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BLACK PEARLS
By Robert D. Miles
The true, epic tale of Anne Bonney, a beautiful but bored Charleston
belle, who recklessly chases adventures of the pirate life... and Mary
Read, an English girl, who is forced to masquerade as a boy to survive
her life of desperate poverty, bravely accepting her destiny as a
soldier, sailor, and pirate. The passions of history's most infamous
pirate women intertwine with Captain Calico Jack Rackham, culminating
with their ironic fates.
SYNOPSIS:
Robert D. Miles
423-453-4911
BLACK PEARLS
Genre: Action/Drama
Compare to: Thelma and Louise
Logline:
The true, epic tale of Anne Bonney, a beautiful but bored Charleston
belle, who recklessly chases adventures of the pirate life... and Mary
Read, an English girl, who is forced to masquerade as a boy to survive
her life of desperate poverty, bravely accepting her destiny as a
soldier, sailor, and pirate. The passions of history's most infamous
pirate women intertwine with pirate Captain Calico Jack Rackham, culminating
with their ironic fates... Based on their true stories.
Scenario: 1700s Golden Age of Piracy in the Caribbean Sea where pirates take haven, merchant ships are taken, and British justice is often bought and sold by a corrupt Jamaican governor whose power over life and death is exceeded only by his greed and debauchery. Also, locales in Charleston, South Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; England; and Belgium.
Protagonist: Mary Read, an English girl, is forced since childhood to masquerade as a male in order to survive, which ensured food, shelter, and safety. She is a soldier in the King's army, a sailor, and by an unplanned twist of fate, becomes a daring and courageous pirate with Anne Bonney as her mentor and lover. She is sentenced to hang but dies in childbirth in a cell next to Anne's in a Jamaican prison.
Co-Protagonist: Anne Cormac Bonney Rackham Burleigh, the flame-haired spitfire only child of a wealthy Irish Southern Colonial plantation owner, resents being “mastered” and runs off from an upcoming prearranged marriage to become a pirate. Anne is “sold like an animal” to be rid of cowardly snitch James Bonney, a small-time pirate, to marry with a “divorce-purchase” the bold pirate, Captain “Calico” Jack Rackham. She also takes Mary Read as a lover and shares her with her husband, Jack. Ruthless and cunning, Anne plots to have a pirate ship of her own to share with Mary. Anne is sentenced to hang after her baby is born but a surprising fate intervenes. She survives her death sentence to live out her life as a genteel lady with a dark secret, symbolized by a black pearl necklace.
Co-Protagonist: Captain “Calico” Jack Rackham, a colorful, handsome English pirate who boldly breaks the Pirate Code by having women aboard his ship. After surviving battles with other pirates and merchant ships and out-foxing British Caribbean Governors, he is finally captured by his relentless nemesis, Jonathan Barnet, a British Man-o'-War captain. Jack's life ends on a gallows in Jamaica.
Antagonist: Captain Jonathan Barnet commands the British Man-o'-War, the Albion. He displays a high level of loyalty to the Crown but steals treasure from the pirates he captures and also from the Jamaican Governor who also steals from the captured pirates' loot. Secretly, Barnet hates his wife who he married for prestige, power, and riches.
Storyline: The story of two women trying to survive in a man's world where they are treated as property. Both become pirates for two very different reasons. Mary survives her entire life by masquerading as a male, including passing herself off as an English soldier and sailor. In a happy turn of events she marries a fellow soldier, Gabriel, and together they purchase a tavern in Belgium. This brief time of joy and safety is cut short when Gabriel dies of the plague. Mary sells the tavern and signs onto an English merchant ship as a male deckhand. When the ship is taken by pirates, she chooses the pirate life to survive, again hiding the fact that she is a woman. Ill-fated Mary, a gentle soul who is raised in poverty, is repeatedly cheated out of a life of safety, security, and love and becomes a ruthless pirate, not by her own choice, but to survive.
Anne, in stark contrast, recklessly throws away her privileged life on a Charles Towne plantation. She is headstrong and takes dangerous risks for fun and freedom by running away to become a pirate. Yet, after her death sentence, in an ironic twist of fate, Anne survives to return to her former privileged lifestyle in Charles Towne, marry again, and bear many children.
Sixty years after her rescue, Anne gives her son Darcy a strand of black pearls that were given to her by Jack, in reminiscence of the birth of Pearl, their first child. Throughout her long life, Anne privately laments her abandonment of her daughter, Pearl, and confesses her dark piracy secrets to her son, Darcy, who is now a lawyer and a judge. He is shocked that his real father was the infamous pirate, Calico Jack, and even more shocked that his mother, Anne, was one of the most ruthless Caribbean pirates of all time.
Based on extensive research and some dramatic license, this is a true story that is peppered with fascinating characters facing huge obstacles, constant conflict, gripping situations, rule breaking, and forbidden love.
If you like this concept, it would be our pleasure to send you the script.
Robert D. Miles
Bio: Optioned screenwriter: Safespace, Columbia Pictures
Peter Guber/Michael Gruskoff, Producers; Douglas Trumbull, Director
Optioned screenwriter: Starseed, Emersing Media INC.
15 films in worldwide release: 13 documentaries & 2 features
Fastwalkers: 2 EBE awards: “Peoples Choice” & “Best Music”, International UFO Congress
Ice Cold in Phoenix: Exec. Producer, Line Producer
Published Author/Co-author 2 books: Safespace and Lycandroids, Super Soldiers, and the Freedom War
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm5574814/?ref_=tt_ov_dr#producer
Leslie S. Mitts
Bio: Co-author/Researcher Black Pearls
Published book Co-author: Lycandroids, Super Soldiers, and the Freedom War
Robert Miles & Leslie Mitts
4412 Wild Horse Court
Ooltewah TN 37363
423-453-4911
mittsleslie@yahoo.com
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1 person likes this
This sounds like fodder for a great story, but it's not a logline. Focus on one hero, their goal, what and who is stopping them, and what will happen if the hero doesn't achieve their goal.
I agree with that Phil said. You just need to make it more concise and to the point. You have a really good logline in there, just remove all the extra stuff so that you can see it. Keep up the good work.