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CHASING TIME: ONE-HOUR PILOT

CHASING TIME: ONE-HOUR PILOT
By Susan Lee Hahn

GENRE: Romance, Drama
LOGLINE:

A gifted, American artist of Italian descent (35) moves to Italy in search of her artistic greatness and arrives at the exclusive Medici Artists Colony in Tuscany, Italy where she discovers an immortality elixir that was created during the Renaissance and has been fueling the lives of the patron and several others for over 500 years. 

With their souls yearning to be released from their bodies after having spent too much time on earth, they set her up to set them free since she is the reincarnation of their only child. 

In other words, they want her to kill them.  

The fate of the elixir and the future of mankind is up to her.

SYNOPSIS:

Isabella Buonavita (35) arrives in Italy in 2018, searching for the chance to become a great artist and hoping to find a place where she truly belongs. When she meets LA SIGNORA (aka Sofia Merlini), the woman whose home she’s staying in, she experiences flashes from a previous lifetime in Florence during the late 1400s, which are enhanced when she meets MICHAEL DONATI, an art dealer and her new love interest, who also happens to be the reincarnation of her Renaissance lover, ANGELO. As the stories from their two lifetimes intertwine, Isabella is confronted with both tragedies and responsibilities that contribute to her central conflict. Is it her responsibility to destroy the elixir or is she destined to take it?

She falls in love, gets separated from her lover, and settles into the life at the Villa. When she witnesses the patron, BRUNO MEDICI administer the immortality elixir after he has entered a frighteningly advanced state of aging, she is thrust into the pivotal role of either destroying the immortality elixir or championing its next chapter. To complicate matters, she has already grown to love both Bruno and Sofia who were her ‘original’ parents and also lovers and pioneers during the Renaissance. The elixir began with them, and they’re still alive after more than five hundred years. They are also still in love, but haven’t spoken for centuries since they are not in agreement about the future of the immortality business. They both love Isabella fiercely since they believe that she is the reincarnation of their only daughter, AMOROSA the love child they had during the Renaissance who died tragically at twenty-two during childbirth. She (Isabella/Amorosa) is their greatest hope for the future, not just the future of their lives and the elixir, but the future of the world, the planet, and all of mankind.

Every episode begins with a Renaissance ‘Teaser’ and reveals more about their back story, which illuminates aspects of life during the Italian Renaissance and the life of their unconventional family. These scenes are grounded in historical facts, and also leap off the screen with imagined dramas and unbridled passions. Of course, there’s a lot of art, architecture, food, and lovemaking to entertain an audience.

When Renaissance Sofia discovers that Bruno is infertile due to the elixir’s effects, they convince the famous painter, SANDRO BOTTICELLI to father Sofia’s child. When he discovers the truth about the elixir, he leaves the Medici Villa and goes to work in Rome for the Pope. Not long after, when the notorious Fryer, Girolamo SAVANAROLA takes down the Medici family and inspires the crowd to destroy all objects of beauty in the terrifying ‘Bonfire of the Vanities’, Botticelli joins the Fryer and burned many of his own masterpieces.

Other narrative drives include Michael’s friend and accomplished artist, CARLO PIACENZA who is on a quest for revenge or justice after his parents’ death. He believes that his parents discovered the elixir, ingested it, and both died because of it. After Isabella leaves for the villa, her lover, Michael (Carlos’s best friend) joins forces with La Signora and Carlo to reach Isabella at the Villa. Michael and Carlo find their way there. Michael is shocked when Bruno challenges him to a fencing match, then discovers that he really wants Michael to kill him. The season cliffhanger comes from her friendship with TONINA DELLA TERRA, a brilliant scientist whose work is poised to save the planet, if only she can remain alive long enough to complete it.

Isabella cannot kill Bruno and Sofia, nor can she take responsibility for the fate of the elixir. She doesn’t have it in her. She has a very short window of time to finish her masterpiece about the Nine Muses from Greek Mythology. By 'chasing time’ to complete her work, she fuels her artistic passion, and elevates her work to a new level. These extraordinary panels remain incomplete. She will never have enough time. No one will.

In the end, it’s love that inspires Isabella to open the window that will set the room on fire, eventually killing Bruno and Sofia. Her hope is that they will take the secrets of the elixir with them. It’s not over yet. With their house on fire (literally), Isabella gets news from Tonina that she has left the Villa after decades of work to try to save the earth because she has arrived at the conclusion that the only option is to de-populate it. The type of work she needs to do next, she doesn’t want to do at the Medici Villa. She alludes to a ‘catastrophe’ that she must create on a global scale. This is the set up for the next season.

Isabella’s dilemma (and the story engine) unfolds with haunting questions, such as:

If she decides to destroy the elixir… She will need to kill them, but after 500+ years of ingesting a drug that strengthens their will to live, this won’t be an easy task. And, she loves them! They’re her only family. AND, if she reinstates mortality as an essential element of the human condition, what will happen to the life-saving work being done there? What’s more important?

If she decides to take the elixir… She may be able to ward off a potentially fatal, genetic illness and create her artwork while continuing to nurture the world’s greatest artists and innovators, and possibly saving the planet. If she takes the potion, she would be ricocheting between the ecstasy/bliss of being reborn and the nightmarish hell of decaying while still alive — forever.

Does she have the personal strength, conviction, and ingenuity needed to obliterate the elixir, and purposefully kill the people she loves?

There are other questions inherent in the story engine that could be used for future seasons, such as who are the other people who have spent time at the villa and have the immortality elixir? Is it her responsibility to find them and destroy them too? She’s not a killer; she’s an artist. What are the over-arching, global ramifications of her dilemma?

The world of Renaissance Florence comes to life against the backdrop of some of the world’s most beautiful and inspiring art, sculpture, and architecture as it explores the idea of timeless art and the themes of artistic passion, where to find it and how to keep it alive. This world (present and past) thrives on emotional and artistic energy, which celebrates nature and humanity. The guests at the villas are all extraordinary, brilliant, and usually a bit eccentric, providing grist for some interesting episodes and inspiration for audiences. Love, like great art can elevate to timelessness.

About the Immortality Elixir (aka “the Juice”):

  • antagonist of the series because it destroys the human condition and steals the soul’s evolution
  • will to live, so users can never commit suicide
  • Rejuvenates the body to a much younger state, cures diseases, erases scars, imitates a kind of re-birth
  • Even one dose causes irreversible infertility in both men and women
  • Even one dose creates a lifelong addiction, and a very long life

CHASING TIME: ONE-HOUR PILOT

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Nate Rymer

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Tasha Lewis

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