It’s the end of summer. Nathan studies the back acreage that intrigues him to the estate the Realtor is showing him. The house is large and antebellum with a modern addition that makes it attractive to this Northern California novelist. He needs a place to stay in the South while caring for his mother and taking that overdue sabbatical to get his creative energy flowing again. His agent is masterful at patiently stalling the publisher while constantly prodding Nathan’s progress to meet his promised deadline. Nathan has become weary of cell phones, freeways and word processors and buys a diary book, note pads and a supply of pens. He knows he’s not going to live up to his promised deadline so his ailing mother and a struggling marriage is the perfect excuse to get away.
A short time passes,the leaves turn color. Nathan’s preparation for a long winter is all for naught as his mother unexpectedly doesn’t pull through. At the funeral he is moved between the warmth and comfort of a multitude of family members and the feeling of emptiness and loss. He takes a walk through the older part of the cemetery and notices the small confederate flags at some of the grave sites. He bends down and reads the name and date engraved on a weathered stone. Franklin Moore , born April 21,1845 , died Nov 12, 1864. He stands and looks over the mass of old grave stones being covered by falling leaves. His wife, Michele, nudges him out of his daydream to drive him away. He asks her to stay but understands her previous commitment and waves goodbye as a cab takes her to the airport. They part with little hope and asks her for a little more time before he returns.
Between his lonely nights with grief, guilt, and a growing obsession to find his purpose, he begins to hear strange noises coming from the forest in the back. It’s pitch dark when he turns on the back flood lights and walks out to his balcony deck. He concludes he’s hearing things and decides to try and write into the night.
Scenes : In the Time Portal
The Time Portal
• Nathan wakes up to see a panorama of confederate soldiers encamped in his backyard forest
• It’s 1864 and the retreat to Atlanta during the Civil War
• A soldier dies in his arms:
Discovering Sarah
• Discover hiding with slave
• Background: Age 21; Married Union officer when away to college; daughter of wealthy southern plantation owners; disowned by parents; raped by AWOL rebels;slave Marcus kills all 4 with his bare hands and a knife ; she has a baby;
• Slave, Marcus, runs away and is loyal to her and saves her from death
• She’s conflicted about keeping baby if her husband returns from the war, he will make her leave it behind (Nathan proves it's is her husbands baby by retrieving DNA into the future for testing
• She’s told her husband is missing and probably dead
• Her unwavering faith as her husband appears and she disappears with her baby into the portal of time while Nathan sleeps on the porch
Thanksgiving and Abraham Lincoln 1864
• See diary for set up
• Actual Thanksgiving day : all is at peace for one day.
• Marcus can cook
• Lincolns proclamation and healing
• They play music, sing and celebrate
• The arrival of General Sherman and battle plans
• Thousands of lives awaiting their fate
Marcus De Jacque Dupree
• Nathan finds this unique slave
• Their friendship builds
• Marcus’ story
• Nathan buys his freedom in exchange for a map of his plantation owner’s hidden gold and jewels before burned to the ground
• Nathan befriends his descendant's wife as a waitress in current time; her husband is being released from prison after 14 years unjustly accused of rape; Nathan discovers him hitchhiking back as he's leaving the south; Nathan realizes he's Marcus' great grandchild because of the name; he remembers the map and they find the buried treasure still by the burned down plantation;
The Battle for Atlanta
• Nathan discovers surrender is sabotaged and tries to alter history
• His failure to save countless lives leaves him wandering in a blood soaked valley
Escape Into Andersonville
• Purpose: Nathan to find his great great grandfather and give him hope and a reason for his life by telling him of the future
before he dies in prison
• Nathan must figure out a way to alter time to that summer in the time portal
• He takes a train to Andersonville and risks his life by getting captured on purpose to get in the prison
• Finds conditions inhumane and deplorable
• Tries to save him once he finds him but realizes he’s dying
• finds out about diary he hid by marked tree when he was captured
• Nathan tells him who he is and about the future(family, end of slavery, freedom, war outcome, etc)
• Miracle of the spring of water
• Jacob dies after seeing miracle and wants Nathan to write it in his diary and tell his future family he loves them
• Nathan is trapped and must figure a way to escape
• Buried alive
Original Screenplay
In Outline Form / Written as from two diaries.
Genre: Drama/Time Travel or Time Portal
