My favorite of the screenplays I wrote of movies I wanted to see.
PERMANENT INTERESTS
An Original Screenplay By
Thomas McKelvey Cleaver
“Nations have no permanent friends, or permanent enemies.
Only permanent interests.”
Prince Metternich at the Congress of Vienna, 1815
FADE IN:
EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - DAY
Low clouds obscure the late afternoon sun.
SUPER: "THE NAGORNO-KARABAKH BORDER"
DRIZZLE STEAMS off a still-smoldering Russian T-80 tank that blocks the road. SOUND of a fast approaching vehicle and...
A muddy Toyota 4-Runner swerves into sight around the tank and sprays up mud as it fishtails back onto the road, past other destroyed vehicles and the ruin of civil war...
INT. 4-RUNNER - DAY
ANNE HAMILTON drives. Her face streaked with dirt, she's an earthy Athena in a bulky sweater over Army fatigues and combat boots.
DAN COCHRAN, a few years older, rides shotgun and holds on for dear life as they bounce over the washboard road.
ANNE
... so, you're really staying in this Garden of Eden 'til winter?
DAN
Eighteen months away from Uncle Sugar, the IRS doesn't get their bite. Jan figures we'll save enough for Suzanne's tuition at Stanford.
ANNE
An alum's letter to financial aid might take off some of the pressure.
DAN
That'd be great.
(a proud father)
She's decided to major in journalism.
ANNE
God help her! She'd better major in business, the way the bean-counters run the news department nowadays.
The 4-Runner rounds another curve...
ANNE (Cont)
Aw, fuck...
HER POV OUT THE WINDSHIELD
Ahead, an old Russian armored car and a Zil (Russian version of a 1955 Packard) form a roadblock across the country road. FIGURES stand to either side.
ANNE
Did you get the new passes?
DAN
I think so. Andrezh said...
ANNE
Andrezh said? You didn't check? Shit...
(reaches behind her)
Let's just run it.
DAN
(slaps the dash)
When was the last time you saw one of these take an RPG up its ass?
A sobering thought.
ANNE
Maybe this bunch can read...
She hands a cardboard sheet to Dan.
Dan sticks the sign in the window: in Russian, Azerbajani, Armenian and English: PRESS!
As she slows, she reaches...
BENEATH HER SEAT
Her hand pushes a Beretta pistol farther back.
CONTINUED in Episode 2 tomorrow.
NOTE: Anne Hamilton’s inspiration: Margueritte Higgins, who liberated Dachau at age 23, and was the first woman to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Foreign Relations for her coverage from the front lines of the first year of the Korean War, winning for her dispatch written as one of the first wave at the invasion of Inchon.
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OK, I'm hooked
Love this....like the serials they used to do in magazines or Radio dramas in segments. I know you write for film but just reading your words gives my imagination a good visualizing workout.