Standby by Patrick Tierney – Pitch

by Tom | Apr 26, 2024 | Contests, Industry Diary, Industry News, News, Our Winners, Pitching, Updates, WriteMovies News

Pitch: Standby by Patrick Tierney – After their friend’s death, three friends set out to see their favorite band’s final performance on Saturday Night Live – even if it means breaking into the studio…

After becoming an award-winning script in the 2022 WriteMovies Screenwriting Contest, we’re now inviting approaches from the industry to take it to the widest audience possible!

About the pitch: Standby by Patrick Tierney:

Gail’s life is going nowhere. Single, barely employed, and rudderless, Gail approaches 40 with a terrifying realization — that she hasn’t accomplished anything. What’s worse, she’s drifting apart from Beth, Mallory, and Sheila — her best friends since childhood.

When Beth dies unexpectedly, Gail convinces Mallory and Sheila to finish Beth’s bucket list. The only item left unachieved? Seeing their favorite band, Manic Pixie Dream Girl, perform live in concert. Turns out, it’s now or never — the band is breaking up, and their final performance is only days away… on Saturday Night Live!

Since tickets are notoriously hard to come by, they have no choice but to tackle the legendary SNL standby line — a grueling all-nighter on the streets of Rockefeller Center. If our heroes (and their bladders) can survive the inane rules, territorial superfans, and a brewing nor’easter, the tickets will be theirs by morning.

But even then, standby tickets are no guarantee. If Gail, Mallory, and Sheila *really* want to see Manic Pixie Dream Girl perform “live from New York,” they’ll have to do whatever it takes — even if it means breaking into Studio 8H.

But when NBC Studios throws down the gauntlet, the obstacles may be more than our heroes can handle. Beth was always the “glue” that held their group together — can their friendship survive without her? Can Gail finish anything she starts? If our heroes have any chance of succeeding, they’ll have to give it all they’ve got — with a little help from a psychotic stand-up comedian, a telepathic zoomer, a shotgun-toting boomer, and the ever-elusive ghost of Ellen Cleghorne.

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