John Madormo was recently named the Grand Prize Winner of the 2009 Reno Film Festival's Annual Synopsis Contest for his family comedy screenplay, "Paulie Perkins, P.I."
He also won the Best Family Film Synopsis in this same competition. You can read the winning synopsis below.
STATUS: "Paulie Perkins, P.I." is available to be optioned.
Synopsis:
Ever been stuffed into a locker…discovered fake barf on your desk…or had your lunch money stolen? At last, a remedy for those annoying, anonymous middle-school pranks. Help is but a desk away.
In a family comedy adventure entitled “Paulie Perkins, P.I,” you’ll meet the title character—a 12-year-old, self-appointed private investigator. In the classroom, Paulie is head and shoulders, and one belt notch, above the rest. His wit—more biting; his mind—more analytical; his rates—50 cents a day plus expenses; and his frame—slightly rounded.
Paulie credits his powers of deduction to Nick Dakota, Private Eye, the main character in a series of mystery novels that Paulie has read countless times. Before long, however, the young gumshoe tires of mundane, junior-high challenges, and yearns for the big score—a case that only a Nick Dakota could solve.
Paulie soon gets his wish when he discovers a decades-old, first edition Nick Dakota novel in the basement of the public library. When he opens the cover and blows away the dust, a strange thing occurs. The particles begin to take shape, and before his eyes appears Nick Dakota, in the flesh.
The old-school P.I. invites Paulie to accompany him on his next caper. But to do so, the youngster will have to travel with Nick back onto the pages of the novel. Paulie can’t resist, and soon finds himself embroiled in a 1930’s murder mystery, complete with mysterious redhead and gun-toting thugs.
When newspaper heiress and socialite, Millicent Austin, wanders into the offices of Nick Dakota, the life of one unassuming 12-year-old is forever changed. Distraught over the untimely death of her father, media mogul Vernon Austin, Millicent has inherited a piece of land in a rural country setting. Her plans to build a vacation villa on the site are unexpectedly derailed when construction workers, excavating the land, fall deathly ill. In fact, anyone who burrows into the property soon finds himself in a hospital bed, clinging to life.
Wary of the young woman and her story, Nick reluctantly accepts the case. He and his new associate soon learn that this caper involves more than just an unfriendly piece of real estate. The investigation begins to focus on the unusual circumstances surrounding the death of Millicent’s late father, the unexplained disappearance of his longtime business manager, and the quirky behavior of Vernon Austin’s business partner, Frederick Holmes, the paper’s new publisher.
It is Paulie alone, however, who single-handedly uncovers a centuries-old legend that ultimately solves the case. Despite Nick’s incessant pleas for him to “stick around and take over the agency,” Paulie is anxious to return to the real world. It seems that flying lead, the smell of a decaying corpse, and street hoods intent on deep-sixing the youngster, are more than enough to convince him that middle-school Mickey Mouse mysteries are challenging enough for his tastes.