(The Making of) The Widowed Chocolatier
Treatment
by Nick Sconce
Logline
When new financiers hijack their latest project, seasoned rom-com filmmakers must convince the new attached writer to back away from action movie tropes and make the film they’ve envisioned.
Characters
Alan, an aging but successful writer/ director, has directed several rom-coms with his longtime creative partner, writer-producer, GUSTIE. Alan considers himself an actor’s director but worries about his age and how many more projects he has left. Gustie is the love of his life, and he feels complete working with her but realizes she will work without him if he retires. He wants their new project to be his love letter to her, the ultimate expression of his gratitude for their connected souls.
Gustie, a transgendered woman, loves working with Alan and considers theirs an equal and equitable creative partnership. She hasn’t yet considered working without Alan and equates their strong partnership with their career long successes.
Dean, the father in a father-and-son private equity firm, becomes the new financier for “The Widowed Chocolatier.” Despite being profit-driven, Dean wants to help his son, Elliott, break into the movie business as a writer.
Elliott, Dean’s son, wants to flex what he thinks are his strong writing skills by solving the riddle of getting more men to watch rom coms. Deep down, he wants the project to be a love letter to his mom.
Grant, played by actor Noah, a strong, rugged, silent, hardworking mountain man, has recently lost his wife, CLAUDIA and his reason to make chocolate, while trying to navigate a path forward with his two daughters. Originally, he’s intended to meet KIMBERLY and fall in love again. After script rewrites, he finds himself in need of saving. JAYLA (formerly KIMBERLY) becomes his lawyer and helps him protect his business from lawsuits. Grant must overcome how embedded Claudia is in his smoked chocolate-making process so he can find new happiness.
Kimberly/ Jayla, played by actor Amber, is originally soft but intense. Her wardrobe is designed to make her look like a piece of milk chocolate. After script changes, she becomes Jayla, who is sent to be Grant’s attorney, now strong, determined, aloof and cold. Jayla’s wardrobe is redesigned for her to resemble a piece of dark chocolate. Jayla must reconcile her own divorce and change in career goals to open herself more to Grant.
Carl, played by actor Dennis, is Grant’s father-in-law. Initially, he’s portrayed as the compassionate father and grandfather wanting to help Grant pick up the pieces of his shattered life. After the script rewrites, he becomes Grant’s antagonist, blaming Grant for Claudia’s death and suing Grant for his chocolate business.
Sheila, played by actor Barbara, is the town’s elder stateswoman and judge. In the rewrites, she becomes conflicted in her romantic relationship with Carl when Carl sues Grant for Grant’s patented chocolate-smoking process.
Kristen played by actor Nicole, another of Grant’s customers, is the lonely wife of a secretly gay man, Paul, played by actor Dante. She struggles with her bitterness and her urges to make herself more available to Grant.
Ashley, played by actor Brittany, is a rough and direct cowgirl who owns the town’s artisan bakery and wants to trade chocolate for her special cupcakes baked with marijuana to seduce Grant.
Brock, Brenden, and Chett, played by actors Oliver, Lucas, and Leo, are three gay men who also have the hots for Grant but have secret relationships with Paul, Kristen’s husband.
Drew, the assistant director, is mission-driven and task-oriented to make Alan’s vision come to life. He dabbles in his own film projects like getting Dennis and Barbara to shoot sex scenes he then posts on Only Fans.
Jocelyn, the costume designer, and Trina, the makeup artist, help the actors bring the script changes to life.
Synopsis
ALAN and GUSTIE review the first dailies of their new project, “The Widowed Chocolatier,” and discuss Alan’s belligerent directing tactics to get GRANT and CARL, the film’s main character and his father-in-law, to perform the mournful scene. Alan worries about getting too old to keep working and tells Gustie he wants this project to be really special for both of them. Gustie assures him all their projects are special because they equally share in the creative process.
In the movie, set in a small Montana mountain town, Grant opens his chocolate shoppe to a line of customers waiting to get inside. Along the business block stands a coffeehouse, a pie shop, an artisan bakery, and a western clothing store for women.
SHEILA, the town’s elder stateswoman and judge, takes her two-dozen smoked, milk chocolate bon-bons after handing Grant a tater tot hotdish and expressing her sorrow for him losing his wife, CLAUDIA. KRISTEN picks up her order of dark chocolate peppermint bark and, hitting on Grant, asks him if he’ll get his daughters out to the skating rink. Grant asks Kristen how her husband, PAUL, is doing, which gets Kristen to stop flirting. ASHLEY leans over the counter to get Grant’s attention, offering a trade for her special cupcakes. BROCK, BRENDEN, and CHETT get tired of waiting in line and decide to go watch Paul tan leather chaps at the western wear store just as Kimberly walks into the chocolate shoppe.
Alan yells cut to rework the scene, and the actors take a break. BARBARA, playing Sheila, and DENNIS, playing Carl, grab Alan to tell him about how well their sex scene shoot is going with DREW. Alan doesn’t know about the shoot and has to tell them there isn’t a sex scene for them.
Gustie then grabs Alan to give him the bad news that they’ve lost their original financier, who wanted Christian streaming services for distribution but now believes the project is unfit for that market. Gustie’s good news though is that she’s lined up new investors, who want to attach a new writer with “minor” rewrites already prepared. Alan frantically reads through these and becomes inconsolable until he meets with the new backers.
At the mountain resort lodge where the filmmakers and crews are staying, Alan and Gustie meet DEAN and ELLIOTT, the father-and-son owners of a private equity firm, who want to make rom-coms more appealing to straight men by injecting action movie tropes. Alan points out the ridiculousness of the proposed changes and Elliott’s very apparent lack of talent: Grant not having daughters, Claudia being allergic to Grant’s semen leading to her death or him losing her grip over a mountain cliff, being too reminiscent of a Sylvester Stallone movie.
Dean, growing tired of the building argument, offers Alan a three-movie deal if he agrees to bring Elliott onto the project and work through Elliott’s script changes. Alan reluctantly agrees.
At a local bar, Alan and Gustie review the changes and debate whether Grant can straddle being the rom-com male lead and be this newly envisioned action hero. They think back to his last role, the lead in the action movie, “Heisting the Heist,” but they’re both concerned. They then look back to their projects together and realize the answer may be within their film, “The Test Weekend,” where the male lead was tougher, unrefined. Alan and Gustie realize that film also had a strong supporting female character, the female lead’s best friend, on whom they can base a revision of Kimberly. They agree to workshop a new character name for Kimberly. Gustie offers to meet with Elliott to get a better directional understanding and not just debate script changes.
The following night at a local game restaurant, Gustie dines with Elliott where they discuss audience expectations and genre standards from rom-coms, westerns, and action films. Elliott remains stubborn about his changes attracting the young male demographic.
While Alan meets with the director of photography and the 2nd unit over shooting the script changes, Gustie conducts a read-through with the actors to gauge their acceptance of the project’s new direction. Barbara and Dennis are relieved to learn Alan’s still directing the project and think back to their first film together, “Only You Can See the Unicorn’s Horn,” which Alan directed. They’ve rekindled their connection from that experience. Barbara and Dennis think back to an interview they shared with Alan promoting the film, where Alan gets upset with the interviewer and storms off.
Seeing Barbara’s and Dennis’s connection, OLIVER and LEO are touched, but, joking about Barbara’s and Dennis’s sexual attraction, BRITTANY brings the group back to the table read. Gustie walks them through the changes geared to appeal to “men of a certain age.” The actors grumble. Gustie asks NOAH if he can get into better shape for a potential sex scene with AMBER, playing Kimberly, which makes them both nervous. But Noah commits to an intense diet and exercise routine, even after NICOLE and Brittany assure him he’s very attractive the way he is.
Gustie and Amber discuss the character change from Kimberly to Jayla, which encourages Amber. She embraces the stronger character and her more defined arc.
Noah, Gustie, JOCELYN, and TRINA discuss giving Noah’s character, Grant, a hairier chest, which embarrasses Noah but intrigues Barbara. Gustie also asks Noah to grow a beard.
These very direct physical changes worry Amber more, who wants clear understanding that she will not do any nude scenes. Drew assures her they can get around these with shooting elbows against biceps and calves as substitutes for other body parts. Gustie feels compelled to explain that Drew has experience is shotting steamy Only Fans videos.
The actors pressure Gustie to tell them what will happen if they reject the changes from the new financier. She admits they will lose their funding, and the project may be suspended.
The actors grab dinner at a local pizza place to process their character changes as a group and kid Noah about his new diet. Nicole reassures Amber that shooting changes and developing character on the fly is a good skill to sharpen. Dennis is worried about his character, Carl, becoming the antagonist from the supporting role helping Grant grieve his dead wife Claudia and tells Barbara he’s going to talk to Alan. Dennis also spreads the rumor about the new financiers committing to three new projects for Alan and Gustie if they embrace the changes, hinting at more work for the actors who support the new direction.
Back at the hotel, Alan and Gustie review their meetings. They realize they have to rewrite a scene with Jayla and a random local she becomes intimate with. Although Alan feels more strongly about making the movie for Gustie rather than with her, Gustie reinforces her commitment to their shared creative process.
The following day, Alan arrives to Drew and Gustie shooting a new scene where all the local women leave Grant’s house in a walk of shame montage. Alan loses his mind when he, Gustie, and Drew review the shoot’s dailies, but they agree to move on to the night bar scene where Grant musters up the nerve to come out dancing. Ashley dances with several men before seeing Grant arrive. Then she grabs him for a dance. Kristen cuts in and makes a strong pass at Grant, who asks about her husband, Paul. Ashley storms over to Paul, who’s sandwiched between Brock and Brendan, and starts grinding on him to make Kristen jealous. It doesn’t work, and Kristen hints that Paul has erectile issues.
Out of nowhere, Jayla appears. Grant can’t take his eyes off her and moves away from Kristen and meets Jayla at the bar. Grant’s rusty at hitting on women, and his use of a cheesy Billy Joel lyrics falls flat. Knowing Jayla’s not local, Grant asks why she’s in town. She explains she’s an attorney, sent to represent someone in dispute with their father-in-law over business matters. Grant grows anxious, knowing she’s talking about him, but he’s unaware of the pending litigation.
Alan yells cut, disgusted with the Bill Joel lyrics as he doesn’t believe any two Millennials would know the line, let alone use it to pick each other up at a bar. Elliott tells them it was one of his parents’ favorite songs. Before Alan can erupt, Gustie reminds him of the compromises for the script rewrites. He asks what they traded for the lyrics. Gustie tells him they got to cut Grant’s male slut and town women walk of shame montage.
Later, Alan has a total melt down, crying ugly in his shower before continuing the rewrite work with Gustie. Alan’s had an epiphany. He and Gustie will take the film back from Dean and Elliott, and that will be Alan’s legacy to retire on. Despite making Jayla a stronger character being Gustie’s idea, Alan believes it’s his. They decide to pattern her after Jo from “The Facts of Life,” and binge episodes of the classic TV show for inspiration.
The following day, they shoot a new sequence where Jayla formerly introduced herself to Grant at Grant’s Chocolate Shoppe. Jayla pokes fun at Grant’s terrible pick-up attempts from the night before. Grant’s offended, finding Jayla cold and heartless. Grant tells her about losing Claudia fourteen months ago. Jayla reveals she’s lost her husband in a truck accident. Grant softens a bit. They discuss Carl’s suit against Grant and how Grant’s corporate chocolate suppliers sent Jayla to represent him. Carl is going after Grant’s patented smoking process, his machinery, the store, and Grant’s death benefit proceeds from Claudia’s life insurance policies.
Grant knows Carl blames him for Claudia’s death despite it being a freak accident of her getting a brain-eating amoeba while water skiing in a Texas lake. Worried about how Grant acted at the bar, Jayla warns Grant not to get mushy when they meet with Carl and his attorney or during the proceedings. Jayla wonders if he gets sappy when he drinks because she likes to drink to celebrate her legal victories. He assures her he doesn’t.
That night, Alan makes Gustie play-act a rewritten scene where Jayla has been intimate with a random local and now needs to send him on his way. Alan makes Gustie play the rando to his Jayla. They agree that Jayla is too harsh, too cold and rewrite the scene again.
They shoot the scene the following night. Jayla is much more caring about the rando’s vulnerabilities but still sends him on his way.
Alan cuts the shoot, praising Amber for her acting. His only note for the actor playing the local is that he must do something about his erection or Alan will make him tape it down.
Jayla and Grant meet Carl and his attorney, Bill, at Carl’s office. Jayla cautions Grant not to engage, forget any previous feelings he has for his father-in-law, and let her do the talking. Grant’s both impressed with her professionalism and startled with her perpetual coldness as she argues with Bill over the various claims in Carl’s suit.
Dennis, playing Carl, grows antsy, yells cut, which brings a sudden, heavy silence as Alan doesn’t suffer actors cutting shoots. Dennis argues with Alan over Carl’s changes. Alan reminds him they’ve had to make changes working together before, but Dennis is inconsolable and storms off to his trailer.
Alan demands Gustie set up another meeting with Dean and Elliott. While Alan, Gustie, and Drew discuss how they can finish the shoot, a camera operator brings a light crewman to Trina and Jocelyn. The crewman lifts his shirt up to show his chiseled and hairy chest, which mesmerizes Trina and Jocelyn.
At the meeting, Dean accuses Alan and Gustie of rewriting the script behind Elliott’s back and failing to convince the actors to accept Elliott’s changes. They debate an upcoming scene where Grant fights several men, including Paul, as Ashley has convinced them that Grant is sleeping with their wives. Alan and Gustie argue that Grant being a male slut and beating up the men he’s made cuckholds will alienate both the audience’s women and men. Elliott argues the cuckholds get their revenge by burning down Grant’s shoppe, which Alan and Gustie reject as it tells women in the audience there’s no more chocolate in this terrible man-run town.
Alan laments that Eliott is turning their film into a bar-fighting Patrick Swayze movie. Elliott admits to Dean he wants to write a love letter to his dead mom through the movie. Dean, upset with Elliott showing weakness, threatens Alan and Gustie that if they force another meeting Dean will pull the funding. But Alan sees an opening, a path forward.
As they drive away, Alan tells Gustie that they can convince their changes, making Jayla a strong lead woman, is the actual love letter to Elliott’s mom. Alan lets slip that his idea of the love letter will be preserved by convincing Elliott it’s his love letter. Suspicious, Gustie asks Alan who his love letter is to, but he refuses to tell her.
The next night, they shoot several versions of Grant fighting the cuckholds outside the bar, but they start with Alan’s and Gustie’s, where the men gang up on Grant, beat him senseless before Jayla arrives, tells them to stop as she and Grant have a hearing the next morning. Jayla recognizes a couple of the men, with whom she’s been intimate, believing they were single. When the men keep beating Grant, Jayla pulls out her metal retractable baton and takes out the men’s legs. She then helps Grant up. Grant tells Jayla to take it easy on Paul as Kristen won’t take care of him if he’s hospitalized. Jayla reminds Grant that Brock and Brendan would jump at the chance to nurse Paul to health and then beats Paul mercilessly.
Alan yells cut, liking the shoot. Noah passes out from low energy for starving himself to get into better shape. Trina and Jocelyn bring the crewman with the chiseled, hairy chest to Gustie, who’s so impressed with him, she fights not to touch his six pack. Gustie negotiates with the crewman to have Drew shoot him as Grant’s body double for the sex scene.
Elliott demands they shoot the scene the way he first wrote it, where Grant beats up the men instead of getting beaten. Alan and Gustie take the opportunity to show Elliott their path forward with Jayla as the strong female lead being the best version of the love letter to his mom, but Elliott’s still not convinced, accusing them of more rewrites without him. Gustie encourages Elliott to be more present instead of working his day job at Dean’s private equity firm. Elliott reluctantly agrees.
In the next shoot, in her hotel room, Jayla cleans Grant up from the fight, getting the swelling down in his face. He assures her he hasn’t been sleeping with his attackers’ wives. She admits to being intimate with two of them but that the attackers lied to her and told her they weren’t married. She laments that the small Montana town male market leaves much to be desired and isn’t what it’s cracked up to be. Grant asks her why she isn’t nicer. She quickly explains it isn’t required for her job, but Grant suspects there’s more to it.
Alan and Gustie have dinner with Elliott, steering Elliott away from his western and action movie sensibilities, telling him “the asshole to everyone but the love of his life” trope doesn’t work for audiences older than teens. Alan and Gustie lean into Elliott’s mom, being the backbone of Dean’s success as his emotional support, helping him make logical decisions while competing in the fierce, cut-throat investment world. They plant the idea that rom-coms fit in the space after the action-adventure genre, where the man has solidified his identity, his path forward, and now wants to find a strong partner to share his future with.
Alan slips again about his desire to make his movie, which further alienates Gustie, who feels like Alan’s determination is sidelining her as his equal creative partner.
After the dinner, Gustie is upset but agrees with Alan to meet Elliott the following morning to reinforce what they’ve discussed. Elliott shares new pages he’s written with Gustie for a scene where Grant and Jalya go mountain hiking as it was one of Dean’s and his mom’s favorite activities. Gustie likes his writing but knows it doesn’t fit. She offers to help him develop it into a new project as she’s wanted a rom com driven by strong, athletic female leads. Elliott wonders how she’ll convince Alan, thinking he’s the chief decision-maker. Gustie makes it clear she and Alan will either get back to being equal partners or she will move on.
Later that day, Alan and Gustie review further rewrites with the actors. The actors praise Noah for his commitment to his diet and exercise routine when they discuss the upcoming sex scene shoot. Gustie assures the actors that there shouldn’t be any further rewrites.
In the next day, Jayla and Grant attend their hearing at the courthouse, where they find out Sheila, Carl’s love interest, will be the judge in the suit against Grant. Jayla sees no path to victory now despite Sheila dismissing the claim on the life insurance proceeds.
At lunch after the hearing, Jayla drinks down her anger and frustration. Grant is optimistic, thinking she’s built a very winnable case. But then he reveals he’s not a born-and-raised local, which further depresses Jayla as she can’t see a way forward.
Feeling they have Elliott’s buy-in for their compromises, Alan and Gustie go over the some reshoots they will need before wrapping with him. Elliott agrees to their version of the bar fight as long as Grant gets some good punches in before the cuckholds overtake him. They review how Jayla comes up with the way to win the lawsuit, encouraging Elliott to help them write these pages.
Elliott leaves Alan and Gustie to finish some work at the private equity firm. Alan kids Gustie about having to let Leo, playing Chett, down for their off-screen affair when Gustie makes her move on Elliott. Gustie denies having a relationship with Leo. Alan checks to see if Gustie still wants to do three more movies with him, but Gustie tells him no for the way he’s been acting, taking too much control over this project and making side deals without her involvement, reminding him he’s slipped into this mode on past projects. Alan reveals his intention to make this project his love letter to Gustie, but Gustie tells him she never wanted or needed a lover letter, especially if it means she loses her standing in the overall process. She storms out.
The next morning, they shoot Grant escorting Jayla back to her hotel from their lunch where she’s had too much to drink and he’s afraid the local sheriff has his eye on her now that Sheila’s their judge.
Jayla asks him why he wants to stay in town, even if he loses the case. Grant feels his entire life and memories are wrapped up in the town and his business. She argues that his future memories will be terrible if he stays and they lose, telling him about what happened when she confided in her sister-in-law that she and her dead husband had been fighting and drinking before he took off and killed himself in his truck accident. Jayla was ostracized by their small town and had to close her practice and join a corporate law firm.
Grant argues that Claudia’s not just in his memories. She’s actually in the smoked chocolate, his memories of creating it with her, and how it made her smell are things he’s reminded of every day. Jayla tells him he can take Claudia anywhere with him if she’s embedded in the chocolate. This offends Grant and he storms out. Jayla, left to watch him walk back in the snow to his truck at the bar, admits to herself how much she wants to help him.
Outside, Noah faints before he gets to the truck, given his diet. Amber has to tell Alan that Drew is helping Noah out of a snow pile.
Excited at how the film is turning out, Elliott reviews the dallies with Alan and Gustie. Gustie is still furious with Alan, but Elliott doesn’t pick up on it as they discuss some small scenes left to shoot and debate having Dean at the test-screening. Alan scours his mind with how to fix his torn relationship with Gustie before they wrap shooting and he loses her to projects without him.
In the next shoot, Jayla struggles with her growing feelings for Grant, reaching out to her friends for advice.
The next day, feeling awkward, Grant serves Sheila her standing order of chocolate and asks her if it’s appropriate for her to still do business with him. Sheila cracks a joke that neither Carl nor Grant are offering her free chocolate and she’s not about to drive fifty miles to the next town with a chocolate shoppe. Ashley and Kristen ask Grant how he feels about his new woman having to beat up the men he couldn’t. He denies that Jayla is his new woman and isn’t bothered at all that she helped him when he was attacked.
Jayla comes to the shop to apologize for how callous she was with Grant the day before. He tells her what Sheila said then takes her back to show her his chocolate smoking process so she can see how Claudia’s spirit lives within it. It reminds Jayla of the pottery-making scene in “Ghost,” realizing how tough that would be to move on from. Grant tells her he and Claudia were more into Kenny Rogers than the Righteous Brothers.
Alan cuts the scene to question the Kenny Rogers reference. Gustie, finished with Alan, argues that they’re keeping it then storms into the screening room. Alan follows her. They continue to fight but Alan is closer to realizing his blunders and how deeply they’ve hurt Gustie. Still frustrated and now confused, Gustie leaves Alan there.
In the next shoot, Jayla and Grant prepare for their next hearing in Sheila’s courtroom. They overhear Bill’s and Carl’s heated argument as Sheila and Carl fought the night before because Carl refuses to give Sheila an interest in Grant’s business if she finds in favor of Carl’s complaints. Sheila barges into the courtroom from her chambers. Before she can rule to throw the lawsuit out, Bill informs her that Carl wishes to drop the case. They agree to pay Grant’s legal expenses and court costs.
Euphoric, Jayla and Grant share a long hug that grows in meaning for both of them, before Jayla taunts Carl and Bill for losing the case.
Jayla and Grant celebrate over lunch. Jayla telling Grant he’ll have to let her know what really went down between Sheila and Carl. That evening, they stumble into Grant’s shoppe, Jayla playfully demanding Grant show her his tempering process before she has to leave town. Grant doesn’t want her to go. They kiss.
In the editing booth, Alan, Gustie, Elliott, and Drew review the rough cut of the Jayla/Grant sex scene with Amber and Noah, to decide if the sex scene is even necessary in the final cut. Drew assures Amber the body part close-ups are really calves and elbows and the lower back dimples are Brittany’s, who willingly shot them with Drew.
They discuss whether Amber’s and Grant’s post-intimacy performances are realistic and believable. All agree they are. Gustie is torn, still alienated from Alan but admiring how well Amber and Noah work together. They then review the morning-after scene.
Grant and Jayla explore the depth of their stronger relationship. Grant tells her he’s willing to sell his shoppe and open a test kitchen for his chocolate suppliers to mass produce his smoked chocolates as long as the new buyer agrees to change the business’s name to “Claudia’s.” Grant wants to follow Jayla back to Chicago, but this move is sudden and scares her. They agree to be scared together but to plunge forward. They talk about Denver instead of Chicago for their new life together.
Back in the editing bay, Noah and Amber, having reviewed the morning-after scene, don’t feel they need to keep the sex scene. Alan, overcome with how great the scene works and his impending loss of Gustie, remains silent, deferring to Gustie as his creative equal to make the final decision. Gustie decides to keep the scene in for the test-screening and get audience feedback. Though Alan agrees, he’s so distraught he buries his face in his hands. Seeing his anguish, Gustie moves to comfort him. He apologizes softly to her, swearing he will never override, devalue, or dismiss her input, never disrespect her again. She tells him he’s rick-rolling again and they share a relieved laugh when she accepts his apology. Alan bearhugs Gustie, leaving Elliott to wonder if this happens close to wrap on every set.
The following day, they shoot the final scene at Grant’s Shoppe, Grant signing new contracts for selling his business and opening his test kitchen with Jayla. When Gustie says that’s a wrap on “The Widowed Chocolatier,” the entire cast and crew burst in, diving into the set’s counters and displays of chocolates. Alan opens whiskey bottles as the prop chocolates aren’t really smoked. Alan toasts Gustie, who sandwiches herself in an Elliott and Leo embrace, in every level of heaven she can imagine. Carl toasts Alan. Nicole, playing Kristen, asks if the cast can attend the test-screening, which Gustie and Alan agree to.
Two weeks later, at the screening, the theater has close to a hundred test-screeners. Alan, Gustie, and Elliott watch the audience with Dean as the film takes them into Grant’s new test kitchen, where Brock, Chett, Brenden, and Kristen are training to become sou-chefs. Their instructors re-enact a chocolate-making version of the pottery scene in “Ghost.” The audience loves the reference.
The next scene shows Kristen running Claudia’s. Waiting for her order, Sheila announces her engagement to Carl as well as her wise investment in Grant’s chocolate suppliers, which enables both her and Carl to retire. Ashley and Kristen help her begin her wedding planning.
Back in the test kitchen, Jayla says goodbye to Grant, heading out to southern Oklahoma over a burger restaurant dispute. But she’ll be back in time to go to the next Parisian chocolatier convention with Grant.
The film ends with positive rection, reviews and feedback from the test-screeners.
Later, Gustie meets with Dean to close the deal on Alan’s, Gustie’s, and Elliott’s new production company for the three future film projects Dean will fund. He’s still unsure cutting the sex scene is the right decision, but he’s agreed to it.
Dean expresses his gratitude for Gustie taking on Elliott. Dean wishes he was a more attentive father, especially after his wife died. He makes overtures to Gustie, but Gustie is resistant, worried about Dean’s reaction to learning she’s transgendered. They hug, and in that moment, Dean makes the realization. His attraction to her doesn’t subside, but they agree to keep their relationship professional.
Later, on a mountain ravine, two same-sex couples, DAVID, played by Lucas, BEN, played by Oliver, CLARISSA, played by Brittany and JANETTE, scramble up a cliff to avoid being shot by a deranged sniper who is hunting them after kicking them out of his hiking group for being gay. Once they have the high ground and retreat into thick woods, they plot their next moves, the men poking fun at the women for planning their entire lives together after having just met, and the women ridiculing the men for having loud sex in their tent, making it easier for the sniper to track them down.
Annoying the actors, Alan yells cut, not believing the world of budding romance in something that feels more like “Deliverance” or “The Deer Hunter.” Gustie and Elliott explain it’s their athletic lead female rom com with suspense. Alan argues the upcoming plot points read like cheesy “Home Alone” boobie traps, worried the dark comedy element on top of the suspense and romance is too much for one film. Janette wonders why Alan can even yell cut on this production. Alan defends himself by reminding the actors of his past successful films. The actors remind him “The Widowed Chocolatier” bombed because of the cut sex scene. Alan storms off, huffing that if it had bombed none of them would be employed or filming anything more than dog diarrhea prevention commercials.
Gustie and Elliott hide their laughter from Alan.