> > Seeing as someday I intend to be a Hollywood exec, I'll offer my take on how to change your story.
> >
> > First off, you need a dog sidekick for the boy and a spunky friend-girl/love interest (depending on how old the boy is) to help him out. If the boy's over like say 14 then they need to start out hating each other and end up falling in love. If they're younger, then they'll start off hating each other and end up being friends. The dog should save the boy roughly three times, and then appear to die in the climax but turn out to be fine before the credits.
> >
> > Now, your plot is a little "audience unfriendly". First we need to establish that the clowns are rather happy folks. We'll get Jim Carrey to play one of them, and maybe have the rest be the Adam Sandler or something. None of them (except for maybe the clown that also happens to be a member of a minority group) can die. Especially not Jim Carrey. For the evil Ringmaster, let's see if we can't get Steve Buscemi or some other quirky and fun character actor to give him a bit more "pizazz" (perhaps even somebody else like Hugh Grant? Give him a sort of "love to hate him" quality... like the Joker from the old Batman TV series, the good one with Adam West). Maybe he could spout out some clever one liners, like when the kid is on the trapeeze or high-wire (you've got a trapeeze set piece in there, right?) the Ringmaster could say "You know, falling won't hurt... but the ground'll kill ya! Muahahaha!" That adds "suspense" and "humor" to an otherwise too dark moment.
> >
> > Now, the boy shouldn't get tortured. I say he gets captured, but before he's tortured he's rescued by the dog or something. I like your idea for the "Wheel of Death" but the ending HAS to go. At the end, they capture/kill the Ringmaster and all go safely home, where the Jim Carrey character starts up a joke shop or something. It'd be much more audience friendly.
> >
> > Ste "Actually, I'm not sold on the whole circus idea. Could we change the setting? Maybe a creepy old building or something, and Jim Carrey could play a crazy Night Watchman who gets tangled up in things..." phen
>
>
> The beauty of Stephen's vision is the potential for tie-in merchandising.
>
> First we develop Jim Carrey's Night Watchman character a bit more, let's say he's an inventor in his spare time. As a night watchman, he has a lot of free time to tinker, so he's always coming up with wacky inventions. For the kid, let's see, how about the kid from Jerry MacGuire? Some sort of brainy kid who looks up to Jim as a father figure. The kid comes over and hangs out with Jim in the evenings...
>
> Now let's work on that setting. The creepy old building needs a hook -- I'm thinking Area 51. Teenagers love the aliens and the government conspiracies. Jim's guarding that warehouse from the end of "Raiders of the Lost Ark", it'll be an "homage" to that movie.
>
> So then we've got Hugh Grant (or John Lithgow? [note to self: check on his availability]) as a rogue operative in the government, probably CIA or NSA (he'll be codenamed "The Ringmaster"). The Ringmaster and his unseen masters want something from the warehouse -- let's say a space-ship jet fighter or a suit of power armor -- something that will make a nice looking addition to the action figure line. The Ringmaster and his operatives kidnap the kid and it's up to Jim Carrey to save the day with all of his wacky inventions. It'll be "Home Alone" in Area 51.
>
> -Faux "let's do lunch" Pas

If your doing something in Area 51 you need aliens, or human alien hybrids. Maybe Jim Carry is a faild attempt at cloneing an alien and was made gaurd of the werahouse by the scientist who didn't want to kill him. His partial alien mind could help him with his gadgerty. It would also allow Carry to get full use of his wacky faces (alien physiology and such). Mabey the dog is part alien too, you know green with a prehinsil tail.

Spider-althoughIthinkcorruptingawritersvisionlikethisisevil,I'drathergoseethismoviethanwatchakidgetotorturedandkilled,butthatsjustme-Boy