Pitch: Family fare à la Don Bluth. An American Tail meets Finding Nemo in the Art Deco-Style of the 1930s.
Synopsis: New York, 1930. Skyscrapers reach for the sky when a squirrel family adopts a baby harrier named Scrap. They don’t know that Scrap will turn their life upside down. In the end Scrap has to face his fears to safe his two families. Skyscraper an adventure for the whole family full of suspense, adventure and fascist guinea pigs.
When a squirrel family in Central Park adopts an abandoned, baby harrier named Scrap, they expect challenges – harriers, after all, are known for eating squirrels. However, the family’s biggest challenge comes when, through a twist of fate, Scrap and his brother Skip find themselves separated in the big city searching for their mother, and it’s up to Scrap to bring them back together and learn how to fly in the process.
This is the premise of “Skyscraper”, an animated adventure for the whole family full of excitement, humor and fascist guinea pigs. “Skyscraper” received a rating of 8 on the online version of „The Black List“ with comments like „universally funny – perfect for a family film“ or „it has potential to be a great animated feature for family audiences worldwide“. “Skyscraper” was also favorably reviewed by John August and Craig Mazin on their „Scriptnotes Podcast“.
We started working on “Skyscraper” a few years ago. We talked about the idea of writing a feature length screenplay and animation seemed like a natural fit. We went through several versions of the story before we settled on what we now call Skyscraper. The basic premise never changed though but the more we refined the plot and the characters the closer we came to what “Skyscraper” is really about.
In 2012 we were finally happy enough to share the “Skyscraper” with the world. We sent the screenplay out to competitions and the Blacklist and got some great and encouraging feedback from producers. In the last year we took that feedback to heart and reworked “Skyscraper” into a new “better than ever” 80 page version. Reviewers on the Blacklist had this to say about “Skyscraper”:
The script takes the reader on a fun ride filled with laughter and lots of heart. The theme of acceptance is carefully woven throughout as Scrap must come to terms with who he his and who he isn’t. The best aspect of the script by far is the wacky, yet sweet collection of characters. From Linus, the terrified Lizard, to Fluffy, the leader of the crazed guinea pigs, and even Piers, Scrap’s pseudo-sensei, each characters has its own unique voice and their role in the script has been carefully thought out. The entertaining and tense action scenes would have any kid and adult seating on the edge of their seat. Overall, this script would make for a great animated film. (…) The script definitely has a Madagascar vibe, and could potentially spawn a couple of sequels. It could absolutely attract A-list talent needed to secure its high budget.
This is an endearing script with a well-constructed plot and likeable characters. The humor is universally funny – perfect for a family film. The sequences in the second act are well thought out and keep the plot moving toward the action packed third act, with the library sequence featuring Piers being especially engaging. With a family friendly plot that’s funny for all ages, this seems like a script that could attract a wide, mainstream family audience as an animated film.
The current draft of “Skyscraper” is 73 pages long.
If you are interested and would like to read “Skyscraper”, drop us a line and we’ll send it to you.
We are currently in the process of sending “Skyscraper” out to production companies and are proud that “Skyscraper” was nominated for the German Animation Screenplay Award at the ITFS 2018.