BAD INTENTIONS Feature Film Script adaptation completed of Norway's internationally acclaimed female crime writer, Karin Fossum's (LA Times Book Prize, Glass Key Award) novel - Den Onde Viljen - for which I have had the rare privilege of obtaining the option rights.  IN DEVELOPMENT, seeking producers. (received funding from the Canada Council for the Arts and 2018 Writer’s residency grant in Sweden to take the script from novel to treatment and 1st draft.)

This richly rendered story, set in a northern town, is about morality and accountability after a foolish, late night decision causes the accidental death of Vietnamese immigrant, an elegant exploration of loss and redemption.   

SYNOPSIS

A beautiful moon lit night.   24 year-old Jon Moreno reluctantly joins his childhood friends, the successful, charming Axel Frimann and kind-hearted stoner Phillip Reilly for a boat ride on the lake.  They have taken him to the cabin for a weekend reprieve from the psychiatric hospital, where he has been recovering from a breakdown.

After Jon’s body is found in the lake, it becomes clear that the surviving pair has something to hide. Tensions rise as Jon’s apparent suicide by drowning gives way to a murder investigation.

It becomes clear that the three young men share a terrible secret. A foolish late-night decision inadvertently causing the death of a young immigrant tests their morality and accountability.  Axel, doing everything to stop the truth from emerging to save his affluent lifestyle, has manipulated the other two to secrecy. Struggling with guilt and remorse, Reilly gets high and Jon, unable to reconcile his conscience with being loyal to his friends, ends up in a psychiatric ward and ultimately floating in a lake. 

How far will someone go to protect what they believe they deserve? When the body 17 year-old Kim Van Chau floats to the surface of a lake, a significant connection is made unraveling the truth behind the untimely death of the two young men. Two mothers will bond over the loss of their sons, conspiring together for justice, while understanding the folly of youth that can lead to disaster. Redemption is found in new relationships forged, healing tragedy. (01/2020)

Watercolour renderings by Production Designer Oleg Savytski