Logline: 

A fitness freak just released from prison with delusions of being the next Mr. Olympia gets a job selling steroids for a maniacal gym owner and rising tensions quickly turn tragic.

Summary:

Think Nightcrawler meets Whiplash with a bit of I, Tonya. Some have called it a gritty version of Little Miss Sunshine with bodybuilding.  Our protagonist Lonnie Milsap navigates a world of bold and colorful characters that match his own often absurd behavior, from his reckless pursuit of a pump to his fixations with The Hulk. A budding romance offers a ray of hope and stability but Lonnie's obsession with winning and clashes with his bigoted bully of a boss, threaten to derail it. As he spirals deeper into a cycle of drugs and violence we have to wonder if he will take that hard look in the mirror before it's too late.

We deal with themes of Addiction vs Transformation.

"If you lose yourself on the road to success, is it really success?" & "Can people really change?"

We also challenge audiences to rethink how they judge others.

"How far can you fall and still find redemption?"

Another important topic GYM RAT delves into is in the arena of incarceration, recidivism and rehabilitation. Producer Josh Murray spent years working with inmates in prison outreach so it's an issue near to his heart. While the film is certainly a cautionary tale, it's ultimately a story of redemption and hope.   

GYM RAT also goes after society's "standard" and shouts that's not fitness! Everyday social media dictates the lens we view things from and what we are seeing now is a trend, not fitness. Many folks are coming to the conclusion that these airbrushed images define what it means to be healthy and happy, to be “in shape”. We are all bombarded with these kinds of images on a daily basis and we're made to believe that what we see on IG is what our fitness identity should be. Social media dictates how we view ourselves, magazine covers suggest it, we are told through images who we should be and how we should look, this is what's happening to our character Lonnie he believes what he aspires to grants him relevance and worth. While we are pro-fitness, we push back on this misguided ideology of what it means to be "in shape" and misconceptions of what brings happiness.

Production

Beyond our unique story and compelling visuals, we are very proud of our stellar ensemble cast. Greg Orvis (Vikings, Angel Has Fallen) plays our antagonist Phillie, the manical gym owner. The lovely Lena, who captures Lonnie's heart and tries to steer him away from the dark side is portrayed by former Miss Puerto Rico, Mariana Paola Vicente (Self/less, Hot Tub Time Machine 2, Get Hard). Also appearing are Gabriel Jarret (Real Genius, Poseidon, Apollo 13), Diahnna Nicole Baxter (Bosch, Scandal), Amaris Davidson (Insidious 3, Disaster Movie) and Kelly Greyson (Woodlawn, Little Boy) to name a few. We are rounding out the cast with a growing list of cameo's from the bodybuilding and fitness industry to reinforce the realism in the world of the film and boost our reach in marketing to our niche audience!

We had an amazingly dedicated crew lead by John Honoré (Shooting Heroin) behind the camera and Eric Kyle Deshazo (Hobbs & Shaw, Rogue Warfare) in sound. We also had an incredible amount of good will support with some people flying across country to volunteer their assistance, which made it possible to pull off this feat! We've completed 3 weeks of production already and have 1 week left to shoot. We are budgeting for a couple a days each of pickups and reshoots just to be safe, making sure we are completely done with filming when we go back into production this time.

Business Stuff

We have an LOI for distribution from Veritas Films and an LOI for sales representation from veteran sales agency California Pictures as well as strong interest from several other agents and distributors pending review of the edited film. 

Below is a visual breakdown of our existing funds spending and different fundraising milestones. Our most pressing goal and most important hump to get over for fundraising is $85,000, with this we would have a playable film and be in a very solid position for getting the film picked up and fully funded. Our goal is to raise $135,000 to fully complete post-production and have the film ready to go. Any additional investments beyond this, up to a grand total of $185,000 will go towards bringing the film to market (including festivals) and give us additional flexibility and power in giving the film the best visibility.

Fundraising Stages

ROI

Financial Comparisons

The following comps are provided as examples of low-budget, high-quality indie films that have multiple overlapping elements of tone/theme with us. They were also made with mostly up and coming filmmakers/cast (1st/2nd time directors and no big name talent) and in a comparable budget range and production value as Gym Rat (both above and below us). We are intentionally avoiding the extremes of either those indie cult classic films that make massive returns (which are rare) and the flops that suffer from poor quality and/or dismal distribution strategies. These examples are NOT a claim or prediction of how Gym Rat will perform but rather to provide historical context on the kinds of profit ratios that have been earned by films with a degree of similarity to ours. [To find the return multiplier in each of these comps you would divide the third row by the first row and then multiply an investment amount by that (e.g. 1.96 x $5,000 investment = $9,800 return].

Thank you for your consideration and support!