"The Forbidden Trilogy"

French Title: "La Trilogie Interdite"

Genre: metaphysical tale / trilogy
Circa: present day
Main Location: USA or Europe
Duration: 3 x 2h 00 min
Format: 35mm
Estimated Budget: 10 millions USD - around 3 to 4 millions USD per episode

This film project is copyrighted and protected under international laws.

Project outline:

A large scale film project. "The Forbidden Trilogy" is a trilogy of 3 episodes that can be watched independently from each other. There is no common storyline. Each episode has its own plot, settings and characters, but to understand the big picture, the main message of the Trilogy, it is nonetheless recommended to watch the 3 episodes in the right order.

Each episode is a variation on a same theme : the 7 common steps of man's spiritual evolution according to the ancient traditions of wisdom in the world."The Forbiddent Trilogy" is based on the works of Carl G. Jung, Abraham Maslow and Joseph Campbell,the famous american mythologist who emphasized the universality of all phases of man's spiritual growth and development as they appear in the myths of all great civilisations in the world history.

Episode 1 :

"Strawman"

French Title: "L'Homme de paille"

Genre: supernatural thriller
Circa: present day
Main Location: USA or Europe
Duration: 2h 00 min
Format: 35mm
Estimated Budget: 3 millions USD

This film project is copyrighted and protected under international laws.

Pitch/synopsis:

In a wheat field, a wounded man is found hung on a wood cross, disguised like a strawman. The man who seems to have completely lost his mind refuses to talk, yelling only by intermittence the same incomprehensible word: "Anatta, anatta, anatta!!!", the eyes full of fear. Acting like crazy, the man is immediately put under surveillance in a research institute specialized in rare mental illnesses. However, after a long series of advanced tests and experiments, the man is found to be absolutely devoid of any mental deficiencies. Surprisingly enough, the man even demonstrates outstanding intellectual capacities and a great clarity of mind, though his strange behaviour and refusal to communicate prove the contrary. To solve this medical mystery, a group of international experts are summoned by the institute. Each of them will use his own methods, some rather borderline, to reconstitute the whole truth, a truth that will shake all their conceptions and lead them to unknown territories, far beyond the unexpected...

Episode 2 :

"Inverted World"

French Title: "Un monde à l'envers"

Genre: psychological drama / coming-of-age story
Circa: present day
Main Location: USA or Europe
Duration: 2h 00 min
Format: 35mm
Estimated Budget: 3 millions USD

This film project is copyrighted and protected under international laws.

In "Inverted World", second episode of the "Forbidden Trilogy", the 7 common steps of man's spiritual evolution are considered from the point of view of man's outer environment, his exteriority: "Man confronted to the world around him, to all outer phenomena, the objects of his direct perceptions, his alterity."

Pitch/synopsis:

Born abnormal with a brain hypertrophia, Joshua is abandoned by his parents at his birth. Adopted by a modest couple of peasants, he growns up in the middle of their 10 children in a rural countryside, far from everything. Soon, he differentiates himself by his extraordinary intelligence, an innate compassion and some unexpected capacities for Extra Sensorial Perception (ESP). At 18, now a talented young adult, he decides by himself to look for his real biological parents. From one day to the other, he suddenly leaves his adoptive family without a word, without any explanations, and goes away alone on the road, confronting himself to the big world, desperately searching to solve his own mystery, the mystery of his roots, the key of his secret identity...

Episode 3 :

"Double Game"

French Title: "Double Jeu"

Genre: action comedy
Circa: present day
Main Location: USA or Europe
Duration: 2h 00 min
Format: 35mm
Estimated Budget: 4 millions USD

This film project is copyrighted and protected under international laws.

In "Double Game", final episode of the "Forbidden Trilogy", the 7 common steps of man's spiritual evolution are considered from a trascendent point of view, unifying inner and outer phenomena and perceptions: "Man transcending his anguish and fears, transcending his dual view, the confrontation to himself and to the outside world, beyond the duality subject/object."

Pitch/synopsis:

Janus Dumbo didn't know that a true hero hides in him. When he learns that his first love has been kidnapped by a dangerous serial killer, he doesn't have to think twice. He has to do something, everything! No matter what, he gets determined to save her before it's too late... He wants to keep his promise. 20 years ago, before he broke up with her, he promised himself that he will always protect her throughout all her life. Then, he was 7 year-old... But a word is a word and Janus Dumbo is a man of honor. His first love is in danger, nothing will be able to stop him, even the most wanted serial killer in town...

Author's comments (spoiler warning!): To read only if you are a film producer. If not, please jump this paragraph. Thank you.

"Double Game" is an 'action comedy', a genre which doesn't take itself too seriously and which plays with clichés from action films, on a light, humoristic tone. The kidnapping story is actually a pretext, a 'Mc Guffin' as Hitchcock would say, skillfully employed to justify certain extreme situations that the hero has to face in his quest. The film plays on the codes of classical action films, manipulating basic archetypes such as the brave hero, the damsel in distress, imprisonned at the top of a tower, the bad guy, horribly cruel and mean, the search, the dangerous traps, the fall of the hero and his returning when everyone thinks him dead, the climax, the final clash and its outcome, the victory of the hero, a happy ending, the gentle hero gets the nice girl and they live happily ever after...

Actually, none of this will happen in the film.

Nothing will happen as we may expect it. The film, subversive and tricky, will reserve many surprises...

The film is actually divided into 3 independent parts, with each having their own storyline. There is no evident continuity from one part to the other.

- The first part shows the hero's quest until the final clash, the confrontation with the killer, and a very unexpected ending (first twist).

Duration of the first part: around 45 min.

- The second part introduced by a very subtle transition retells the same story from the beginning, restarting exactly from the same situations and characters, giving the impression that we have rewind the tape to replay the film a second time from the beginning. It is the exact same story indeed, but actually, something has changed and this makes a very big difference: the actors have all exchanged their respective roles with one another, i.e. the actor who played the hero in the first part plays the bad guy this time, and the bad guy plays the good guy, the good girl plays the bad girl, and so on... It is exactly the same casting as in the first part from the main roles to the smallest parts but no actor plays the same character this time. As a result, each scene looks different and is lived differently by the spectator who got attached to the previous aspect of each character as they appear in the first part of the film. The spectator thus lives a new exciting experience in which he suddenly has to detach himself from his own emotions to relive the film in a totally different way, supporting the quest of a hero who was identified to the bad guy in the first part. It is an interactive experience that invites the spectator to question the facticity of his own emotions and reactions and the manipulation of his own feelings. The film becomes a living experience of what we call virtuality, applied to emotions. It confronts us to our relation to illusion, to illusory images and exciting dreamed lives that we live by proxy, identifying ourselves with an archetypal hero and his quest, very far from our daily routine... As in the first part, this second part has many twists in his narrative structure and will differ in many aspects, with among other things a very different ending, quite unexpected.

Duration of the second part: around 45 min.

- The third part, also introduced again by a very subtle transition, goes even further than the second part, pushing the limits of the experience to new boundaries. We keep the same actors, the same characters but everything else has changed. This time, it is not the actors who have changed, exchanged roles, it is the whole environment in which they are evolving that has radically changed. We are in a completely new environment. We meet again the same actors and characters but in their ordinary life, in their daily routine. Back to reality. Nothing special happens. The characters are simple friends who discuss together of ordinary, trivial things in normal situations. Nothing heroic. There are no more bad guy, no nice girl to save, no love story, no heroic prowess, no action. This is the daily life, the normal life that most of us are familiar with. Nothing else to look for. Nothing exciting. The characters that we previously took for great heros, bigger than life, are now just like we are. The hero to whom we identified ourselves in the previous parts of the film is now shown as a real person. We are back to reality, back to the real life. (final twist) Everything else was just an illusion. But illusion and reality are two sides of the same coin. All contradictions have to be reconciled, transcended, unified into one unique view, at a higher level of understanding. This third part of the film demystifies the myth of the hero, the perpetual quest for excitement and danger, a life lived by proxy through our identification to virtual characters struggling for virtual causes, expressing virtual emotions that we desperately try to borrow them as spectators. This third and last part of the movie tells us that the real fight is in us, inside us, that we have nothing to look for outside of us in virtual worlds. Escapism brings schizophrenia and distortion of mind, making us losing contact with our own reality, the reality from which we have to start our spiritual growth. Actually, 'we are also our final destination', as the old sages of India once said. All spiritual journeys always lead us to ourselves, to the center of our heart and soul, where lies our inner power. The real fight is in us. The real hero is the one who fights against his own mental defilements, his dark sides, his fear and contradictions and find the way out of duality by uplifting his inner self and opening his heart.

Duration of the last part: around 30 min.

To get further information on the "The Forbidden Trilogy" film project, obtain the final script (in English or in French), take part in the production or join the cast, please feel free to contact me. Thank you.

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