 | |  | |  | |  | |  |
The Weed & the Winter Solstice
In 2012, a $200-million "winter solstice" disaster movie is
scheduled to be released. It is expected to break all
boxoffice records; and two other movies about the 2012
winter solstice are said to be in the works. Talk-whow TV,
radio, You Tube -- all are full of the subject of the ancient
Maya calendar that some scholars with wild imaginations
interpret to be a prophecy of doomsday for planet Earth.
The Web is flooded with sites devoted to the subject. On
3/30/11, Google reported 24,200,000 results for
"December 12, 2012."
Designed to exploit the ignorant, the superstitious, and
the gullible, these websites tell us more about human
nature than they tell us about the cosmos. As a matter of
fact, the "winter solstice" has been a basic element in the
religious imagination of people in the Norther
Hemisphere since prehistoric times. Our collective
unconscious has long been obsessed with the winter
solstice, and our familiar custom of lighting Christmas
trees at that ominously dark time of year comes directly
out of the primitive religions of northern Europe. . In the
USA we have a native Appalachian folk tale, the Frankie
Silver legend that is a superb example of popular winter
solstice lore.
The legend grew out a true case of a winter-solstice
murder. The Weed & the Winter Solstice "a luminously
dark tale of and for our time" -- in the words of José
Argüelles, himself an outstanding Mayan scholar, is
based on the famous Frankie Silver legend, the story of a
real winter solstice catastrophe that happened in 1831,
long before 2012.
Arcane, but as folksy as The Grapes of Wrath, and as full
of action as A Clockwork Orange, The Weed & the Winter
Solstice -- in the words of another reviewer -- "has all the
elements of an absorbing thriller and prime time TV
show." Those features make "Winter Solstice" an
obvious sure winner in 2012, when the winter solstice
theme will be the mysterious great attractor in the
pop-culture media.
Our pilot below demonstrates how this famous folktale
murder-case develops into a highly original allegory of
the forces of light engaged with the forces of darkness.
The story unfolds in dramatic episodes especially
suitable for TV. As professionals in the business know, it
is too late in the game to go through the slow process of
preparing and marketing a professional screenplay for
2012; but a talented Director-Producer with creative
daring and imagination can make a killing with this
book-to-screen bonanza.
TITLE OF SHOW: Winter Solstice FORMAT OF SHOW: Made-for-TV-Movie Drama - Miniseries - or major motion picture. BASED ON: The Weed & the Winter Solstice, a novel AUTHOR NAME: Howard E. Cook Pilot Script LOG LINE: Highbrow C. P. Byrd ventured into a moral Labyrinth, and now he is threatened with blackmail by lowbrow drug dealer Charlie Jim. A story of irony and redemption, "Winter Solstice" signifies not doomsday but the birth of new light in a new day. MAIN CHARACTERS: MR. BYRD: Successful author, physically a Dick Cavett type, Southern Appalachian on his mother's side, FFV on his father's, speaks with an Oxford accent acquired as a Rhodes Scholar, and cherishes 3 souvenirs (Lugar, dagger, binoculars) from his days as a WWII commando. His basic values derive from his hillbilly heritage AGATHA: Folk singer, easily provoked to fits of murderous rage, college educated, once taught 8 grades in a one-room school at Sleepy Ditch, and worked in Detroit during WWII, Agatha remains as loyal to her Appalachian heritage as Dolly Parton does. JEB: Agatha's childhood sweetheart, he was always the outsider in Penitentiary Hollow, having been brought there at age 7. As a teenager he works one summer in a circus, then attends high school in Avernus while living with Coach George at the college. Alpha male attractive to both sexes, after he helped Agatha dispose of Ralph Sneed "Rattlesnake" Pesterfield's dead body ("Rattlesnake" tried to rape Agatha and kill Jeb) Jeb enlisted in the army, deserted, returned to Penitentiary Hollow, married Agatha, then enrolled at UTK where he was a student under Mr. Byrd, who was teaching a course in the American folk ballad. Jeb takes Mr. Byrd to Penitentiary Hollow to meet Agatha and to see his newborn son, Charles. He then takes Mr. Byrd up to Little Lost Snowbird to look at a cabin for sale. CHARLES: Alpha male like Jeb, talks like Mr. Byrd, and displays the cool self-possession of the highly educated elite. CHARLIE JIM: Son of "Rattlesnake," his real name is Chester Pesterfield. On that snowy winter day Agatha killed "Rattlesnake" he and his twin sister Isabelle, pupils at Agatha's school in Sleepy Ditch, may or may not have seen Jeb loading "Rattlesnake's" dead body into the back of Agatha's surrey, a horse-drawn carriage. FADE IN INT. HOME LIBRAR - NIGHT (June 1980) MR. BYRD: (at his desk in his library, typing) VOICE OVER (distant sound of a woman playing guitar and singing "The Last Letter.") Mr. Byrd's facial expression indicates that the song is coming from his memory; the music fades as he removes a finished page from his typewriter and lifts a commando dagger serving as a paper weight on top of the finished pages. He places newly finished page upside down on the stack and replaces the dagger. As he is about to resume typing phone rings. He looks at an old-fashioned pendulum clock on the wall. MR. BYRD (in his best Oxford accent) The clock on my wall tells me that it is now two a.m. So it must be you again. VOICE OVER Cool! Like wow! You got it man! It's me, Charlie Jim. You know what I mean? Like what I said them other two times, you know. Like that's some hunk of bread I been offering you for that spread of dirt. Right? Maybe you'll change your mind. Maybe I know sumpin you don't know I know. You know what I mean?" My property -- as I told you at two a.m., yesterday, and at two a.m. the night before that -- is not for sale. But what, precisely, if I may ask, is the nature of your persistent interest in my place? Cool, man! You know. It's like I got me this little commune. You know what I mean? Like wow, man; it's what Jesus wants us to do. Right? Commune! Dig? Live like one big happy family and all that jazz. Getting it all together. You know what I mean? That's what Jesus told us. Right? Right, man? You can't fuck around with the will of God. Am I right? I am not interested in your theology. (Charlie Jim's tone grows threatening) Look, man! I'm gonna tell you something. Right now! Real heavy. I mean like wow, man! This way-out woman in Hollywood she give me this reading. You know what I mean? Spiritual reading? Like psycho? And she told me -- this way-out woman told me -- that me, Charlie Jim, was predestinated to come into his kingdom here in the mountains of East Tennessee. Near my birthplace. You know what I mean? The spirits told her that. You know what I mean? And she told me, Charlie Jim, something else, man. Like she told me you got this great big bad karma hanging over your head. Your belief in fortune tellers is your problem. Not mine. No way, man! No way! It's your problem. It's you got this big bad karma. It aint me. Cause hat wife you had, man! I know for a fact that she killed Jeb Mills and when her brothers got her out of jail you run off with her and got away with it. And her baby was Jeb Mills' baby. Jeb's baby. That's not your boy. That big shot at NASA! Astronaut. Whatever. He ain't no Charles Byrd. His real name is Mills. And... (Mr. Byrd hangs up and unplugs his phone.) INT. MR. BYRD'S LIVING ROOM (2 p.m., same day) (buzzer rings) (Mr. Byrd goes out to his front porch and looks through binoculars to see who's at his entrance gate at the end of a long driveway. He sees a police car and presses a button that opens the gate. Police car approaches slowly up the driveway. Mr. Byrd goes out to meet it. Sheriff and two men in black business suits get out.) MR. BYRD: (extends his hand to the sheriff) Good afternoon! My name is C. P. Byrd. SHERIFF: I'm Sheriff Shoemaker, Mr. Byrd, and this here's Claude and Delbert. Is this here your land we're on? Yes it is. Then we got somethin we need to talk you about, Mr. Byrd. Welcome, Gentlemen! Please come in. (leads the men into his living room) INT. MR. BYRD'S LIVING ROOM TWO NARCOTICS AGENTS: (silent, shifty-eyed as two secret-service agents -- Sheriff Shoemaker has mentioned their names but did not say which is Claude and which is Delbert -- they remain silent while setting up a movie projector and screen. Sheriff Shoemaker keeps up a running commentary as Mr. Byrd and his guests watch the movie.) SHERIFF: VOICE OVER: (folksy, garrulous -- as movie starts) This here is a state surveillance movie. Mr. Byrd, and hits alookin for marajuana crops. Hit starts out way down yonder in Avernus County, and comes on up thisaway and into Cloud County where we're at now. There's Avernus now -- the county seat! Up she comes! Next, that's Sleepy Ditch; then we fly over Penitentiary Holler and start comin this away. There's Little River with the river road runnin along it on this side; that's The Old Abandoned Quarry, Now the copter's acomin right up the bluf to where we're at now. Upity up! Up to the top of Little Lost Snowbird. Towards your place -- where we are right now. That's the top of your house, Mr. Byrd. But what's that old log cabin out close to the bluff? MR. BYRD: That's the Dodge Ruby cabin. I lived in that cabin when I first moved here. Years ago. Shore nuff! You mean ole Dodge Ruby, the moonshiner? The same. He was my late wife's uncle. Her name was Agatha Ruby before she married Jeb Mills. Well I'll declare! Ole Dodge Ruby, he was a rounder I hear tell. But look at this now! Helicopter's flying over them woods back of your house. And there it is! There it is! That's a pot patch, aye doggies! Sure as Snyder was a pup! Now, ain't that stuff agrowin on your land, Mr. Byrd? It is indeed. Agatha, my late wife, used to cultivate a kitchen garden in that field. I haven't been down that way in years. Let's go have a look. SCENE SHIFT - EXT. (Mr. Byrd is leading Sheriff Shoemaker and the 2 narcs through tangled woods. They reach an open field full of a flourishing crop of marijuana. Mr. Byrd starts to pick up a watering can and a garden hoe beside a shallow brook and is stopt by the sheriff.) SHERIFF: Don't move it! Don't touch that hoe, Mr. Byrd. We don't want him to suspicion we been here. Who? Don't want who to know? Charlie Jim! Ay golly this here's bound to the work of Charlie Jim. He's a parolee. He's out of San Quintin prison on parole, and he ain't spozed to be out of the state of California. Then why don't you arrest him? That's what we're tryin to do. But he's slipperier than a greasy pig. Him and a bunch of hippies is camped out somers in these mountains. Have you any idea where? Not exactly. They keep movin their camp. But it's down yonder down the River Road. We know that much. Down yonder where Little River empties into Big Steady. I see. By the way, Mr. Byrd: I noticed when we come out of your house while ago that you didn't lock your door. I never lock my doors. I never felt any need to locking my doors after we had that chain-link fence put around the place. But that chain-link fence -- I noticed from that movie we looked at -- don't go around but three sides. That's because we didn't think we needed a fence on the bluff side. The only way up to the top of Little Lost Snowbird from the River Road is by way of a steep winding foot path around the Old Abandoned Quarry. (The silent arcs frown and nod while Mr. Byrd frowns and looks thoughtful.) FADE OUT BLACK INT. MR. BYRD'S KITCHEN (next morning, phone rings) This is C. P. Byrd. CHARLES: (voice over) Hello, Dad! Charles! How delightful to hear from you! How are you? And how is Brenda, the bride-to-be? Great! We're both great, Dad. And Brenda, the bride-to-be, is what I'm calling about. Do tell! You know, Dad, what a celebrity Brenda is: female astronaut, daughter of Dela Medford, the famous movie-star and all that. Yes, I know. Point is, Brenda was brought up in the Dela Medford limelight, and she hates it. So she wants us to be married up there on Little Lost Snowbird, in the nmountains,m away from the media and the paparazzi. What a splendid idea! I shall welcome you both with open arms. But what about that Medford woman? Will she be invited to the wedding? I'm afraid so, Dad. (chuckling) This time Beverly Hills is coming to the hillbillies. Heaven help us! Then how are you going to manage keeping it secret? Don't worry, Dad! Brenda knows how to keep the publicity hounds at bay. And another thing, Dad: Brenda is curious to know more about my own unconventional background. I told her about how I was raised in the mountains, educated at home and in private boarding schools. And I told her, Dad, that my unconventional upbringing had something to do with my mother. Something in her past. That Jeb Mills, her first husband, committed suicide or disappeared or something one winter solstice. Well you have done the right thing, Charles. Brenda should know. You need to know more yourself. More about your biological father, about your mother's past, and all that. And as I told you some time ago, it has always been my intention to write the whole story in enough detail so that you can understand why we had to live to way we did. I have been putting the whole story on paper; and I will give it to you and to Brenda as a very special wedding present. But not until after your honeymoon. I have the manuscript finished. It's in my library right now, with my old commando dagger serving as a paperweight. I remember that old commando dagger. You used to use it for a letter opener. I still use it for a letter opener. You had two other souvenirs from your commando days, didn't you? Your binoculars and a Lugar pistol? Whatever happened to that Lugar pistol? Oh, the Lugar. That Lugar pistol is in my fireproof safe in the basement. FADE OUT BLACK INT. MR. BYRD'S LIBRARY MR. BYRD: (enters, switches on overhead lights, sees that his manuscript and the dagger are gone, slaps his forehead with palm of hand in shock and goes through his house locking the outside doors) FADE OUT SYNOPSIS When Mr. Byrd rejects his third extravagant offer to buy his mountain land, Charlie Jim threatens blackmail by making public what he knows about Mr. Byrd's past: that years ago he absconded with Agatha Mills when she was under indictment for the Yuletide slaying of her husband Jeb, that Mr. Byrd adopted Jeb's son, Charles, and reared him as his own, and that Charles is now a prominent figure with NASA. But a way out of the pressure of Charlie Jim's blackmail threat comes when narcs show Mr. Byrd a pot patch being cultivated on his land by Charlie Jim, known to them to be a parolee. Mr. Byrd conspires with the narcs to catch Charlie Jim red handed. Charles telephones from NASA and tells Mr. Byrd that he and his bride-to-be, Brenda, a celebrity astraunt, want to have their wedding at Mr. Byrd's place in the mountains so they can evade the paparazzi. He welcomes the idea and tells Charles that he has finished writing the story of his mother's tragic past and will give it to him as a wedding present -- but not until after the honeymoon. But Charlie Jim has stolen his manuscript, and when a police helicopter swoops down on him cultivating his pot patch, Charlie Jim gets away. Charles and Brenda arrive. Charlie Jim sends them a 1945 newspaper clipping reporting Jeb's disappearance and Agatha's arrest. Mr. Byrd assures them that he can give them a true account of what hapened -- but not until after their honeymoon. Right now they must go to the airport to welcome Brenda's movie-star mother to the wedding. They return to find Mr. Byrd's house in flames and his old cabin next door on fire. Charles beats out the flames and saves the cabin. He and Brenda elope. Charlie Jim catches a plane for California, is arrested when it lands and returned to prison to serve out his sentence. Mr. Byrd moves into the old cabin where he and Agatha and Charles had lived before he had his house built. Images of the cabin morph into the way it looked in 1945, and the drama segues into the Jeb and Agatha story, which plays out in a thread of dramatic episodes that winde back around to the present. The old cabin needs updating. While it is being modernized, Mr. Byrd goes to live with Charles and Brenda and becomes a doting "grandfather" to their son Space, before returning to live in the cabin. In June, 1986, Mr. Byrd is keeping Space, now 5 years old, while Charles and Brenda go on vacation. Charlie Jim, his sentence served, is back on the scene. He breaks into the cabin at night, intending to kidnap Space. Mr. Byrd shoots Charlie Jim, drags the dead body out to the edge of the bluff, pushes it over, hears it splash into the water of the Old Abandoned Quarry, goes back to the cabin, and finds Space playing with a Nazi military cap Charlie Jim had been wearing. He carries Space out on the porch of the cabin and points to the night sky. "Look at the stars, Space!" "Orion!" says Space, pointing. "No. Orion, the great hunter, comes in winter." ">Email: "Howard Cook" <howard.cook84@yahoo.com> Email: "Howard Edward Cook" <6212hcook@comcast.net> 423 435-8897 : |
