Gothamites pitch

        GOTHAMITES

         Created by:  Juvaun Kirby and Allen Warner

“GOTHAMITES” follows ten-year-old Bruce Wayne as he first meets and interacts with the kids who will grow to become his greatest friends and foes.  An action-packed series focused on both the fun and tumultuous times of being young, and how childhood choices and experiences shape each character’s familiar future.

THE SETTING

“The Wayne Home for Wayward Children” is an expansive abandoned hospital Bruce’s Father was converting into an orphanage to house and educate Gotham City’s orphaned children.  Unfortunately, the staff is largely overworked or apathetic, and the young “inmates” are running the “asylum.”  The facility provides everything a kid needs for a creative outlet and real-world skills, but most of the emotionally-scarred kids exploit it for selfish reasons, using dark corners of the compound to plot their mischievous schemes.  Bruce must use his burgeoning skills and newly adopted Batman persona to preserve what his Father built and protect the innocent kids who need a hero.

MAIN CHARACTERS

BRUCE WAYNE…is well-mannered, highly-skilled, and incredibly intelligent for a ten-year-old, having learned from the greatest teachers his Father’s money could buy.  He is, however, still a kid, and struggles with his bad temper, bottled-up emotions, and inexperience interacting with kids his own age.  Seeing the state of the orphanage, he quickly decides to put all his pent-up energy and aggression into building his newly created Batman persona, and becomes obsessed with making sure everyone either follows the rules or faces the consequences.  He starts to put his lessons to use with amateur detective work and making homemade gadgets, doing his best to keep it all a secret from…

ALFRED…is Bruce’s middle-aged guardian, a wise and kindly man dedicated to Bruce and the Wayne estate.  He’s an amateur writer and avid reader, and loves telling Bruce stories about everything from heroic knights to Old West lawmen.  Following his parents’ death, Bruce becomes more distant and introverted, but Alfred remains patient, attributing it to emotional trauma and pre-adolescent growing pains.  He doesn’t seem to notice Bruce’s new affinity for creating strange contraptions and sneaking out at night, but Alfred is smarter than he seems, and has some secrets of his own.

HARVEY DENT…is handsome, intelligent, and should be one of the most popular kids at the orphanage, except that he’s an unapologetic tattle-tale and teacher’s pet.  He immediately becomes Bruce’s best friend/tagalong because he’s lost all faith in the staff and feels like Bruce is the only one who has the pull to make the bad kids follow the rules.  He has no idea that Bruce is secretly Batman, but Bruce has no clue that Harvey’s obsession with good behavior comes from a secret desire to do bad himself.

THE JOKER…Jack used to be the most popular kid at the orphanage, an immature class-clown who kept the kids entertained with jokes, pranks, and card-tricks.  Then Bruce arrived.  The girls liked him, the boys wanted to be him, and nobody paid attention to Jack anymore.  His harmless pranks quickly evolved into dangerous, mean-spirited attacks.  He found a new niche as the badboy clown-prince, and makes it his hate-filled mission to see Bruce and everything his Father built ruined.

POISON IVY…is a peace-loving hippie-in-training, spending all her time tending to the vast orphanage gardens.  Bruce is fascinated with her constant positive attitude, and they immediately develop an opposites-attract bond.  She always sees the glass half-full and the best in everyone…just don’t mess with her plants.

SUPPORTING CHARACTERS

Young versions of all the classic Batman characters will appear including The Penguin, The Riddler, Robin, Catwoman, etc.  Some are simply more childish versions of their adult selves, while others are the opposite of what we know them to be.  We learn their childhood back-stories, and see how life at the orphanage and their interactions with each other shape the adult heroes and criminals they’re destined to become.

THE FIRST EPISODE

Just a month after his parents’ death, young Bruce Wayne asks Alfred to show him all his Father’s holdings, feeling like he needs to be a grown-up now and monitor everything his Dad worked so hard to build.  Most are pretty boring for a ten-year-old, but Bruce is fascinated with the huge, half-refurbished orphanage.  Being home-schooled, he’s never met many other kids and is immediately both intrigued and shocked by their creativity, interactions, and rebellious behavior.  Always confident, not to mention cocky and self-righteous, he politely but firmly tells the kids to follow the rules and respect the home his Father built for them.

Of course, Jack doesn’t like being told what to do, and in his mind, he runs this place.  He tries to trick Bruce, but it backfires.  Bruce calls him a clown, and all the kids laugh him out of the room.  Hurt and hate-filled, he embraces his new label, wearing clown makeup all day and pulling increasingly mean-spirited pranks on the most vulnerable kids.  He manipulates some kids into helping him to pull his greatest prank yet, and they sneak out at night into a bat-cave on the edge of the grounds, cages in hand.

The next day, Harvey is following Bruce on the playground during recess, telling him all the rules each kid and staff member has broken.  Then The Joker pulls his prank.  All the kids, including Bruce, run for cover as they release cages full of trapped bats that blot out the sky.  Bruce is scared, but more interested in the effect on the other kids, and the pleasure The Joker gets from their collective fear.  Harvey finally uncovers his eyes to ask Bruce if he saw who did it, but he’s already gone.

Back home, Bruce skips dinner and makes himself a makeshift bat costume and utility belt.  After Alfred falls asleep, he hops in his go-cart and returns that night.  Knowing The Joker now seems set on ruining his Father’s orphanage and the other kids’ lives, he looks for clues to his next prank.  He spies on Harvey and Ivy in the garden where she’s furious that someone has torn up part of her garden; a plot of plants with especially irritating pollen.

He finally finds The Joker and his new clown-faced minions preparing to dump the pollen into the ventilation system while everyone is asleep.  Bruce confronts him, but The Joker just laughs, thinking he’s some kid who’s a fan of his bat prank and might want to join his crew.  He doesn’t.  They fight, as Bruce fights his temper, using restraint and his new homemade gadgets to stop their scheme and capture his new arch-enemy.

The next morning, the staff wakes to find The Joker and his henchmen tied up in the detention hall with a note detailing their bat prank and planned pollen scheme.  Harvey and Ivy walk up behind them, making faces at The Joker and his crew.  Meanwhile, Alfred is calling Bruce down for breakfast, but he’s in the garage attaching bat details to his go-cart.  The walls are covered in drawings of potential “bad kids,” and a childish blueprint of the orphanage.  Bruce tells Alfred he’ll be right there…

And finally smiles for the first time.

FIRST SEASON EPISODE STRUCTURE

Determined to protect the orphanage and its innocent kids, Bruce visits nearly every day either as himself or Batman.  Each episode, he meets a new classic friend or foe for the first time, either kids he hasn’t met yet or ones who’ve just arrived.  He solves mysteries and stops mischievous plans, making friends and enemies while doing his best to keep his Batman persona hidden from Alfred.

Everything culminates in the first season finale as Harvey and Ivy help him to stop The Joker’s most dangerous scheme yet.  One that reveals Ivy’s dark side and leaves Harvey temporarily disfigured, ruining their friendship, and leaving this young Batman in search of a new protégé to help him with his cause.