Interview with Screenwriter Richard Trask (COSMOSIS OF WORLDS)

Matthew Toffolo: What is your screenplay about?

Richard Trask: “Cosmosis of Worlds” explains the mystery of our apparently fleeting yet seemingly all-encompassing personal life of a few short years within the multi-billion year span of our cosmos. Why does it seem to us that we have always been alive, while we know that we’re on Earth practically no time at all in the larger scheme of things?

2. What genres does your screenplay fall under?

Science Fiction; Drama

3. Why should this screenplay be made into a movie?

This story is an original, of lasting significance, best communicated visually on the big screen.

4. How would you describe this script in two words?

Unique; Compelling

5. What movie have you seen the most times in your life?

“North by Northwest”

6. How long have you been working on this screenplay?

Research on this project began around 2010. Writing and revision started around 2013, completed 2019.

7. How many stories have you written?

Stories published: twenty-two. Another dozen or so exist in draft.

8. What is your favorite song? (Or, what song have you listened to the most times in your life?)

A toss-up amazing many dozens. One of these: “Wondrous Machine” (Henry Purcell, in the Ode to St. Cecilia’s Day, 1693).

9. What obstacles did you face to finish this screenplay?

The utter originality of it makes it daunting in concept, despite its straightforward logic and lucid exposition.

10. Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?

Music (chiefly classical—singing and listening), recreational tennis, Nature, European travel, language study, quantum theory, cosmology, aerobic exercise.

11. You entered your screenplay via FilmFreeway. What has been your experience working with the submission platform site?

The Film Freeway platform is a joy to explore, easy to use, efficient, remarkably comprehensive and varied.

12. What influenced you to enter the festival? What were your feelings on the initial feedback you received?

The Sci-Fi topic of this festival is a good fit for my project. The initial feedback was constructive, supportive, useful, nicely detailed.

Watch the Screenplay Reading: 

Adam Chapman, 1.4 million years ago, on planet Longon, gets hurt in a rock climb and dies during a hernia surgery. His (random) exact replica self, Mark Meyhee, born on Earth in 1989, is also a rock climber. Mark is married to Mary; both are young attractive academic nonscientists. Like Adam Chapman, Mark gets hurt and has a hernia surgery, but he doesn’t die. In anesthesia, he experiences a three-hour time lapse, in effect a time-travel into the future. By this he discovers the phenomenon of Consciousness Everpresent (his term). Mary calls it the Eternal Life of Here and Now: that is, we have continual successive births as ourselves, with a seamless awareness but only of the current life.

CAST LIST:

Narration – Carrie Schiffler
Mary – 21 – Barbara Bergeron
Mark – 20 – Michael Ruhs