I have been developing the backgrounds for the characters in the movie. Here is what I have so far for the main characters, Gordon, Ren, and Julie...
Gordon Stills-
GORDON lives alone in his apartment. He works for a small online magazine writing video game reviews, but he dreams of becoming a game designer.
His pet project which he calls, “Possessed” puts the player in the roll of a disgruntled demon which possesses the bodies of morally degenerate people to subvert the plans of the Devil. Gordon has written several story lines for his project and sketched out some levels and scenes for the game. He wants to sell his idea and direct the video game project, but he doesn’t have the necessary contacts to get into game design.
Several of the people he’s worked with at the magazine have moved on to better jobs in game development. Gordon hopes he will be next. Unfortunately he doesn’t get along with his boss very well, so he doesn’t stand a chance of getting a good referral.
One of Gordon’s problems it that he is not very good at meeting deadlines. He spends too much time dreaming about his pet project and not enough time focussing on the jobs he is assigned to.
Gordon grew up as an only child. His parents paid for his education at the art school. His grades were average, since he spent too much time playing video games. His dedication to the art projects was minimal and as a result he produced mediocre work. He got his job at the online magazine thanks to his father, who was old friends with an executive at the parent company of the online magazine.
Gordon met his girlfriend, JULIE, at work. At the time, Julie was managing the web development team at the magazine, but has since moved on to a more important management job in web development for a large bank. Julie was physically attracted to Gordon- she thought he was cute- and she sticks with him because he is loyal to her and she can control him. Unfortunately for Gordon, Julie is not fully committed to their relationship, since she has been disappointed in his seeming lack of ambition. Gordon has tried to convince her that he is ambitious, but has done little to prove it. Gordon has big dreams, but is too satisfied with the status quo to take risks.
Renold Zachary-
REN has isolated himself in his apartment for over a year, working on his own artificial intelligence program. He has become obsessed with perfecting a program that will revolutionize the robotics industry and change the world.
Ren worked for NASA for a while, writing code for the computers on board space exploration probes. He was part of a team of programers, but he never really fit in. His abstract ideas were shunned by the team, due to Ren’s disregard for the meticulous scientific approach to writing the programs. Ren always skipped the details, believing too much in his own genius. His reckless approach, taking short cuts, lost him the respect of the disciplined scientists he was working with. His ideas always exceeded the existing and possible development process. He knew the ideas would work, but had little satisfactory proof to support his claims. Eventually the scientific team at NASA had relegated Ren’s tasks to menial assignments checking the computer code for errors.
Eventually Ren quit his job at NASA and moved on to a research position at Stanford’s Linear Accelerator Lab. He was never very committed to his job at SLAC, but the ideas he developed while working there earned him a large prize for innovation in energy conservation. He was awarded a certificate, a trophy, and a fifty thousand dollar check from the government.
Much like his job at NASA, Ren never fit in with his colleagues at SLAC. He did little to earn respect from them as he dismissed their slow, scientific, step by step approach to research. Ren would always jump to the conclusions, knowing in his mind that they would work, but not proving it on paper.
Eventually, Ren isolated himself at the job, rejecting the slow approach of his colleagues. One of his projects in the lab failed, resulting in a small explosion and destroying equipment costing tens of thousands of dollars. He was fired from SLAC, but insisted that his idea would have worked if they had only listened to him and provided the necessary support.
He was then on his own, but still had the fifty thousand dollars awarded for his energy conservation project. Ren decided to focus on his research independently, living off the award money. He knew the money wouldn’t last long, but was convinced that his ideas would be so revolutionary that it would pay off.
The money was not important to him, only his research. Having lost his job, Ren moved into a small, cheap apartment to continue his work.
Julie Flowers-
JULIE is the girlfriend of the main character, GORDON. She's kind of a bitch. Julie has a foul mouth, and is not afraid to boss people around. She 'wears the pants' in her relationship with Gordon.
Being the oldest of three siblings, with a do-nothing alcoholic father and a dead mother, Julia learned to take control early on. She is the boss. She trusts Gordon because he is subservient to her. Julie hides her weaknesses well, but cries to herself when she's alone.
Julie is not fully committed to Gordon, due to his lack of ambition. She wants a family, but she wants to ‘do it right’. She likes Gordon, since he is loyal to her, and she hopes that he will get his shit together and become a better man, able to take care of a family. She has convinced herself that she can guide and mold him into the man she wants him to be. Julie has plans for her relationship with Gordon, but he is not ready to meet her expectations. She thinks that all he needs is a good woman to back him up and guide him, but is unrealistic about her ability to change and mold him into her vision for the relationship.
Julie has recently gained new confidence due to her acquisition of an important management position at a prominent banking company. She thinks that she can apply herself to the relationship in the same way in order to get what she wants. She prides herself on her ability to get things done her way, so she sticks with Gordon to prove to herself that she is right. She wants to commit to Gordon, to serve her pride, but struggles with his inability to live up to her expectations. She has not yet come to terms with the fact that she cannot change him, regardless of her best efforts.
