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Taxidermist, The
Genre: Dark Comedy
Logline: Widowed taxidermist falls in love; finds life complicated by ghosts.
Synopsis: Since the death of his wife, taxidermist John O'Keefe has thrown himself into his work of advancing the art of taxidermy as a viable alternative to cremation or burial. Why not preserve more than just memories? And when a lonely old woman dies of heart failure, John seizes the opportunity to put his theory into practice. Things, however, begin to get complicated when the police investigate the old woman's disappearance. Further confusing the situation is a recently widowed bookkeeper who enters his life, re-animating matters of the heart. Question is, can John destroy the crowning achievement of his profession for the sake of love?
Author Info: RODGER COVE is the author of six screenplays, in a variety of genres. He lives in White Rock, BC. Further bio information is available upon request.
RODGER COVE, Writer
(604) 535-5588
Or contact Praxis.
Trapline Lodge
Genre(s): Comedy
Logline:
A dark comedy about greed, the pursuit of false grails and wayward real estate…
Synopsis:
So, there’s this cabin. It doesn’t look like much: it’s brown, small, built for skinning game and drinking moonshine. It’s in the northern Canadian wilderness, just below the tundra line. Very “Hinterland Who’s Who.” Not exactly prime real estate. But it’s mobile. That’s right, the thing has moved at least once. Mainly due to some hydro-electric flooding, but also because it doesn’t want to be found.
Who cares, right? Funnily enough, lots of people, including Etienne, a young Métis bush pilot; Rachel, a tough-as-nails ex-stripper with a penchant for revenge-related violence and Alan, a slick Montreal realtor who’s in so far over his head he doesn’t even bother to hold his breath anymore. They all want this slippery hunk of logs and will roll over on each other repeatedly in their scramble to get there first. Why?
Did I mention the thing is booby trapped? It is. TNT up the wazoo and wired with trips that activate spring-loaded cue cards containing sardonic snippets like, “You shouldn’a oughtta touched that!” or “Nice move, genius, now kiss yer ass goodbye!” Now, what kind of an eccentrically-maladjusted-cartoon-freak-mining-millionaire would you have to be to decorate a little cabin like that? You’d do well to ask Archibald King, ‘cause he’s the architect of all this mayhem. But you can’t. He’s dead. And his old cabin – and all that it contains – is up for grabs.
Okay, so what exactly is in this cabin? I bet if you polled our protagonists you’d get a few different answers: treasure, the promise of material wealth, a shot at a better life…in practical terms it contains the clues to a unique discovery; an accidental, yet incredibly valuable bounty from history, handed down and kept secret by a legendary coureur des bois, appropriated and hoarded by King, and the cause of endless speculation and plotting by those who seek it. Lofty, huh? Tip of the iceberg…
It would all be so much easier if the fortune-hunters could just get a hold of Mike Molson (nee Awashish), the keeper of the keys and the only living creature who knows where the cabin’s been moved to. Trouble is, Mike doesn’t know anybody’s looking for him and is content to shuffle around the northern Cree communities, tending to his many businesses, maybe getting in a spot of painting – a favourite hobby and hidden talent – or cracking open a cold case of his namesake.
But, hang on, what about our greedy, backstabbing, cabin-seeking trio? They throw everything at each other: telephones, grandfather clocks, handcuffs, henchmen, speeding cars, dive-bombing airplanes, careening ski-doos, not to mention the traditional guns, knives and humiliating insults to get what they want (or what they think they want). Sound like a lot? But wait, there’s more…
Nobody told them about Crazy Pete. Like a pesky poltergeist or some other mischievous evil you can’t put down, there’s a grizzled, cackling, unbalanced, shotgun-wielding old French trapper out there on a souped-up snowmobile, prowling the cabin’s perimeter, keeping prying opportunists at bay and cursing a Cordon Bleu streak.
Okay, well, how does it turn out? Badly for some, worse for others. Our realtor gets a slimly-deserved second chance, and Mike Molson gets a new canvas to copy. Sounds like a movie, right? Well, good, because that’s what Trapline Lodge is: part Fargo, part The Grifters with a soupcon of Kill Bill and a dash of Something Wild. So strap yourself in and hang on for a fast, funny, thrilling ride. Only, don’t look over your shoulder…
Bio:
Matt Holland is a screenwriter and an actor from Montreal. He is a graduate of the M.A. program in Creative Writing (English Literature) at Concordia University and of both the Writer’s Lab and the Professional Screenwriting Programme at The Canadian Film Centre. His short script, Drop Off, was produced as part of the OMDC’s Al Waxman Calling Card Program; and his first produced feature screenplay, Gone Dark (a.k.a The Limit), premiered at the Montreal World Film Festival and was released by Universal. It was directed by Lewin Webb and stars Lauren Bacall, Claire Forlani, Henry Czerny and Pete Postlethwaite. He wrote and directed the short film, Whistleblowers Anonymous, a Moc Docs 2003 winner, which had its network broadcast on CBC’s Rough Cuts and its festival premiere at NSI FilmExchange in Winnipeg. Matt is currently writing for the Showcase series Moose TV.
Matt Holland, writer
Hiatus Productions
5226 Jeanne-Mance Street
Montreal, Quebec
H2V 4K4
tel. 514-270-0518
fax. 514-270-1651
cell. (514) 502-3821
e-mail. hiatus@aei.ca
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