Caught Out There captures a sweet spot of Black nerdery and humor, somewhere between speculative fiction and romantic comedy. Starting with a hilarious look at dating by zodiac sign, the movie will pull viewers into a world that turns out to be heavily populated by aliens.
Even the movie’s tagline prepares us for some fascinating comedy: Heartly and Malik are two star-crossed singles who join a matchmaking service and get more than they bargained for when they discover extraterrestrials in the dating pool.
The main characters are individual romantic leads, but their unusual friendship is also quite the trip for this Gemini woman and Scorpio man. It all unfolds as the writers skewer each astrological sign, from the attention-hogging Leo, to the tragically romantic Libra, to the coldhearted, sexy Sagittarian.
The movie is a witty escape fantasy that asks us to consider a universe of extraterrestrial Blackness and how Earthlings (specifically from the Baltimore/DC area) might contend with such a revelation. In a movie landscape that seems primarily rife with Black pain stories, Caught Out There treats us to a tale designed purely for fun. Its sci-fi/fantasy leanings are slight, but a particular pocket of Black nerd culture shines through.
Wanna see this movie? For now, there’s only the publicly available screenplay on ThreeZeroMedia.com while the writers seek support to get it made. The webpage quips, “They’re all standing in line at the theater of your mind.” There’s even a proposed soundtrack—a listing of the songs that were written in as part of the story. Local artists Miss Tony (Baltimore [RIP]) and Dimensions (Washington, DC) are included alongside The Commodores, Con Funk Shun, Juvenile, and an up and coming young artist named Casey who is Los Angeles based, but Baltimore-born.
When asked about producing the screenplay, writer Christopher A. Brown said, “Ideally we’d like to have enough funding to get our film made the best way possible: Hiring the best actors, top-shelf director, state-of-the-art visual effects. That being said, we also don’t want to lose the spirit, charm and love of the script and the intended look and feel we imagined when writing it, so if necessary we’d take the reins and handle it ourselves. Either way, we want to have a hand in the development and production of our dream and be able to see it through to the end.”
“We’ve been attempting to do it ourselves,” says co-writer Tahira Chloe Mahdi. “Starting with casting, but no luck yet on the major roles. And we also have jobs and career work, so it’s been a challenge. But, I take that as, maybe it’s supposed to be done on a bigger scale. I am visualizing and manifesting the right support. And, we’re already working on part two. Just gon’ keep goin’.”
The end of the movie is set up for a sequel, but Mahdi and Brown have outlined an entire movie universe with overlapping storylines. Mahdi’s writing background includes the local bestseller God Laughs, Too: Incidents in the Life of a Black Chick (2003) and music/entertainment journalism with Take Me Out to the Go-Go and DCBrand99. Brown’s writing career has focused on gaming, comics, and pop culture, as well co-creating the animated short Bullet Head and the webseries App Love.
If you’re looking for a good read, Caught Out There is a thoroughly entertaining joyride, and a brand new, unexplored potential Black franchise that deserves financial and cultural support.