason Baxter (LL Cool J)
Chris Baxter (Charles Grisby)
Nikki Baxter (Vivica A. Fox)
Rick McCord (Bow Wow)
Tracy McCord (Queen Latifah)
Darren Jones (Nick Cannon)
Tiffany Shamberger (Raven Simon)
-- Script Pitch III Host Commentary --
by Lee Tistaert and Stephen Lucas
Lee's Analysis:
Before I read your proposed cast list, I had a feeling
this might be a relatively good, if still slightly
questionable concept. But then I saw your names, and my
first reaction is wondering whether it’s just going be
another movie like Deliver Us from Eva, Two Can Play that
Game, or How Stella Got Her Groove Back. My basic point is
that many movies surrounding black casts tend to be a bit
too light in mood for me; but if you can turn that around
and start a change in this genre (kudos to Soul Food), all
the power to you.
As an example, when I first watched the trailer for
The Cookout, the tone at the beginning made it look like
this concept had potential – after the trailer played
further, it looked really typical. Ideas like Destine to Be
can depend on the writing and the director, as the director
can have the actors take the material various ways, even
different from the voice in which you wrote it from. My
suggestion is to make the dialogue and situational details
as strong as possible if your intent is not just a loose,
light mood. In that case the director (if it is not you) can
really fulfill your voice.
One problem is that few black actors I’ve seen show a
potential range in their performances, and these movies
either star Morris Chestnut or Taye Diggs. I think Diggs has
talent that he hasn’t really been allowed to use yet (though I
haven’t seen The Best Man, so I may be biased if that’s any
good), and though he’s amongst the stereotypical list of
names that usually get on these projects, he might be a
pretty decent candidate for this.
Few movies with black casts get thumbs up from me, and
not for any racist reasons, but just that I think the
writing is rarely strong, and the acting is usually flimsy.
And the talents that change that routine deserve credit, so
if you can achieve a change, go for it.
Stephen's Analysis:
What could be a common, simple film about a woman’s
life isn’t always what studios aim to produce. Granted, a
film like "Destined to Be" (good title, by the way) could
find an audience, but I don’t see much of a theme or
all-inclusive vibe from your pitch. I think you should shoot
for something more than just a story of someone’s everyday
life, as we’ve seen that before. Dare to be different with
this film and something more may come out of it. That’s your
destiny.
Rating: C
