What If
Leanne Bishop & Michael Mason, Penguin Pictures
Language: English
Based On: Original Screenplay
Project Type: Feature Film (Scripted)
Genre: Drama
Stage of Development: Currently in pre producition, going to camera Sept 29th, 2026
Estimated Length (minutes): 95 min
Director: Lindsay MacKay
Director Bio:
Lindsay’s latest feature film The Swearing Jar, starring Adelaide Clemens, Patrick J. Adams, and Kathleen Turner, will have its World Premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. Her debut feature Wet Bum, which also premiered at TIFF, was named a Top 10 Finalist in the prestigious Zoetrope Screenwriting Competition. The Film was nominated for Best First Feature and won best debut at Alkino Film Festival in Poland, and Best Film by the International Jury at Ciné Jeune de l'Aisne in France. Lindsay is a graduate of the Directing program at the AFI Conservatory, where she was granted the distinguished Franklin J. Schaffner Fellow and the Richard P. Rogers Spirit of Excellence Awards for her thesis film Clear Blue, which also won the esteemed College Television Award (the Student Emmy). Her work has screened at festivals worldwide including TIFF, SXSW, AFI Fest and Camerimage. She is currently developing a feature version of Clear Blue (Mersea), which recently completed TIFF Writers’ studio 2019 and won the inaugural Post-Production Award at the Frontières Platform in the Marché in Cannes.
Proposed or Confirmed Talent:
Actors attached: Lauren Holly, currently in casting
Total Budget: $ 750,000 CAD
Percent Confirmed: 100 %
Currency: $ CAD
List names of confirmed partners:
Private Equity investors, NS Film and Television Prod Incentive Fund, NS Content Creator Fund. Distribution: Farpoint Distribution Broadcaster: Super Channel
What is this project seeking?
Financing, Distribution, Sales Agent, Broadcaster
Logline:
When 40 something Marley discovers she is the product of a birth mix up, her journey to figure out what family really means begins. Along the way, she reunites with an old friend who is home to come out to the people he's closest with.
Synopsis:
What if you always felt stuck in your life, like something didn’t make sense?
What if your whole life you were fighting to fit into the confines of your family?
What if you were born into the wrong family... and what is family anyway?
This dynamic character driven story follows Marley and Devan, two old high school friends, as they try to figure out how to live their authentic lives.
Marley, mid 40s, struggles with a mid-life crisis as she leaves her long-term fiancé at the altar. Trying to pick up the pieces, Marley discovers a dark secret – she is a by-product of a hospital birth mix-up, she grew up in the wrong family. To her, everything suddenly makes sense. Has her whole life been a lie? And who are her parents really? Do they know about the mix-up? Did they hide it? Or did the hospital just totally fuck up?
Although her family means well, their conservative, orderly life simply doesn’t ‘fit’ Marley. Her new mission becomes finding her real family, and on the way, she reconnects with Devan, who has been struggling with his own identity, and has come home to come out to the people he’s closest with .
Marley’s quest becomes a welcomed distraction from his own personal journey, as he is struggling to find a way to tell the people closest to him.
As the two search for Marley’s birth parents, they each begin to learn the truth about themselves and their families. This journey ultimately puts them on the path to live their personal truths.
Contact Information: leannembishop@yahoo.com, mail@michaelpmason.com
Insta: @leannembishop
Facebook: Leanne Melissa Bishop
Leanne Bishop IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2447574/bio/
Michael Mason IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1444129/bio/
