SYNOPSIS

HOLLYWOOD BUDDHA is writer/director Philippe Caland’s highly engaging satire about an independent producer’s obsession with getting his movie sold, and his simultaneous quest for spiritual enlightenment – all as his life is crumbling down around him.

Philippe, the struggling producer (played by Caland himself), has been living in a tent on his property for two years, in the shadow of his unfinished dream house – a constant reminder of his failure to sell the film he made five years prior, ironically entitled "Dead Girl". The construction workers haven’t been paid in three weeks, and the bank is about to foreclose on his skeleton of a house.

In desperation, Philippe sets up an industry screening with his agent in an attempt to unload the film, but in hopes of tricking potential buyers into thinking they are coming to see something fresh, he deceives his agent by giving the film another title. When the agent finds out it’s the same old movie, he abruptly cancels the screening, leaving Philippe nearly out of options.

In a search for answers, Philippe visits his spiritual advisor (Jim Stewart), and asks, "Do you think ‘Dead Girl’ has bad karma?" Jim, a Buddhist, replies, "That film has the main character carrying around a dead girl, and that’s your problem. You’re carrying around that film like a corpse… you must let it go." Jim convinces him to rent "the most powerful Buddha in Los Angeles" for $2,000 a month, and Philippe dutifully agrees, dragging the statue to his property in hopes of getting his life back on track.

When his artist mother (Hugette Caland) asks him to begin paying back his debt to his brother (Pierre Caland), Philippe tries not to let the mounting pressures get the best of him. Somehow, he always manages to keep himself grounded, and possesses a childlike optimism that is both his most endearing trait and his greatest downfall. Philippe simply assumes help will arrive, and it does the next morning at 6:00 am, when a mysterious foreign investor named Para Kapur (Theo Cardan), shows up at his tent, awakening Philippe in order to discuss purchasing his beleaguered film.

In his tent-side meeting with the investor, which perfectly illustrates the absurdity that is Hollywood, Philippe says, "The story’s a little bit on the funky side, the pitch, simple: dead girl getting fucked. Cutting edge. Controversial." Ultimately, Para Kapur decides to invest in the film, but only on the condition that he be superimposed into the film making love to the girl’s corpse. Philippe, having no choice at this point, obliges.

Meanwhile, his beautiful neighbor, played by Caland’s real life wife Betsy Clark, is going through her own crises. Recently widowed, she’s not only had to put up with the constant noise of the construction next door, but must now face the prospect of a dying mother in the midst of raising her baby alone.

As the two begin to foster an unlikely friendship, the story becomes even more surreal, as a cast of characters that includes a former porn star, a crown prince, and a billionaire mango grower from Mexico, all enter Philippe’s world - ultimately teaching him valuable lessons about what truly matters in life, and how to let go of what doesn’t.