Ooooooo. Great idea, Lucky!

Wow! This is going to be good, will get back when I'm feeling inspired....

OK, I'll get us started with a big old drama. Matt is a brilliant heart surgeon at the top of his profession and head over heels in love with his wife as he finds they are expecting their first child. Then tragedy strikes. His wife is killed and he is seriously injured when a drunk driver smashes into their car. Grief stricken and in pain he becomes addicted to drugs , spirals out of control losing everything.... his practice, family & friends and ultimately himself. He eventually gets clean and finds himself again, with the love and support of a woman who runs an inner city clinic, where he now volunteers. When he finally thinks he can love again, a devastating truth is revealed. The woman he now loves is the drunk driver who ran into him and killed his wife and destroyed his life. If things can't get any worse for him, she was also the recipient that night of his wife's transplanted heart. OK....I'm going here for a two hanky tearjerker

So....

1. Who should we cast?
2. Should love win out?
3. What do you want to happen?

Wow, Lucky! This is brilliantly specific.

As for question (2) I am hesitant to allow such a fraught relationship to continue. So, "no" to love. The woman might have a golden exterior, but underneath she likely is not innocent...having manipulated the doctor into her life /clinic to finish the job she started in trying to destroy both passengers that winter night.

Not attached to ANYTHING I just wrote. It's all debatable .

What a rich storyline. High five :o)

Wonderful so far Lucky!

So, I see his gorgeous blue eyes full of tears conflicted between pain & love. He's desperately trying not to fall into those darkest depths again while struggling with opposing feelings with his past & present.

Question 1 - ? Question 2 - No. How can he possibly stay in love? Question 3 - ?

Hi Moon and Claddagh,

Got to say I'm surprised that both of you said No to Matt's character staying in the relationship, once finding out the truth. Interesting. Sometimes I can get a bit carried away, don't want the specificity of a movie pitch to narrow our discussion. I'd love to hear where this could take you guys, as well as your own movie pitches. I'm thinking maybe Ruth Negga for his wife and Brie Larson for the rehab counselor.

Part of my inspiration came from Matt's performance as Donovan in AHS. I'm not sure why exactly, but I was much more drawn to Donovan when he was human and strung out on drugs. Even though brief, there was something really compelling about Matt's work, a mixture of desperation, vulnerability and sexiness all rolled into one. Would love to see what he could do with a character like that in a leading role.

Awesome thread Lucky! Also love your idea of a grieving widower. So here's what my mind just whipped up! As an extremely heartbroken man, he thinks that he has nothing/no one to live for & turns to alcoholism & meaningless sex. Then one day out of nowhere a young girl, with an uncanny resemblance to his wife, in her early teens knocks on his door. She happens to be his wife's daughter that had been given up for adoption. The girl has lost her parents/or ran away from foster home/or any other less dramatic reason. Now he needs to find it in himself to connect with this little girl who reminds him too much of his beloved wife! Matt was aware of the fact that his wife had gotten pregnant at 16 & had decided to give up the child for adoption. The wife was at peace with this decision & did not dwell over it too much. Or the second option is to add to his angst so that his wife had kept this a secret & now Matt has to deal with his anger over this as well as having to put it all aside & focus on connecting with this child.

I have an idea for another storyline but for now I'd like to play with this one:)

Lucky. I don't think you got ''carried away" with the premise. It is a tight, angst-ridden scenario that could easily stand as is, (without the echoed, "No's." ) I am not well equipped for the casting aspect. Don't even know who the two are that you mention. And I agree about your take on Donovan's pre-turned persona. I don't know why his performance as Dono was so underrated. We now know he can totally pull off an uber-aggresive role.

I am not sure this is even peripherally related--But the other day I read a quote that for some reason stuck with me: "...thought drama was when actors cried. But drama is when the audience cries." (frank capra)

Art. Nice alternative. If the girl is a bit older, it could turn Lolita-esque (?).

*****I blame this idea on a sleepless night....

Matt is a writer. He attained some notoriety from his first book about a true crime that had been solved and tried. As a hobby, he likes to investigate unsolved crimes. His daily job consists of working from his home in Brooklyn as a free-lance writer for The New Yorker and similar entities. He is single, with a handful of eclectic friends and a dog (not tiny). (yeah-too much minutiae) So, he becomes obsessed with an unsolved case regarding a wealthy widow who was killed, strangled by hand, in her mansion in the Hamptons. Three years and still no suspects. There was something about the widow's aging, but still beautiful face that haunted him. He always knew he was adopted as a baby. What he could not know is that he has a twin brother. His brother also lives in the NYC area. His brother in his latest and best career choice is a male escort. The high-class, elite variety. It was in this work he met the now deceased widow. It is what she told him months into their arrangement that led him to kill her. She was their mother. When the writer starts to uncover a trail that leads to his brother and discovers the sordid tale, will he turn him in?

Wow so much awesome discussion! I am going to respond to Lucky's idea now and come back to others later due to lack of time.

I love your idea Lucky. First a Q: does the recipient of the heart know that it came from Matt's wife? Either way, I would vote no on matt's character and the woman staying together only because I like less predictable, more realistic endings and I feel most films opt for that happy ending that everyone longs for, yet in real life it often does not happen. It's not that I think the woman doesn't deserve Matt if she DID know, unless it was manipulative and malicious.

But even if she didn't know and is painfully remorseful and a wonderful person who just made a horrible mistake, and he didn't blame her, I think the piece would be more powerful if Matt and the new woman had this bittersweet angsty ending where they must part ways. More dynamic storytelling imo.

Or... if the woman did indeed know and she's a manipulative whacko and chose to seek him out, that could be a very intriguing drama/thriller.

I have to provide a caveat here.... I am a part time writer and have something similar sitting on my laptop partially done (not about Matt specifically). I probably should not be reading this thread at all. ;)

Oh, you guys. I am so loving this, all your wonderful ideas and responses. I just love the idea/fantasy of writing a break out role for Matt that would make him a major star and Oscar contender. What are his strengths as an actor and which genre would be the best vehicle for him to showcase them? I know the man can do anything

Virgo, Matt's new love doesn't know Matt and his wife were the victims of her drunk driving. She is so devastated to learn she killed a woman and then received her heart, she turns her life around and becomes devoted to helping other addicts. It's not until after she is with Matt, that she develops a condition that involves her heart and may need a very complicated and specific surgery, that she finds out the donor that night was indeed Matt's wife. Now wracked with guilt she has a decision to make about their relationship. Now, to squeeze the most drama out of this, Oscar bait, the only person with the skill set that can perform this surgery is Matt who perfected it. Matt on the other hand, finds out accidentally that she has his dead wife's heart and equally must make a decision. The stress could trigger his addiction. Imagine a scene where Matt is operating and holding the beating heart of the two women he's loved most in life. We want Notebook kind of angst. Virgo, if you could see me, I'm doing my happy dance. Well, you probably don't want to see that on second thought, but the idea that as a writer, you like this idea is awesome.

Moon, I love your idea of Matt as a writer and part time detective chasing down an unsolved crime, maybe using his literary skills to pick up clues that regular law enforcement can't.. sort of like Castle. I love the evil twin. That way we get to see Matt's character go through a wide range of emotions. This has great potential, audiences love a good thriller. I love that quote from Frank Capra too.

Art, Oh, I can definitely see Matt in this role. Love the idea of two damaged people trying to connect to each other, both of them saving the other. The young girl in Nice Guys, I think her name was Angourie would be an excellent choice. This is great, look forward to hearing your other ideas as well.

All great ideas going on. Poor Matty & all this sadness tho'!

Right to Lucky first - Probably was hasty with the no way can he stay in love, but he's torn completely with his new love carrying his wife's heart, how can he possibly tear himself from her? Alot of torture there. Oh it's really difficult - I don't see them happy together - but his wife's heart still beating makes me think he will find it hard to let go.

Art - - I like the idea that his wife kept the adoption from him as she was so young? Always wanting to tell him but never quite getting round to it. Now this young lady is in front of him the exact image of his lovely wife & he's in shock. The daughter wanting answers as he's the one who has been closest to her mom.

Moon - - I too love the idea of Matt as a writer and kind of investigator! Loved his smartness in WC. This is a difficult one. Are we talking incest? Or did he find out she is his mom & he flipped?

Hey Claddagh,

I have to admit I'm a sucker for love conquers all tearjerkers. I was heartbroken when Neal lost Kate on White Collar, I know everybody seemed to hate her...but that's a different discussion. Oh and Matt's reaction to that explosion made me a mess. But I hear you about all this sadness. That being said, here's a pitch for a Rom Com...a "Baby Boom or Three Men and a Baby" like story. Matt's character is a very successful ad executive. He lost his wife over a year ago and since has become driven, throwing himself exclusively into his work. He's ignored settling his ex wife's estate, because of painful memories. When forced to deal with it because her last living relative has died , he finds he's inherited a bed and breakfast and a six month old baby girl. Completely freaked out, he plans to rid himself of both, but then finds himself falling hard for his little charge and the quirky inhabitants who inhabit the small town and bed and breakfast. Fatherhood mishaps and love ensue.

Been meaning to respond for a couple of days now... Lucky-your scenario with the heart in his hands belonging to two women he loves is, well, heart-wrenching. That said, I can't seem to get past the logistics of being a drunk driver and not knowing who the victims were, even if she was never identified by authorities for the crime. And even if she didn't know the source of the transplanted heart. She would know the names of those involved. I know I can be too critical. Maybe I am over-thinking this and it is not as big a hole in the story as I am seeing.

Your attention to romance / heartache/ redemption makes me smile. The B&B with a baby is sweet and full of potential.

It is intimidating there is an actual writer (virgo :o) amongst us. Appreciate the headsup. My connection to writing is mainly through poetry and being an avid reader.

As for my late-night pondering offering: Yes, to incest. It was not my choice. It was a lap-drop muse idea that made sense when thinking of 'why' the twin would have killed this woman---and why there would be some grey area of a choice for the writer. With some time to consider it (other than a sleepless night), the mother did not know initially the escort she was using was her son. But once getting to know him, she had her suspicions and hired a private detective and discovered the truth. Her morals not able to override her passion for the twin, she continued. The twin saw some paperwork from the P.I. that caused him to question her...then he flipped. Justifiably so? Perhaps?

moon Thanks, I just wanted confirmation I had read it correctly! I can think that someone's head would go after such a discovery. And poor Matt now - visiting a brother he's only just discovering in prison? Or trying to save a part of his life & covering up for him? Wow what a dilemma!