My John Cena - Ernest movie pitch
Cena plays Ernest's nephew. Whether he is also named Ernest is not "that" important. The Gray shirt, blue vest, and cap are important to give the "image". Plot - Ernest passed away and left beachfront property to his family, but it's passed from one relative to another to another to another (in a montage of disastrous encounters) - until it finally winds up being given to Cena. Cena goes out there thinking he can clean up the property, maybe turn it into a resort. First act of the movie is a homage to Mr Hobbs Takes a Vacation as he explores the run down beach house, and hears disquieting things in the nearby swamp forest, and cleans up debris from the beach - before getting it open to the public.
Long story short - Cena makes progress on the property thanks to the help of: friends/chuck-boddy types, kids from the nearby town he wins over with his optimism, charisma, and sense of humor, etc... but ultimately there's something still not quite right about that swamp.
Going in to investigate, he finds it's full of every southern folklore creature from the snipe to the skunk ape, and after initial rough encounters, it's very Henry and the Hendersons Act II. Which ultimately brings us to the conflict of the movie - land developers take notice of the place now that Cena has cleaned it up and want to move in and take everything - but Ernest didn't sell (because he learned his lesson about big-city businessmen after what happened at Camp Kikakee).
So Act III is Cena dealing with the Business dudes, who are sabotaging his work to get the county assessors to give a bad assessment to the newly build resort, so they can get it condemned and then buy it cheap from the county instead (or some legal mumbo jumbo). But when they come by night to do sabotage, Cena and his new swamp friends are there to mess with them - leading to a climax where Cena and his swamp buddies chase off a team of thugs for good. And in the end, the idea for a "resort" is scrapped to become a "sanctuary" for the good of the nearby swampland, which prompts Cena to depart, but feeling like he finally understands a bit more about his uncle Ernest and glad that there's no such thing as a curse on the Worrells... but in the end there's a teaser about Doctor Otto. Hey, it's an Ernest movie concept, it doesn't have to be high art.
