Tuesday, January 11, 2005

Film idea & it has a great ending

“Call off the search” - A film idea from me

Synopsis

Doug lives in a remote house in the hills above the Navahigh Lake in Canada not far from the small local town also called Navahigh. He moved there with his wife and son in the Winter of the last year. Doug’s son runs away one disastrous stormy night after a big argument with his wife. While out looking for his son on this dark eerie night his wife goes missing too. He finds evidence that his son was trapped by the wild boar trap he himself had set – with a shoe tangled in the trap which had some of the boy’s blood on it. But his son Jake and wife Annie have disappeared completely.

The police are called to investigate but after 3 weeks call off the search. The bait for the trap had attracted some bears. There were also fresh tyre tracks near by.

A couple of out-of-towners arrive in the town one day much to the amazement of the conservative locals who rarely see visitors. Emma is an ex reporter accompanying her explorer photographer husband Ray who she married recently but she’s not sure if she did the right thing because she’s had to give up her job so they can be together and the way he treats her she is not sure if it was worth it.

They are soon invited to dinner by Harriet, the town’s biggest gossip, who invites other friends to come meet the new people – Doug is also invited. Emma finds Doug rather rude and unsociable. He leaves the dinner party suddenly.

Harriet explains that Doug has spent the last year having nightmares about that stormy night when he lost his wife and son. That he can’t sleep, blames himself and is unable to carry on living a normal life until he finds out what happened to them. And that he left because he goes looking for them every night because in his dreams it is night time when he finds them. The guests start to bid goodnight.

Emma is running through the woods at night completely lost. She is crying and freezing cold. Suddenly she sees a white fox. The fox looks back at her as if to say follow me. She runs after the fox and lightning strikes. She sits up in bed suddenly. Ray asks if she dreamt about the white fox again. He tells her to read some other novels to get some new dreams and to stop waking him up every night.

Setting off the next morning for a photo shoot with Ray, Emma notices Doug in the town. She tells Ray she is going to spend the day exploring the town instead. Ray is practically too busy to notice and doesn’t say goodbye back to her as she leaves and he continues to pack his equipment. She asks Doug to take her up to see the Mountain Range. He is not too sure about saying yes but when she asks what else he would do, he can’t find an answer.

Doug is reluctant to open up and instead chooses to ask the questions. Emma talks about her wedding, the life she has now and the life she had before. On the way back it’s getting dark and suddenly a white fox runs across the road. Doug swerves to avoid it and comes off the road just stopping before hitting a tree. He gets out and sees the tyre needs changing. He goes to get the spare when he realises he forgot to put the spare back. He despairs that this is because he is not thinking straight these days and furious with himself, starts punching a tree. Emma says they’ll walk to the nearest town for help, it wasn’t far back.

In the town they enter the bar. The only place that will help them is not open until tomorrow morning. The bar woman asks if they have $30 and says hand it over. Perplexed they do and she replies “Here’s the key for your room for tonight” pointing to a staircase. The room is basic and noisy from downstairs. Emma leaves a message for her husband at his hotel explaining what happened and gives the number of where she is staying.

They decide to join the noise rather than to listen to it. Dancing starts and Emma persuades Doug to dance too. He says he hasn’t danced for a long time. Emma is surprised – he’s a fantastic dancer. Doug becomes happy and seems to lose all his worries for a while. They are having a really good time when he glimpses the clock and says he has to go out and he’ll be back later. Emma runs after him. She persuades him that running around the woods at night would be futile and he should let her use her journalistic skills to help him find his wife and son.

They go back to the bar. Emma is disappointed her husband has not called back. They go to their room. He tells how he loved his family. He brings out some pictures. That he and his wife used to dance together professionally, were childhood sweethearts. Emma starts to cry. He says not to cry because he will find them. She says she is crying because she realises she wants to be loved like that and if she went missing her husband probably wouldn’t even look for her. He hasn’t even called to see if she is okay after the accident. She tells Doug about her white fox dream and the lightning. That she feels the lightning signifies the end. He says it could be a new beginning.

The next morning the bar lady is in the room starting to clean when she comments on the photos lying on the bedside table saying the woman looks familiar. She’s sure that woman passed through here one lunchtime a while back and she remembers because the woman seemed really distressed...

Any offers? Okay so that's the start. Of course I can't tell you how it ends - you'll have to wait to see it on the big screen ;-)

Copyright Marta. All rights reserved.

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