The Ex-Alibi

THE STORY:
Victoria is a ruthless CEO and hyper-competent event planner running her daughter’s luxury Big Sur wedding with zero margin for error. Jason is her ex-husband—a relaxed, Hawaiian-shirt-wearing Navy Mustang who prefers a rolling margin of error. When they stumble upon the billionaire father-of-the-groom murdered in the wine cellar—expertly framed to send their future son-in-law to prison—the timeline fractures.

Cut off from the outside world by military-grade jammers, Jason and Vicky realize the groom's stepmother has deployed a tactical hit squad to secure a hostile corporate takeover. To save their daughter's big day (and the groom's life), the estranged couple must team up. The entire first and second acts play out in continuous, breathless real-time, functioning as a hilarious "logistics vs. tactics" combat engine. While Jason neutralizes threats with clinical military precision and improvised weapons (champagne sabers and CO2 tanks), Vicky treats the hit squad as a "supply-chain disruption," neutralizing a 70-pound tactical assault dog with her booming CEO voice and a block of aged Manchego cheese.

As the elegant wedding mixer proceeds flawlessly on the lawn, a brutal, silent shadow-war rages through the estate's hedge mazes, cigar lounges, and server rooms. It all builds to a deeply satisfying, character-driven climax where the seemingly soft billionaire Groom uses his encyclopedic knowledge of archaic corporate bylaws to outflank the evil stepmother in front of her own board of directors, while Jason's holistic-wellness plus-one accidentally destroys the estate's tactical network with a tuning fork.

COMPS: Mr. & Mrs. Smith meets Father of the Bride

COMMERCIAL HOOKS:
• The "Wedding-as-Arsenal" Action Signature: There are no magical weapons caches. The action is grounded in extreme, localized field expedience. A 1200 PSI CO2 beer tap becomes a freezing smoke grenade. A $12,000 silk gown is slashed for tactical mobility. Concentrated ghost-pepper duck reduction incapacitates a trained assassin. It is a brilliant, highly visual collision of high-end luxury and lethal survival tactics.
• Elevated Competence Porn: Audiences love highly skilled professionals doing their jobs perfectly. This script pits the improvisational, tactical survival skills of a combat veteran against the ruthless, supply-chain mastery of a corporate CEO.
• Budget-Friendly Containment: The core narrative is a ticking-clock thriller set entirely over the course of a single evening on one sprawling estate. This contained timeline and location make it highly producible and budget-friendly without sacrificing the scale of the action.
• Four-Quadrant Romance: It revives the beloved, sharp-tongued banter of classic 90s romantic comedies but wraps it in the high-stakes engine of a modern action thriller. The romantic arc is just as central—and just as volatile—as the conspiracy.