Eg and the Elephants: Award-Winning Feature Film Script
Eg and the Elephants: A giant-sized adventure to rescue an elephant and to reunite a family with a ‘second chance’ love story, a social justice message, and a glimmer of the supernatural
TONE: Free Willy meets The Green Book
Logline: An awkward and adventurous eleven-year-old boy, Eg (Caucasian) uses his gift as an 'elephant whisperer' to rescue and reunite two sister elephants after one of them is kidnapped and earmarked for a billionaire's safari. With the help of his grandfather, Bert (70, African American) whom he just met for the first time, Eg learns the truth about his family's history and eventually reunites his grandparents after being torn apart decades earlier due to an incident of racial injustice.
Awards :
Winner, Stage 32 Family-Friendly Screenwriting Contest 2022 (2nd Annual)
Quarterfinalist, Creative Screenwriting Unique Voices Screenplay Competition 2021
Overview: A family adventure with a magical twist. When eleven-year old Eg discovers the racial injustice that split up his grandparents and tore apart his family decades ago, he orchestrates a reunion between his father and his biological grandfather, which is equally as challenging in some ways as reuniting the two sister elephants. By incorporating social justice undertones with entertainment elements, this family feature encourages a younger generation to ‘lean into’ these conversations at an earlier age.
The soul of this story is also about the power of connections. The young protagonist, Eg is the catalyst for profound connections with people and animals. As an elephant whisperer, he experiences a connection with the elephants that transcends the ‘normal’ ways in which people communicate. He later learns that this special gift connects him to his paternal grandfather who was also an elephant whisperer in Africa generations ago. Eg uses this power to reunite the two sister elephants who have been torn apart, his biological grandparents who were split up when his father was five due to an incident of racial injustice, and in the process, reunites with his ancestral past and the long line of elephant whispers who came before him.
Synopsis: Eg and the Elephants interweaves three time frames to tell the story of an interracial family and the tragedy that split them apart decades earlier. The protagonist’s uncanny gift as elephant whisperers paves the way for their gifts of compassion and love, which they still have for each other, even though they’ve been separated for decades.
Present: Eg's grandmother GEORGIA (70, Caucasian) reveals a family secret after her husband dies about his father's biological father, BERT (70+ African American). Eg persuades his father (NEIL, 50 light-skinned African American) to travel to the elephant sanctuary in Tennessee to see one of the two elephants (POPPY) who used to live across the street from them at Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo. The other elephant (LOLA) supposedly died en route, but Eg can still 'communicate’ her due to his gift as an elephant whisperer. Eg orchestrates a surprise reunion between his father and his grandfather (BERT, 70) who haven't seen one another for forty-five years. Eg and Bert have an instant connection, while Neil is still upset and unresolved. Eg learns that DAMON REYNOLDS (70) a heartless billionaire kidnapped Lola and plans to kill her at his birthday Safari. Bert is a renowned artist and has been commissioned to do a sculpture of Damon, which gives them access to his sprawling property. Neil learns the truth about what really happened when he was a child and agrees to leave Eg with Bert so they can visit the elephant sanctuary, unaware of Eg’s real plan. Eg persuades Bert to help him kidnap Lola and reunite her with Poppy at the sanctuary.
Past (1970s): Bert and Georgia (in their 20s) fall in love while living on a commune in Tennessee where their love child, Neil was born. Georgia and Neil (5) leave for New York to visit her dying father. Bert promises to join them. Damon inherits the sprawling property and shuts down the commune. Bert travels to New York to be with his family, but gets arrested and thrown in jail for over seven years for a crime he didn't commit. He’s a poor, African American man with no resources. Georgia searches for him, but never finds him. She marries someone else and moves away.
Distant Past (1930s): Eg has a recurring dream about an African boy, UMBUTU (11) with a rare, baby white elephant (ISABELLE) and feels a connection to them both. The dream and his quirky gift finally makes sense when Bert reveals the story of his own father, an elephant whisperer who came to America when his white elephant was captured by hunters and sold to the circus.
During act three, the three stories converge and the whole truth emerges about his past, his grandfather’s undying love for his grandmother Georgia, and the truth and forgiveness that his father has been searching for since his family split up when he was a child. Eg and Bert join forces with a couple of new friends in the South and together they kidnap the imprisoned elephant, save her life, and reunite her with her sister at the elephant sanctuary. The ultimate reward is that in the end, Bert and Georgia are finally reunited, and so is his family.