Below are the series of emails between writer Garrett Hargrove and Director Kyle Day as they came up with the script and story around Cherry Bomb. In order to preserve some of the spoilers, we have omitted some parts to keep some of the story a surprise:
11/7/2008 – From Garrett to Kyle
OK. Random idea. Maybe a little messed up, but let me know what you think.
Girl is an exotic dancer. Group of patrons after a show meets her out back and takes advantage of her, beats the crap out of her. When she tries to press charges, [spoiler-saving] protects [spoiler-saving]. (Or something like that). Gives them all alibis. The girl’s brother, who has never really approved of what she did for a living, takes it in his own hands to avenge her. He tries to keep it from her what he’s doing, but eventually she finds out, then finds out she wants to help out. Then brother and sister go on this rampage avenging her, ending with [spoiler-saving].
11/7/2008 From Kyle to Garrett
very interesting. I can picture it being very sleazy and dirty.. maybe the sister seduces men so that they are vulnerable and then the brother makes the kill. I picture the [spoiler-saving] being fat with a stained white shirt and a sawed-off shotgun, a real dirt bag. maybe he keeps a bunch of dogs [spoiler-saving]. i think you could def. have something there. Action and sex sells like hotcakes… might as well put them together. There will need to be a hierarchy of bad guys… there will be [spoiler-saving] and his cronies but I like when the bad guy has a side kick who is even more sadistic… like Mr. Joshua in Lethal Weapon. Maybe the town sheriff or judge is really bad too. At the end, the strippers could band together and tear the place apart looking for [spoiler-saving] and when they find him, its a bloodbath.
11/7/2008 – From Garrett to Kyle
And there’s got to be a decent-ish family guy in the group of guys who abuses the lead girl and they destroy him by going after his family. Not attacking them, but presenting them with evidence of what he was a part of. Not everyone should have the crap beat of out them. Some of them should have their lives ruined. A career man could have his career ruined by them. They figure out the best way to destroy each of them. If someone is a clean freak, they get him infected with an STD? Or is that too funky? Anyways. Could give us a lot of range to get creative with their ways of getting even. Conflict could arise from avoiding police and suspicion.
And I imagine the brother being a very blue collar guy, like a mechanic or something. With easy access to heavy tools. His and the girl are pretty polar opposite. She isn’t a perfect angel.
Then, after the strippers band together, they let the lead girl kill [spoiler-saving]. Then they all band together, much like [spoiler-saving] did, protect her with alibi’s somehow. Or maybe not. Just an idea.
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And this [spoiler-saving] could have a lot of dirt on the Judges and stuff. Maybe they don’t like him, but they won’t cross him and therefore won’t prosecute his friends/clients who assaulted the lead.
11/7/2008 From Kyle to Garrett
yup, that would be an awesome ending if the strippers band together with alibis to protect her, nice role reversal.
haha the brother is deifnitly a mechanic or something. i see him driving an an old camaro or something that he fixed up and at the end I want him to mount a bunch of weapons and shit on the hood and blow people away. We can buy an old junker camaro (or pickup, firebird, etc) for like 800 bucks and fake gun props for less then 1000. A flame thrower would be clutch. Since he is a mechanic, he knows how to build stuff. maybe he builds a catapult in the back of the car that can hurl chain saws. Sorry, getting a little carried away, but that would be really sweet if we showed him at homedepot with a shopping cart full of chain saws and the audience had no idea why. The girl, after she is victimized, will just have to turn into hell on two legs, guns blazing.
yup, always one good guy in the group that does something bad, but the lead guy will not show him any mercy. Ruining his morals in front of his wife and kids could be pretty sweet as long as the audience feels that he got 100% what he deserved. Its definitly good to be creative with how they pursue each of the men but I would lean towards keeping it on the violent side so that the entire movie remains consistant with a filthy vibe. I really like this idea, and I think its a lot of fun. Writing it seperatly will not work very well, we’ll need to develop a tructure where we can either meet in person or virtually to hammer the main ideas out
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yup, I love when theres corruption
11/7/2008 From Garrett to Kyle
Another idea. Set it in the mid1980′s? Takes away a lot of the modern conveniences so we don’t get caught up in texting, web cams or anything like that. Just an idea. Not sure if its a good one or one that’s too hard to pull off.
11/7/2008 From Kyle to Garrett
YES YES YES. I was already envisiong it as john carpenterish 80s in terms of being gritty, and set mostly in the evening. Setting it in the 80s may keep budget down because we can buy junky vehicles and junky applicances to destroy (computers, etc) and the wardrobe can be purchased at goodwill!
11/7/2008 From Garrett to Kyle
If we do go full out Carpenter 1980′s, we would need to get someone who could do us an awesome synthesizer soundtrack.
11/7/2008 From Kyle to Garrett
say no more, my buddy jason owns a high-end synth board and loves doing that kind of stuff and I’m also friends with a music producer downtown, and a composer thats getting his masters at UT. I have the sound dept covered.
11/7/2008 From Garrett to Kyle
bad ass.
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And, I know this may sound bad, but I think a lot of the success of a script like this would depend on her stripper name. It had to be memorable, not too common, not too obvious and not too cheesy (but a little cheesy).
11/7/2008 From Kyle to Garrett
yeah thats a good point, will need just the right amount of cheese.
I attached a pic I drew for a movie poster. Girl in a schoolgirl outfit with a shopping cart full of chainsaws.
11/7/2008 – From Garrett to Kyle
Nice. I like it.
