Life just isn't what you thought it would be
And even on your best days, things go wrong
Like, really wrong
But sometimes you just need to go all in and say…
A dark comedy pilot from Idu House
When $h!t hits the fan, bodies hit the floor.
Written and directed by Damon M. Smith and Aaron Caldwell.
Logline
With their lives already falling apart, two brothers witness a murder and are forced to learn a deadly new job on the fly.
Overview
HIT ME is a grounded dark comedy about two brothers making the worst possible decisions in the worst possible situations.
As their worlds collapse around them, survival comes at a cost they may not be able to afford.
They have no idea what they're doing. That's the problem.
31, the older brother
A slacker who grows weed in his bedroom closet, names every strain himself and keeps tasting notes on a legal pad. When a customer comes up short, he takes their shoelaces.
From the script"I'm bad at math if it's not related to weed."
26, the younger brother
Almost two years into a job he hates, at a tech office with ping-pong tables and nap rooms. He cannot talk to the receptionist he likes or make a layup, and his coworkers remind him of both.
From the script"Murder for hire isn't listed in my skills section on LinkedIn!"
Old-school gangster. The brothers watch him shoot a man behind their building.
Eric's new boss, back after a month away and obsessed with him.
Eric's college friend. Offers $150K to have his wife killed.
Alan's wife. She is listening the whole time.
Brandon's girlfriend. Wants direction, not another night in.
Their mom. Dinner at her house is the last calm night they get.
The pilot
Brandon sleeps in, dodges his girlfriend's questions and sells weed outside a high school for cash and shoelaces. Eric drags himself to an office where the only thing anyone remembers about him is a blocked layup.
Holly returns to the office. The brothers eat dinner at their mom's, drink too much and cut through the alley behind their building, where they watch Al-Pacino Brown shoot a man. He sees them too.
Holly corners Eric with an ultimatum while Brandon takes Eric's car to deliver food. Both end up at Alan's house, where Alan offers $150K to kill his wife. She overhears, attacks and dies by accident. The brothers follow Alan to an ATM.
Read it
The full 49-page pilot is available on request.
From the opening scene
DREAM MAN You couldn't hit me with a heat seeking missile if I was swimming in a volcano BRANDON Well probably not, I think the heat from the volcano would throw off the missile- DREAM MAN You want at me so bad, come on and hit me.
The series
Brandon and Eric lean into murder for hire, however ill-advised that is. Confrontations with Al-Pacino Brown and a run of ultimatums push them toward one choice: how to move forward.
Where the pilot leaves them
He saw both brothers in the alley and sent Kevin and Jamario to find them.
After overhearing Alan's phone call, she went straight to Al-Pacino Brown in her contacts.
Alan is the obvious suspect, his company is about to go public, and he promised the brothers $150K.
Eric has a day to choose: an hour alone with her every week, or his job.
She asked Brandon for direction. His answer so far is delivering food in Eric's car.
Brandon is writing something he will not let Eric read. Eric caught one name: Szoze.
HIT ME blends grounded realism with dark, situational comedy.
In the company of
We've all felt stuck, like life isn't moving the way it's supposed to.
HIT ME is about what happens when that pressure builds to a breaking point. These aren't criminals. They're regular people forced to adapt when life stops giving them options.
Directors' statement
HIT ME follows two brothers who are further behind than they expected to be. One is coasting and one is grinding, and neither is built for what happens to them. That is where the comedy lives: they talk when they should run, joke when they should think, and say the wrong thing to exactly the wrong person.
The script is blunt about race, sex, drugs and violence because its characters are. We play those moments for discomfort, not approval, and nobody comes out of them looking good. When violence arrives it is fast, clumsy and permanent.
The show is layered because people are, and it comes out of our own lives. Grief is in it, and so are ambition, loyalty and bad judgment. At its center is what happens when you lean out of comfort and into the unknown after a lifetime of playing it safe, and how the people closest to you adjust right along with you when you need them.
Brandon and Eric are not ready for any of it. They go anyway, and they go together.
The plan
Every scene is grouped by location, so the company moves only twice across the shoot. Columbus, Ohio, spring 2027.
Day 1
Bedroom, hallway, kitchen, living room and grow closet, plus both dream interrogations.
Day 2
Reception, cubicles and Holly's office, plus the entrance and parking lot.
Day 3
Alan and Cindy, the $150K offer, and the knife chase through the kitchen and living room.
Day 4
The school courtyard, the basketball game and the smoke shop exterior.
Day 5
Dinner at Mom's, the Stop & Grab, the alley murder and the ATM.
Page counts are estimates from the working schedule and still need a first assistant director's sign-off.
Both shootings play as silhouette, sound and edit.
Clean dialogue first, then rehearsed action with full resets.
Robby and Wes are written as 17 and cast at 18 or older.
Boundaries agreed in advance and shot on a closed set.
Working plan. The coordinator, insurance and location approvals are still to be confirmed.
$41,000
Funding target. The modeled all-in cash cost is $40,398, including a 10% contingency.
Working estimates from Idu House, not vendor quotes. No producer or director fee is included. The cash ask comes down only when in-kind support is confirmed in writing.
The ask
A festival-ready master by September 2027. From there: festival submissions, then a raise to shoot the full season, with a streaming home as the goal.
Aaron Caldwell, aaron@iduhouse.com