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| Bill attended the Cannes Film Festival |
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In 2002, BB's screenplay "Last of the True Believers" won a competition sponsored by DAILY VARIETY. The prize was traveling
to France for the Cannes Film Festival and pitching the screenplay to a panel of Hollywood development/acquisition executives in front of an audience of about
150 journalists, festival attendees and hopeful screenwriters.
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| Last of the True Believers |
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| by Bill Breedlove |
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Richard Clarke is an emotionally distant and troubled husband/father who still grieves for his lost daughter, who disappeared years ago. One day, he learns that his last remaining childhood friend, Petey Corcoran, has died. That night, while sitting in the attic where he still keeps all his daughter's possessions, Richard is communicated with by her old "Speak and Spell." At first he thinks his daughter is sending him the messages, but then he comes to believe that they are actually from the bogeyman of his childhood, the "Killer Boogs," which supposedly existed to swipe small children. Richard believes it to be real, based on an strange incident which happened to him and Petey when they were kids, one of the reasons he refuses to discuss any part of his childhood with his wife, Marianne, or anyone else.
The Speak and Spell tells Richard that the Killer Boogs has sought him out since he is the lone remaining person alive who believes in it, and if he dies without convincing others of its existence, then it too will perish. If Richard does not find a way before his 40th birthday - one week -- to convince his son, 12 year-old Timothy, and all of Timothy's friends that the Killer Boogs is indeed real, it vows to take Timothy away forever.
Meantime, children have started disappearing from Shady Grove, the suburb where Richard lives, in a way similar to what happened 28 years ago in the town where he grew up. Richard can't sleep, and has been taking long drives at night to the abandoned derelict church, where he conducts "conversations" with the Killer Boogs. The police are curious because his car has been spotted late on the nights children have disappeared. Marianne is upset because he remains distant to her. Timothy vainly tries to tell Richard that the scary monster he believes in -- "Mr. Fangs" -- has recently started talking to him. A cultural anthropologist, Shelly Carlson, tracks down Richard, saying she'd been working with Petey right up until his death on something related to this recurring bogeyman.
As the deadline approaches, more children disappear, and Richard's life unravels under the pressure. He finally confides in his wife, who begins to wonder if Richard isn't his own bogeyman. The night before Richard's birthday, Timothy vanishes, and the race is on to figure out just what is going on in Shady Grove.
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