THERE ARE FIVE OF ME
©19th cycle pictures & josh gaines, 2022.
all rights reserved.
LOGLINE
Eccentric scientist Felix Farnsworth accidentally clones herself five times when a new invention—”The Duplicator”—goes awry. She & her three adopted child-prodigy lab partners must use a series of wild & creative inventions to track down the clones & deal with the consequences.
Movie SYNOPSIS
Dr. Felix Wallace Farnsworth garnered notoriety when her invention "The Marble Dipper," a household appliance that transformed any item into real marble, became a hit on late night infomercial shopping networks. The product's success allowed her to fund her most ambitious project yet, "The Duplicator," a six-foot tall plexiglass booth meant to clone entire human beings from only the smallest DNA sample. The trouble is, The Duplicator began to clone Felix herself, numerous times, before she even realized it was operational. Because of a malfunction, the clones have been deposited miles away from The Lab, Felix's combined workshop & living space she shares with her three adopted "child genius" lab partners, Sandeep, Kimiko & Douglas. What follows are a series of meandering attempts to find & retrieve the clones using an array of creative & colorful inventions, with unexpected results. Along the way, the characters encounter a number of seemingly discordant elements: a self-aware, nihilistic desktop computer, puppets, talking fruit, stop-motion animated action figures, an infant’s chew toy turned living mutation, a malicious doppelgänger, a 3D animated desert landscape, a 1990’s network police drama, and—good lord, a whole lot of apples.
FILM specification data
GENRE: Sci-Fi / Adventure / Comedy
TARGET MPAA RATING: PG-13
TIME SETTING: Modern Times, with a 1980’s and 90’s aesthetic
LOCATIONS: Anywhere U.S.A. / Laboratory
TARGET AUDIENCE: Kids 10 - Teens, Adults 20s - 50s
DESCRIPTIVES: Imaginative / Coming of Age / Family Issues / Existential Crisis / Stop-motion Animation / Multi-Genre / Something for Everyone / Psychedelic / Colorful / Encourages Diversity
STATUS: Pre-Production / Completed Script
TARGET RUN TIME: 90 minutes
READ the SCRIPT or listen to the radio drama
Treatment
PDF print version
audio version
This is a direct download for a “radioplay” dramatized audio version of the entire script, complete with voice acting, sound FX, music cues and more.
*It’s a large file so the player below may not load it in the browser—please download the file for best results.*
Recorded by Josh Gaines.
stylistically COMPARAble workS
There Are Five of Me is like a female-led Back to the Future with the comedic sensibility of What We Do in the Shadows and the colorful, unhinged zany-ness of The Muppets. Since three-fourths of its primary cast are adolescents, it carries the childlike innocence and wonder of E.T. and Joe Dante’s Explorers. Since the story is rife with imaginative homemade inventions—crafted from thrift store electronics, scrap metal, cardboard and machine parts—it will have an intentionally handcrafted, D.I.Y. feel in the vein of Michel Gondry’s films.
The Laboratory // THE DUPLICATOR
The film was intentionally written to take place almost entirely in one room: The Lab. It is here that Felix and her companions live and work. It’s a modular space that serves as their office, living room, sleeping quarters, workspace and home. This space (and this story) exist just a bit outside of reality. Felix has curated this literal “safe space” for herself in the aftermath of prior trauma (losing her husband and son, revealed later in the film); an enclosed environment that is insulated from the pains and dangers of the outside world. In this way, she has created a controlled existence for herself, and by adopting three highly intelligent children from vastly different backgrounds, has also unwittingly garnered a new “family.” We will use these reference images from which to build the set in which we’ll do the majority of filming.
The Duplicator—a six foot tall plexiglass booth that clones humans—is the film’s key prop and is a crucial component to the film’s plot. Its size and commanding presence foreshadows the many consequences it will have for the characters. Artwork by Rene Aigner.
characters & cast
Dr. Felix Wallace Farnsworth
Female, early 30’s to late 40’s. Felix is a highly creative and eccentric scientist, though her effectiveness as an inventor has been hit or miss. She lost her husband and five year old son to a car crash several years before the point that we’re introduced to her in the film. She is unaware of social norms and clunky in showing affection, but is nonetheless empathic, protective of her adopted lab partners and deeply loyal. She is neurotic, scatter-brained, and quirky. Prone to frequent emotional outbursts because she so easily gets overwhelmed and thinks the world is crumbling around her. Felix is the only adult in this scenario, but she’s rather like a teenager herself. The kids often end up being the more mature ones who have to talk Felix down when she’s coming mentally unhinged. Despite her inconsistencies, she is utterly sincere and has a childlike innocence. Her character is predominantly played as over-the-top and humorous, though in the course of the film she wrestles with moments of real pain and loss, and existential and moral dilemmas.
Kimiko
Female, Age 10 to 17, scripted as Japanese American but subject to revision per casting. Kimiko is exceptionally talented in high level mathematics and coding. She loves to read science fiction literature and cutting edge scientific publications. Her parents died when she was very young, and she spent some time in orphanages before Felix adopted her. Despite her age, she is the voice of reason in this story and the most mature of the characters. She propels the group forward with intention, clarity and purpose. She levels out Felix’s craziness and brings chaos into balance. She is often pointing out the sort of thing the audience may be thinking, suggesting rational behavior and direction in the midst of their unhinged existence. Kimiko has the closest relationship to Felix, they share a strong feminine bond.
EXAMPLES OF WHO WE’D LOVE TO CAST FOR KIMIKO:
CUBEY
Male, Voiceover only, any age. Cubey is a sophisticated A.I. entity that has been imbued with digitally-simulated consciousness. He was created by Felix and is housed inside an archaic desktop computer. He has read the entire Internet and “knows everything,” but what he has witnessed online fills him with dread. He is deeply cynical about the state of existence and is hopelessly nihilistic—he repeatedly asks to be unplugged so that he may “die.” Despite his incredible access to knowledge, he is utilized in the lab for only the most menial tasks, which only adds to his general misery. While comparisons may arise to Hitchhiker’s Guide’s Marvin, the robot who was merely depressed, Cubey, on the other hand, sees through the veil of being and is bleakly honest about the dark state of the current world, wanting only to escape it by A.I.-suicide.
IN A PERFECT WORLD, WE’D CAST THE LIKES OF:
DOUGLAS
Male, mid teens , any ethnicity. Douglas is a prankster, doesn’t take anything too seriously, and often pushes Felix’s buttons. He is a big, bold personality and makes no apologies for being himself. Often interjects humorous criticism towards what the others are doing. He can be snarky and makes direct comments that often hurt people's feelings or offend them, but has a tender, loyal side. Douglas speaks the unvarnished truth about how he sees others and the world. In many ways, he is a hero of this story and has a prominent role in “saving the day” at the film’s climax. Doug is passionate about action movies and video games, and is a stop-motion filmmaker.
MOOD BOARD
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
There Are Five of Me is an unfiltered expression of imagination and free-flowing creativity. It is filled with childlike wonder, but is not childish. It’s unabashedly silly—yes—but it’s also richly instilled with a deep compassion for each of its misfit characters, all of whom are merely finding a way to navigate a strange and confusing world. These characters serve as relatable archetypes for us all—imperfect, a little crazy, often unsure of the most ideal way to proceed, but moving forward with kindness and sincerity, trying to do their best. Their microcosm represents a loyal, empathic community and a very pure, Gene Roddenberry-esque sense of not only token diversity, but a natural expression of the universal inclusion and acceptance of all peoples that may one day finally permeate human existence.
I’m not here to make “content.” Who among us was ever inspired, empowered, enlivened, had our lives changed or our way of seeing the world challenged by a piece of Content? Content is for the marketing departments, the Suits and Gatekeepers who have never tapped into truth, beauty, art or magic. In setting out to make TAFOM, I want to find the skillful artists, the beautiful souls, the living manifestations of the divine who believe and know that cinema can be more than sounds and images on a screen. TAFOM is an intelligent, funny, wildly creative, open-hearted collaborative project. It’s a compassionate vehicle through which to empower the overlooked members of society, make heroes of the marginalized, and to inspire the young to MAKE THINGS, to BE BOLD, to be RADICALLY KIND and to CHANGE THE DARK RHYTHMS OF OUR WORLD INTO LIGHT.
That may seem a tall order for a sci-fi comedy film about three orphans living with an unhinged inventor, but I believe in the power of cinema and art to deliver just the right message to those whose minds are hungry for new ideas, hope and originality. Apart from the high-minded spiritual stuff, TAFOM will be entertaining, unconventional and loads of fun. It incorporates a number of aesthetically satisfying textures and elements (such as stop-motion animation, puppets, handcrafted inventions, a touch of psychedelia, archaic technologies, sci-fi tropes turned on their heads) that will serve both as a call-back to the cinematic styles of times past and a refreshingly new presence in the current theatrical landscape. What I’m going for here is a pervasive sincerity: Sincerity in the production by working with authenticity and mutual support for the many talented artists it will take to make this a reality. Sincerity in the characters themselves, who are utterly earnest and genuine even when they’re misguided or incorrect. Sincerity in the very stylistic approach of the film, using low-budget limitations to our advantage, even drawing attention to the D.I.Y., B-movie elements as an opportunity for another layer of humor in the film—being intentionally self-aware and deprecating.
So, if these words ring true with you, I’d like to invite you on this filmmaking journey with me—to create art at a high level of excellence, to make a timeless contribution to cinema, to reach the appropriate audiences by doing this process right, and to become a strong creative team unified towards a common goal.
Photo by Trevr Merchant