Justice for Love (2023 film)


 * This article is about the 2023 unmade film starring Alicia Silverstone. For the franchise by Toho, see Justice for Love duology.

"It's the end of the world... What will you do?"

- Tagline

"Two worlds collide"

- Intended tagline

Justice for Love (also known as Emily and the Apocalypse) is an unmade 2023 American apocalyptic comedy drama film that was to be produced by Paramount Pictures. It is supposed to be a remake of the 2020 film #JusticeForLove: End of the World by Toho and GMA Pictures. The predecessor to Legendary Pictures' Justice for the End of the World, the project was the first attempt to produce an American remake of #JusticeForLove: End of the World.

The film would have been directed by Amy Heckerling, before being replaced by John Krasinski, while starring Alicia Silverstone and Rachel Blanchard. In the film, a renowned celebrity undergoes a spiritual makeover by using her social status to aid others, including helping a depressed woman reunite with her mother, while an asteroid threatens to impact Earth. Unlike the original film which takes place in San Francisco and the Philippines, the film mostly takes place in New York City.

After the films #JusticeForLove: End of the World and Don't Look Up received positive reception, Paramount became interested in doing an American remake. The film is intended to be released on April 2, 2023, serving as a 30th anniversary tribute to Alicia Silverstone's film career. However, due to legal disputes between Paramount, Toho, and Legendary Pictures for the rights to the Justice for Love duology, plans for the film were abandoned.

Plot

 * Based from the screenplay's first draft, when Amy Heckerling was still the film's director. The second draft was never completed.

Emily is a stylish, good-natured, and popular celebrity living in Manhattan, New York City with her husband Michael, a film producer. Her sister, Jessica, left New York to become an aspiring actress in Los Angeles, and is now living in her own life in Beverly Hills. Their mother died while giving birth to Emily; as a result, Emily's only living relative is her own sister.

Emily's privileged life takes a negative turn when a joint deflection mission by the United States and Russia to stop a recently discovered asteroid is announced in failure on an emergency broadcast, and the asteroid is projected to impact somewhere in western Europe. This severely affects her popularity status, as more people are concerned with the imminent end of the world.

Emily and Michael decide to spend their remaining time at their vacation home somewhere in Maine, but after arriving at the Grand Central Terminal, Michael confesses to Emily that he's having an affair with his mistress in the past few years, and decides to finally abandon their marriage as he boards the final train to Philadelphia.

Left alone and feeling "totally clueless", Emily contacts her sister and asks if she could come to New York to spend their remaining time together, but discovers that basic communication services such as internet are now unavailable due to the catastrophe. While attempting to visit a friend, Emily encounters a lone man looking for a cab, as public transportation have been suspended as well.

In the midst of the catastrophe, some people are actually left stranded and could not reach their intended destinations due to the lack of public transport and the roads been deserted. Emily decides to help the man reach his destination in Brooklyn, and she realises that she enjoys doing good deeds. She then continues driving stranded people to their destinations around New York City.

One day, Emily meets a depressed woman named Sarah, who is a big fan of Emily, and proceeds to befriend her. Sarah reveals that she's actually from Boston, and is attempting to reunite with her mother in Atlanta. With nowhere else to go in New York, Sarah asks if she could stay in Emily's apartment for the time being, which she accepts. In the meantime, Sarah spends time with Emily as they enjoy traveling around the city's most prominent landmarks, eventually ending at the Empire State Building, the "heart" of the Big Apple. While at the building's observation deck, Emily reveals to Sarah that the place reminds her of Alex, her first love interest.

She last met him at the building's 86th floor observatory back in 1998, and since then, she never saw him again afterwards. Emily kept returning to the Empire State Building every year, in the hopes of meeting Alex again in person and confessing her true feelings to him, hopefully before the world ends.

Upon arriving in Atlanta, Sarah is informed that her mother's health condition is continuing to worsen, and tells Emily regarding the situation. Sarah and her mother reunite with each other again in a hospital. Sarah appreciates Emily for deciding to help her. Before leaving, Emily gives Sarah a photo album containing their happy moments together.

Realizing the end is now only moments away, Emily returns to the Empire State Building for the last time, and proceeds to write a letter confessing her true feelings to Alex, and leaves it at the building's observation deck, along with a photo of him that Emily captured several years ago. In a surprise, Jessica suddenly arrives and reunites with Emily. Both Emily and her sister embrace for their deaths at the top of the Empire State Building, as the asteroid impact also triggered a firestorm that quickly approaches the city. They are vaporized instantly while the rest of New York City is obliterated by the firestorm, including Grand Central Terminal, Times Square, and the Empire State Building.

The film ends on shots of Earth from outer space, as the firestorm continues engulfing the rest of the planet, signifying the end of the world.

Characters

 * Some of the names might have been temporary placeholders, and could have changed in later revisions.


 * Emily
 * The lead protagonist and narrator. A famous celebrity, she is described by Sparling as a "middle-aged version of Cher Horowitz; a sweet but spoiled girl that believes the world only revolves around her". When her popularity status is affected by the asteroid catastrophe and her husband abandoning their marriage, she undergoes a spiritual makeover; she began using her social status to aid others. Heckerling approached Alicia Silverstone to portray the character.


 * Jessica
 * Emily's older sister. Sometime before the events in the film, she left New York to become an aspiring actress in Los Angeles, just like Emily, and is now living in her own life in Beverly Hills, California. Her appearance is nearly identical to Emily; as a result, Rachel Blanchard was considered for the role, as she previously replaced Silverstone to portray the Cher character in the 1996 Clueless television series.


 * Sarah
 * A depressed woman from Boston. She is one of Emily's fans, and is attempting to reunite with her mother in Atlanta. Her character is directly based from Alicia Salvacion in the original film, as according to Sparling, the Alicia character is basically "what Justice for Love is all about".


 * Alex
 * Emily's first love interest. Last seen by Emily at the 86th floor observatory of the Empire State Building back in 1998. Hoping to meet him again in person and confessing her true feelings to him before it is too late, Emily kept returning to the Empire State Building every year.


 * Michael
 * Emily's husband, a film producer in New York. He abandons her and their marriage while at the Grand Central Terminal to spend the remaining time with his mistress in Philadelphia.

Production
Following the phenomenal success of the original film, Paramount Pictures became interested in doing an American remake of the film, with a big budget and A-list actors. This would also be a great next step to follow up on the success of Don't Look Up, which Paramount originally planned to release theatrically, before its rights were acquired by Netflix.

Paramount initially hired Clueless director Amy Heckerling as the film's director, and hired Greenland writer Chris Sparling to write the film's screenplay. Heckerling admitted about not seeing the original film before, and envisioned the film instead as a comedy drama.

Most of Heckerling's prominent work were all under the comedy genre, which typically receives poor reviews from critics, but proves to be very popular with audiences who just wanted to watch funny movies. Comedic movies about the apocalypse were not new; such previous examples include Dr. Strangelove, This Is The End, and Rapture-Palooza.

To maintain authenticity and continuity, they intended to closely follow the original film, albeit changing the setting to New York City, while keeping the general plot and characters of the original. It was decided from the outset that the film will feature its own characters, without bringing any from the original entries, although Clara Young was suggested for a short cameo.

Sparling was instructed by Heckerling to remove any disaster scenes as much as possible, even removing the asteroid impact during the film's climax, keeping only the firestorm scene. As a result, the story is more reminiscent of Last Night and Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. Heckerling also decided to remove the asteroid impact avoidance themes from the original film.

Sparling took inspiration from Heckerling's previous work for the characters and story concept, including Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Clueless, and Vamps, along with the original film. The film's lead protagonist, Emily, for example, is described as a "middle-aged version of Cher; a sweet but spoiled girl that believes the world only revolves around her".

The Alicia character from the original film, according to Sparling, is basically "what Justice for Love is all about", and decided to incorporate a similar character for the film. Sparling described the character as the complete "opposite" of Emily, while remaining faithful to the original character.

With the location change to New York City, Sparling deemed that the original film's use of the Golden Gate Bridge and other prominent San Francisco landmarks simply "wouldn't work anymore". There was a debate over whether prominent landmark would be used in the film, and in all of the landmarks considered, the Empire State Building was chosen by Sparling.

For the lead role of Emily, Heckerling approached actress Alicia Silverstone, while Rachel Blanchard is also considered for the role of Emily's sister. Around the same time, a concept poster depicting a deserted Times Square was released in the United States to generate interest for the project.

With the screenplay completed, Sparling submitted his first draft to the executives at Paramount. The studio executives were dissatisfied with the screenplay, as it deviated "too much" from the original film, and requested the screenplay to be rewritten from scratch. Heckerling could not come to an agreement with the studio executives, and later left the project.

"The guys over at Paramount, they didn't like it. They thought it deviated too much from the source material, and they told me to rewrite it."

- Amy Heckerling regarding the executives' response to the submitted screenplay

After Heckerling left the project, it was sent into development hell. To differentiate it from the first draft, the studio hired John Krasinski as the film's new director, and Sparling began rewriting the film's screenplay, hoping to turn the project into a serious apocalyptic film, as he originally envisioned.

While Sparling was rewriting the film's screenplay, the studio soon learned that Toho signed a deal with Legendary Pictures instead. Paramount proceeded to sue both Toho and Legendary for the rights to the Justice for Love duology, claiming that they had a written contract to produce their own remake; however, Toho denied such a deal.

Eventually, a federal judge later ruled that Legendary did in fact have the rights to produce a remake of #JusticeForLove: End of the World. As a result, the second draft of the screenplay was never completed; Krasinski returned on directing the A Quiet Place series, with the third entry targeted for a 2025 release, while Scream VI reused the New York City setting from the first draft.

Trivia

 * While the plot remains similar to the original, it contains numerous nods to the 1995 film Clueless, produced by Paramount and also starring Silverstone. For instance, the entire film is narrated by the protagonist, befriends another woman and decides to help her, and the film's final act focuses on the protagonist reexamining her own existence shortly before the world ends.
 * Two lines spoken by the film's protagonist (intended to be portrayed by Silverstone) serve as a direct reference to Clueless; "I was totally clueless" during the Grand Central Terminal scene, and the more popular "As if!" during the beginning of the film, set at Times Square Studios.
 * The film is alluded to in the 2022 film Senior Year also by Paramount, in the form of mild references scattered around the film. Each functions as a form of subtle foreshadowing.
 * In Stephanie's room, a movie poster of Clueless could be seen. The plot of the film has multiple references to Clueless.
 * Later, Stephanie goes to a movie theater playing Deep Impact. Both films are about impact events, a comet in the former, and an asteroid in the latter.
 * During the movie theater scene, short clips from Deep Impact were shown, including the scene depicting New York City being destroyed by a megatsunami. The film's main setting is also New York City, and the final scene of the film shows the city being obliterated by a firestorm rather than a megatsunami.
 * Alicia Silverstone appearing in a short cameo appearance references the film's supposed protagonist, also to be portrayed by Silverstone. Additionally, it references a scene in the film in which the protagonist drives people around New York City.
 * The final scene is a direct reference to the 2022 short film The Final Moments, depicting the protagonists being vaporized instantly while a major city is obliterated by the firestorm (Manila, New York City).
 * The film would have served as a 30th anniversary tribute to Alicia Silverstone's film career, as she made her film debut in The Crush, released in April 2, 1993, and the film is intended to be released on the same date.
 * Each of the landmarks depicted being destroyed during the firestorm scene has a certain importance in Emily's life:
 * Grand Central Terminal is where Emily's husband abandons their marriage.
 * Times Square, being the entertainment capital of New York, is Emily's workplace.
 * Empire State Building reminds Emily of her first love interest, and is also the place where she dies.
 * The amount of similarities in the impending impact event described in the film's screenplay suggest that while the film itself is a remake, it actually takes place in the same continuity as the original film.
 * This is the second instance Paramount attempted to remake a film based on impact events, after When Worlds Collide.
 * The film's intended tagline upon release is "Two worlds collide", serving as a reference to When Worlds Collide.
 * Some of the character names written in the film's screenplay might have been temporary placeholders, as Emily is also the name of Krasinski's wife, Emily Blunt.
 * Coincidentally, Emily is also the name of Silverstone's character in the 1997 film Excess Baggage.
 * In the original film, prominent San Francisco landmarks play a certain role in the story, such as the Golden Gate Bridge, while in the remake, due to its setting changed to New York City, the Golden Gate Bridge is replaced by the Empire State Building.
 * The firestorm scene at the end of the film is supposed to be a shot-by-shot remake from the original film, even including the same New York City landmarks being destroyed in a similar fashion; Grand Central Terminal/MetLife Building, Times Square, and Empire State Building.
 * Rebecca Rittenhouse, the actress that portrays Clara Young in the original film, expressed interest in appearing in the film.
 * The ending of the film is reminiscent to the 2012 film Vamps. In that film, Silverstone's character, Goody Rutherford, instantly turns into dust in the middle of Times Square at the end of the film. In the original Emily and the Apocalypse screenplay, Silverstone's character would have experienced a similar death, albeit burned instantly. The firestorm scene also features Times Square being destroyed.
 * In the original film, the introductory sequence at the beginning features a timelapse evolution of Times Square being portrayed by CGI, while Vamps uses actual stock footage of Times Square from different time periods during the film's ending.
 * The idea of a franchise's main setting being changed to New York City was also used in the Scream film series. In that franchise's sixth installment, Scream VI, the entire film takes place also in New York City, compared to the franchise's main setting being centered in the fictional town of Woodsboro, California.
 * Coincidentally, Scream VI was released theatrically on March 10, 2023, only a month before this film's intended release.