NFT Competition - Novel Scene Guide

Major Characters in YOTR

The following are short sketches and bios of major characters who have significant roles in the novel.

[ definition of whistleblower: average human being in business or government who finally decides to do the right thing and stop other human beings engaged in criminal-like behavior. ]

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THE YEAR: 1984

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MANNY EDEN
Manny Eden is a twenty-something liberal from Wisconsin. He is clever and disdainful enough to be a gifted smartass. A man of unique qualities, he is able to predict Martian colonies by the year 2000, get into fist fights with fat Republicans, and perform useful imitations of Warner Brothers cartoon characters like Fog Horn Leghorn. He hates the word "boss." He is naive about life. Despite the fact he is usually scornful of authority and supportive of the underdog, he hero-worships Ronald Reagan, a former Hollywood actor who has become President of the United States. Unlike most, Manny Eden is capable of great love and undying hatred.

LANEY DRACOS
A twenty-something woman, but older than Manny, Laney is a veteran investigator at the Office of Whistleblower Counsel. She is a hardened liberal, a veteran of the Washington wars, and as a consequence, cynical and machiavellian in her approach to life and love. After many years of conflict, the strain and bitterness often shows on her face. She fights a losing battle with depression, and yet, she finds enough energy to continue to battle the White House regime of Ronald Reagan. She is a writer and a poet, a graduate of Princeton, and she drives a classic MGB sports car. Everyone either loves or despises Laney, no neutral reactions possible.

BASIL HUNSECKER
An utterly merciless Republican appointee from the White House cursed with a rare, flesh-eating disease, Basil rules as dictator of the Investigation Division at the OWC. He becomes enraged if he thinks anyone is not taking him seriously. He is a notorious flirt given to theatrics. He pretends to speak Latin. He is devoted to President Reagan and loathes whistleblowers who he defines as liberal traitors to the conservative cause of giving America over to big business. He raises show cats and lives alone, except for the occasional boyfriend.

BECKY BERGSTEIN
Becky is Laney's best friend at OWC, and a fellow investigator from the Carter days. She hates Hunsecker and Reagan. She is totally alone in the world, without parents or any love interest, but she is fiercely loyal to Laney. She smokes heavily and hates herself. She hates her job. She seeks to calm herself with poetry and yoga.

BOYDEN McCARTHY
Boyden is a confirmed, card-carrying, flag-wearing conservative who blindly supports Ronald Reagan, even when it doesn't make sense. He is thirty-something and an investigator at OWC. His love of Reagan is matched only by his love for his hair. He can be surprisingly impulsive at times, even out of character, and he carries doctored photos of Richard Nixon in boxer shorts that he gives to new acquaintances. His dream is to be Secretary of Defense.

BABS EASTON
A confirmed Catholic and devoted thirty-something wife to her architect husband Sven, Babs is low on smart fuel, but high on ass kissing to achieve flight. She wants to have an affair with Basil Hunsecker to earn her wings. She constantly overcompensates for her inferiority by taking the moral high ground and finding fault in others where it doesn't exist. She pretends to think she is fat in order to bring attention to her slender form. She hates being an investigator at OWC, but loves the attention and power. She wears a gold cross and smells like aftershave.

VARSANA PARDO
Varsana is forty-something, born and raised in the Bahamas, and a former employee of various tobacco companies. She is an investigator at OWC. In love with Basil Hunsecker, she secretly hates Babs. She is a go-with-the-flow human being in every way imaginable. She would never consider mercy to a whistleblower if her boss didn't think it a good idea. Being called a hypocrite or a liar in the performance of her duty could never offend her. Her fantasy is to lead a double-life as a powerful angel sent down from Heaven to punish liberals with 1000 degree heat vision and the strength of a hundred lions. Her favorite movie is Black Narcissus.

DEEJAH THORIS
After joining a cult, she gave herself a name she'd always liked--that of a Martian princess in an Edgar Rice Burroughs novel. Now working for Uncle Sam as a secretary, Deejah is possessed of some mixture of mental illnesses, but no one can precisely define which ones. She is a human stew of dysfunction. While imagining she sees ground sloths roaming the streets of Washington, she daydreams torrid sex with her cult leader, Danilo Plato-Prophet. She hates Basil Hunsecker more than anyone. She loves Laney Dracos. She has an inherent sense of fairness and attempts in her own strange way to practice being fair with other people.

NOVEL SCENE GUIDE

IMPORTANT NOTE TO ALL FILMMAKERS

If you have not already done so you should read the novel synopsis of the work chosen for this first competition. This will give you a greater feel for the setting, characters, and themes. YEAR OF THE RHINOCEROS is a story of those who defied the corporate invasion of Washington in the 1980's. On a primal level it is GOOD vs. EVIL. It is driven by unique and flawed characters, while at the same time employing the essence of the drama to create dilemma and high stakes. YOTR is also a love story, visually poetic, and in places, even magic realist, thus allowing for memorable special effects in the narrative.

Think of it as "Donny Darko" meets "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."

NOTE: We are looking for imaginative filmmakers to take on this novel, as well as novels in future competitions, and to also form part of a growing resource list for use by publishers and authors. If you are unclear about our aims, please read our introduction on the home page.

Thank you.

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YOTR SCENE SUMMARIES BY CHAPTER

Click links below to get further info on downloading the .DOC file for scenes.

Chapter 1 (long but effective) ***
"The entire dining room begins to scream."

In this scene at Cafe Artaud in Washington, Manny Eden interviews with his future boss, Basil Hunsecker, for a job at the government agency, the Office of Whistleblower Council. Though he hates the boss, Manny must swallow his anger because he badly needs the job. But this doesn't stop his imagination from rebelling. By the end of the interview, the entire cafe is transforming into an instrument of revenge.
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Chapter 3 ***
"On the verge of slapping yourself, you think fast."

Having landed the job despite obstacles, Manny Eden enters the government office in D.C. for the first time. The viewpoint is second person. The reader becomes the character as he first encounters the dysfunctional alien beings who inhabit the Washington planet, including science-fiction princess and OWC secretary, Deejah Thoris.
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Chapter 4
"She leg-scissors the pole between Manny's eye and the Washington mouth."

Manny Eden's first introduction to fellow professionals. As he meets each one, more dysfunctionalism is apparent. Manny is asked to define himself by category. He also gets his first glimpse of Laney Dracos, her naked body graphically depicted on the cover of a local arts newspaper. He learns that she's a singer in a punk band called Tammy Pon and The Mental Douche.
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Chapter 5 (three scenes)
"YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE CRAZY TO GET HIRED HERE, BECAUSE THEY KNOW THAT AFTER BEING SURROUNDED ON A DAILY BASIS BY IGNORANT, WISHY-WASHY, EGO-MANIACAL, BACKSTABBBING FREAKS, YOUR SCREWS WILL LOOSEN SOON ENOUGH."

In the office without a compass, Manny is instructed by his boss Hunsecker to meet with a co-worker named Becky Bergstein and begin his training process. Becky, a foe of the Republican regime that runs the agency, has zero desire to help anyone hired by Hunsecker, so the meeting between them is strained and hostile. Becky dismisses Manny by sending him to look for a training file somewhere in the cluttered office of Laney Dracos. Manny is soon shocked out of his wits when a furious Laney appears and accuses him of being a spy.

Afterwards, a flashback occurs. Recovering from his fight with Laney, Manny recalls a spring picnic beside Lake Michigan and a more serious physical battle he'd had with a conservative newspaper editor by the name of Syd Drummond over Syd's failure to tell the truth about the criminal activities of the town mayor, "Boss Rosetti."
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Chapter 7
"They're a turn on for her, you might say. She even flew down to New Mexico once to sleep with a lawyer who was fired from the Justice Department for lying about his fellow prosecutors working with a drug cartel."

Manny Eden has a long talk with fellow co-worker, Varsana Pardo, a conservative who energetically supports Hunsecker and the White House regime of Reagan. He learns from her a lot of new gossip about Laney Dracos. It also becomes more obvious at this point that the office culture of OWC will never allow Manny to truly help a single whistleblower. Finally, a strange and violent event takes place that stuns Manny.
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Chapter 10 (several actors) ***
"Shortly after her hire, she selfishly consumed his time by adorning porn-movie marquees and GQ magazine ads. But soon, she unfolded poignant and unrelenting enough to suck in his belly and color his hair."

A pivotal scene in the novel. A staff meeting wherein the Reaganites use every ploy and lie possible to make certain that no whistleblower will ever be taken seriously. As Laney Dracos points out later: they use law to "gut the law." At the climax of the meeting, Laney appears and happily rips everyone a new one. Manny Eden finds it increasingly difficult to deny the fact he has chosen the wrong side in this ongoing struggle of good vs. evil. Also, his infatuation with Laney is intense.
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Chapter 11 (seven scenes - colorful/surreal) ***
"At the moment of his entry my body is splashed like a rocking black limb against the afternoon wall. My lips flaring sinuous, pouting, malign. My hand stroking the Les Paul guitar neck, the fingers of my other hand like spider legs on speed, testing and thumping the steel strings."

Narrated in first person by Laney Dracos, we follow her to a lavish and bizarre party in a castle-like mansion in Virginia owned by a very wealthy socialite by the name of Emperatriz Soors. While floating about the party, and suffering from a dark depression she has named Gertrude Stein, Laney successfully confronts and combats the various gods of Reaganite rule, including THE FIRST NANCY herself. Even George Bush Jr. is included in the bash. Like her, we stare dumbfounded as the President of the United States makes a total ass out of himself by playing a role in a skit that satirizes the Wizard of Oz while at the same time insulting liberal stereotypes.
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Chapter 12 (two scenes)
"He believes the object of their scrutiny to be in the immediate vicinity and bearing down on his position, for their voices, bombinating and spearing up to mating wave frequency, are overcoming him, tugging him to their side, roaring louder and louder for want of coitus and dignity:"

In this chapter, Laney Dracos meets with Manny and attempts to convince him to join her side and struggle against the Reaganite regime that is screwing whistleblowers. (The second scene in this chapter was used to create the current film trailer, BAD BOSS THEORY). Laney lays it all out for Manny. She informs him that the U.S. government is the largest criminal enterprise in human history. Despite evidence to the contrary, and his growing love for Laney, Manny continues to resist the truth.
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Chapter 15
"Do you have any questions that might clear this situation up for you?"

Manny Eden learns, courtesy of Babs Easton, that she has suddenly become his new boss. Manny can barely disguise his surprise and contempt, because he sees Babs as the primary office bimbo and brown-noser. Babs, enjoying her newfound power, baits Manny and rubs his nose in the situation. (This scene comprised the audition video, BABS ON HIGH)
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Chapter 18 (two scenes) ***
"Hunsecker swivels in his chair again and with one hand snaps the sheet of purple film up to the ceiling. In response, and with a sound of pipe striking bone, the light comes brawling in, the hurled lava of morning scalding you to a feeble vampire."

Once again, you are Manny Eden, but this time, you are face to face with a whistleblower by the name of Keat Linderhart, a person who believes you are trying to betray her. Caught between your boss Hunsecker, and the hysteria of Keat, you struggle for a solution. At last, Laney Dracos appears to do battle with the forces of evil, but no sooner does she take on Hunsecker than another champion of Reagan appears--an Orange County punk hellcat by the name of Luna Goodpal. This is truly a bizarre scene.
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Chapter 19
"She's the queen of drama. She's got a personality disorder. She's compensating for her lousy childhood. You see?"

Hunsecker calls Manny Eden into his office, frantic over the previous incident in Chapter 18 that involved the whistleblower Keat Linderhart. He's baiting Manny and manipulating him to make certain of his loyalty. He also takes the opportunity to smear Laney Dracos. This is one of Hunsecker's best scenes next to the interview scene.
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Chapter 21 (high drama) ***
"Laney bores her eyes into Manny, her hands lifting as if to slap him. Manny marvels at the sight. Is she part Italian? Whatever. He knows he loves her, loves every cell."

Manny follows Laney to a surreal sculpture park in D.C., and there, she informs him of her dire situation, the true threats to her well being. Her depression and anger kick in double time. She becomes abusive with Manny and berates him till he can't stand it any longer. To put it mildly, the Reaganistas are winning, the Year of The Rhinoceros is thundering on, and not a single Democrat remains to prevent the stampede of the blue-suited herd. The corporate take-over of Washington is in full swing.
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Chapter 25 (extreme conflict and drama) ***
"The cop twists the stick into a cruel lock and jerks the woman you love into the air, choking her in the process."

Manny gets a call from Laney. She is helping a whistleblower doctor, recently arrived in Washington to report the untimely deaths of patients under the care of hostile nurses and surgeons. Upon arriving at the rendez-vous point, Manny finds Laney engaged in a raging catfight with Luna Goodpal, the Reaganite cheerleader. The cops show up and things go down hill from there. Later, Laney is released, and fate catches up with her. Manny becomes a grief-stricken man.
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Chapter 27 (death and drama) ***
"The bulk of his remains were dressed conservatively: pinstripes soaking in a thick gulp of blood, the inert meat inside as if dropped from a great height to land against the broad wall of his oaken desk"

A victim of temporary insanity, Manny decides to take revenge on the bosses of OWC. Told from Deejah's point of view. Lots of extras in this one.