Overview:

Baseball: the alignment of the planets largely determines Fate.   

The Mayan Calendar.  The end of the world has come and gone. But can  a “Second Coming” be far behind?

And if so, what form might the spirit take in contemporary America?  How might he or she try to save the world?

Summary/Synopsis:

Hardly a sentimental journey if you’re pitching for the Tampa Bay Yankees, and for veteran catcher Noland Walker of the San Francisco Giants a lifetime batting average of .282 and around 2,500 hits are just not enough.  After experiencing a “Gaian” vision by Fisherman’s Wharf and a cleansing in a Sioux sweat lodge, he decides to commit a majestic major felony to illustrate the underlying astral and pagan nature of the national pastime while on the other coast, in Central Park, the New York Yankees have discovered a new phenom -- a “rock-throwing Palestinian” with an ungodly fastball that guns at about 125 mph. 

Based on the short novel by T. D. White, “The Lady and the Lion.”    

Feature script available for production by T. D. White

Budget: $ 25, 000, 000

Shares/Units: $50,000

Opening Scenes:

INT. - ANY MLB BASEBALL PARK - DAY

A 95 mph fast ball.  Make ‘em flinch.

EXT. - NEWGRANGE, IRELAND - DAY

INT. - NEWGRANGE, IRELAND - DAY

People mill about the Tourist Center. Some watch a distant video screen.

INT. - VIDEO SCREEN - DAY

Information film explores the one acre mound,

sacred ground.  Simulated there will be the Winter Solstice bolt of light that approaches the entrance to the cave and frees the souls, “an ancient burial ground, anthropologists believe.”

NARRATION explains the theory of the tribal rites surrounding the annual event OVER NOISE of

EXT. - A CITY STREET - DAY

1950‘s. Loud children running around between cars playing Ringolevio.  One boy gets by some others and slaps his hand across a building wall.

TEN YEAR OLD BOY

Home! Free All!

EXT. - BASEBALL FIELDS - DAY

Aerial MONTAGE of various American Major League baseball parks.  A stealthy feeling here, like a reconnaissance, a surveillance.

EXT. - OVERHEAD ON ONE BASEBALL FIELD -DAY

The shadow of a plane.  ENGINE ROAR.

EXT. - OVERHEAD ON BUSH NATIVES ON THE BANK OF A RIVER - DAY

Some are waving their fists and shooting arrows; others are cowering.

EXT. - BLUE SKY WITH CLOUD PUFFS - DAY

Suddenly a baseball ascends INTO FRAME, peaks, descends, disappears.  CHEERING.

EXT. - A BASEBALL FIELD - DAY

“EYE IN THE SKY” POV over the field.

EXT. - THE BASEBALL FIELD - DAY

Angle from the press box or mezzanine seats.  A player crosses home plate, and, in a brief movement, makes the Sign of the Cross.  Another blows kisses skyward.  A chain dangles about his neck as he crosses Home Plate.  Players flood the field from the first base dugout and swarm the hero.

BROADCAST V.O.

... the ACLU has been arguing that such on the field displays as crossing oneself after a home run or before batting is a public endorsement of religion and therefore unconstitutional.

Attorneys for Major League Baseball contend that players are simply exercising their rights to free speech and free expression.

EXT. - THE MUSE, AN OLD NEIGHBORHOOD SALOON IN SAN FRANCISCO - MORNING 

Shoot as from an elevated security camera, from across the street.  An occasional car passes.  A BIRD CHIRP OR TWO AMIDST AMBIENT SOUND.  

INT. THE MUSE - MORNING

RADIO V.O. ENDS

Shoot as from elevated interior security camera.  Blue smoke hangs poisonously in the early morning light, like “the dust of the sun.” A skinny underdeveloped man of maybe thirty is sweeping up the broken glass of ashtrays and bottles, cigarettes and the crumpled packs which once housed them, a crack vial or two.  The OWNER, stubby, built like a matured tomcat, ENTERS, looks around and stops dead in his tracks.  Give him a short cigar to chew on.

INT. THE MUSE - DAY

TWO SHOT

MUSE OWNER

Jesus H. Christ!  What the fuck went on here last night?

The PORTER shrugs nervously.

MUSE OWNER (CONT’D)

You know, I set up a fairly nice place here and look what they do to it.

(pause)

I wonder sometimes if this is how God must feel.