A Pitch Letter for the Already in Development Movie About George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin?

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I always share things that come to me if I feel they are worthwhile and appropriate. Race, crime, and guns are central to the American cultural and political imagination. Movies are projections of a community's dreams and how it works out anxieties, fears, hopes, and worries.

Why would the Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman saga be any different?

****

July XXX

To: XXX
From: XXX

Hey,

The last meeting was good. I am glad to see that we are on the same page. A Zimmerman movie would do really well. Hot topics make money. Let's move fast. This can be done on the cheap too. That will make my bosses happy and the numbers pretty easy.

We need to be careful and sensitive but the bank is potentially there. You wanted to do something with writers we know from spec. That makes sense. But I would prefer to do something with the regulars in order to get this done and signed off ASAP because other studios are riding this one too. The story is pretty formula so any good writer can get it done. If you have a spec writer who is fast run with it and see. Your call. You know where I am coming from.

The angle of the project with Zimmerman as a lone man fighting against all odds and unbelievable adversity makes sense. Your idea about one man against the system with a mix of the 12 Angry Man deal is smart too. This is David and Goliath. Works. When you get more real on details with the writers make sure the script emphasizes the immigrant angle too. A court room drama and human interest story about one man against the system who loves America and who is found innocent and then has to rebuild his life is very profitable.

When you talk with the writer maker sure that there is a nice up ending with Zimmerman saving those people from the burning car. The hero ending is important.

I don't know about the merchandising. We need to figure that out later once we get a sense of the buzz and response. I don't want to go VOD and Redbox first. The numbers suggest that a wider release may work based on the targeted markets.

MR and track record tells us this will be big in the Midwest and the South. The lists for the Bible TV show and the Birther movies overlap with the Zimmerman project. Once he does the speaking tour deal, TV, and other appearances the audience builds itself.

Use the church crowd, tea party, and soc media. Twitter and Facebook love this guy. Fox is gushing over Zimmerman. The cross platform/market synergy for this is perfect.

Call me later. I am gonna be on you about this one.

Killing Trayvon Martin: How White America Has Maintained Control of Its History of Racial Violence

The divides between the response of black folks to the George Zimmerman "not guilty" verdict and that of his overwhelmingly white and conservative defenders (and those who idolize him as a patron saint of white vigilantism and the way of the gun) are a function of a divergence in life experience, political attitudes, personalities, and values. What we see is often a function of where we sit.

The co-mingling of white conservatism, gun culture, and a Right-wing media which has legitimated a belief that white folks are oppressed in America by people of color, generated a worldview in which a young black man shot dead by a white vigilante is a just act.

The White Right's vantage point cannot escape the shadow of black humanity as something its sees as violent and barbarous. Racism is a mania which they have normalized as central to their cognitive map. A fish does not apologize for swimming in the water; Zimmerman's supporters de facto see black men as criminals until proven otherwise to the former's satisfaction.

I am more interested in those good and decent white folks (and others) who simply do not get what the "big deal" is about Zimmerman's murder of Trayvon Martin, and how so many people of color are hurt, upset, and enraged both by the verdict, as well as how it took a national outcry to even bring the case to trial.