Clinton Callahan's new book Radiant Joy Brilliant Love showcases on the web, with reader comments, changing excerpts, and a personal story from the author all at www.radiant-joy.com
Film Project
SCREENPLAY FOR REVIEW Clinton Callahan has completed the screenplay for a full length feature film titled End of Waiting. The film is a modern day adventure // drama that utilizes key elements from Possibility Management to address the global issues facing humanity in an upbeat manner. Mr. Callahan is asking film industry professionals to consider the script for production. An excerpt of the screenplay is below. Please contact Mr. Callahan directly. Email: clinton@callahan-academy.com Phone: +49 (0)89-74949473 in Munich
SYNOPSIS 1: When JET and Eddie discover that Western civilization has a potential endpoint within their lifetime they exit college and commit to finding out what is really going on. Across the Atlantic, retired actor James Conner's last best friend dies. James is confronted with a lifetime of inauthenticity. JET and Eddie meet Edith. James meets Margaret Smith. A mysterious Handbook and a Native American shaman guide them on a search for the Hidden University.
SYNOPSIS 2: The obstacle to human evolution is not the government; it's not big business; it is normalcy. When three young people dare to ask dangerous questions, and two old people get too close to death to be fooled by ordinary distractions, their fates intertwine to create an "Intersection Conference" where geniuses convene to give normalcy a new definition.
Here is a 7 page excerpt from the 125 page screenplay.
A close up helicopter shot follows an old black van as it rumbles along a desert road. Clouds of brown dust billow in its wake. The dark colored utility van is the only sign of civilization from horizon to horizon. The rest is just cactus, mesquite, rocks and sand. INT VAN DRIVING THROUGH DESERT DAY Eddy is driving. JET sits in the passenger seat with his arm braced in the window. The engine compartment is between them. These two geniuses are in a hot debate over a distinction from The Handbook that rests in JET's bouncing lap. EDDY You're crazy! If something happens to you, then you are a victim of the circumstances. Period! JET But who created the circumstances? EDDY The circumstances just happen! Don't be an idiot! Shit happens! It is not my fault! How could it be my fault? JET The Handbook is not talking about 'fault.' There is a difference between how we ordinarily see responsibility and what responsibility actually is. We avoid responsibility because we think that if we are responsible then we will be blamed, we will be guilty, it is our fault and we will be punished. "Why set ourselves up for punishment?" we think. "Who needs that?" we think. But the thing is... EDDY What? JET See that beer can? (pointing ahead out the window) Who is responsible for that beer can being there? EDDY Probably some drunk college kids. (as the can passes by) JET Stop the car!!! EDDY What? JET Now! Stop the car!!! JET shouts his command. Eddy slams on the brakes and the van skids to a very dusty halt. Before the car is even stopped JET flips The Handbook into the glove compartment, throws open the door and runs back disappearing into the cloud of dust. Eddy just sits there shaking his head, trying to brush the dust off of his shirt and pants. The motor keeps running. In a moment JET hops back into his seat proudly holding the wrinkled aluminum can in his hand. JET I am. EDDY (like JET is insane) What??? JET I am responsible for the can lying on the side of the road. I just proved it. I was responsible for it being there because I can pick it up and put it somewhere else! If I don't pick it up, it stays where it is. This is true for every piece of litter on every road in every city everywhere in the world. I am responsible for it being there. EDDY You are nuts! You're going to spend the rest of your days going around picking up litter? JET No. But I could. That's the point. I could pick up each piece of litter. The Handbook calls it 'Radical Responsibility.' I could pick up every piece of litter in the world. And if I decide not to then I feel the pain of consciously choosing to leave the litter where it is. It is my choice whether I leave it there or not, and if I choose to leave it there then I am responsible for it being there. The same is true for each hungry man or woman. I could bring any of them home and feed them dinner. Or every crying lonely child whose parent has not picked him up and listened to his fears. I could go there and pick him up... What? Silent tears are rolling down Eddy's cheeks. He can't stop them. After a minute he stops trying. The shock of leaving the university and driving out into the dirty desert with this near stranger on a crazy quest for the unknown. The shock of not knowing where they are or what is happening next. The shock of this concept of Radical Responsibility. It stops all of his normal thinking patterns and he just can't think anymore. And when he stops thinking then he starts feeling. Eddy's fingertips are gently caressing the edge of the steering wheel, and the muddy tears are rolling down his cheeks. JET remains in total silence, listening with respect to whatever his friend might want to share. EDDY I... Eddy sniffles, swallows, does not wipe his tears, looks into the desert wilderness, takes a breath and decides to share the simple truth, turns off the engine. EDDY (continues) I was one of those little kids that you did not pick up. (glances at JET, then back to emptiness of the desert with a moan and more tears) I was about four. I wanted to know about my older brother. He was a year older than me, and sick, and they didn't tell me what was going on. My brother and I were always together, like two piggies in a mud puddle. Suddenly he wasn't around anymore. I just wanted to know the truth. They told me crap and I knew it was crap. Later that year he died. I think it was Leukemia or something. They never made his death okay for me. I felt completely abandoned. I was standing there crying and they wouldn't pick me up and hold me and listen to my questions and explain it all to me. I guess they had their own heartbreak to deal with. I just wanted to know what was really going on, but to them I must have been part of the problem. I guess that's when I gave up on them and decided to take care of myself, to get smart and figure everything out for myself. JET (solemnly) You decided to figure everything out by yourself. EDDY (looking back at JET with another gush of tears) Yes. Eddy realizes that he was just picked up and listened to. EDDY (continues) Thanks. (sighs, pauses) But that doesn't get you off the hook. JET What? EDDY (starting up the engine again) It's totally unrealistic to say that you are responsible for all the litter in the world. Somebody else threw it there. You are not responsible. (takes off down the road) JET It is not about being practical. It is about being aware. How would you feel if you were aware that you actually could pick up a piece of litter and you decided not to? That you could actually pick up each crying child and you chose to ignore them and let them cry? EDDY I'd feel terrible. JET What kind of terrible? The Handbook gives you four options: mad, sad, glad or scared? EDDY Sad mostly. Maybe I'd feel angry about it too. JET That's the point. When you get aware of an option that you're not choosing then you feel sad about losing that option. EDDY (not getting it) Great! Just what I need right now. More sadness! JET It's the sadness of awareness that you feel, your awareness of choosing to leave the litter there. It works in reverse too. Let's say that you decide you are not actually responsible for the litter but you are going to pretend "as if" you are responsible. Then as you walk down a path you pick up litter along the way. Even though you are only pretending to be responsible, this is a responsible universe, so the litter you pick up is actually picked up! I'd rather feel the pain of not picking up the litter than living in the false certainty of not knowing about all this. And you would too or we would not still be talking about this. EDDY Yeah, well, what I really want to know is how we decide where to stop and set up camp? JET That's easy. It will suddenly become completely obvious. In that second the van darts out from a forest of mesquite bushes and shoots over an old wooden bridge across a rocky wash. Although the bridge looks solid at first, the main central support was washed away in the recent storm. This bridge can no longer support the weight of a vehicle. The van is halfway across when wood gives way and the front of the van drops 8 feet into the rocks below. Glass explodes, steam gushes from the smashed radiator, and JET screams in pain as his left leg gets pinned between the bent-in front of the van and the front of his seat. Eddy is stunned from a gash in his head, starts to hyperventilate, looks frantically this way and that while total panic shoots up his spine. Muttering to himself, he sees JET's smashed leg and then goes hysterical. EDDY What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? The terror in Eddy's voice forces JET to ignore the excruciating pain in his leg for a brief moment in order to save the both of them. JET Shut-up you dragon fart! (bellowing like a drill Sergeant) Didn't you read The Handbook? Eddy is shocked into reasonableness by the unreasonableness of the question. EDDY What? JET looks Eddy in the eyes like a laser and plants instructions directly into Eddy's nervous system. JET (fiercely) The way you figure out what to do is to shift identity. You. Now. Become someone who knows what to do for us right now! EDDY (like a panicking victim) But who? Who would know? JET (only shouting) You are the fucking philosopher! Who can handle this? EDDY Superman could! JET Go! (then screams again writhing in agony) Forced by the immediacy of imminent danger, Eddy pushes open his door and dive rolls head first into the sand between two boulders. He scrambles under the belly of the nose-down van, pops up on the other side, and opens JET's door to inspect the situation. At that moment, gasoline dripping from a cracked fuel line dripping onto the hot exhaust manifold bursts into flame. Smoke starts leaking through the smashed engine cover into the cabin of the van. JET smells the smoke and screams. JET (to anybody) Get me out of here! (to Eddy, pleading) Get me out of here Superman! Flames suddenly leap out of the engine box. JET jerks his body towards the door to escape the heat but only tears his leg more. The pain is excruciating and he is trapped. Paint begins to blister and pop on the engine cover from the heat. JET is sweating, grasping about. JET (continues screaming) Don't let me burn! Eddy (Superman) moves in complete certainty. He picks up a long flat stone and in two full-arm swoops knocks the branches off of a tree caught between the rocks. He wrestles the tree free from the stones, pole vaults onto the rock that smashed in the front of the car, slams the fat end of the tree down through the broken window next to JET's leg without stopping to aim, then leaps off the rock so the full force of his body leverages through the tree against the bent metal. The force makes a gap of one inch. Flames leap up through the gaping hole where the front window used to be. EDDY (SUPERMAN) (in a serene but commanding Superman voice) JET, move your leg out. JET (screams) Aaaarrgh-aaah! Shit! JET twists his torn and bleeding leg free of the wreckage. Flames reach for JET as he falls out the door, but Eddy (Superman) is already there to catch him and carry him away from the inferno. We can almost see Superman's cape blowing in the wind. Eddy (Superman) places JET gently onto the sand at a safe distance from the flames and smiles beatifically, a curl of hair on his forehead, as if the ordeal were everyday business for him. EDDY (SUPERMAN) I came just in time. Remember the extra jerry can of gasoline we brought along? Just then there is a violent "Whoompf!" The van rocks as a jerry can of fuel explodes with oily flames and blows the rear doors off the van, clouds of black smoke gush into the air. The driver and passenger seats are blazing. JET (rocking back and forth in the sand, grimacing in pain, holding his leg) Yeah. I remember. EDDY (SUPERMAN) There were two of them. A second and louder "Whoompf!" throws blazing flames thirty feet into the air. With the front window broken and the rear doors blown away, the body of the van nose down has become a chimney, efficiently consuming the entire contents of the van. It is a fireball. JET (demandingly, while squirming in pain and clutching his bleeding leg) Don't you have a fire extinguisher in your car? EDDY (SUPERMAN) (with perfect clarity) Yes. It's under the driver's seat. They shield their faces from the searing heat to see if there is any way to get at the fire extinguisher. JET starts laughing at the impossibility, then looks at Eddy in sudden horror. JET (eyes wide) Superman! The Handbook! JET is consumed in pain, blood oozing out between his fingers. EDDY (SUPERMAN) You put The Handbook in the glove compartment. I'll get it. There is no smile on his face. He is not joking. JET (shouting after him in fear) No! Stop! You'll be toast before you even get there! But Eddy (Superman) is not listening. He is running. The stream bed is not totally dry. Near some boulders a large mud slick lies protected from the sun. Eddy flings himself sideways through the air, lands with a "goosh," and in an instant has rolled over and over in the sticky muck, simultaneously packing goop on his face, head and hands. Brown as a chocolate Santa Clause, Eddy rolls upright and strides straight over to the open passenger door. Yellow flames reach greedily towards him. Holding his breath, both eyes nearly shut, he walks right into the fire, one mud-coated hand forward, the other buried in mud against his midriff like the Boris Karloff mummy. For a moment he completely disappears from view engulfed in flames. Then he steps back out of the inferno clutching the smoking book, steam rising from his body like a space ship after re-entering the atmosphere. Stiff legged he walks over to JET, who watches in utter astonishment, eyes wide, mouth agape, speechless. EDDY (SUPERMAN) Your Handbook, Sir. Eddy (Superman) places the Handbook in JET's free hand with a slight bow and a Superman smile. His white teeth shine brilliantly against his grotesque face as flame-dried mud crinkles off of his cheeks and lands on JET's legs and arms.
Callahan Academy GmbH
Gistlstr. 155 a
D-82049 Pullach
