STATUS: IN EARLY PRE-PRODUCTION

GENRE: Docudrama

THE PITCH: TBA

TAGLINE: TBA

LOGLINE: TBA

Detailing one of the most unbelievably corrupt cases of an easily-proven innocent young man going to prison for a crime he didn't commit because, not one but, EVERY level of our broken injustice system failed him!

Beginning pre- production in 2025.
Originally, this was going to be a standard documentary with a LOT of re-enactments. However, the end-game of producing this project necessitated a change in format.
The goal is to create an open-ended story so that the audience will feel compelled to make donations in order for Anthony to be able to finally afford a $140,000+ criminal attorney in order to right this wrong and for Anthony to get legally exonerated, thus the audience is able to take on the role of giving this mostly-dark story a positive, happy ending.
In order to connect with the audience as much as possible and to allow them to truly feel and experience Anthony's plight, it was decided to show-not-tell, to dramatize the situation instead of having a standard documentary of a bunch of people simply talking about the situations with some cheap, quick re-enactments with low production values. The reasoning is: If the audience emotionally connects to the true story instead of passively hearing about dry facts, there is a better chance they will feel inclined to donate to his cause.

A prime example of this type of docudrama that puts the audience in the person's shoes to experience what the subject went through is the Apollo 13 movie starring Tom Hanks

Unlike many Hollywood adaptions of true events, almost no part of this docudrama will require any artistic license as the TRUTH is so unbelievable there is no need for added drama. The only deviation from precise reality will be some (true) dialogue will be spoken by certain people that was not the person that said it, but allows the story to flow better in lieu of having too many "characters" to muddle the story.

Since the exoneration has not happened (yet), and a lot of the backstory and main story deals with minors, only Anthony's name will be unchanged and all relationships between characters will not be disclosed to avoid any unfounded, frivolous lawsuits of defamation. After exoneration, it's all fair game, but Anthony will simply want to move on and finally put this horrific chapter of his life behind him.

Much care will be taken during the early portions of the story since Anthony's backstory deals with dark, sensitive subject manner such as child abuse and child sex trafficking. This is not meant to be exploitative, but rather for the audience to fully comprehend how those events affected Anthony in a way that he would never subjugate anyone else to that torture - the entire inexplicable basis for the police to file an arrest warrant on Anthony. The filmmakers will use care that audience know what evil is about to transpire without actually showing it and then cut away from the scene at that juncture. If Quentin Tarantino has taught audiences anything about violence in film is that sometimes, what is NOT seen, what is merely inferred can be just as horrific, violent, and dramatic as actually showing the moment.

While the role of some people in Anthony's life will be downplayed simply for pacing issues, after the repercussions of the 2024 documentary "Quiet on the set: The Dark Side of Kids TV", it has been determined to expand one rather-minor Mcguffin role of Anthony's mother in order to get inside her head - which can explore several meaningful issues as well from drug addiction to personal relationships and the reasons that motivate life choices - so that the audience will not jump to conclusions or too harshly-judge Anthony's mother based on what little information they see in the docudrama just as a lot of audience members of the Quiet on the Set documentary had some intense backlash against Drake Bell's mother. Granted, Anthony does not have the same public stature as Drake Bell, but it is not the intention of the filmmakers of this docudrama to inflict any unnecessary stress on someone that does not deserve it simply because the constraints of a film's runtime does not allow sufficient time to fully explain everything. While the best films do not preach to an audience, there is always a certain degree of manipulation of audience (using music, performances, editing, camera angles, selective dialogue), it is always best to allow audiences to come to their own conclusion on themes and characters form a non-biased perspective presented - but in this specific case with the mother, there will be a a small degree of "hey! before you judge her, just know there is way more to it than what you see on the surface since things are not as black & white as some folk may perceive" - whether that may be a member of the audience or some of the people involved in the actual story who can not help but be extremely biased from their perspective.

GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT

THE REAL-LIFE ANTHONY PERRY