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, born during their contract marriage in Nagasaki. 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 loses his innocence and finds his soul.

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 2010. 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, laid-back down-and-outers steal the prize money at a local charity event. Now for Mexico! But there's a little problem. They are implicated in a suspected murder.

Santa Fé mi casa
A young American soldier during the war with Mexico in 1846 falls in love with Morita, a Santa Fé girl. John Henry finds no enemies in Santa Fé, and his mind begins to open.

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, 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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