Middle-Grade Fantasy Novel; Animated Film Pitch

Status:  Active Development

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In19th century Paris, a vagabond approaches a notorious work house and bargains for the life of a mute boy inside. The boy, believing he's meeting his long-estranged family, is adopted by a tribe of subterranean freaks and illusionists who masquerade as clowns, stealing from the unwitting people of Paris through elaborate and inventive street shows.

 

The clowns, wanting the last laugh on a city that has betrayed them, train the boy to be their star. What they don't realize, however, is that while their star is learning the art of clowning, he's falling in love with the sound of laughter. True laughter. Not the mockeries he heard growing up in the work house. 

 

Soon, spurred by a chance encounter with a street performer named Souribelle, the boy realizes he's not who the clowns say he is... and he sets out to confront his past.

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The Clown Prince is the story of how innocence transforms a den of thieves, and how a pair of young street performers -- with a factory's worth of orphans -- take down the cruelest work house in Paris, transforming it into a beacon of hope.