2008-09-01 - 1:01 a.m.
What happened has driven me to two different responses. I�ll talk about the first one here and the other in probably the next entry. (I should also note it�s made me want to go to law school after I get my first PhD. Doctor/lawyer/Indian chief? We�ll see�) The response I�ll talk about now is the screenplay I�m working on.
In it I�m combining aspects of my life, aspects of my friend who joined the army�s life, and the life of a high school football star who gets injured in the current Iraq war to make an update of Coming Home as that film was an update of The Men. I have much of it mapped out in my head and not enough written down so far.
I am writing it as an independent study for school. Somehow, getting credit for something makes it more �real� and fires you up to work harder. The CFP that inspired me to take this on has a due date of 1/29/2009, so that�s when I have to have it done by. I�m sort of casting it, picking the music, and doing the art direction in my head, although Nya doesn�t want me to be a director and I�m not sure I want to either.
I want all positions to be �co-�. Co-directors, co-producers, co-screenwriters (Nya and I), etc. For the �name� director, I very much want Julian Schnabel. He was a Saint Ann�s parent, plus he has an obvious interest in disability (witness The Diving Bell and the Butterfly). For the other director, I have tons of filmmaking friends and directors I used to work for back in my production design days.
The film is going to go back in time and then return forwards. At first this will be subtle. Johnny (the main character � think �Johnny�s Gone to Soldier�) will take out a Hum-V to shoot things when he finds out Angela�s killed herself. The model will shift to a 1990 one (no doubt causing recent vets to suspect that something�s going on).
When Johnny is medevaced (he hits an IED) it will be in a Vietnam-era Huey chopper. When he wakes up in the hospital and is visited by his parents, it will be shot on Vietnam-era film stock. When his grandmother visits later and talks about the horror she experienced in WWII, it will be in black and white.
Probably after Johnny goes outside (and re-meets his high school girlfriend), the scenes will start progressing forwards in time. Things will culminate in a taxi ride to the Plaza Hotel. Johnny and Saskia (his high school sweetheart � a name chosen by Nya) get drinks at the bar. When Saskia gives her line, time will return to the contemporary era.
Hoo.
� 2008 Geoff Gladstone
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