ashland : nybemotion

TITLE: ASHLAND
AUTHOR(s): Bob & Jon Nybe
LOCALE(s): Nebraska/Los Angeles
SETTING(s): Small Town/Metropolis
PERIOD: 1972/Present
FORM: Screenplay/117 pg.
BUDGET: Low/Medium

GENRE:
PRIMARY: Drama
SECONDARY: Thriller

CHARACTER BREAKDOWNS:

MATTHEW SMITH (25/M) A small town mechanic with an obsession for building crafty papier-mâché houses. He is dark and brooding, a real loner except for his best friend, Digger. He moves to Los Angeles to find himself. (LD)

“DIGGER” LOGAN (25/M) Matthew’s best buddy since childhood. He is a good old American boy. He’s skinny and fidgety, brimming with nervous energy. (CO)

SOPHIA DIGORRI (25/F) A dangerously dark beautiful young woman who is Matthew’s Los Angeles neighbor and later becomes his lover. (LD)

SARA VASQUEZ (25/F) A dangerously dark beautiful young woman, she is Matthew’s mother at a younger age. (LD)

LEO SMITH (50/M) Matthew’s adoptive father. A short balding man with a potbelly. He took part in a robbery with Matthew’s biological father 25 years ago. He runs a car garage in Nebraska. (CO)

PERCY DENTON (50/M) Matthew’s biological father. He is a dangerous, perverted man that is anonymous to Matthew for most of the piece. He orchestrated the robbery with Leo. (CO)

BEN NILLES (60/M) An effeminate Los Angeles gallery owner who commissions Matthew to build one of his brilliant paper houses. He is a close friend of Sophia. (CO)

LOG LINE: A small town mechanic haunted by his past is led to Los Angeles as he slowly unravels the mystery of his mother’s death. In L.A. he unwittingly stumbles into a trap set for him long ago while he was a child... little by little it becomes apparent that he is the target of a madman on a deadly life long search.

SYNOPSIS:

FLASHBACK - 1972
Two armed and masked men, PERCY and LEO, are in the midst of robbing a trucking company owned by the family of Percy’s girlfriend. The heist is botched when the owner GINO BARRI, who Percy ends up shooting, recognizes Percy. Percy’s girlfriend, SARA is waiting outside in a late model Dodge Dart with her baby (YOUNG MATTHEW) in the back seat. Back inside, Percy fills a bag full of cash and both men run outside to hop in the getaway car. As the car pulls away the building explodes into fire.
PRESENT DAY

MATTHEW and DIGGER are watching an intricate papier-mâché house burn to ashes. This is a ritual among the boys when Matthew builds one. Matthew is a lonely small-town mechanic, an old soul with a young fiery heart. He lives with his adoptive father, however the adoptive part is unknown to Matthew. His mother passed away when he was just a baby. His best friend Digger is more family to him than his estranged father LEO. Leo is the owner of the garage that Matthew works at, but is absent most of the time due to his drinking problem.

Matthew is a tortured, yet gifted young man who has no real reason to stay in a town like Lincoln. He doesn’t know how to communicate with his father and his best friend is pretty simple and stuck in Lincoln for life. Matthew’s spare time is spent with Digger and in his room building his paper houses. One night in his bedroom he is sorting through some belongings that his mother left. Tucked in one of the dresses, is a manila envelope. As he starts to open the envelope, out fall a set of unmarked car keys belonging to what car he hasn’t a clue.

Late one afternoon at the garage, he is visited by a man named Fred Jones (in actually Percy Denton) who has come to pay a visit to Leo. Since Leo is not around, Percy departs without leaving a contact number or address. Matthew thinks his visit is strange, but not threatening. A few days later Percy comes by again still looking for Leo, but will not elaborate on the nature of his visit. He does mention to Matthew “I haven’t seen Leo since the day Sara was killed...” This sends shivers up Matthew’s spine; he had always been told his Mom died of “natural causes.” That night Matthew has a talk with Leo trying to find out the truth, he gets nowhere. Leo doesn’t quite piece it together that the stranger is Percy. Matthew decides to go to Los Angeles, where his mother died, to seek the truth.

Matthew arrives in Los Angeles, he finds a Los Feliz apartment that he likes, and however there is no vacancy. The Russian landlady, shows him a crude basement, Laverne and Shirley type apartment, that he can rent for cheap, SUITE 31. Since Matthew doesn’t know any better he agrees to rent the quasi-apartment. Later that day while doing laundry, Matthew meets an attractive and seductive woman named SOPHIA. They strike up a conversation and she agrees to show him around the city since he is completely new to the area.

Cut back to Nebraska, Percy has Digger gagged and bound in a dank dungeon-like basement. He is interrogating him as to the whereabouts of Matthew. Percy alludes to the fact that if he kills Digger it will be harder to have sex with him. Digger finally concedes to tell him what he wants to know. When Percy takes off the gag, Digger spits in his face and yells for help. This action leads to Digger’s untimely demise.

Jump cut to Suite 31 where Sophia has arrived to pick Matthew up for dinner. While in his suite, she notices his craft of meticulous papier-mâché houses and suggests that he meet her friend, BEN who owns a gallery in town. He accepts the offer and they go to meet Ben. Upon meeting Matthew, Ben takes a shine to the boy. Ben also alludes to the fact that he feels Sophia is an angel who has come to rescue Matthew.

At a gallery function the following night, Matthew brings Ben a gift...a papier-mâché house. Sophia and Matthew run into Sophia’s ex-boyfriend, MIKE and his friend STEVE. These guys upset Sophia and cause trouble with Matthew. While no trouble takes place, they want this visit to serve as a warning to Matthew. That night while in bed with Sophia, Matthew wakes up out of a dead sleep and rushes to Ben’s house. He wakes Ben up because Matthew needs to burn the papier-mâché house that he had given him. This phenomenon is inexplicable, yet necessary for Matthew’s OCD tendencies. To Ben’s fascination, he allows this event to occur. As the flickering flames die down, Ben commissions Matthew to construct one of his creations for the gallery—his masterpiece. Matthew needs some time to mull it over.

Sitting in a park the next day, Matthew is confronted by a plain-clothed FBI agent, named SAM FREEMAN. During this exchange Sam relays to Matthew that Fred Jones AKA Percy Denton is a wanted man. Sam also informs him of Digger’s death. After Matthew is given time to digest this information, he heads to Ben’s house to inform him that he will build him a paper house. That night Matthew and Ben go out to celebrate and Matthew spots Percy lurking in the darkness. He begins a chase that ends in futility.

Frustrated, Matthew takes leave of Ben and goes to a bar. At this establishment, he runs into Mike and Steve, the two bullies who he encountered at the gallery. They antagonize him and he beats them both senseless, landing him in jail. Ben posts his bond. This is when he explains to Ben that he needs to go back to Nebraska to “settle a score” before completing his paper house. Ben agrees.
Matthew travels back to Nebraska and the grave sight of Digger Logan. This is where he has a cathartic experience that makes his purpose all too clear. Matthew travels back to Suite 31 where he consummates his love for Sophia. After the loving, Sophia leaves to meet her mother for dinner.
When she is safely gone, Matthew awakens to the silhouettes of two figures looming large in his apartment. With a flick of the light switch, it’s Percy and Leo. Percy has a gun trained on Leo. This is the climax where Percy explains that he is Matthew’s real father and that his mother, Sara didn’t die from cancer but was killed by him. Matthew gives Percy the unidentified manila envelope from his mother’s belongings containing the keys to the getaway car from so many years ago. Percy shoots Leo, killing him and flees.

It is sunrise in Phoenix, Arizona and Percy is in a junkyard to collect the money he feels he deserves from the robbery. (The cash was stashed there by Sara in the trunk of the car back in ‘72, she Greyhounded it to LA from there.) Percy climbs a pile of cars and to his delight finds the trunk of the Dodge Dart getaway car sticking out from under the pile. What he doesn’t know is that FBI and ATF agents who have been hunting him for years due to his notorious criminal career during the 70’s and 80’s are quietly surrounding him. He opens the trunk only to find one of Matthew’s papier-mâché houses. He goes into a blood-curdling rage. Confronted by the agents, He goes down in a heavy rain of lead taking a few good guys with him.

The final scene finds Matthew alone in Ben’s backyard. He’s there to “deliver” the papier-mâché house that Ben commissioned. He gradually reveals the house hidden under a huge tarp. It is in complete form as promised, however it is made out of the stolen money and twice as big as the previous constructs. Alas, just like all of Matthew’s obsessive works...he torches it. As it burns, Ben watches in awe from a second story window as the glorious image of pure cash goes up in flames. Matthew sits on his knees, eyes closed, his image twisted and distorted as the heated air dances around him. Flames rise, fall and swirl hungrily over the burning effigy. A massive black column of smoke reaches to the heavens.