Screen
(Screenplays in progress)
Jeremy Paul, screenwriter and playwright, welcomes enquiries about any of the following works.
Sink or Swim
(An original screenplay by Jeremy Paul)
Taster
The short ferry ride across Poole Harbour brings a vintage Bentley, a family Vauxhall, a battered Fiat and a Suzuki motorbike for a summer weekend of festivity and fireworks in the seaside town of Swanage, Dorset. A fifth story arrives by steam train via Corfe Castle. The visitors are strangers to each other but in the next few days their lives will bump and collide and be somewhat rearranged.
Leonard (Bentley) is a man with a mission - to find out what became of Bunty, the girl he had a brief affair with when he was a young merchant seaman, who has haunted his dreams through all the years of his successful life back in Vancouver. Recently widowed he needs to know - has life treated her well?
Carl (Vauxhall) brings his new love Janice with Ricky and Jodi, their teenage kids by their previous partners. What odds on them bonding?
Conta and Mary (steam train) Edinburgh ladies feisty and skittish, on a break from their husbands.
Daya and Gavin (Suzuki) post grad students at the start of a hot affair.
Holly with her son Aldo (8) (Fiat) recently dumped by her Italian husband seeks employment, any job, at the Language School.
And then there is Hilary (35), companion to Bunty - and Michael (40), Leonard’s driver.
And Pedro - well known local artist trying to capture the perfect shag which sits on the broken pier outside his waterside studio as the beauties of the world pass by (not least Daya on a morning run).
Love wearing different hats in many shades. Surreal moments. Hope through dreams. White lies and evasions of truth. Being lost, found and rescued. Daring to break with convention. The silencing of a bully. High jinks and a near tragedy.
Imagine Alan Alda (Leonard) in vigorous pursuit of Dame Eileen Atkins (Bunty) with Kevin Kline (Pedro) after that shag.
It feeds off relationships with a subtle mixture of genres - to leave audiences with laughter and a sense of well-being. A movie for our times.
Jeremy Paul (Ealing Films) - Screenplay completed March 2010
Where Have You Been?
(An original screenplay by Jeremy Paul)
Taster
Corsica. The shadows of mountains on water - the camera roams across the bitter-sweet jungle of the maquis, climbs high and swoops down on - An old woman tearing at her flesh and clothes. She is a massere much feared in Corsican mythology, a harbinger of death.
Fingers on a keyboard working a tune, slow, stop start.
‘He’s alive in Corsica. I'm going to see him. Any messages?’
‘Tell him to call his agent’ is the caustic reply from the formidable Kay.
‘Where the hell have you been?’
Harry stands in a shabby apartment in a back street in Calvi gazing at Duncan his best friend who vanished three years ago without explanation. Harry is a successful composer of film music with a beautiful young wife Julia. And Duncan, once a successful TV writer, lost his way, drugs, booze, marriage break-up - there was a rumour he was dead.
‘I’ve been OK’
‘What are you doing now? Screenplay, novel, travel?’
‘Love songs’
‘That’s a goldmine if they’re good - are they good?
‘Who knows till I find the tune? Will you write me a tune?’
The door opens and a beautiful young Corsican girl comes in with a baby in her arms.
‘Meet Veronique and our son Philippe’
So has Duncan by some miracle put his life back together again? It’s a time for celebration and some serious explanations. And Philippe needs a godfather. Of course!
But - next day, Harry and Duncan come back from the market to find the nest empty. Veronique and baby Philippe gone - abducted? No trace.
Veronique’s brother Pierre just out of prison has pulled his little sister and the baby out of the clutches of that Brit-shit!
And Harry finds himself embroiled in an increasingly dangerous rescue mission. But how much do you risk for your best friend when the chips are down? Do you act on the moment or remember your own loved ones and save your skin? And - could it be Duncan all along who’s been calling the tune?
Jeremy Paul (Ealing Films) - Screenplay completed March 2010
The Flipside of Dominick Hide
(A Romantic Comedy)
From the award-winning BBC TV play written by Jeremy Paul and Alan Gibson, which starred Peter Firth, Caroline Langrishe, Pippa Guard and Patrick Magee - this inspired an opera from Sir Michael Tippett and is currently in development with Pandemonium Films, L.A for an American take on the story.
Little Charley Ross
(A Drama)
Set in Philadelphia, 1874 - based on a true story of the first kidnapping of a child for ransom in US history. As vivid now as it was on that hot July day in Philadelphia in 1874 when a small boy playing outside his well-to-do home was taken off in a tinker’s cart into the vast uncharted wastes of America.
The true events of his father’s desperate search involving crass police bungling and high politics self-interest throw up as many twists and turns as any thriller could hope to offer.
When Christian Ross enters an asylum on a tip-off his son has been found he hears all the inmates cry out - ‘I am Charley Ross, I am Charley Ross’.
All the lost souls claiming identity - and America searching for its own lost innocence. My wife picked up a book by Norman Zierold for 20p in a church fete. I was instantly hooked and used it as a basis for my screenplay. Norman and I became friends and he gave me encouragement on early drafts before he went into a spiritual retreat in Iowa but he has since returned and we’re back in touch.
Screenplay is ready for production.
French Cricket
(A Thriller)
Andrew, Jane and Heather are called from the tranquility of an English village cricket match to go to France and identify the body of their close friend, Creff believed killed in a car crash. Arriving in Provence, they confront the formidable Inspector Lemaire and find themselves enmeshed in a web of mystery and intrigue which puts a severe test on relationships and leads to a chilling climax.
Written by Jeremy Paul and Carey Harrison in the tradition of the French classic film noir (Claude Chabrol).
The screenplay is awaiting production.
Frederick
(A Comedy set in present day L.A)
Frederick lodges in the garage of successful opthalmologist Stanley and his lovely wife Jane. Friends tell them Frederick is a sponger ripping them off but Stanley and Jane beg to differ, and what does their 11 year old son Barnaby think?
Who is the real provider?
This springs from my visits to America. As a European I enjoyed films like Milos Forman’s ‘Taking Off’ starring Buck Henry (whose writing also got to me - ‘The Graduate’, ‘To Die For’), Schlesinger’s ‘Midnight Cowboy’, Parker’s ‘Mississippi Burning’, Mendes ‘American Beauty’ among others. Robert Altman, Billy Wilder and Woody Allen inspired me. Here, then is a US rom/com with a European twist.
On The Edge
(A thriller set in Dorset)
Danny, a young theology student soon to take his vows is walking the Dorset clifftop on a bright May morning. A Man in his fifties, stands out on the cliff’s edge staring out over a tranquil sea. Beside him, a dog. A Woman in her forties, is walking alone.
Danny witnesses the Man plunge over the cliff out of sight. He races to the edge in horror shortly ahead of the Woman arriving. They both stare down at the rocks far below. A body, no movement.
Did she see what happened? He slipped, she saw it clearly, she was nearer - was she? The man was trying to rescue his dog. But the dog was behind him and Danny knows what he saw. The guy jumped!
‘Think of the widow in her grief’ says the Woman, ‘it wasn’t suicide, it was an accident. Think of the widow in her grief.’
An accident is the Coroner’s verdict. But Danny, drawn into the life of the people involved, gets convinced that he’s caught in a lie, a massive cover-up. Can he live with this and still enter the church? What does his pastor and mentor Father Henry advise?
And what is the truth behind the tragic event on that beautiful May morning?
This short pitch in development is carrying an Ian McEwen feeling (‘Enduring Love’ ) and certain European flavours of quiet menace.