Desert Galleon

Creator: Don Taylor
Age rating: Everyone
While exploring an inland sea, a Spanish galleon runs aground and is lost in the shifting sands that eventually become the southern California desert. A father and son search for a modern day soldier of fortune, who has fractured time on his quest for the legendary treasure.
Project collaboration: Open
Full synopsis
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Synopsis: While on a quest to find the legendary treasure ship, a modern-day fortune hunter unwittingly activates a flawed secret government time-altering device, and throws present and past lives into chaos. Battling 16th-century Conquistadors and 21st-century Mercenaries, a present day Soldier is sent across time on a journey to fix a world on the brink of total destruction.

Long Synopsis:

Desert Galleon is inspired by an actual expedition that took place in the year 1612. The Logbooks for that doomed voyage reside in a museum in Spain, and treasure hunters still search for the ship and her treasure in the southern deserts of California and Arizona.
Ravaged after decades of incessant warfare and plague, an impoverished nation rests her hopes on the success of a single mission. A galleon commissioned by King Phillip III to bring riches from the new world, sets forth on an ill-fated voyage, and while searching for a legendary northern passage, the vessel becomes stranded in the shallows of what will eventually become a desert of shifting sand.
The lure of treasure becomes an obsession, and one man uses his new position as Director of Security for a government facility to obtain access to a top secret time altering project. Initially designed to convert the area within a single beam of light to any specific date of the past, the device subsequently malfunctions, and acting like the spokes of a wheel, sends multiple beams far out into the surrounding desert.
Undaunted by the results of the first test, the man forces the machine to be activated two more times, and each time the outcome is more devastating. Varying slices of the past cause a succession of tragic events and the man responsible is Major Charles Platt USMC.
Former director Curtis Fury is on a sailing vacation with his son Ryan in the Sea of Cortez. Their Trimaran sailboat is attacked by what they believe to be charter ships, but turn out to be two Spanish Galleons caught in the first time rift. A second rift slices like a wall of light through the ships and ocean, creating a crimson line of blood and floating sliced fish as far as the eye can see. Ryan is injured in the broadside and hides in the Trimarans slowly filling hold, while Curtis is taken prisoner aboard the one remaining Galleon. Ryan is eventually picked up by a pre Coast Guard Revenue Cutter circa 1860, and quickly impresses the Captain and ships doctor with his 21st century knowledge.
F-18 pilot, Lieutenant Sarah Kenton, whose aircraft carrier has vanished in the second time rift, must jettison her empty fighter jet over what appears to be a charter sailing ship. The superstitious 16th century crew sees an Angel floating from heaven on a cloud, and react in strange and very unusual ways.
Thinking his son Ryan is dead, Curtis uses the Spanish crews superstitions and fear to his advantage and enlists Sarah's help in an arduous escape and quest to find the source of their plight.
Captured by Platt and his mercenaries, Curtis soon finds out Platt is responsible for the devastating time rifts and his son's death. He also finds that Platt has located his legendary galleon, but disabled the time machine by taking a key piece of equipment with him.
With the entire planet on the verge of splitting apart like an orange and its wedge shape pieces tumbling out into space, Curtis must secure the machines missing piece and try to reverse the changes.
A struggle ensues between Platt's modern-day mercenaries and the 16th century Conquistadors, but the Spanish abruptly disengage when the Superstitious Captain sees Sarah, ”The Angel” running through the battles smoke and devastation.
Platt imprisoned aboard the Spanish vessel, finally gets his treasure, but is now on a doomed voyage toward the ever shifting sands of a timeless desert.

Latest Work

  • Script 1 - Don's Original Draft
    11/17/10
    Main1290140157._sx304_sy171_
    Creative Notes:
    In 04 I sent an earlier draft to an aquaintance, Mary Crosby (Dallas, daughter of someone named Bing). I received personal calls from both Arnold Swarzenegger and Steven Segal. They said they loved it and to stay by the phone, still waiting. That was February 04, and since that time Arnold has become very busy, but there is hope! I have been watching his pole ratings. Steven called from Hong Kong.
    RTF