First Treatment

Just finished the first treatment for 'Bob Hope'. I wasn't exactly sure how detailed it's supposed to be, so I just tried to give enough to get a good idea of the action and the mood.

Bob Hope

1^st Draft

It’s an unremarkable sunny day in Varicose, Nevada. A two-story farmhouse sits in the middle of an empty dirt field. James, a two-toed sloth, opens the front door and collects the mail out of the mailbox. He thumbs through the mail as he walks upstairs, where his coworkers Rhonda, a bumblebee, and Darby, a squirrel, are hopping around on pieces of paper scattered around the floor. They ask James if he wants to play a game of ‘Bob Hope’.

RHONDA

The only rule is that you can’t touch the floor. If you do, you’re Bob Hope.

JAMES

How come I don’t want to be Bob Hope?

RHONDA

You just don’t.

James joins them, and the three hop about the room together.

After a bit, the three take a break and sit on top of the couch in the middle of the room. Darby asks James to spread some of the mail around so that they have more things to step on. James starts flinging envelopes all over the room. One of these envelopes hits a nearby fan, turning it on. This causes all of the papers to blow away. The television and some of the other usually heavy furniture blow away as well, leaving Rhonda, Darby, and James stranded on the couch. Just then, Malcolm, a reindeer, appears in the doorway, saying that the chicken has been acting weird lately, and that he’s going out to feed it. He then tells the three that they should get back to work, and heads downstairs. Rhonda, Darby, and James don’t move from the couch.

Night falls, and none of the three have moved. Each is tired and hungry, but refuses to fall asleep. Darby begins to hallucinate. Rhonda and James’ faces begin to morph as they talk to him, and the backgrounds start to become warped and surreal. In order to save everyone, Darby slowly flies up into the air and out the window. He lands on the ground in front of the house, which is now some sort of hybrid part-house, part-Bob Hope monstrosity.

DARBY

Come at me, bro!

The house screams at him. Darby screams back.

Cut back to reality, Darby is sitting on the couch in the same position, completely still, with a tendril of drool hanging out of his mouth.

RHONDA

(To James) Well, Darby may be out, but I’m not going to fall asleep just so you can push me off the couch.

JAMES

Same here.

The two stare each other down.

CUT TO: The next morning. All three are asleep in awkward positions on the couch. The house begins to shake. Outside, the chicken, which about two stories tall, is knocking against the house. The three slowly wake up.

RHONDA

What is that?

The chicken peers inside the house at the three of them, then pecks at the window, shattering the glass.

ALL THREE

Aah!

DARBY

Big bird!

The chicken hops up on top of the roof. The house begins to collapse under its weight.

JAMES

We have to get out of here!

RHONDA

How? I don’t want to be Bob Hope.

They look around the room and spot a broom and a hat rack. Each grabs one (I’m not exactly sure how, yet) and uses it to ‘row’ the couch out of the room. The couch turns a corner, slides down the stairs, and hits the frame of the front door, launching Rhonda, James, and Darby outside, where Malcolm is standing, watching the chicken. The three stand up and watch as the house cracks in half, revealing a baby chick.

DARBY

Aw, look! The chicken hatched a baby!

RHONDA

What?

ENDE

Still has a few bits to work out. I need to figure out a bit more to put in between first nightfall and the hallucination, among other things. Nonetheless, I think it's off to a decent start.