First of all — we’re fortunate to have a multiple Emmy award winning screenwriter in Wendell Morris. He, Susan Johnson, and I have been working hard on the story and screenplay since January.
Second, this is a sequel to EYE OF THE DOLPHIN, which we shot here on Grand Bahama Island 3 years ago. EOD told the story of Alyssa, a troubled 14 year old, who due a series of circumstances found herself being sent from Los Angeles, where she had grown up with her grandmother, to live with her father — a dolphin researcher in the Bahamas. The first film had a great run on the festival circuit, won a bunch of awards, had a limited theatrical run, and holds promise to become a longterm “evergreen” DVD product — particularly if we can roll out two more films in the trilogy and continue to build on the first one.
So for starters — here’s the preliminary key art just to give you a feel for what we’re up to. You can click on it to see it larger.
In WOD, it’s four years later. Alyssa (CAITLIN WACHS from Commander in Chief, Kids in America)) is 18, and she’s working with her dad, Hawk (DAVID KEITH, An Officer and a Gentleman, Behind Enemy Lines) at the facility which now is quite a bit more advanced (i.e. funded) than it was previously. Her best friend, also working at the facility, is Kita (SAMANTHA JADE, Australian pop star in her first film role). The facility also includes Daniel, Hawk’s right hand man (GEORGE HARRIS, from Harry Potter and Order of the Phoenix, The Interpreter, Layer Cake) and Tamika (CHRISTINE ADAMS – Batman Returns, Pushing Daisies) At the outset, two things happen: Dolphins are dying mysteriously, stranding themselves, and Alyssa meets an intriguing young man, Craig (PAUL WESLEY, ABC’S “Fallen” and The Russell Girl) who is on the island on vacation with Gwen, his sister (IVANA MILICEVIC, Casino Royale and Love, Actually).
As Alyssa becomes involved with Craig — Hawk becomes convinced that the dolphin deaths are attributable to testing of midrange active sonar by the US Navy in Bahamian waters. He confronts the US Commander of AUTEC, a US Naval Base on the nearby island of Andros.
As Hawk’s efforts to stop the strandings intensify — so too do Alyssa’s feelings for Craig — until it’s revealed that the Craig is not on vacation — he’s on a mission and that mission stands to wreck everything that Hawk and Alyssa are working to build. From that point — as the marketing teaser puts it: “Soon a plot of espionage, conspiracy and kidnapping evolves as the tale leads to a graveyard of dead dolphins and whales on a beach near the location of the notorious underwater testing of US Navy Sonar.”
And here’s the teaser synopsis which the marketing guys have come up with (smoother than mine, whatever):
An 18 year old dolphin researcher, Alyssa, and her father, a marine biologist, work together in a high-tech dolphin research lab on the island of Grand Bahama where they are engaged in cutting edge interspecies communications research and are studying the dolphin’s remarkable ability to “see” 3-D via echolocation. The appearance of strangers raises suspicion, as they are obviously out of place among the tourists who have come to “swim with the dolphins” in this Bahamian resort setting. Alyssa’s heart is broken when her romantic attraction to one of them turns with his lying treachery and deceit. Soon a plot of espionage, conspiracy and kidnapping evolves as the tale leads to a graveyard of dead dolphins and whales on a beach near the location of the notorious underwater testing of US Navy Sonar.
I think that captures it pretty well. The film we’re making seeks to tell a story that will resonate as an ‘eco-adventure’ with more than just suspense and action — it will also have some thoughtful environmental thematics relating to what our relationship to our environment means when it comes to things like human priorities like Navy Sonar training versus environmental obligations and responsibilities. All of this is wrapped up nicely, we believe, in a family friendly adventure which also charts the coming of age of a young woman, Alyssa, whose first romance ends disastrously — or does it? There are twists at the end which make it very unclear how all this is going to turn out.
The other thing which differentiates the project is that even though we’re an underdog indie film with severe budget constraints, we think we’ve figured out a way to do some of the most visually exciting underwater filming that’s ever been accomplished. Our underwater cinematographer, Paul Mockler, is right at the top of the list of the world’s best underwater cinematographers and with his help we think we’re going to have some visuals (many of them creating a unique dolphin point of view) that are breathtaking.
Having said all of that — this is a working site, not a promotional one, so although I’ve passed along the teaser synopsis and I’ll post some of the promotional stuff here, that’s not what this site is about. In that vein, I’m going to post the latest screenplay here so that anyone who wants to can read the whole thing and form your own opinion. So click on the link below and you can read the screenplay.
UPDATE JULY 8TH
We have now published the shooting script. Here it is:
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