The FOT's own Dutch?

[Jason]

His name should be Quarter, his parents named him that because they smoked a quarter ounce of weed the day he was conceived. Everybody thinks its his nickname because he works at the arcade doling out quarters. Despite being a brilliant artist he actually chose that job so people would stop asking about his stupid name, Plunko persuades him otherwise.

Also I was thinking that maybe Plunko should be called Plunko because her name is something like Pauline Lousie Unko, but her name tags and belongings are marked P.L.Unko. Kids teased her and called her Plunko but she likes it.

Also -

[KickTheBobo]

Also I was thinking that maybe Plunko should be called Plunko because her name is something like Pauline Lousie Unko, but her name tags and belongings are marked P.L.Unko. Kids teased her and called her Plunko but she likes it.

absolutely brilliant.

I can already see the part of the trailer where it just cuts between all the characters saying her name in succession.

[Matt]

His name should be Quarter, his parents named him that because they smoked a quarter ounce of weed the day he was conceived. Everybody thinks its his nickname because he works at the arcade doling out quarters. Despite being a brilliant artist he actually chose that job so people would stop asking about his stupid name, Plunko persuades him otherwise.

Also I was thinking that maybe Plunko should be called Plunko because her name is something like Pauline Lousie Unko, but her name tags and belongings are marked P.L.Unko. Kids teased her and called her Plunko but she likes it.

Also -

Jason, you're so on top of this shit it's not funny. My hat's off to you, sir!

[Shaggy 2 Grote]

You guys have hit it out of the park.  I have little to add, except that it needs some sort of faux-highbrow literary reference, like Steve Carell's "Proust scholar" in Little Miss Sunshine (raise your hands if you think that screenwriter knows anything Proust other than that the smell of his cookie made him remember a lot of stuff).  Maybe Quarter the arcade attendant wins Plunko over with a few quotes from, um... Ezra Pound?

[Matt]

You guys have hit it out of the park.  I have little to add, except that it needs some sort of faux-highbrow literary reference, like Steve Carell's "Proust scholar" in Little Miss Sunshine (raise your hands if you think that screenwriter knows anything Proust other than that the smell of his cookie made him remember a lot of stuff).  Maybe Quarter the arcade attendant wins Plunko over with a few quotes from, um... Ezra Pound?

Or Sylvia Plath.

[Jason]

You guys have hit it out of the park.  I have little to add, except that it needs some sort of faux-highbrow literary reference, like Steve Carell's "Proust scholar" in Little Miss Sunshine (raise your hands if you think that screenwriter knows anything Proust other than that the smell of his cookie made him remember a lot of stuff).  Maybe Quarter the arcade attendant wins Plunko over with a few quotes from, um... Ezra Pound?

Or Sylvia Plath.

Khalil Gibran

[dave from knoxville]

How about during times of high stress, Plunko experiences gender changes a la Orlando?

[Josh]

I think maybe she lives with her grandfather and his live-in girlfriend, who are very open about their sex life. They met at a war protest.

[Martin]

Jason, great job on registering the domain! I'm already contemplating various viral marketing strategies, promos, etc.

I want an Amélie-like over-stylized flashback to Plunko's childhood to occur when she explains something vital from her upbringing to Quarter, like:

Quarter: "How did you get that little scar on your chin? It looks like an 'X'."

Plunko: "I was six years old. I was a wildcat back then..."

*cue flashback*

Plunko: "'X' marks the spot."

Quarter: "Wow."

[KickTheBobo]

I thought of this right before going to bed, so bear with me. Howsabout theres a scene where Plunko gets her first kiss with some boy, but she demands that they must don "Unknown Comic"-style brown paper bags over their heads while in the act. Perhaps they even draw funny faces on these bags as well.

and yes, this will be one of those "aww, that's ACTUALLY soooo sweet" moments of contrived quirkiness in the film.

[Josh]

I thought of this right before going to bed, so bear with me. Howsabout theres a scene where Plunko gets her first kiss with some boy, but she demands that they must don "Unknown Comic"-style brown paper bags over their heads while in the act. Perhaps they even draw funny faces on these bags as well.

and yes, this will be one of those "aww, that's ACTUALLY soooo sweet" moments of contrived quirkiness in the film.

You think maybe she's been working on that mask for a long time? Has it hidden under her socks (the ones with individual toes) in anticipation of this moment? Or maybe she makes a new one every year and has the old ones pinned in the back of her closet. This would also be another great time for a montage.

[erika]

I think Quarter should ride a tall bike.

[DanielWR]

Hi. First post....I have to start somewhere...

This is a fantastic thread.  Plunko is starting to develop pretty well (hopefully, not too well).  I was thinking...to make her sufficiently quirky, there could be a scene where she is skeet shooting in her back yard.  Instead of aiming in the sky, she is just shooting directly down at the ground and pulling the release with a rope tied to her leg.
Her neighbors look over the hedge in concern, and Plunko says something like "I tried it the other way, and I wasn't feeling validated."

[Shaggy 2 Grote]

You guys have hit it out of the park.  I have little to add, except that it needs some sort of faux-highbrow literary reference, like Steve Carell's "Proust scholar" in Little Miss Sunshine (raise your hands if you think that screenwriter knows anything Proust other than that the smell of his cookie made him remember a lot of stuff).  Maybe Quarter the arcade attendant wins Plunko over with a few quotes from, um... Ezra Pound?

Or Sylvia Plath.

Khalil Gibran

I think hippie grandpa should quote Gibran.  Matt, Plath was actually my initial thought, but (1) she's so stereotypically linked with "sensitive' young women, and (2) a lot of the audience might actually have read her.  I think that Plunko should be conspicuously coloring the margins of an old paperback of The Bell Jar with crayons in one scene. 

If not Proust, Quarter needs to be into something that a lot of the targeted art-house-but-not-really audience would associate with a sort of marginal coolness but not know so well that it needs to be conveyed with any kind of accuracy.  The ur-model of this is Steve Buscemi's collecting 78s in Ghost World (though it probably goes back even further, and yes, I know that Terry Zwigoff really collects 78s).  Some other possible candidates for Quarter's semi-obscure cultural signifier:

-WFMU
-Philip K. Dick
-Luc Sante's Low Life
-Postpunk music
-Gospel music (on vinyl)
-Noir (in paperback)
-Knitting
-Krautrock
-Japrock
-Architecture (though he's not an architect)
-Godard (though the movie Plunko is nothing like a Godard movie in any way)
-Lost, weird Westerns (ditto)
-Chet Baker
-The Beats (but not Kerouac)
-Pre-1990 hip-hop
-Soca music
-Steampunk
-Discontinued 'zines

Also, great first post, DanielWR.  The skeet shooting thing is golden.

[Beth]

I think knitting is too mainstream at this point. What if Plunko had a spinning wheel?