Creative Notes:
This is an eighth draft of this screenplay. Focusing on character development and pacing, the result is a quick read with drama and action in all the right places.
Origin Of A Species
Two years after the loss of his leg in a car accident, an ex-cop must deal with the slow dissolution of his marriage.
Synopsis:
Two years after the loss of his leg in a car accident, ex-cop Jim Sprenguard focuses on his narcotics detection business and three German Shepherds: Gretchen, Boss, and Krueger.
Meanwhile, his beautiful but estranged wife seeks her sexual fulfillment from one of her students, seventeen year-old Dan Clark; cross country runner and budding adult. After a secret nighttime rendezvous at Timberchase Lake, Dan hits a rabid deer with Bonnie's car and inadvertently spreads the virus to Jim's three dogs.
A property line dispute with Jim's neighbor results in the infected dogs getting loose from their kennels and instituting a reign of terror on the small community. Jim reunites with his old partner, Officer Simon Mercer, to search for the animals, and as the attacks escalate, Jim regains a part of himself he lost in the car accident years before. His purpose.
Bonnie and Dan's affair gets complicated when Dan's religious mother begins a crusade against evolution being taught in Dan's school, and Bonnie is her target. Religious fervor mixed with real-life fear surfaces as people begin dying at the teeth of the dogs.
Jim must face his demons head-on as he and Mercer continue their search. He finally opens up to his old friend about the accident that claimed his leg and Bonnie's involvement in it. A pattern emerges.
After Jim confronts his wife about her recent whereabouts, Bonnie runs to the arms of her young lover. Their plans to flee the small town soon become a nightmare when they're pursued by Jim's dogs. What begins as a study in human sexual desire soon becomes a lesson in animal instinct, chaos, and self-preservation as the two run for their lives. When they find themselves at Timberchase Lake, Bonnie flees into the water but Dan panics and runs, attracting the attention of Gretchen.
Jim and Mercer arrive on the scene just in time to save the life of the frightened and bloodied teenager, however, Jim must put an end to the terror and pursues his once faithful pet. In a final, brutal struggle, Jim kills Gretchen and restores himself in his own eyes.
Bonnie, hidden in the moonlit lake, survives unnoticed and unscathed, her beauty and cunning intact, her sins paid for in the blood of those around her.
Meanwhile, his beautiful but estranged wife seeks her sexual fulfillment from one of her students, seventeen year-old Dan Clark; cross country runner and budding adult. After a secret nighttime rendezvous at Timberchase Lake, Dan hits a rabid deer with Bonnie's car and inadvertently spreads the virus to Jim's three dogs.
A property line dispute with Jim's neighbor results in the infected dogs getting loose from their kennels and instituting a reign of terror on the small community. Jim reunites with his old partner, Officer Simon Mercer, to search for the animals, and as the attacks escalate, Jim regains a part of himself he lost in the car accident years before. His purpose.
Bonnie and Dan's affair gets complicated when Dan's religious mother begins a crusade against evolution being taught in Dan's school, and Bonnie is her target. Religious fervor mixed with real-life fear surfaces as people begin dying at the teeth of the dogs.
Jim must face his demons head-on as he and Mercer continue their search. He finally opens up to his old friend about the accident that claimed his leg and Bonnie's involvement in it. A pattern emerges.
After Jim confronts his wife about her recent whereabouts, Bonnie runs to the arms of her young lover. Their plans to flee the small town soon become a nightmare when they're pursued by Jim's dogs. What begins as a study in human sexual desire soon becomes a lesson in animal instinct, chaos, and self-preservation as the two run for their lives. When they find themselves at Timberchase Lake, Bonnie flees into the water but Dan panics and runs, attracting the attention of Gretchen.
Jim and Mercer arrive on the scene just in time to save the life of the frightened and bloodied teenager, however, Jim must put an end to the terror and pursues his once faithful pet. In a final, brutal struggle, Jim kills Gretchen and restores himself in his own eyes.
Bonnie, hidden in the moonlit lake, survives unnoticed and unscathed, her beauty and cunning intact, her sins paid for in the blood of those around her.
Latest Work
-
Script 1 - Matthew's Original Draft12/10/11
