Screenwriting

Harlan Hague

 

 

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My screenplays are a reflection of my interests and my experience. They have been read and are being read. All are copyrighted and registered with WGAw. Here are the expanded loglines.

Butterfly's Child
This is the story of Tom Pinkerton, the child of Madame Butterfly and U.S. Navy Lt. Pinkerton, conceived during their contract marriage in Nagasaki in the late 19th century and born after his departure. When Pinkerton and his American wife come to Nagasaki three years later, they learn of the child and persuade Butterfly to give him to them so they can take him to the United States for a proper upbringing. Butterfly is devastated, but agrees, then commits suicide. So says Puccini in his opera, Madame Butterfly. This backstory is revealed in dialogue. Pinkerton dies when Tom is quite young, and his step mother lies, so Tom knows nothing of his past until the ex-consul of Nagasaki tells him. Tom is troubled, now that he knows what he does not know. He goes to Japan to search for his soul. He finds his mother in Kyoto’s geisha district. There he falls in love with a young geisha, but her rejected suitor feels dishonored and threatens the two lovers with death. In a tale that is both tragic and fulfilling, Tom finds his soul and and an identity.

Belize in My Dreams
 Members of David Hamilton’s tours get their money’s worth. The misadventures of his group are sometimes funny, sometimes filled with danger and suspense. How could a trip anywhere be simple with a guide like this? Think Hercule Poirot, James Bond and Rick Steves in one body. He speaks five languages and can talk about the history and politics of every country his tours touch. It is rumored that he has been recruited by CIA or Interpol. He is also handsome, athletic and plays a mean classical guitar.

 Winnie, Hamilton's assistant, is Chinese, bright, pretty, efficient, speaks English with a strong accent. She will take instruction from David, but she is far from subservient. She does what he asks if she wishes, and does it very well, but ignores him when she chooses. There is a rumor that he won her in a poker game in Bangkok.

 The setting is Belize. What starts out as an ordinary tour in an exotic Central American country deteriorates quickly as the tour group gets caught up in an attempted coup. The belligerent group seeks to discredit the government, which depends on tourism, by killing tourists, namely, David’s group.

Pavane
Elizabeth I was assassinated by a Catholic zealot. In the chaos that followed, Rome put down protestant movements in England and the continent. Rome rules with an iron fist, forbidding any innovation or idea that threatens the supremacy of the Church and the life view of the Popes. Until Lady Eleanor from her castle in south Dorset begins to question, then protest, and, finally, to rebel, igniting the Revolt of the Castles. The year is 2012. This is Eleanor’s story. An alternate history, based on the book, Pavane, by Keith Roberts.

Sakura
Professor David Dana's new graduate assistant is Japanese. Kenji soon tells him that he is also his son. David loves his American wife, but when Kenji's mother visits him from Japan, the professor's world is turned upside down.

A Good Cause
Three likable down-and-outers—a black defrocked professor, a pretty Latina who lost her little boy to a rich scumbag husband, and a young white jailbird Forrest Gump with an attitude—bond and pull off a heist that provides some fun and a lot of spending money. Now for a dash to Mexico! But there’s a little problem, their involvement in a suspected murder.

Santa Fé mi casa
John Henry Harris was a member of the United States Army of the West that marched toward New Mexico in 1846. He had joined the frontier army to fight Indians and shoot buffalo. The opening of the war with Mexico added an exciting element. Now he would defend his country and fight greasers. But John Henry’s world was about to be turned upside down. In Santa Fé he met Morita.

The People
In the mid-nineteenth century, the tribes in the American West form a confederation called The People to oppose the encroachment on their lands by the expansionist United States. Mostly composed of the Plains tribes, the membership also includes distant tribes as diverse as the pueblos of northern Mexico and the coastal tribes of California and Oregon. The American leaders in Washington order the army to destroy the confederation, thus opening their lands for settlement. Easier said than done. The People have an ace in the hole. They have superior armaments and technology, supplied by a shadowy Asian people called the Celestials. This is sci-fi lite/alternate history.

Homeland (a short feature, 45 pages)
The American consul to Mexican California is taken hostage during the war between the United States and Mexico in the 1840s. This is a story about the struggle in one man’s life to define homeland and loyalty. Is he a Yankee, or a paisano, a California countryman? Based on a real incident, described in my prize-winning biography of the consul.

The Sweetening Time (a short feature, a fantasy, 45 pages)
Jack always thought Great-Aunt Jane was one weird old lady. Until she twirls her golden necklace one day and transports him through time and space to a strange land where poison sugar blowing in the wind has forced the squirrel people to live underground. Jack meets a young Jane in this magical land, and together they set out to save the squirrel people from destruction.

Write to me for synopses and a brief C.V.


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