The Premise
HIS SON is an original feature concept inspired by a real-life advice column in The Atlantic — about a man whose adult child, previously unknown to him, reaches out by email. Rather than centering the father, the story unfolds through the eyes of his wife, Maeve: a woman quietly erased from her own family as her husband rediscovers a past she never chose to inherit.
It's a slow-burn psychological drama about female passivity, generational trauma, and the quiet unraveling of a long marriage. MARRIAGE STORY meets GONE GIRL — without the murder, but all the resentment.
"Based on a true story. This film shifts the perspective from the husband to the wife — a woman in a man's story."— HIS SON pitch deck, Tomorrow Studios, Summer 2024
The Story
Four movements. One marriage coming undone.
Forks scratching plates over a silent dinner. Maeve and Frank's long marriage has been quietly deteriorating since their four kids moved out. All they have is each other — and the growing fear that that isn't enough.
Frank receives a message from a 35-year-old stranger claiming to be his son. After the initial shock, Frank builds a bond with Brandon. Maeve does her best to support him — and slowly disappears in the process.
The family travels to Phoenix to meet Brandon. Everything feels fragile but functional — until Josephine, Frank's ex and Brandon's mother, arrives. She is manipulative, destabilizing, and impossible to ignore. Maeve had one boundary. Frank breaks it.
Maeve goes home to Atlanta. For the first time in this story, she makes a choice for herself. She visits her mother, Terry — mentally unwell, fully dependent, and somehow easier to love now than ever before. When Frank shows up at the door, she doesn't want to hear his explanation. She's tired. And she lets go.
The Characters
54. Finance worker. Mother of four. Practical, caring, and perpetually in the backseat of her own life. The film is her awakening — slow, painful, and entirely earned.
55. IT worker. Witty and cheerful until he isn't. He loves his family — he just doesn't always see them.
55. Frank's ex. A 55-year-old teacher who loves her son and weaponizes that love effortlessly. She relishes the disruption she causes and knows exactly what she's doing.
Mentally unwell since before her husband's death. Maeve spent her life managing her mother's chaos — and the film ends with her choosing compassion over resentment.
Commercial Packaging
$15–20M. Comps: Marriage Story ($18M), A Simple Favor ($20M), I Care a Lot ($14M), Love, Simon ($17M).
Greta Gerwig, Diablo Cody, Joanna Calo, Noah Baumbach, Molly Smith Metzler, Bekah Brunstetter.
David Fincher, Jane Campion, Ava DuVernay, Lee Sung Jin, Weronika Tofilska, Paul Feig.
Marriage Story, Gone Girl, I Care a Lot, A Simple Favor, Maid.
The Pitch Deck
View the full presentation developed during the Tomorrow Studios internship.
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