A Brief Affair: Feature Film
GENRE: Romantic Comedy, Farce
TONE: Crazy. Stupid. Love. meets Crazy Rich Asians
ACCOLADES/AWARDS:
Winner of the Broad Humor Film Fest (2006)
Semi-finalist of More/Women in Film
Finalist Screenwriting Expo 2015
LOGLINE: Two underwear moguls (she’s a feminist; he’s a playboy) battle for the marketplace and for one another’s company with technology-inspired underwear. As they revolutionize the underwear industry, she confronts and outsmarts her three evil ex-step mothers who attempt to gain control of her father’s company while he’s in an alleged coma.
Overview: This raucous Rom Com supports the adage that love matters more than money and reveals the way greed and ego can derail romance as the two would-be lovers make war, not love… at first. They finally get together, but only when they can transcend their need to win and realize that the true ‘winning’ is in connecting on a deeper and more soulful level.
Synopsis: The script opens with an interplay between three scenarios: an art gallery opening where we meet the eclectic and artsy female protagonist, a raunchy nightclub that’s also an underwear store where we meet the eccentric and adorable male protagonist, and an underwear plant getting blown up in a third world country, which serves as the catalyst for his need to find new plants for his products. This opening sequence introduces the main characters and the tone, which is artsy meets adventurous, inventive meets excitable.
SYDNEY STONE (40) has always shied away from her family business because her father’s three ex-wives each finagled a seat on the Board of Directors during their respective divorces. As antagonists, Cha Cha (45 - lusty kleptomaniac), Rita (55 - rambunctious lush), and Thelma, (65 - plastic surgery queen) attempt to usurp Sydney’s power and block her innovative underwear inventions after she takes the reins when her father slips unexpectedly into a coma, post hipsurgery. His new, young wife, Peaches (35) encourages her to lead his company in his absence and helps her figure out how to oust the undeserving, ex-step-mother trio who are the only remaining board members during a reorganization of his American-made underwear company, Stone Briefs.
WOODY WILD (45) is in trouble. His Wild Wear factories in third-world countries are getting blown up and shut down. Cheap labor has become perilous and unconscionable. With his right hand man, DICK RICCIO (55), they make a play to merge or acquire Stone Briefs because they desperately need their American-based factories. Woody is also looking to bankroll his newest endeavor, Wild Wear Nightclubs— retail store by day, ridiculously risqué underwear nightclub by night (e.g.Victoria’s Secret meets Hooters).
Set in Chicago, their first encounter sets Sydney on the offensive and sparks Woody’s attraction to her. Their competitiveness heats up as both companies vie for the Innovator of the Year Award, a prestigious and lucrative prize that would secure their professional futures. This ‘Battle Between Briefs’ plays out in public as they each introduce some unusual, technology-driven, and action-packed new lines of underwear.
Sydney’s underwear inventions are more practical, such as a bra with a mini cell phone, vibrating underwear for weight loss, and invisible heating coils for winter warmth to name a few. His underwear inventions reflect his sexy and carefree brand with items such as boxers with concealed condoms (and ‘bottomless’ refills), “mood” pants that change color, and bras with adjustable, inflatable breasts that substitute for plastic surgery.
They change the industry and challenge one another as they embrace technology and try to make the world a better place. The final farce culminates in Sydney Senior (newly emerged from a fake coma) and Peaches being allegedly being kidnapped while wearing Sydney’s new GPS underwear. Their rescue mission becomes part of a media circus that Peaches orchestrates with her PR company to help Sydney win the innovation prize.
Sydney and Woody almost have a brief affair, then make a secret bet and wager their companies in an “all or nothing” outcome. Woody wins unfairly, and Sydney walks away, but all he ever really wanted was her. In the end, they get together, join forces, and take the underwear world by storm.
The closing scene is on the catwalk at the Wild Wear nightclub one year later with everyone dancing to his signature song, Wild Thing.