MovieBytes Interview:
Screenwriter Dick Croy

An interview with screenwriter Dick Croy regarding the Ohio Independent Writing Competition.

A: Fugitive Slave.

As a severe snowstorm descends on southeast Ohio, HARRY BARNES, a middle-aged black man, picks up RAYMOND POWELL, a young black inner-city drug dealer (we suspect at once and confirm later), whose expensive new BMW has broken down on the interstate. Barnes is a mining reclamation foreman and amateur historian of black history and the Underground Railroad in his part of the country. He takes Powell to a service station run by his Vietnam vet buddy BOB STANLEY and his much younger and beautiful wife CAROL.

At his wife's urging, Stanley reluctantly agrees to stay late to fix the car, a decision made easier by Powell's offering to pay twice the normal repair fee. Carol drives off in her 4x4 for the spare part, and the loquacious Barnes begins to tell Powell the true story of the escape by a slave and her seven children from a plantation just across the Ohio River back in 1843. High points from this historical event are portrayed as flashbacks as Barnes spins out the tale primarily to occupy Powell's attention in an attempt to defuse an increasingly volatile situation after the interstate is closed down because of the snowstorm.

Carol brings back pizzas and beer as well as a new fuel pump and, as Powell begins to relax a little, the four of them drink and tell stories. The car is to be finished the next day. Eventually Stanley and Barnes go off to bed -- in a back office and a sleeping bag in the back of Carol's 4x4 respectively, and Powell and Carol get to know each other a lot better. Carol reveals that she lived with a black musician in Philadelphia in the neighborhood where police burned down two city blocks in the infamous MOVE incident in the mid-'80s. Powell tells her he was a budding young artist at one time. Eventually he makes a move on her but she fends him off.

The next morning brings the encounter to a crisis when Stanley finds an enormous amount of crack hidden in Powell's car. Powell is disarmed and informed of an elaborate plan by the others to put him and his mother on a contemporary version of the Underground Railroad -- the only way they can come up with to keep the crack out of the hands of thousands of users while preventing Powell and his mother from being executed by the drug lords with whose money Powell purchased the crack in Miami.

But Powell's no dummy and has hidden a second gun on the premises just in case. He seizes it at the first opportunity and grabs Carol as a hostage, with the intention of using her and her 4x4 to get away with the crack. When his car is repaired and returned to him, he'll release her -- if she still wants to come back to the sticks after she's lived with him. But Bob Stanley won't allow his wife to be abducted at gunpoint.

In his struggle to free her Carol is accidentally shot though not seriously wounded. There's a standoff: will Powell have to kill them all to get away? Or will he finally listen to reason and accept their plan? What about the drug dealers? Who's going to take care of them?

One final surprise awaits us at the very end of the film.

The spirit of the Underground Railroad is as vital today as it was in helping to end slavery in America because enslavement of the human soul still exists. This is a lesson a young black drug dealer learns the hard way in a suspenseful drama that unfolds over one long winter night in a service station in Appalachia.

This is movie with the potential to draw black and white audiences from all walks of life: from the street, the academy and suburban homes. A movie that is dramatic, suspenseful, entertaining and inspiring. A movie about four fictional people in the present whom we really care about and courageous real-life Americans who helped a mother and her seven children escape from slavery in 1843.

Both a reading and shooting script are available, and my partner and co-author Henry Burke and I are now putting together a budget to shoot the film on 24p HD for well under a million dollars. With just four major characters in a story set mostly in a service station (with historical flashbacks), this is a movie that lends itself to digital for other than budgetary considerations alone.

Although the Fugitive Slave shooting script calls for a very liberal 21-day shoot, it could almost certainly be done in fewer days. The historical scenes, which need to look flat anyway to give them an archival feel, could be done in a week with a very small crew (and I can probably obtain complimentary or steeply discounted food and lodging for that part of the shoot). And after a few days of rehearsal the service station scenes could also be done in fewer than the 12 days allotted for them.

With creative ingenuity and my partner Henry Burke’s connections (he was Ohio’s first black coal mine reclamation foreman), the strip mine scenes which bookend the movie need not be expensive. A couple of expensive late-model, but junked, cars can stand in for the two which the script calls to be buried, and I think it’s quite possible that a mining company(ies) can be persuaded to donate the equipment and labor necessary for the strip mine scenes.

Let me briefly outline how I see the film’s potential (this of course is not how I will approach potential investors):

I. Our expectations of the film’s success, Conservative View: After financing has been committed and on the strength of the script and its inspiring story (and profit points), we land a major black actor (Danny Glover, for example) to play the lead role of Harry Barnes and parlay his casting, and other production credentials, into a acquiring a first-rate cast and crew; a top Producer’s Rep to promote the film; and a profitable initial sale/licensing.

Optimistic View: Same as above except that the film is accepted for the Sundance program, creates an early buzz, does extremely well on the film festival circuit, and achieves gross profits in excess of $10 million, perhaps far more. In any case, the movie will inspire audiences wherever it’s shown and make a positive impact on society.

II. What Henry Burke and I bring to the table: Fugitive Slave is not a stand-alone project but essentially part of an “Escape of Jane” franchise developed by Mr. Burke and myself over the past decade to tell the story of the heroic escape of a slave and her seven children on the Underground Railroad. Other projects include The River Jordan, another (non low-budget) screenplay; a full-length stage play adaptation of Fugitive Slave; Miss Jane’s Escape, a one-woman play adapted from our work; Emancipation Stations, a proposed documentary series/pilot; and our historical novel The River Jordan, a Foreword Magazine book-of-the-year nominee in 2002.

Henry Burke is one of the nations’s most respected authorities on the Underground Railroad and his reputation is steadily growing. He is in partnership with the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, by whom he has just been awarded their prestigious John P. Parker Conductor of the year award; and is a member of Ohio’s Bicentennial Commission, to mention just two examples of his involvement in URR- related activities beyond co-authoring the above projects.

I myself have an extensive, award-winning background in motion picture and television production. Mr. Burke and I have devoted more than ten years to researching, writing and developing the above projects. In Fugitive Slave we have created an award-winning script for a low-budget movie in the best possible sense: small cast and minimal locations; a movie for which digital production is ideally suited. A film with positive social impact and extreme commercial potential, that can be made for well under a million dollars.

A: The film is set in Ohio. FS made it to the second round of consideration for this year's Sundance Screenwriting Lab but didn't make the final cut.

A: Satisfied up until the conclusion. No feedback whatsoever from our second place finish.

A: No.

A: It probably hasn't hurt to mention the award but it hasn't helped a whole helluva lot either, although I did get a professional budget from an experienced professional whose only compensation is that he wants to be an associate producer. We plan to shoot it on 24p HD for $670,750.

A: I am an award-winning Writer, Film & Video Editor, Director, and Producer of theatrical motion pictures and television programs. I was Writer, Director and Line Producer of The Fourth Dimension, a documentary series of seven 60-minute television specials on the paranormal, whose Hosts included Henry Fonda, Jack Palance and Robert Conrad among others.

I'm Screenwriter of the following feature films: UNKNOWN POWERS* ALIENS FROM SPACESHIP EARTH* THE SHASTA GATE THE SILENCE OF ANNALEE THE PYRAMID PROPHECY WHERE THERE’S A WILL THE KRONGOLD INCIDENT** WHAT ROUGH BEAST? THE BIKES FROM MOMBASA AGAINST THE GRAIN THE RIVER JORDAN FUGITIVE SLAVE THE TALL DARK MAN (*already produced) (**shared credit)

Writer of the following TV scripts: The Miracle Healers, Man of Miracles, Age of the Psychics, Underground Doctors and The Unknown Force, which I also directed.

Author of the following novels: THE SHASTA GATE THE SILENCE OF ANNALEE THE KRONGOLD INCIDENT** WHAT ROUGH BEAST? DOWSING FOR LOVE THE RIVER JORDAN

Playwright of the following plays: THE JUDGE AND ME BEDTIME STORIES WATER FROM A DEEPER WELL FUGITIVE SLAVE

In addition, I've produced over 450 television commercials and numerous industrial films, music videos and television programs. I'm the editor of two non-fiction books on human consciousness. A professional writer for 35 years,I have a background in:

Journalism - Reporter, Photographer, Asst. Editor: Orange (CA) Daily News; Newsman: Associated Press, Los Angeles Public Relations - Account Executive: Thomas Wilck Associates, Los Angeles; Staff Member: Communications Dept., Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Co., Los Angeles

Advertising - Copywriter, Account Executive: John Ramsey Advertising, Los Angeles; Creative Director: La Mesa RV Center (world’s largest RV dealer), La Mesa, CA

Marketing - Marketing Director: Miner Sales, Inc., Marietta, OH; Marketing Director: Danser, Inc., Parkersburg, WV

Awards Won:

Gold Medal - MIRACLE HEALERS - Greater Miami International Film Festival

Golden Eagle - MIRACLE HEALERS and UNKNOWN POWERS - 12th Annual Festival of the Americas, Houston International Film Festival Silver Medal - WORLD BEYOND DEATH - 12th Annual Festival of the Americas, Houston International Film Festival Award of Excellence - UNKNOWN POWERS - Film Advisory Board

Blue Ribbon - UNKNOWN POWERS - Fifth Film Renaissance

First Runner-Up - FUGITIVE SLAVE -Ohio Independent Film Festival

A: Lived there for 19 years. Not currently.

A: Yes, several projects, including Water from a Deeper Well, adapted from my play of the same title. Think of it as a sort of Rainmaker (the Burt Lancaster, Kathryn Hepburn film) for the 21st Century. It's based on, among other things, my work with successful dowser Walter Cook whom we filmed for The Fourth Dimension.

Posted Friday, January 16, 2004