“The Apology”
One Page Treatment by Doug Scribner
A guy does something stupid and needs to apologize to his girl after she breaks up with him and dramatically walks out at a restaurant. He writes apology letter on a napkin at the bar, then types it up when he gets home. He throws away the napkin.
The apology letter he typed up and printed worked so surprising well she comes back to him the next day and they have great make up sex.
He tells this story to his friend/business partner who asks if he could borrow it and use it on his girl friend. That works perfect too. His friend takes his ‘perfect apology letter’ and secretly puts the letter for sale on Fivrr and starts selling it anonymously (the sales pitch can include ‘great make-up sex almost guaranteed!’).
The friend comes clean and together they decide to kick it up a notch and build a website that writes the ‘perfect apology’ (working title) in exchange for bitcoin micropayments (way to highlight Bitcoin)…. the website allows simple customization (enter name here, add nick name here, add one personal memory only she would know here)
Because the letter is effective, it sells amazingly well and they can maintain anonymity only taking payment in bitcoin.
They kick it up another notch and add multiple languages… the letter engine takes off all over the world in every language and they start to becomes rich.
They branch into other letters, breakups, proposals, erotic love letters… they develop automated software/websites to fill in name and a few personal details… It automatically sends letters in exchange for btc for privacy. Like SnapChat, these emails get automatically deleted so no one can copy it.
The site gets hacked, and people’s letters get crossed (breakup letter is now an erotic love letter, erotic letter is now a break up, or, erotic letter goes to Mother in Law instead of apology letter!). Chaos ensues as angry people (mostly wives and girlfriends) try to find out who ‘they’ or ‘he’ is… Makes headline news, media joins the hunt for the anonymous creator of this software… They stay one step ahead with more hacking skills(Redirects the domain to famous DJs, actors, or politician…. Throws the media of the trail).
The partners explain away their new found wealth to family and girlfriends.
The main character who originally wrote the first letter proposes to his girlfriend.
Eventually, girlfriend finally sees a news story that contains a newscaster saying “…and it all started with this original apology letter that was sold on Fivrr” news caster reads letter on air (shows letter text). Girl friend realizes that was the letter he wrote her and is hurt…thinks that he just bought it from Fivrr also –doesn’t realize it really WAS his sincere letter to her. He walks in on her seeing her watch the news story horrified as his lie explodes. Girl friend is crushed as he tries to explain.
In the end everyone finds out who they are. Main character is ‘caught’ and agrees to an interview on National News to avoid lawsuits etc. During National apology he tries to explain that many people can’t say what is in their hearts and rely on other’s words to help them, like greeting cards. Then he sees, girlfriend enters studio, he is surprised, but continues talking about communicating and his love for his girlfriend who he thought he lost…They look right at each other while he speaks on national TV. What he doesn’t know is that she had found his original handwritten letter on the napkin that he wrote and thought he lost. She comes back to him on camera.
They kiss and make up on camera and the interviewer says “I have to ask, why did you write the original apology letter? What were you apologizing for?” . “Oh,” he says “….actually, I don’t even remember” . To NICOLE “Do you”. She thinks about it, but she can’t remember either!
The End