Happy Monday!
Tap dancing, Whiplash, La La Land, and two guys trying to pull off something completely insane. What am I talking about?
After we released 8-Ball, Adrien and I went into full idea-overload mode. We wanted our next project to feel like it existed in another universe - something stylized, weird, and ambitious in the best way.
We kept coming back to Damien Chazelle’s work, and around the same time we were inspired by Caterina Rossiti - Adrien’s girlfriend and a real part of the Marquet Films world - who has a tap dancing background. She is also the star of A Menina das Caixas! The original thought was simple: how do we make tap dancing look cinematic as hell?
We had all the stars moving in motion, and the two of us got to writing a new story. A story that showcased tap dancing as a form of prime entertainment for clubs, bars, and the world that surrounded it. It had the anxiety of Black Swan, the obsession of Whiplash, the romance of La La Land, and this surreal, heightened vibe we were chasing. We even had some essences of Guillermo del Toro’s work in the ludicrous world we created.
The story followed a woman working in a tap-dancing club at the height of its popularity. It explored “selling out,” protecting your roots, and what it costs to trade passion for exposure.
We went all in. Multiple drafts. Location talks. Costume ideas. Budget realities. Crew conversations.
And then…nothing. We never titled it. Never moved it forward. It just seemed too ambitious for what we really wanted to make it. Personally, I think it’ll be one of those ideas that we could certainly revisit. Cinema is meant to be daring, so who knows what the future will hold.
For now, it’s just one of those projects, not dead, not alive, just sitting in our vault like a time capsule of who we were and what we were trying to become. I’ve attached a snippet from the script to this newsletter if you’re interested in seeing what it looked like.
Also, feel free to click Read Online (at the top right of this email) to see an attempt at graphic design for this week’s thumbnail (my DM’s are open for graphic design inquiries).
So here’s to the ideas that arrive too early, hit too hard, and stay lit long after their moment passes!
To you and yours,
Pat and the Marquet Films team,
