SCREENPLAY & DEVELOPMENT
Trouble in Paradise
Although I’d been writing comics and stage plays for close to 7 years at this point in my career, Trouble in Paradise (an absurdist action sci-fi comedy) was my first crack at a true full-length screenplay. I had been kicking around the concept for a TV series with creative partner Justin Tuan Smith for quite some time. However, it wasn’t until I began working with Jermaine Fowler on the TV series development of Jazz Legend that the project really took shape, with Jermaine signing on to co-develop it as a screenplay.
Justin and I hammered out the script during the pandemic over the following two years, ultimately writing eight full drafts. In the winter of ‘22, TV and film director Jeff Tomsic (Tag, It’s Florida Man) joined the team to help with script and story development. An irony of the whole process was that, while writing the script during both the pandemic and the eventual screenwriter’s strike, we actually watched the film and TV industry change in real time. The landscape in Hollywood in ‘20 was very different from that in ’23, meaning by the time ‘23 rolled around, studios were flat out not making genre comedies unless they could be shot for a few million dollars. Given the heavy action and sci-fi nature of our script, Trouble in Paradise was certainly not that.
About the story: Set in the low-rent district of Las Vegas, the sci-fi comedy Trouble in Paradise kicks off when eccentric tech mogul Arman Tunk loses track of a synthetically engineered, pain-immune humanoid designed to save humanity from extinction. Mistaken for a circus performer due to his colorful clown-like features, the mute creature—dubbed “Poppers”—is recruited by failing theater owner Moe Wainright, who rebrands him as an endurance performance artist to save his business. Meanwhile, Moe’s estranged twin brother Mac eyes the indestructible performer as a desperate replacement stuntman for his upcoming action-musical, Terminator Too! – A Love Story!.
Things spiral out of control when an Eastern European loan shark named Elvis attempts to collect on Moe’s debts by exploiting Poppers for underground bare-knuckle fights and auctioning him off at an elite S&M gala. Forced to set aside their bitter feud, the twin brothers rally a supporting cast of Vegas oddballs to stage a daring rescue. In a final twist, the gang discovers that Tunk manipulated them all along, using the city’s chaotic underworld as an elaborate live field test to evaluate Poppers’ real-world survival capabilities.
created by: JC Lacek
words: JC Lacek, Justin Tuan Smith
development: JC Lacek, Justin Tuan Smith, Jermaine Fowler, Jeff Tomsic
Read the Trouble in Paradise pitch deck below