SCREENPLAY: TRANSCEND (A JOURNEY TOWARD LOVE)

I have written a feature-length screenplay titled TRANSCEND: A Journey Toward Love. It's based on true events about a couple’s journey through the tragedies of abortion and catastrophic disability. It is a story about love’s capacity to convict human hearts of sin, transcend regrets, grief, despair and defeat to find purpose, and meaning in the value of life. It is a love story based on my wife's and my life together.

Mark Davis Pickup
prayed before the Blessed
Sacrament

As an old man, with advanced multiple sclerosis (MS), the story is loosely based on those experiences and the power of God's love to in our lives to transcend it all 

TRANSCEND is a love story. It follows the fictional lives of Mark and LaRee Fraser from teenage lovers through the heartbreak of abortion and repentance to the heart-wrench trials of their marriage after Mark develops serious multiple sclerosis and becomes paralyzed—losing the use of three limbs. Mark loses everything, except love. And yet, in the end, LaRee and Mark are at peace with God and themselves.  They discover, that the only thing that really matters in life is love (both human and divine):  They discover that Christ is the very definition of love.

And then, something inexplicably beautiful happens. A prayer of Mark's before the Blessed Sacrament is answered. He walks again in old age, after decades of being in a wheelchair!

This film would appeal to Christian audiences who enjoyed movies such as Heaven Is Real, Me Before You, and Awakenings

CHARACTERS

MARK FRASER – (Lead role): A tall, athletic teenager of 18 years. He is a confident young man who is the apple of his Christian parents’ eyes. He is their only child and they spoil him. Mark was a Christian as a child but his faith has grown cold now that he’s in his teen years. He’s a winner and he knows it – the life of every party. He is an above-average student in his high school. If he can’t get what he wants with his marks, he can usually get it through charm.  He doesn’t need God, or so he thinks.  Mark is struck with multiple sclerosis (MS). 

LAREE PICTON (starring role): A beautiful 17-year-old brunette from the other side of the tracks, so to speak. She comes from a poor, non-Christian background. Her father left her mother when LaRee was four. That early abandonment by her father had a dramatic effect on LaRee. She yearns for love: To love and be loved. LaRee and her mother have struggled to get by; they recently moved in with LaRee’s grandmother in the fictitious city of Leedsborough, Ontario, to try and make ends meet.  LaRee is in love with Mark. 

Throughout the story, LaRee transitions from a shy, insecure teenager, to a strong  Christian woman who has gained wisdom through the school of hard knocks, and God’s leading and provision.  

BETTY FRASER (supporting role): Mark's mother. She is a proud and strong-willed woman of 50 years. She’s not beautiful but striking. She loves her husband and son, in a domineering sort of way. She provides order in the Fraser home. Mark is her only child and she hovers over him like a mother hen. Betty is active in her community and church for all the wrong reasons: Status and self-glorification. She fancies herself as part of Leedsborough’s establishment.

GEORGE FRASER (bit part): George is 52 years old. He's a pleasant-looking man with a receding hairline, and slightly overweight like many men his age, but he’s certainly not obese. George is an affable and lovable guy who owns Fraser’s Sporting Goods, a reasonably successful business in Leedsborough. George loves his family but dotes on Mark, his only son. Although George is not a particularly deep thinker, he loves the Lord.

JAKE (bit part): Jake is Mark's friend. He is of average height, fat, and has carrot-red hair. Jake has a steady personality. He is one of those people who always seems to be there but on the periphery of things.

DR. ALFRED DOSSETOR (bit part): Man of about sixty:  Civil but condescending. Ordinary build.

HENRY CARVILLE (bit part): Pleasant-looking older man of about 65 years of age with white hair and a kind face and a grandfatherly demeanor.

AL HART (bit part): MS Foundation Executive Director: About 50 years old, with an air of modest efficiency. He is unpretentious and friendly.

GRANT PETERSEN (bit part): Boring man but well dressed. Perhaps 60 years of age. He looks like a banker or an accountant.

MARGARET WILLIS (bit part): About 45 years of age. She is severely disabled with MS but accepting of her situation: Peaceful and pleasant demeanor.

DOCTOR #3 (bit part): Cold, clinical man of about 55 years of age.

EXTRAS

1. Ski-patrol.

2. Teen #1 –Rough bully.

3. Teen #2 – Rough bully.

4. Nurse #1 – Non-descript but efficient

5. Host at The Pit. Nondescript.

6. A waiter at The Pit. Non-descript but trendy.

 7. Secretary at MS Foundation office: Pleasant but dowdy woman of about 50 years of age.

 8. EMT man. About 30. Nondescript

 9. ER Physician: Young but efficient.

10. Nurse #3 (Shirley)

11. Radio announcer.

12. 8 senators.

13. A crowd of people (extras).

14. Dr. Nelson: Young resident doctor.

15. An assortment of people playing nurses, physiotherapists, doctors

16. The woman in the Church foyer:  40-50 years of age. Non-decrypt.

17. Pastor: an Older man of 50-60. Non-descript.

18. Waitress.

19. Homecare nurse.

20. Medical equipment installer.

21. Brenda Smythe – Plain-looking, nondescript girl of about 20 years old.

22. Robin (various ages)

23. Jon (various ages)

Script - A copy of the script can be obtained by emailing me at markdpickup@icloud.com 

Mark Davis Pickup
Tel: (780) 929-9230 - preferred

Cell: (78) 232-4054