Screenplay: Horatio
Source: Original
Status: Final Draft in Progress
Today's Assignment: Complete pages 1, 2
Horatio is a modern-day fable with fantasy elements; light and humorous, though not strictly a comedy. Appropriate for most of the family; some images may frighten young children depending on how they are rendered by a director.
Horatio McAllister is a traveling salesman who arrives in a small north-western town and proceeds to sell his wares to the residents. But there is more to Horatio than meets the eye: He knows more about people than a total stranger should know, and his sales case always has something different in it each time it is opened. Over the course of a week, Horatio uses his enigmatic merchandise and keen insight to teach the citizens a thing or two about life and how to live it better.
I have wrestled many times with the opening few pages. At one time, the opening credits were slated to run over shots of Horatio, dressed in clashing vibrant colors, arriving in Redmond and taking a scenic stroll through the main downtown street. Then it was modified to where he happened to pass the six primary characters he would be interacting with during the story.
But one recurring complaint among test readers is that the script gave no indication of who Horatio was and where he came from. This was on purpose: I'm a fan of films like Mary Poppins, Nanny McPhee, and even Harvey, where the central character, even the title character, is actually not the point of the primary story. In each of those films, the colorful and engaging central figure is quite static in character development, and exists to be a catalyst for the real story. In Mary Poppins, for instance, it is not a question of tension over whether Mary Poppins will achieve her subtle goal of reuniting Jane and Michael with their father; it is about Mr. Banks having his crusty heart twisted and broken so that he will finally wake up to the joy of having children, and children who love and admire him at that.
So as much as readers complained, my central structure is going to remain. I have no intention of revealing where Horatio comes from, where he's going, or even what he is. How does he know so much? This is an irrelevant question in the end. After all, how does Mary Poppins fly? How does Nanny McPhee know the childrens' names? And who exactly is Harvey? This latter question has more of an answer than the others, but even then it is a far cry from a full explanation.
My one concession to the critics who want to know where Horatio comes from is to open the film with Horatio in a dark room somewhere, lit only by solitary overhead display spotlights, packing his sales case and getting spiffed up for a new day of door-to-door selling. This is as much as we get to know. Where is this dark room? I have no idea, and don't intend to find out.
Between moments of Horatio's preparation are interspersed brief vignettes of the five townspeople he will specifically confront during his stay in the town. I dropped the sixth, Ida Baforpington, when the script proved to be just plain long.
So on the pages assigned for today, we see Horatio, though we don't see his face yet. He opens his sales case and begins putting jewelry in it. Then cut over to Clyde Stanton, mayoral candidate and big-wig with an overdose of arrogance attending an event at a local bookstore. Clearly he thinks it is beneath his dignity to be reading - to a bunch of pre-schoolers at their weekly storytime session.
Back to Horatio as he selects a suit jacket for his trip, before meeting Marge Liscinsky, the town gossip. Her vignette runs onto page 3, so I'll be back tomorrow.
[ 12:00 PM ] [ January 1, 2007 ] [ 0 Comments ] [ Post Comment ] [ Link ]