The Boys of Fall
by Scott Leopold
Mar. 12 - Mar. 19 (2018)
In Texas, football is everything. It's not just a game it’s a way of life. It can be the glue that brings a community together or the flame
that burns it down. For Connor, it changed his life forever, at the highest price.
In the full film script Giacomo, Connor’s son, is in the state championship with two minutes left in the game. He is driving his team down the field, losing by six points, to win the game. After each play, we return to the present where Connor is being interviewed about the disappearance of his son. During these interviews, Connor chronicles his journey as his son’s coach and the mistakes he made along the way.
We then flash back in time and experience Giacomo’s childhood up to the night he went missing. We meet Bamm-Bamm, Connor’s illegitimate son, who no one knows about except Connor and Bamm-Bamm's grandmother.
When Giacomo discovers the truth, he confronts his father, who demands he keeps it secret. Because Giacomo is distracted by these events, he loses the state championship for the second year in a row. He chokes at the end of the game, throwing an interception. After the
devastating loss, Giacomo comes up missing.
The community is up in arms about the disappearance and quickly make Connor one of the leading suspects. At the end of season one of the story, Bamm-Bamm, who doesn't know he's related to Giacomo, receives a certified letter from Giacomo that gives a username and password to a secret email account where he has left a trail of clues for Bamm-Bamm to solve the mystery of his disappearance.
The Ten-Minute Scene
This first ten-minute scene is towards the beginning of the story. We flashback to Giacomo, 10, after the championship little league
baseball game where he was the pitcher and lost the game.
On the ride home Connor goes off on his son and then on his wife, Jules. His frustration is magnified by his desire for Giacomo to do
what he could not do as a kid, play quarterback for his high school team.
Producer/scriptwriter Scott Leopold is looking for three for a 10-minute staging of a key scene from The Boys of Fall. Interested actors are asked to contact him by e-mail: slleopold [AT] gmail.com
The characters
Conner, (mid-30's to mid-40's), a master manipulator, likes control
and has been able to control everything in life except for getting the
quarterback position in high school. As an adult, he has a chance to
get the high school quarterback position for his son Giacomo. Conner
is relentless in his pursuit to make his son into a star quarterback
at the expense of his son mental health. Complicating this pursuit is
a web of dark secrets Connor is struggling to hide.
Giacomo, 10 to 18, has been suppressed by his father his entire life.
Every time he takes the field, whether it’s practice or a game, he is
under his father's microscope. Giacomo is struggling to find himself
in the thick cloud of manipulation and control his father has created.
Discovering that Bamm-Bamm is his brother and that he has to keep it
secret to protect his mother sets him over the edge.
Jules, (mid-30's to mid-40's), is Connor’s wife and Giacomo’s mother.
Jules is also suppressed and manipulated by Connor but is not afraid
to fight for her son. Jules feels trapped and smothered in her
marriage. She wants a divorce, but Connor will never let her go. She
is oblivious to Connor’s secrets and has no idea that Bamm-Bamm is his
son.
