A young boy chases his dog and encounters chaos in the dreamed 3D Wonderland of New York City.
MAX & CHARLIE follows an audaciously cute boy (Charlie) on his adventure through a surreal and picturesque New York City Spring day as highly visual city set pieces highlight the daylong chase of his best friend, a beagle named Max.
While Charlie is ostensibly chasing Max through this dreamland cityscape, he foremost confronts his dawning perception of chaos and its relative patterns. As he crosses paths with iconic city characters and traverses a series of lessons on the nature of growing up, Charlie begins to see and understand the chaos that is life, the chaos that is growing up. And the chaos that is the city. This city.
This all may or may not be happening in a dream (spoiler alert: it is, a la Alice in Wonderland). But there’s a slight twist to this dream world (and I hope you read the script to find out what it is).
This is quite fundamentally a simple, sweet, and lovely little adventure through the greatest city in the world on one of the most beautiful days imaginable. It’s a young boy’s early coming of age story: not from boy to man, but from young boy to boy. And while the edge of this high-level idea (chaos and its patterns) could be overly heady, it’s relieved by the sweetness of Charlie himself and the abstract world that is a dreamed New York City.
MAX & CHARLIE has been entirely conceived – and will be wholly presented – in beautifully unique 3D, bolstering the visual backbone of the underlying storyline. It’s also worth noting that while the visuals will be highly stylized and use the latest in available digital trickery, this film will be live-action; that is, not animated.
This same storyline will be translated into three primary (and independently-created) properties: a 3D feature film, a 3D graphic novel, and a 3D video game; production is currently underway on the graphic novel (please inquire to see sample art); the film and game are in preproduction.
MAX & CHARLIE will be G-rated and the overall property will strive for the broadest-possible appeal. Written as a “thinking kid’s” movie, its thematic hooks and visual style will nonetheless appeal to a wide demographic: like any successful children’s film, it will aim to speak to the kid in all of us.
MAX & CHARLIE was written by Zack Lieberman and will mark his feature-length directorial debut.
