After his partner swindles him out of his fortune, a selfish real-estate tycoon and his dysfunctional family move in with his Mexican gardener and his family, and then he seeks the gardener's help in proving his former partner's crime.

It remind me of a movie called Nothing to lose with Tim Robbins and Martin Lawrence.
Rather than best friends, make then unlikely allies before the selfish mogul apparently betray him.
Then reveal at the end that instead of returning to his nasty way, he has genuinely changed, and that it was a ruse.

There is a difference between making the movie funny and the logline funny. Even for a comedy, I am not sure that the logline should be funny. It should allude to the comedic aspect of the unlikely alliance. Yours already does it.
Use DPG logline, just replace the adjective arrogant by third generation Hispanic ashamed of his heritage.

Hey Valentin,

I'm approaching it as a comedy. I think comedy is a great vehicle for social commentary as subtext. I'm thinking along the lines of a "buddy picture" ("Wedding Crashers", "Trading Places", etc.), so I'm still in the early phases of outline. The G's journey I'm still working out. Perhaps the Tycoon goes back to his old ways at some point and betrays the G's trust. Who knows? The family may go and be replaced by a romance. Not sure. Regarding the logline, any suggestions on how to make it funnier so that it comes across clearly as a comedy?

What is the genre of the film: comedy, drama, rom-com, thriller, action, western, Sci-Fi, buddy movie?
Obviously your protagonist will change, so he become sympathetic, but does the gardener change as well?
In your initial draft, the entire family was mentioned, does it mean that the entire family will evolve as well? Painting changes brought on an entire family by a single event is very difficult. See the clunky moments in the Descendants with Clooney. You might be better off focusing on a single character the real estate mogul.
The concept is so wide open, all the genres are possible.

Don't like the title, but great idea!

It feels like you might need to explain what the tycoon and the gardener are going to have to do to prove the truth of the crime; and why the gardener is integral to the plot.

I want to say slice away some of the excess word count, but I can't offer you advice on what to lose, because I don't know the answer myself.

Best of luck with this.

Thanks for the great ideas.

>>> make your protagonist the arrogant selfish real estate mogul a second or third generation Hispanic who does not even speak Spanish. Make him look down at immigrants....

This I like.

If you want to attract the Latino market, the protagonist has to be Hispanic. However to be successful in the entire country, your protagonist has to be US. The solution: make your protagonist the arrogant selfish real estate mogul a second or third generation Hispanic who does not even speak Spanish. Make him look down at immigrants.
The rest of the film is a journey of personal discovery who can be a comedy or a drama.
If you want a rom com, make him the fianc? of a girl who suffer from the same prejudice and during the movie he falls in love with the daughter of his gardener. Happy ending: got back his fortune but more importantly his dignity, pride of his heritage and the girl.

One reason I inquired about the protagonist is because the Latino movie audience is big in the U.S., getting bigger, but there has been a paucity of mainstream films targeted to that audience. It seems to me that this is a movie that would appeal to that audience (as well as the Latin America market)...

...But to do that I suggest you consider enhancing the role of the gardener. Either

1) make the gardener the protagonist.

2) Or make the tycoon and the gardener co-protagonists. The standard rule is that a story should have one protagonist, but there are exceptions to every rule. Some artistically and commercially successful films have had co-protagonists. Two that come to mind are "The Odd Couple" and "Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid" which only happen to be written by 2 acknowledged masters of the craft, Niel Simon and William Goldman.

3) Stir the plot by either making the swindled tycoon female or having the male tycoon move in with his former Mexican housekeeper. Romantic complications ensue as they struggle to regain the swindled fortune.

Again, they could be co-protagonists which is implicit in many romantic films. See "When Harry Met Sally", "You've Got Mail", "Pretty Woman","Moonstruck", "The African Queen" and "Adam's Rib", "Bringing Up Baby" -- to name a few.

Whatever, I think your basic concept is very, very marketable. ?Buena Suerte!

Thank you, dpg. I'm fairly new a this and that is the best advice I've ever come across. You should write a book.

After being swindled out of his fortune, an arrogant real-estate tycoon is reduced to living with his Mexican gardener and seeking his help in regaining his fortune.

Notes:
* Arrogant rather than selfish in order to frame the more congruent relationship of an arrogant man reduced to humble circumstances.
*The dysfunctional family element is good gravy for the story-- but not necessarily the sizzle of a logline.

The tycoon.

Who is the protagonist, the victim of the swindle or the gardener?

Thanks.

I over looked the first line. You might want to drop the "After" and replace it with "When"

" When a selfish real-estate tycoon is swindled by his partner, he teams up with his Mexcican gardner to recover his fortune"

Not the best but maybe it'll help

The logline isn't working.

"After his partner"

Who is he? This is not the best way to start. You might want to start with your main character and not his partner. Try " After a selfish real-estate tycoon is swindled out of his fortune..." etc.

The idea could be interesting depending on the genre. Are you aiming for a comedy or something more dramatic?