S o u t h A m e r i c a n H e r o R e t u r n s H o m e
By Jason Wood
Marcus Thompson (The
Changeling, A Place To Stay) had long dreamt of bringing the life of the
South American Liberator, Simon Bolivar, to the big screen. Having spent
his childhood in Maracaibo, Venezuala (he was born in Caracas, and was
sent to be educated in England at the age of eight), Thompson had
yearned for years to reach for the seven stars of the flag and take the
project on, but due to the sheer enormity of the story, and the
experience required to realise it, had not felt ready until now.
Thompson had searched long and hard for a writer that had not only the required understanding of Latin American history, but more importantly, the passion to take on such an awesome project. Fortune played its part when he was introduced to namesake, Marcus Whitfield. Ironically, Whitfield’s previous script, a four year project entitled One Reed - The Conquest of Mexico, dealt with the arrival of the Spanish in the New World, This mammoth three hundred and eighty page script is currently being considered by Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron (Y Tu Mama Tambien, Harry Potter III) . Now Thompson commissioned him to write a screenplay on the greatest figure to expel the Spanish conquerors from Latin America.
One of Whitfield’s stipulations was that the screenplay be written in the old city of Seville, which holds the ‘Archivos De Los Indios’, the original documents relating to the exploits of the Liberator. Contracts were duly signed and Whitfield returned many months later with a screenplay that is being hailed as the definitive work on the subject. Scholars around the world have authenticated the historical accuracy of the work, among them, Miguel Centellas of the Department of Political Science, Western Michigan University, an expert on the subject, who praised inparticular, the honesty of the script - a criteria that Thompson had initially insisted upon.
Scheduled for late 2005 in Latin America, London, Paris and Rome, the multi-national co-production has the industry buzzing with speculation regarding the star-studded international cast. The producers at Liberator Films in London have been careful to keep progress regarding cast strictly to key agents and personnel.
Announcements relating to the epic production are expected this year during the Cannes Film Festival.
© Jason Wood 2003
Thompson had searched long and hard for a writer that had not only the required understanding of Latin American history, but more importantly, the passion to take on such an awesome project. Fortune played its part when he was introduced to namesake, Marcus Whitfield. Ironically, Whitfield’s previous script, a four year project entitled One Reed - The Conquest of Mexico, dealt with the arrival of the Spanish in the New World, This mammoth three hundred and eighty page script is currently being considered by Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron (Y Tu Mama Tambien, Harry Potter III) . Now Thompson commissioned him to write a screenplay on the greatest figure to expel the Spanish conquerors from Latin America.
One of Whitfield’s stipulations was that the screenplay be written in the old city of Seville, which holds the ‘Archivos De Los Indios’, the original documents relating to the exploits of the Liberator. Contracts were duly signed and Whitfield returned many months later with a screenplay that is being hailed as the definitive work on the subject. Scholars around the world have authenticated the historical accuracy of the work, among them, Miguel Centellas of the Department of Political Science, Western Michigan University, an expert on the subject, who praised inparticular, the honesty of the script - a criteria that Thompson had initially insisted upon.
Scheduled for late 2005 in Latin America, London, Paris and Rome, the multi-national co-production has the industry buzzing with speculation regarding the star-studded international cast. The producers at Liberator Films in London have been careful to keep progress regarding cast strictly to key agents and personnel.
Announcements relating to the epic production are expected this year during the Cannes Film Festival.
© Jason Wood 2003
Jason Wood is the author of
‘Pocket Essentials’ series which have included filmmakers Steve
Soderbegh, Atom Egoyan and the new book on Hal Hartley. He is currently
working on a book on the history of Mexican cinema.
SYNOPSIS
SCREENPLAY BY MARCUS WHITFIELD
SCREENPLAY BY MARCUS WHITFIELD
Making his way up an arduous
Andean pass, a General leads a ragged unit of Patriot soldiers towards
the peak of a precarious crest. The General thrusts his hands to the
dark Andean night as lightening strikes the sky to reveal more
mountains to pass. He whispers an utterance of something unknown, turns
and smiles. This man is ‘The Liberator’, Simon Bolivar.
Bolivar, the man, relates the memory of that time to his close personal attaché and friend, the Irishman, Daniel Florencio O’Leary; it was a time of great suffering, a time when the ‘Liberator’ stood up to the nation of Spain, a nation that had carved her identity through blood and conquest on the New World; O’Leary knows, for he was there.
However, this is now a more dejected Bolivar, a man haunted by the effects of a life dedicated to freedom; how did it come to be like this? O’Leary questions the moment on the Andean pass, a moment that would come to signify everything in the life of the ‘Liberator’ . O’Leary fails to find that truth, but is left a manuscript of the events that would unfold the riddle of who the ‘Liberator’ was.
So begins the story of the incredible life of one of South America’s greatest figures.
The journey of a Creole aristocrat in Caracas, sheltered from the realities and injustices of the Spanish system, but exposed by the men who would force him to open his eyes and heart to these injustices. His teacher and mentor Simon Rodriguez guides the youth who is ‘born of four sides’ of the ethnic coin through the Venezuelan heartlands, and the early Bolivar is exposed and awakens to the social exploitation of his ethnic brothers. His Mother dies before he is ten years old. ‘Not all great rivers flow into the sea’, she remarks as a final wish to see her son believe in his destiny - but also, to never forget its dangers.
Bolivar enters his formative years and the rebel emerges from the shadows of his youth, and soon he is in Madrid learning the customs of the royal court. His defiance of conformity and his arrogance is evident and soon he is humiliating the young Prince Ferdinand in the palace gardens at the game of ‘Battledore and Shuttlecock’. Here he encounters his young would-be bride, Maria Teresa, and for a time his Uncle is relieved at the idea of marriage, hoping that it will quell the revolutionary spirit of Bolivar. Once in Venezuela, Maria Teresa dies, and this releases the real Bolivar, ‘and what was taken from me realeased me also’. Here he knows the quest of Liberating his homeland will be his path.
Now Bolivar races through the streets of Paris determined to learn from his master, Napoleon, and it is here also that he meets his mentor, Rodriguez. Most importantly, he meets Alexander Van Humboldt, who informs him that his country is not ready to break away from Spanish rule,.He is determined, however, and he sets off for Rome to see further vestitudes of Napoleon. At the Monte Sacro he vows to Rodriguez he will ‘Liberate’ his homeland at any cost.
Back In Venezuela, Bolivar encourages his fellow ‘Patriots’ to rise up against the Spanish, and Francisco Miranda is brought back from Britain to help in the independence cause. It is here that Bolivar encounters O’Leary, and soon Bolivar and his men mount a challenge for freedom., which fails as quickly as it starts. Bolivar is sent into exile, where he writes his manifesto in Cartagena to O’Leary, and vows to return through his declaration’ The war to the Death’. This releases a bigger evil - the fury of Boves, a psychotic Royalist soldier, and soon Bolivar is faced with a second exile where he encounters the ardent Spaniard, Morillo, who stands in his way. For the third time, Bolivar raises a unified army, made up of British and Irish troops, encouraged by O’Leary. Here, aided by his men, Santander, Paez and Sucre, and his beloved Manuela, he achieves his life ambition of the ‘Liberation’ of Colombia, Ecuador and Peru and the creation of his own state of Bolivia.
However, the defeat of the Spanish creates internal factions and soon Santander in Colombia, and Paez in Venezuela, strike out to destroy Bolivar’s great vision of ‘Gran Colombia’, a united states, unified under one republic and one constitution. Bolivar desperately tries to enforce his will on the break-away countries and through the serious decline of his health, Bolivar fails to achieve due to the loss of his re-election as President, and the assassination attempt initiated by Santander. He slips into despair.
All this is related to his loyal aide de camp O’Leary, and with the murder of his friend Sucre, Bolivar claims his life a failure. The failure of which O’Leary now hears in Bolivar’s last correspondence, ‘It is hard to put away centuries of ingrained Spanish injustices’. And here we listen to the last words of Bolivar, a memory of a moment that stayed with him from the Andean pass, a memory forever denied to his correspondent and friend O’Leary.
Bolivar, the man, relates the memory of that time to his close personal attaché and friend, the Irishman, Daniel Florencio O’Leary; it was a time of great suffering, a time when the ‘Liberator’ stood up to the nation of Spain, a nation that had carved her identity through blood and conquest on the New World; O’Leary knows, for he was there.
However, this is now a more dejected Bolivar, a man haunted by the effects of a life dedicated to freedom; how did it come to be like this? O’Leary questions the moment on the Andean pass, a moment that would come to signify everything in the life of the ‘Liberator’ . O’Leary fails to find that truth, but is left a manuscript of the events that would unfold the riddle of who the ‘Liberator’ was.
So begins the story of the incredible life of one of South America’s greatest figures.
The journey of a Creole aristocrat in Caracas, sheltered from the realities and injustices of the Spanish system, but exposed by the men who would force him to open his eyes and heart to these injustices. His teacher and mentor Simon Rodriguez guides the youth who is ‘born of four sides’ of the ethnic coin through the Venezuelan heartlands, and the early Bolivar is exposed and awakens to the social exploitation of his ethnic brothers. His Mother dies before he is ten years old. ‘Not all great rivers flow into the sea’, she remarks as a final wish to see her son believe in his destiny - but also, to never forget its dangers.
Bolivar enters his formative years and the rebel emerges from the shadows of his youth, and soon he is in Madrid learning the customs of the royal court. His defiance of conformity and his arrogance is evident and soon he is humiliating the young Prince Ferdinand in the palace gardens at the game of ‘Battledore and Shuttlecock’. Here he encounters his young would-be bride, Maria Teresa, and for a time his Uncle is relieved at the idea of marriage, hoping that it will quell the revolutionary spirit of Bolivar. Once in Venezuela, Maria Teresa dies, and this releases the real Bolivar, ‘and what was taken from me realeased me also’. Here he knows the quest of Liberating his homeland will be his path.
Now Bolivar races through the streets of Paris determined to learn from his master, Napoleon, and it is here also that he meets his mentor, Rodriguez. Most importantly, he meets Alexander Van Humboldt, who informs him that his country is not ready to break away from Spanish rule,.He is determined, however, and he sets off for Rome to see further vestitudes of Napoleon. At the Monte Sacro he vows to Rodriguez he will ‘Liberate’ his homeland at any cost.
Back In Venezuela, Bolivar encourages his fellow ‘Patriots’ to rise up against the Spanish, and Francisco Miranda is brought back from Britain to help in the independence cause. It is here that Bolivar encounters O’Leary, and soon Bolivar and his men mount a challenge for freedom., which fails as quickly as it starts. Bolivar is sent into exile, where he writes his manifesto in Cartagena to O’Leary, and vows to return through his declaration’ The war to the Death’. This releases a bigger evil - the fury of Boves, a psychotic Royalist soldier, and soon Bolivar is faced with a second exile where he encounters the ardent Spaniard, Morillo, who stands in his way. For the third time, Bolivar raises a unified army, made up of British and Irish troops, encouraged by O’Leary. Here, aided by his men, Santander, Paez and Sucre, and his beloved Manuela, he achieves his life ambition of the ‘Liberation’ of Colombia, Ecuador and Peru and the creation of his own state of Bolivia.
However, the defeat of the Spanish creates internal factions and soon Santander in Colombia, and Paez in Venezuela, strike out to destroy Bolivar’s great vision of ‘Gran Colombia’, a united states, unified under one republic and one constitution. Bolivar desperately tries to enforce his will on the break-away countries and through the serious decline of his health, Bolivar fails to achieve due to the loss of his re-election as President, and the assassination attempt initiated by Santander. He slips into despair.
All this is related to his loyal aide de camp O’Leary, and with the murder of his friend Sucre, Bolivar claims his life a failure. The failure of which O’Leary now hears in Bolivar’s last correspondence, ‘It is hard to put away centuries of ingrained Spanish injustices’. And here we listen to the last words of Bolivar, a memory of a moment that stayed with him from the Andean pass, a memory forever denied to his correspondent and friend O’Leary.
