Pitch Sale: “It Takes A Village”

CBS Films and Sony Pictures drop six figures on Keenen Ivory Wayans for his comedy pitch “It Takes A Village”:

The family theme makes the film a departure for Wayans. From his raucous sketch show creation In Living Color to his subsequent feature comedies, family-friendly meant lining the cast with his siblings. Here, Wayans sparked to an idea by [producer Todd] Garner (The Zookeeper), who recently became a father and was struck by the litany of mandatory child-rearing accessories — from car seats to baby-wipe-warmers — and fantasized about a stripped-down version of parenting. That led to what Wayans saw as a timely pitch, given the proliferation of single women who’ve recently adopted babies from third-world countries.

“A woman who works for a company that mines natural resources like diamonds and copper heads to a South Pacific island to meet with the tribe in control and when she gets there, she comes across a child with no parents, who won’t leave her side,” Wayans told me. “When she asks who will be the baby’s mother, she’s told the village will take care of the baby until it chooses one. When the baby climbs into her lap and puts its head on her chest, she has an epiphany moment and decides she wants to be its mother.”

Adoption requires the blessing of the chief who, with seven elders, takes up residence in the woman’s snooty gated community — where they become most popular guests among their insular neighbors. Wayans said the concept caught him at the right time, and not just because the project he planned to make — White Chicks 2 — fell apart at Columbia.

As they say on Law & Order, “Ripped from the headlines.” 

There it was, folks. A great comedy concept staring at us right in the face (i.e., Madonna, Angelina Jolie). Don’t worry. I’m collecting stories from the news for next year’s version of “Story Idea Each Day for a Week”.