Infinite Monkeys
Status: In Development / Medium: Screenplay + Novel / Category: Adult > Humor / Timeline: Feb - May 2025
“A troop of monkeys successfully recreates The Complete Works of Shakespeare, then form a band to tackle The Best of Simon & Garfunkel, but creative differences threaten to tear them apart.”
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When Dr. Theo von Animus discovers a formula that accelerates the evolutionary process and gives animals human consciousness, he goes to the Isle of Id, a small island populated only by wild monkeys to conduct experiments. With his assistant, Jane Goodfriend, he administers the formula, known as “Bananas von Animus”, to a troop of monkeys deep in the rainforest. The experiment shows promise as the monkeys quickly learn a large and complex sign language vocabulary, and Dr. von Animus returns with seven of the monkeys to his laboratory in New Mexico, where he sets them to the task of typing The Complete Works of Shakespeare. The experiment is videoed by a skeptical Goodfriend, but the monkeys complete the task with a month.
Announcing the success of his formula, Dr. von Animus is met with skepticism, and so sets the monkeys to a new task to re-create the ‘Very Best of Hall and Oates’. As the monkeys enter the public consciousness, debate and protests soon create a media circus, and von Animus is summoned to Washington DC to testify, which results in the suspension of his laboratory. But meanwhile, the monkeys have been signed to a reality TV show where they enrapture audiences with their covers of ‘Maneater’ and ‘I Can’t Go for That”. They shed the impersonal numbers given to them by Dr. von Animus and name themselves Grace, Chuckles, Cali, Sue, Curly, Bogey and Jazzman. As their reality show reaches the top of the ratings, they ultimately are torn apart by celebrity and creative differences, as each wants to explore their own creative path.
They fire their agent and sign with separate representation. Chuckles becomes a stand up comedian. Sue becomes a chef. Grace becomes a dancer. Jazzman becomes a saxophonist. Bogey gets a recurring part in a sitcom. Curly opens a hair salon. Cali writes poetry and enters poetry slams.
Dr. von Animus’s health deteriorates as he fights with the government over approval of his secret ‘Bananas von Animas formula, and enters a depression as the monkeys go their separate ways. Jane struggles to broker peace among the estranged troop, while caring for Animus as he becomes uncommunicative and the formula is lost. Without the formula, the troop begins to notice the lessening effects of cognition and struggle to achieve their individual creative visions.
Jane attempts to re-create the formula from von Animus’s notes, to no avail. But she manages to broker a reunion of the troop under the guise of a new and improved formula, and the offer of a reunion special to be streamed online for charity. In rehearsals, as it becomes clear the troop is losing their collective consciousness, Jane realizes they have taught her more than she has helped them.
In the end, Jane returns the troop to the Isle of Id, where we last see them they engage with other monkeys, laughing, dancing, banging drums, and playing a game that may or may not be chess.
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A troop of monkeys recreates the Complete Works of Shakespeare, but can they tackle the Best of Simon & Garfunkel before creative differences tear them apart?