The dinner party: A screen treatment

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By Erica Schoenberger and Melissa Webb Wright

Premise: What social life would be like if people behaved like dogs.

Opening scene: A living room. Some of the guests have already arrived and are racing around the room, variously hugging, colliding, dancing around each other, patting one another vigorously on the shoulders and jumping up and down.

Another guest arrives at the door and rings the bell. Everyone runs over to the door, evidently excited beyond belief, and stands or jumps around, jostling each other while staring at the door and yelling, "WHO'S THERE?!?! WHO'S THERE!?!?!"

The guest on the other side of the door yells back, "WHO'S THERE?!?!? WHO'S THERE!?!?"

Somehow, the new arrival enters and the party resumes as before.

The camera follows several of the guests around, including:

A muscular male dressed all in black who carries a Frisbee everywhere, clutched tightly to his chest. If anyone touches the Frisbee, he whirls abruptly around and stalks off, glaring over his shoulder.

Another man, dressed in plaid, rather jolly, who has a drooling problem. Every so often he shakes his head and drool flies onto adjacent guests, who don't even notice.

A depressed-looking woman who spends the entire evening methodically ripping a large, stuffed chair to shreds.

A small group huddled together in a corner. They are all talking loudly and at the same time about completely unrelated subjects.

A huge guy, with jeans jacket and tattoo, who goes up to various people, drapes his arm over their shoulders and gives them a giant squeeze. Whoever it is immediately hands their hors d'oeuvre to the guy, who eats it.

A very small old lady with frizzy hair who leaps out from behind the furniture at passersby and speaks sharply to them. Even the huge guy is daunted.

The party Lothario who sidles up to anyone, male or female, and tries to smooch, but often misses the other person's face. Nobody seems to mind.

Various bits of action occur: Someone emerges from the bathroom, and everyone rushes over and crowds in to see what's happened.

A guest, looking out the window, suddenly gets very excited and yells, "A CAT!!! A CAT!!! A CAT!!!" Everyone rushes to the window and joins in, yelling "A CAT!!! A CAT!!! A CAT!!!"

Two people--one  [Continued]

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