Genre: Sci-Fi/Family
Premise: (from Hit List) In the near future, after a ten-year-old boy’s father dies, the androids programmed to care for him move to the suburbs and pretend to be a family in order to give the boy a shot at a normal life.
About: Matt Lieberman is quietly becoming one of the biggest family-comedy writers in Hollywood. He broke out with his sale of the upcoming Ryan Reynold’s vehicle, Free Guy. He wrote one of Netflix’s most popular movies ever with The Christmas Chronicles. He’s writing the next adaptation of Scooby-Doo (starring Zac Efron and Mark Wahlberg), and has landed one of the coolest nostalgia gigs in town, scripting a Short Circuit reboot. This, his latest script, was picked up by Lionsgate earlier this year.
Writer: Matt Lieberman
Details: 108 pages
There are very few writers in town who can write an original spec script that studios are actually interested in. In a world where IP is everything, original material is treated more as a resume than a product. But Matt Lieberman is on that rare list where if he’s got a spec, he’s going to sell it.
And I have a theory about why Matt is succeeding. Right now the script market is so focused on politically-fueled subject matter that everyone is emotionally exhausted after a script read. It’s refreshing to open a script up and it only be about entertaining you. Lieberman just wants you to have fun for two hours. I don’t know about you, but that’s why I fell in love with movies in the first place. Because I could go to a theater for a couple of hours and feel good.
Christmas Chronicles left me with a cheerful smile on my face. Let’s see if MacHines does the same.
It’s about 20 years in the future and 10 year old Sam lives in a beautiful countryside home where his genius father is busy working on the next world-changing invention. Meanwhile, while he’s busy, Sam is parented by two robots, Jack and Amy. These robots look and act like real people. They even have empathy. And although Sam loves the few moments a day where he gets to see his real father, Jack and Amy are so active in his life, they might as well be his mom and dad.
When Sam’s father dies, the company funding his research heads to the home to reclaim their property – Jack and Amy. Realizing Sam will be raised by these corporate scumbags, Jack and Amy flee with Sam to the suburbs, where they come up with a plan. They’ll blend in as a real family then look for a great family who can take Sam in.
Sam’s dad’s old company places its best robot bad guy, Patrick, on the job. Patrick must find out where the MacHines (as they’ve named themselves) have escaped to, go there, and bring them back. Meanwhile, Sam gets to go to school for the first time and interact with real kids, something that has its pros and cons. The MacHines also build Sam a six year old robot sister to better mirror the nuclear family experience.
As Patrick closes in, the family begins to have doubts about giving Sam away. But none of that ends up mattering since Patrick is able to kidnap Sam, using him as bait to get Jack and Amy to come to him. Since they have no other choice, they show up, and it’s then that they learn the truth about Sam, which, if you’ve watched your fair share of science-fiction movies, you can probably figure out yourself.
Meet the MacHines has a lot of potential IF it’s played more as a comedy. Right now it’s in this weird place where it’s taking itself too seriously, and I’m not sure the execution is up to par with this approach. The best moment in the script is when the family has to go buy clothes for the first time and we cut to a store and Jack says to one of the assistants, “Excuse me, I was wondering if you could help us choose clothing befitting a normal family,” and we pull back and he’s talking to a mannequin. We needed more of that and less serious drama. Because the idea of a robot family trying to fit in as normal people is a funny one. Why treat it any other way?
The script had a few other things working against it. For example, it was unclear who the protagonist was. I thought it was Sam at first. Then I figured it may be Jack. Then I figured it was Jack AND Amy. Then I settled on the whole family. While this is certainly doable, it’s harder than it looks. For whatever reason, the audience feels better when they’re connected to an individual.
Even in Avengers Endgame, we needed those scenes where it’s just Tony Stark trying to figure out how they’re going to solve this problem. He’s the hero. He’s the one who makes all the other pieces move. And if you’re bouncing around from family member to family member and everyone’s getting the exact same amount of time, the audience feels like they never get to know any one person well. Again, IT CAN BE DONE. It’s just really hard. And most writers who try it fail.
Another problem is that the goal here is murky. We’re told they’re going to look for a family to raise Sam. But it isn’t clear how that’s going to work. I mean, once they find a family they like, was the plan to walk up, tell them they’re robots, and ask if they’ll raise Sam for them? When it comes to major structural pieces of your screenplay like the goal, you don’t want to mess with murky. These are things you want to be strong and clear.
Another thing I would’ve changed is having Jack and Amy parenting Sam already (at the beginning). The real dad is never around so they do all of the parenting duties. Except the whole idea behind this premise is that the the parents have to figure out how to be “real” parents. So if they already have been parents for the past ten years, then achieving that goal isn’t difficult. Why not have them be caretakers at the mansion? They’d interact with Sam, but only in a robotic binary manner. That way we’re really wondering how they’re going to pull off this suburban family thing.
This reminds me of that movie, Keeping up with Joneses, which was about a hitman/woman pretending to be a suburban married couple. But Lieberman’s premise is better and has more opportunity for unique comedic moments, which is one of the most prized possessions a comedy premise can provide. Lean harder into the comedy and remove anything that deals too seriously with their situation. This isn’t that kind of movie.
[ ] What the hell did I just read?
[x] wasn’t for me
[ ] worth the read
[ ] impressive
[ ] genius
What I learned: When it comes to comedy concepts, you’re looking for something that provides you with comedic scenes you haven’t seen before. So with Keeping up with the Joneses, you’ve got a killer couple who’s pretending to be normal suburbanites. The problem is, we’ve seen guns and suburbia before. We’ve seen it with Mr. and Mrs. Smith. We’ve seen it with True Lies. So there isn’t a comedic moment you’re going to be able to show us that we haven’t seen before. With the MacHines, however, we could spend 20 minutes in the comments section and probably come up with 5 original comedic scenarios for the idea. This is the value of an original comedic premise.
