1. What is your screenplay about?
Polly, a precocious young girl, environmentalist and wanna -be journalist, is hot for a great story that will win an International Contest for her private school. Why? To buy a Quantum Computer that could potentially de-tox the river where her precious blue-herons are disappearing.
When her school-mate Wyatt, and Mom(Zelda), a mad-scientist and the Quantum Physicist instructor at the school, go swimming at a lake from the river, Wyatt goes missing. Polly goes searching for Wyatt and ends up a prisoner of Hazard, a deformed cannibal merman who lives under an abandoned castle by the river. Hazard was born deformed from the pollution in the ocean. Hazard’s personality is part Nikola Tesla, part Edgar Allen Poe. The Ocean Pollution is a major contributor to the HORROR of the story.
It’s Hazard’s birthday, and he’s planning a party. His BFF for 130 years, Reefer, a shark ,comes to celebrate. Reefer is also deformed and mutilated from pollution and careless ‘Finners’, Hazard is a Quantum Physicist whose life-work has been to build a Quantum Computer to cleanse the oceans. Hazard also creates AI. He has two servants he custom made for himself, Gypsy, his maid and Brutus, his bodyguard.
Hazard’s lair contains an ancient dungeon where strange underwater sea creatures are kept.
Polly’s friend from school, Seth, a gamer and Anime enthusiast, and Wyatt’s mother go in search of Polly and Wyatt and become prisoners of the Castle.
When Hazard and Zelda meet, their energy instantly connects. Zelda’s work is using the Quantum Computer to extract genetic trauma and defects from the body, potentially healing Hazard. They agree to work together on the condition that Wyatt and Polly are set free, but they refuse to leave.
Hazard is out of sight during the process as he needs to have his feet in the waterway that runs through the dungeon.
The experiment is a success and the water cleansing leaves millions of raw diamonds from the carbon that is polluting the oceans.
Hazard is freed from his deformity, becoming what he always dreamed of – a Winged Wolf who flies away. The remaining group, now friends, set up a school and a night club in the castle.
2. What genres does your screenplay fall under?
Horror/Fantasy/Comedy
3. Why should this screenplay be made into a movie?
It brings the imminent danger of planet earth and the toxic oceans into view.
4. How would you describe this script in two words?
Far-Out.
5. What movie have you seen the most times in your life?
The Godfather.
6. How long have you been working on this screenplay?
Three years.
7. How many stories have you written?
Thirty
8. What is your favorite song? (Or, what song have you listened to the most times in your life?)
If I Can Dream – by Elvis Presley.
There must be lights burning brighter somewhere
Got to be birds flying higher in a sky more blue
If I can dream of a better land
9. What obstacles did you face to finish this screenplay?
Not obstacles but it was rewritten several times after getting pro-feedback. The script has a RECOMMEND from Extreme Screenwriting.
10. Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?
Photography.
11. You entered your screenplay via FilmFreeway. What has been your experiences working with the submission platform site?
I love it. My motto: “Traveling on Filmfreeway”. It’s been very rewarding for me in many ways.
12. What influenced you to enter the festival? What were your feelings on the initial feedback you received?
I wrote a HORROR story but when I saw a contest for Environmental concerns I couldn’t believe it! I had to enter. It’s like it was made for my story.
Watch the Screenplay Reading:
While searching for a great story, a young journalism student swims into the lair of a cannibal Merman Wizard deformed from water pollution.
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Val Cole
Polly: Kyana Teresa
Anne: Hannah Ehman
Matthew Toffolo's Summary 