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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

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