THRILLER, ACTION, FANTASY

Dr. Price is convinced to climb Mt. Everest to investigate a hundred year old mystery. The first western adventurer to reach the summit, George Mallory, is believed to have reappeared as a corpse on the mountain. Instead of using science to uncover the mystery, an accident thrusts Price into a world of magic. Price enters Shangri-La, the mystical mountain utopia, only to find there are hidden cracks in the society's image of perfection.

GOOD

THIRD PERSON

Authors Writing Style: GOOD

Characterization: FAIR

Commerciality: GOOD

Franchise Potential: EXCELLENT

Pace: GOOD

Premise: GOOD

Structure: FAIR

Theme: FAIR

The short summary in the Book Profile is cut off and has no mention of Shangri-La nor Price who both the main components of the tale. The development pitch starts with the Horizon but the story focuses mostly of Price and 21st century reality before diving into Shangri-La. The short summary would be more easy to follow chronologically if it match the order of the book's story.

The connection between James Hilton's classic and the new tale set up a good expectation of exploring the unknown. The dialogue and pacing are quick and the hidden world is surreal.

Although an update on the 1930s tale and fantasy, the political correctness isn't always modern. For example Sang Yoon is more two Korean names combined but it used as a vaguely Asian name with no connection to Tibet, Nepal or China where Shangri-La would be culturally tied to. There is a lot of explanations in the narrative that are sometimes repeated so breaking up or reducing the exposition and showing rather than telling when possible could help minimize excess explanation.

THE STORY RELIES HEAVILY ON SPECIAL EFFECTS

The hook is that Price heads to Mt. Everest and ends up in Shagri-La. Both are visually stunning locations that hold a lot of mystery because they are hard to get to (regardless that Shangri-La is a fictional place). The timelessness of Shangri-La and finding out how the utopia is not perfect is what attracts one to the mystery.

This could have a large fanbase because the mythology is easily understood and the action sequences are compelling and decently paced.

Although the characters are likeable, the action heavy element means they do not have much depth or internal conflict to garner acting award notice. This could win technical awards however for set design for the homage to Shangri-La.

LARGE BUDGET

THE GREAT WALL, EVEREST, THE GIVER, LOST HORIZON

The uniqueness is the way the mystery unfolds in that Price is seemingly a man of science out to conduct a dangerous investigation on Mount Everest and what solves the case is magic in running into hundred year old Sandy Irvine inside of the utopia of Shangri-La. Although this is still a romanticization of West meeting East like the original Lost Horizon story where the world was created, updating the subjects to be more modern rather than just colonial and foreign could enhance the characters.

Price is dedicated and daring. Sang Yoon is fierce and wise but also peaceful and joyous. Irvine as humor and whimsy with his outdated-ness but he is still a highly capable adventurer.

This has potential, but the characters lack an inner conflict to make them fully three dimensional. They do not seem to have flaws or setbacks and are always quite successful in overcoming their external conflicts so it is unclear what their flaws are.

Film - Indie, Film - Streaming, Film - Studio, TV Series - Limited Run / Mini-Series, TV Series - Streaming

WORK IN PROGRESS

While the story has many positive points, it has room for improvement (see possible paths below). If you can't change the story at this point, my suggestion is using your notes as a guide to highlight the best aspects of it when taking the next steps, either putting a pitch page together, a treatment, or a presentation.

Updating the political correctness of the tale from its 1930s source such as not referring a vaguely Asian nation with a villain from there having yellow skin would make the narrative more marketable. Adding inner conflicts and personal objectives to the lead characters would also allow for subplots and depth rather than a action story mainly about overcoming the singular external conflicts presented in the moment.