4. Tropic Thunder: Climate Change
The Pitch: Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller), after making his latest Scorcher film, has decided to forgo any more sequels and make a documentary on Climate Change. Entitled "Scorched Earth: Tugg of Warming", Speedman funds his documentary through a Kickstarter (or "S**tstarter", as Les Grossman is fond of calling it) and recruits Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.) and Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black) to help him film for two weeks in the Antarctic. There's just one problem...Les Grossman (Tom Cruise) has him under contract for five more Scorcher films, which was a rider in his Tropic Thunder contract. As it turns out, Grossman never wanted to make Tropic Thunder, but in Tugg's quest for an Oscar he pushed hard for it, and now he has to pay. As such, Grossman hires a bounty hunter by the name of Patrick Cartier (Ferrell) to recover Speedman at all costs. With Jeff having cocaine flashbacks due to all of the snow surrounding them, and Kirk researching his role as a penguin for his upcoming Pixar voice role, Cartier is going to have a hard time getting his man.
Why We Want It: Tropic Thunder did such a good job of sending up the Hollywood system in its first installment that it sounds like a good idea to do it again. This time, the topic of celebrity contract negotiations and charitable causes of the week come into play, which seems like extremely fertile ground for the writers to harvest some excellent ideas. What's more, Speedman's further conversion from action hero persona to concerned citizen of the world is the perfect grist for the conflict mill between Tugg and Les, in turn giving Tom Cruise more screen time (and certainly more obscenities) to indulge in.
Cameo Possibilities: Vince Vaughn will play Dr. George Hopkirk, a researcher in Antarctica whose expertise in Arctic wildlife is only exceeded by his lust for it. Which leads to some rather awkward scenarios with Kirk, as he is dedicated to spending the entire shoot dressed as an authentic looking penguin.