Surprise, Surprise

The Story

CROSBY TYLOR, a smart, but socially-under confident, college student falls in danger of failing his Philosophy Class at the prestigious Adams University. To save his grades he reluctantly accepts a Final Class Project from his lovely, yet supportive teacher MS. LYMAN that charges him to find out What Attracts a Female to a Male from Different Philosophical Perspectives and Why? Its a project that will save Crosby's grades, and his scholarship...all in one fell swoop!

Its also a project that no other student in Ms. Lyman's previous classes has been able to successfully complete in the past two years. All the while challenging Crosby to do something he has been afraid to do all of his life, and do right for that matter...SUCCESSFULLY TALK TO WOMEN.

Hope however comes in the form of CYNTHIA SIMPSON, a beautiful, charming, yet naive woman from an online website called LOVERSPACE.COM, who wants to get to know Crosby based on his personality. Fearing what Cynthia might think about his looks, Crosby unwittingly CONS his ultra-sexy, womanizing best friend, J, into posing as himself to date Cynthia and grab data on her reactions toward J in a public setting for his project.

As the great friend J is, he reluctantly goes along with Crosby's plans and hits it off with Cynthia, who is falling deep for J, while totally oblivious to Crosby's scheme. Meanwhile Crosby begins to fall deep for Cynthia based on their verbal interactions with each other, while a displeased J falls for a sweet and lovely small business owner named, AP, throwing Crosby's plan into deep peril.

High stakes, high rewards, and high hilarity are are all on the line, as Crosby must do everything he can to maintain his desperate ploy to everyone. Otherwise, his present and future surprisingly, might go all up in smoke.

My partner, Laz (Jacquin Holland), and I came up with Surprise, Surprise back in 2005 during a period we were coming up with new concepts to produce. Laz was thinking of a comedy movie where I (myself) would play a college student who uses an online dating website to find a girl that I like, but uses my best friend to serve as my proxy, to date this girl over fear of rejection by this girl, because of how I looked.

During this time, I was really into Internet dating because with how I looked at the time, I felt as if I could never talk to a girl in person or get a girls number, much like my completely handsome best friend and partner. I was a 290 pound, unattractive, glasses-wearing, professional wrestling watching dweeb (in my eyes). You can say I had an extreme low-level of self-esteem, using the Internet to cover my introductions to women for me, rather than being a social butterfly. I was wrong on that one, personally. Matter of fact, as I was doing some research in regard to the movie, I learned some startling facts that really affected how I looked at myself, and also the main character from a writer's point of view, even to this day.

Did you know that "Over 85% of the world suffers from some form of lacking low self-esteem (Dr. Joe Rubino - The Center for Personal Reinvention)." When I first read that statistic, it compelled me because, that's at least 85% of the world that has doubts and fears. That's at least 85% of people in the world who suffer from issues dealing with their own confidence, with how they look, how they act in public, and how they feel inside and out.

Knowing these new facts and looking at my life in that retrospect, I felt as if that was a calling card to effectively write this screenplay in a manner that was both honest and truthful to myself and our team, and have a bit of self-exaggeration in comparison to my life as well. Laz was onto something, and I knew it as well. That's all it took for me to be on board with penning Surprise!!!

Producer's Statement - Crosby Tatum

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