> The beauty of Stephen's vision is the potential for tie-in merchandising.

Well, yeah. You *need* tie-in merchandising.

>
> Now let's work on that setting. The creepy old building needs a hook -- I'm thinking Area 51. Teenagers love the aliens and the government conspiracies. Jim's guarding that warehouse from the end of "Raiders of the Lost Ark", it'll be an "homage" to that movie.

Good call. An homage is always good; that way you can rip stuff off whole-sale without getting sued for plagarism!

>
> So then we've got Hugh Grant (or John Lithgow? [note to self: check on his availability]) as a rogue operative in the government, probably CIA or NSA (he'll be codenamed "The Ringmaster"). The Ringmaster and his unseen masters want something from the warehouse -- let's say a space-ship jet fighter or a suit of power armor -- something that will make a nice looking addition to the action figure line. The Ringmaster and his operatives kidnap the kid and it's up to Jim Carrey to save the day with all of his wacky inventions. It'll be "Home Alone" in Area 51.
>
> -Faux "let's do lunch" Pas

I like it! How about this: the kid gets into the power armor, and he has to rescue Jim Carrey! He could use some of Carrey's inventions in the rescue, and then we could have multiple action figures: kid, kid w/power armor, kid w/power armor and net launcher, etc. And Jim could do plenty of mugging while he was being held hostage.

And I was thinking, for the "Ringmaster" role, what about Patrick Stewart? I mean, if he did "Masterminds" he'll do this. I like your choice for the kid though. Hey, maybe that dog from "Frasier" is available as well...

Ste "I like the way you think" phen