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OPEN-ENDED TICKET

By Anna GUTTO

True Story - Development 2019

Inspired by true events and based on the NY Times bestseller 'Radical Remission,' OPEN-ENDED TIKET is a film about a cancer patient who takes her best friend on an around-the-world journey to try to find her estranged father before it's too late.

Festivals
& Awards

Sundance-Sloan 2018

Finalist for the Sundance-Sloan Screenwriting Competition

Sundance 2019

Finalist for the Sundance Screenwriter's Lab (U.S.)

- Year of production
- 2019
- Genres
- True Story, Drama, Road movie
- Countries
- SOUTH AFRICA
- Languages
- ENGLISH
- Budget
- 3 - 5 M$
- Duration
- 110 mn
- Director(s)
- Anna GUTTO
- Writer(s)
- Kelly TURNER
- Producer(s)
- Marion CECINAS (Station Fiction), Craig JONES (Boomtown Films)
- Synopsis
- Open-Ended Ticket is based on the Radical Remission of cancer, which is when someone heals from cancer against all odds. Based on ten years of PhD research funded in part by the American Cancer Society, Kelly Turner analyzed over 1,500 cases of Radical Remission in order to uncover nine common healing factors that these incredible survivors all share. After converting her dissertation into the instant New York Times bestseller Radical Remission, now in 20 languages, she’s now penned a fictional, feature-length screenplay on the topic.
  
  Haley and Kate have been best friends since childhood, although they couldn’t be more opposite. Haley is a reckless artist with a painful past; Kate is an uptight overachiever who excels as a surgeon, yet is secretly conflicted about the stressful career she’s chosen. We meet them as Haley gets arrested on the Golden Gate Bridge and Kate finishes an intense, open-heart surgery.
  
  After Kate bails Haley out and they reconcile, the unthinkable happens: Haley is diagnosed with the same cancer her mother died of – and it’s already stage 4. After a brief stint with chemotherapy and its awful side effects, Haley announces that she wants to stop treatment and travel to Italy. Kate is left to decide whether to stand firm in her beliefs as a doctor, or support her best friend’s dying wish.
  
  Choosing friendship, Kate rushes to join Haley at the airport, where Haley buys them open-ended tickets to Italy. What Kate assumes is a short vacation quickly turns into an international adventure as Haley reveals that she is actually searching for her estranged father, who left when she was four. Thus begins the journey of their lives as they follow the clues of a mysterious man who supposedly loved his family, yet for some reason chose not to be with them.
  
  As their wild goose chase takes them through Europe, Africa, and India, they are exposed to new ideas about healing that include nutrition, herbs, energy healing, and the notion that releasing emotions from the past may help the body to heal. As these unexpected experiences force them to change, Haley must deal with emotions she has kept buried for years, while Kate must let go of the tight grip she holds on life. The stakes are raised when Kate falls in love with a missionary and Haley gives her heart to a young orphan.
  
  Their friendship comes to a head when they learn a shocking truth about Haley’s father, which splits the two apart. Regretting their fight, Kate returns only to find Haley gone. Kate then embarks on the most urgent search of her life as she tries to find Haley before it’s too late. As events twist and spin toward an unpredictable ending, they are both forced to confront the question, What does it take to truly heal?
  
  Note: A 10-part docuseries on the topic of Radical Remission is fully funded and launches March 2020. Kelly Turner's next book, RADICAL HOPE, launches April 2020. Our hope is to premiere OPEN-ENDED TICKET immediately after these two launches.
- Partners & financing
- $3M budget; $2.25 after tax rebates and grants.
- Production schedule
- 7 week shoot @ 5-day weeks.

OPEN-ENDED TICKET

Festivals& Awards

Festivals
& Awards