A pair of brilliant political strategists master-mind a billion-dollar art heist to take down a rogue U.S. president...then run, crisscrossing the continent, as his pair of bungling hitmen pursue them.

SYNOPSIS:

The United States President, having cowed both Congress and the Supreme Court, plots to become the country’s first authoritarian leader.

Dreyfus Samuelson (40), former U.S. Senator Chief of Staff, Alysa (34), his ex-wife and brilliant leader of a left-wing voter organization, and Austin (24), a genius tech nerd, ace a $2B art heist to help four key Democrats win mid-year elections, turn Congress blue, and save democracy.

I - In a desperate plot to steal a right-wing billionaire’s art collection, whip-smart Alysa and her former husband Dreyfus collaborate with scary-smart tech colleague Austin. However, with the FBI on their tails and the couple’s engaged in absurd daily fights, their first efforts fail. Meanwhile, the President closes in on ultimate control.

II – When the heist finally succeeds, and now equipped with boundless funds, the trio support four key Democratic campaigns. Meanwhile the President consolidates his power and the FBI closes in.

To escape, the team commandeers a limo. Its sole occupant happens to be Lady Gaga who, sympathetic to their cause, helps them escape into Mexico. There they mastermind the greatest mid-term election nail-biter in American history.

Although the key democrats win, giving their party a majority, the President attempts to annul the election, inciting a major insurrection, silencing opposition leaders and shuttering the press. He also orders the CIA and enlists a Mexican cartel to capture and kill the three strategists.

III – A dozen CIA agents and three Cartel assassins chase the threesome across the burning rooftops of Mexico City, then through the Sonoran Desert, where Dreyfus and Austin pause for a mind-blowing Sonoran toad ceremony. Then, in the maze and haze of the cartel’s Tijuana-El Paso tunnels, American agents capture the team and American courts sentence them to life in prison.

But, thanks to the threesome, the new Democratic Congress rises and imprisons the president, the new POTUS pardons the team, who receive Presidential Medals of Freedom. In love once more, Alysa accepts a marriage proposal from Dreyfus. They wed on a beach with Austin and friends attending, while whales pass off-shore and Lady Gaga serenades.

THE TONE:

This Adam McKay/Preston Sturges-type comedic thriller combines the hyper-real mechanics of winning tough elections, a daring heist, high-wire chases, some ’30s rom-com dialogue and Cohen brothers’ black comedy. It variously echoes The Diplomat, All the President’s Men, Ocean’s Eleven and His Girl Friday.

THE CHARACTERS

Whip-smart Alysa and brilliant Dreyfus are formerly married and loosely modeled on James Carville-Mary Matalin, Carey Grant-Rosalind Russell, and on co-writers Dreyfus Samuelson and Lisa Herrick. They tease, banter and forever annoy each other.

While Alysa constantly gets her facts wrong and Dreyfus cannot get his head out of his laptop, they share overwhelming and unrequited sexual energy.

Austin, a cross between Harpo Marx and Einstein, is on the spectrum with ADD, cannot relate in a PC way, is unable to track his car keys, and has the hots for Alysa.

THE SCREENWRITERS:

Dreyfus Samuelson is one of the country’s most successful chiefs-of-staff for getting a blue pol elected in a red state. For thirty-four years he navigated Democratic U.S. Senator Tim Johnson’s election wins in South Dakota, from junior House Rep to senior U.S. Senator. In 2008, with Drey’s support, Tim became the sole Democratic Senator in the U.S. to win a red state. Samuelson’s current focus are initiatives to elect moderates on both sides of the aisles.

Lisa Herrick, his wife, heads up Virginia’s and D.C.’s dynamic Swing Left chapter, instrumental in electing tight-race Democrats across the country. Dr. Herrick also is a national leader of the collaborative law movement and a prominent D.C. psychologist, a practice with its share of political leaders and insiders. She has been featured in Modern Living, The Washington Post and other journals.

Jonathan Herrick attended USC’s graduate film school, is a former story analyst for CBS and Dustin Hoffman, first writer for Family Feud, and screenwriter for Academy Award winner Will Vinton. His play Desire, directed by Paul Warner, premiered at the Asylum Theater, NYC in 2007. Pauline Kael called his screenwriting “exceptional.” A part-time couple’s therapist with an MSW from NYU, he is an appreciative audience for Drey and Lisa’s comedic teasing. He lives on Martha’s Vineyard.