Happy Frog Films LLC presents...
Cupcake
A working-class single dad (Anthony LaPaglia) struggles to find a sensitive way to confront his 12 year-old daughter about her sugar addiction. To make matters worse he is a baker and they live over their shop giving her all-day access to the sweets. Now he’s horrified to learn that she has set her sights on winning the lead role in the school’s production of Alice in Wonderland – a part an unpopular, overweight girl is unlikely to win. Meanwhile he has to juggle an elderly mother who is addicted to thrift stores and Lion King figurines, an aimless cousin lacking direction in life and the neighborhood soccer moms intent on seducing him for sport.
A darker version of Little Miss Sunshine with a dash of Chocolat. Cupcake deals with addictions of all types and the self-esteem and guilt issues they cause - a never-ending cycle. Drama with comic overtones.
Estimated budget $3 million. Rating: PG-13 or R for adult situations. Audience: age 13-50.
A darker version of Little Miss Sunshine with a dash of Chocolat. Cupcake deals with addictions of all types and the self-esteem and guilt issues they cause - a never-ending cycle. Drama with comic overtones.
Estimated budget $3 million. Rating: PG-13 or R for adult situations. Audience: age 13-50.
Logline: A recovering alcoholic single dad vows to finish his last three amends in his 12-step program to show his sugar-addicted young daughter that addictions can be overcome.
Tagline: Coming down from a sugar high is no treat.
Tagline: Coming down from a sugar high is no treat.
Synopsis:
Tony is a single dad doing his best to raise his 12 year-old daughter Jenny. They live in Pasadena with Tony's elderly mother. Tony's been secretly going to his AA meetings for nine years because his mother doesn't think Jenny should be exposed to "that sort of thing." But Jenny's concerned teacher alerts Tony to the fact that Jenny has an addiction of her own. She's a sugar junkie. Tony is not only a recovering alcoholic but a recovering Catholic, so he is filled with guilt - he thinks Jenny must have learned addictive behavior from him despite the fact that he's been sober for practically Jenny's whole life.
Jenny's sugar addiction shows in her weight - a touchy subject for a male to broach with a young female. And to pile the guilt on even more, Tony is a baker and they own and live above the bakery. Jenny has unfettered access to sweets 24 hours a day.
Tony and Jenny's teacher encourage Jenny to get more involved in some sort of school activity thinking perhaps that might lessen any type of void she may feel that's causing her to overeat. They were thinking about the chess club or maybe an after school craft class. Tony and the teacher are horrified and heartbroken to learn that Jenny has set her sights on winning the lead in the school's production of Alice in Wonderland - a part an unpopular, overweight young girl is unlikely to get.
Tony is a single dad doing his best to raise his 12 year-old daughter Jenny. They live in Pasadena with Tony's elderly mother. Tony's been secretly going to his AA meetings for nine years because his mother doesn't think Jenny should be exposed to "that sort of thing." But Jenny's concerned teacher alerts Tony to the fact that Jenny has an addiction of her own. She's a sugar junkie. Tony is not only a recovering alcoholic but a recovering Catholic, so he is filled with guilt - he thinks Jenny must have learned addictive behavior from him despite the fact that he's been sober for practically Jenny's whole life.
Jenny's sugar addiction shows in her weight - a touchy subject for a male to broach with a young female. And to pile the guilt on even more, Tony is a baker and they own and live above the bakery. Jenny has unfettered access to sweets 24 hours a day.
Tony and Jenny's teacher encourage Jenny to get more involved in some sort of school activity thinking perhaps that might lessen any type of void she may feel that's causing her to overeat. They were thinking about the chess club or maybe an after school craft class. Tony and the teacher are horrified and heartbroken to learn that Jenny has set her sights on winning the lead in the school's production of Alice in Wonderland - a part an unpopular, overweight young girl is unlikely to get.
Treatment:
Colorful balloons and birthday streamers fill a cheerful dining room. Presents and wrapping paper are strewn everywhere. A large group of giggly 12 year-olds sit around the table finishing their pink frosted cupcakes, presided over by the attentive Birthday Mom. She encourages them to change into their bathing suits so they can go swimming in the backyard pool. They all squeal with delight and scurry off…all except one...
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Cast & Crew
Anthony LaPaglia as Tony
Happy Frog Films LLC is thrilled to announce that charismatic and versatile actor Anthony LaPaglia is now attached to this film in the lead role of Tony.
Anthony LaPaglia is a charismatic and versatile award-winning Australian actor most noted for playing FBI agent Jack Malone on the CBS TV series Without a Trace, for which he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Television Series Drama in 2004. He also appeared in eight episodes of NBC’s Frasier as Daphne Moon's alcoholic brother Simon for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series in 2002. Also a prolific stage actor, Anthony reached the pinnacle of his stage career when he won a Tony Award for his performance in a revival of Arthur Miller's A View from a Bridge in 1998.
Though born and raised in Australia, LaPaglia moved to New York in the 1980s to pursue acting and adopted an American accent so convincing that many fans have no idea he is Australian. LaPaglia first caught the eye of many Americans with his supporting role as a polite young mobster in Alan Alda’s hit Betsy's Wedding (1990). He starred alongside Danny Aiello and Lanie Kazan in the utterly charming 29th Street, a fact-based comedy/bio-pic, as the first New York State Lottery winner, Frank Pesce, Jr. This was followed by roles in the vampire/Mafia story Innocent Blood (1992), the Mike Meyers comedy So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993), the legal thriller The Client (1994), and the comedy Empire Records in 1995. That same year, LaPaglia appeared in the role of Jimmy Wyler, lead character in the TV series Murder One, during its second and final season. LaPaglia is also noted for supporting roles in Spike Lee’s Summer of Sam (1999) and Woody Allen’s Sweet and Lowdown (1999).
Before he starred in the revival of Arthur Miller’s play A View From the Bridge in New York LaPaglia was sent a script for the pilot of The Sopranos and met its creator, David Chase, to discuss the role of protagonist Tony Soprano. However, various factors, including his Broadway role, prevented LaPaglia obtaining the role.
In 2001 LaPaglia took a role as troubled Sydney police detective Leon Zat in the critically acclaimed Ray Lawrence film Lantana for which he won multiple best actor awards including the IF Awards, Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards, Australian Film Institute, and the Durban International Film Festival.
Having earned the respect of his peers and acclaim from critics early in his career, actor Anthony LaPaglia finally reached a wide mainstream audience when he starred on the hit procedural drama, Without a Trace (CBS, 2002-09), playing a troubled missing persons FBI investigator for seven successful seasons.
In 2009, LaPaglia played the part of Roger East, a real life Australian journalist, in the political thriller Balibo, about the killing in 1975 of five Australian journalists by the Indonesian Army in the town of Balibo, East Timor. The opening scene depicts East's own summary execution, during the Indonesian invasion. For this role he won best actor awards from the AFI and Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards along with other nominations.
LaPaglia had a supporting role in the Neil Armfield's Australian romantic-drama film Holding the Man, as Bob Caleo and was nominated for an AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role at the 5th AACTA Awards in 2015.
In 2017 he was nominated for best actor in A Month of Sundays by the Australian Film Critics Association Awards.
LaPaglia is a lifelong soccer player who played professionally in Australia and has been a part-owner of Sydney FC since the club's inception in 2004. He was the narrator and executive producer of The Away Game, a critically acclaimed television documentary exploring the experiences of Australian footballers in Europe. He plays occasionally with Hollywood United, an amateur organization of which he is club president, with other luminaries such as Frank Leboeuf, Vinnie Jones, Steve Jones (of the Sex Pistols) and others.
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Anthony LaPaglia is a charismatic and versatile award-winning Australian actor most noted for playing FBI agent Jack Malone on the CBS TV series Without a Trace, for which he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Television Series Drama in 2004. He also appeared in eight episodes of NBC’s Frasier as Daphne Moon's alcoholic brother Simon for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series in 2002. Also a prolific stage actor, Anthony reached the pinnacle of his stage career when he won a Tony Award for his performance in a revival of Arthur Miller's A View from a Bridge in 1998.
Though born and raised in Australia, LaPaglia moved to New York in the 1980s to pursue acting and adopted an American accent so convincing that many fans have no idea he is Australian. LaPaglia first caught the eye of many Americans with his supporting role as a polite young mobster in Alan Alda’s hit Betsy's Wedding (1990). He starred alongside Danny Aiello and Lanie Kazan in the utterly charming 29th Street, a fact-based comedy/bio-pic, as the first New York State Lottery winner, Frank Pesce, Jr. This was followed by roles in the vampire/Mafia story Innocent Blood (1992), the Mike Meyers comedy So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993), the legal thriller The Client (1994), and the comedy Empire Records in 1995. That same year, LaPaglia appeared in the role of Jimmy Wyler, lead character in the TV series Murder One, during its second and final season. LaPaglia is also noted for supporting roles in Spike Lee’s Summer of Sam (1999) and Woody Allen’s Sweet and Lowdown (1999).
Before he starred in the revival of Arthur Miller’s play A View From the Bridge in New York LaPaglia was sent a script for the pilot of The Sopranos and met its creator, David Chase, to discuss the role of protagonist Tony Soprano. However, various factors, including his Broadway role, prevented LaPaglia obtaining the role.
In 2001 LaPaglia took a role as troubled Sydney police detective Leon Zat in the critically acclaimed Ray Lawrence film Lantana for which he won multiple best actor awards including the IF Awards, Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards, Australian Film Institute, and the Durban International Film Festival.
Having earned the respect of his peers and acclaim from critics early in his career, actor Anthony LaPaglia finally reached a wide mainstream audience when he starred on the hit procedural drama, Without a Trace (CBS, 2002-09), playing a troubled missing persons FBI investigator for seven successful seasons.
In 2009, LaPaglia played the part of Roger East, a real life Australian journalist, in the political thriller Balibo, about the killing in 1975 of five Australian journalists by the Indonesian Army in the town of Balibo, East Timor. The opening scene depicts East's own summary execution, during the Indonesian invasion. For this role he won best actor awards from the AFI and Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards along with other nominations.
LaPaglia had a supporting role in the Neil Armfield's Australian romantic-drama film Holding the Man, as Bob Caleo and was nominated for an AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role at the 5th AACTA Awards in 2015.
In 2017 he was nominated for best actor in A Month of Sundays by the Australian Film Critics Association Awards.
LaPaglia is a lifelong soccer player who played professionally in Australia and has been a part-owner of Sydney FC since the club's inception in 2004. He was the narrator and executive producer of The Away Game, a critically acclaimed television documentary exploring the experiences of Australian footballers in Europe. He plays occasionally with Hollywood United, an amateur organization of which he is club president, with other luminaries such as Frank Leboeuf, Vinnie Jones, Steve Jones (of the Sex Pistols) and others.
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Josh Sternfeld - director
Happy Frog Films was so impressed with veteran director Josh Sternfeld's endearing feature Winter Solstice that we approached him to direct Cupcake and we are very pleased to announce he is now attached to direct it.
Josh Sternfeld studied filmmaking at NYU Graduate Film School, where he wrote and directed the award-winning short film Balloons, Streamers. The film screened at the 1997 New York Film Festival, 1998 Sundance Film Festival, and was distributed by the Sundance Channel and Canal+, where it broadcast from 1999-2002.
After completing his degree, Josh worked as an editor for Steeplechase Films on the Emmy-nominated PBS series New York: A Documentary Film. Concurrent with the series, Josh wrote his first feature screenplay Winter Solstice. He developed the script at the 2001 Sundance Screenwriters Lab, and directed the film in 2003; starring Anthony LaPaglia, Allison Janney, Michelle Monaghan and Mark Webber. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and was acquired by Paramount Classics, who released it to international acclaim in April 2005.
In 2008 Josh wrote and directed the feature film Meskada, a police-drama set in Catskill, New York. The film stars Kellan Lutz, Rachel Nichols and Norman Reedus; it premiered at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival. Inferno Entertainment handled foreign sales, Red Flag Releasing acquired North American theatrical rights, and Time Warner Home Entertainment released it in December 2010.
In 2011 Josh co-produced the thriller Darkroom, starring Kaylee Defer, Elisabeth Röhm and Christian Campbell. Phase 4 Films acquired and released the film in 2012. Last year, Josh wrote and directed his first thriller, Amy Makes Three, starring Torrey DeVitto. The film is currently in post-production and is slated to premiere in autumn 2017.
In addition to his feature work, Josh has directed numerous advertising campaigns for online digital media, notably for StyleCaster and most recently for Peloton Cycle.
Josh has also taught screenwriting and film directing at New York University/Tisch School of the Arts. He lives with his wife Andrea and daughter Margaux in New York City.
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Jan Wilson - writer/producer
I was born and raised in Breaking Bad territory -- Albuquerque, New Mexico. I was destined to be a writer since the third grade after writing my first book, Bert the Monkey. It was a great success with my teacher, he was impressed that it had "a beginning, middle, and end." I wasn't sure what that meant but I could tell it was a good thing. I was already instinctively writing in a three-act structure.
In middle school our class read a movie script out loud. I’d never seen a script before. A revelation! “I’m not a novelist, I’m a screenwriter!” The clouds parted. Angels sang. Golden light shone down upon the script on my desk. Days later I decided my friends and I should invent our own storyline for our favorite TV show, make up dialogue and write it all down. I loved it, but my friends lost interest after half an hour. It was my valiant attempt to create my very own writers room! They went for pizza and never returned to the writing. But I never stopped.
In high school I loved all things English, so after graduation I went to art school in London. I explored haunted chalk caves, got known as a ‘regular’ at my neighborhood pub, kissed my favorite rock star in the gorgeous countryside, visited spiritualist churches every week, and walked in the footsteps of Oscar Wilde and Virginia Woolfe. Oh, and I studied a little bit, too. England rocked!
I eventually got homesick, returned to America and earned my B.A. in psychology with a concentration in parapsychology (ESP, ghosts, paranormal phenomena). In college I was one of only nine students accepted to the summer-long intense parapsychology course at the undisputed HQ of American parapsychology the Foundation for Research on the Nature of Man in Durham, North Carolina (successor to the Parapsychology Laboratory at Duke University). I studied with many of the top parapsychologists in the world and did some legitimate ghost-busting with them, and am currently still a paranormal investigator. With TV shows and movies getting more character-driven my psychology degree is a great tool for writing layered, psychologically realistic characters.
Wanderlust struck again. I went to Moscow and taught English to Russians. My time there inspired me to write the feature 900 Days about the siege of Leningrad.
In 2012 I was interviewed by Indie Source Magazine. Read the article here.
After reading 900 Days, Cinemotion Group (a now-defunct Moscow-based production company) hired me to write a feature script about famous ballerina Mathilde Kschessinska, who was Tsar Nicholas' first love before there was Nicholas and Alexandra.
[email protected] 818-522-6191 Happy Frog Films
Manager: Emma Fox at Noble Fox Management [email protected]
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In middle school our class read a movie script out loud. I’d never seen a script before. A revelation! “I’m not a novelist, I’m a screenwriter!” The clouds parted. Angels sang. Golden light shone down upon the script on my desk. Days later I decided my friends and I should invent our own storyline for our favorite TV show, make up dialogue and write it all down. I loved it, but my friends lost interest after half an hour. It was my valiant attempt to create my very own writers room! They went for pizza and never returned to the writing. But I never stopped.
In high school I loved all things English, so after graduation I went to art school in London. I explored haunted chalk caves, got known as a ‘regular’ at my neighborhood pub, kissed my favorite rock star in the gorgeous countryside, visited spiritualist churches every week, and walked in the footsteps of Oscar Wilde and Virginia Woolfe. Oh, and I studied a little bit, too. England rocked!
I eventually got homesick, returned to America and earned my B.A. in psychology with a concentration in parapsychology (ESP, ghosts, paranormal phenomena). In college I was one of only nine students accepted to the summer-long intense parapsychology course at the undisputed HQ of American parapsychology the Foundation for Research on the Nature of Man in Durham, North Carolina (successor to the Parapsychology Laboratory at Duke University). I studied with many of the top parapsychologists in the world and did some legitimate ghost-busting with them, and am currently still a paranormal investigator. With TV shows and movies getting more character-driven my psychology degree is a great tool for writing layered, psychologically realistic characters.
Wanderlust struck again. I went to Moscow and taught English to Russians. My time there inspired me to write the feature 900 Days about the siege of Leningrad.
In 2012 I was interviewed by Indie Source Magazine. Read the article here.
After reading 900 Days, Cinemotion Group (a now-defunct Moscow-based production company) hired me to write a feature script about famous ballerina Mathilde Kschessinska, who was Tsar Nicholas' first love before there was Nicholas and Alexandra.
- I was a semifinalist in the Nicholl Fellowship (the top 3% of 4225 entrants) with drama feature 900 Days.
- Feature psychological thriller script for The Mercy List made the top 10% in the Nicholl Fellowship (the top 10% of 7442 entrants).
- I was a semifinalist in the Austin Heart of Film screenwriting contest with drama feature 900 Days.
- I was a Top Ten Finalist in Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope screenwriting contest (out of over 2000 entrants) with feature drama 900 Days. Coppola himself was the final judge that year. Read the article in Variety.
- My TV drama pilot Some Great Reward made the quarterfinals in Final Draft's Big Break screenwriting contest.
- My TV drama pilot The Rothenburg Girls was a quarterfinalist in the WeScreenplay Television Competition.
- I was a quarterfinalist in the AAA screenwriting contest (sponsored by Creative Screenwriting magazine) with my feature drama/psychological thriller script Milo (now titled The Postman's Reign.)
[email protected] 818-522-6191 Happy Frog Films
Manager: Emma Fox at Noble Fox Management [email protected]
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Comps
The estimated budget of Cupcake is about $3 million USD and it will be rated PG or PG-13. Even though no film on this list cost more than $10 million USD, all of them have garnered multiple nominations and wins, including the two most prestigious awards, the Academy Awards and Independent Spirit Awards. Though worldwide grosses are not always an accurate means of assessing any yields in investments, they are a fairly good indicator. The examples of indie films below were chosen because they are similar in tone to Cupcake.
Comparables: Low-Budget Character-Driven Dramas Since 2006