The screenplay for Hit & Run is finished in draft form and is currently being edited. It is seven episodes–with the seventh episode being a “double” episode and conclusion to the story. Several changes were made to Jake’s background in order to make the screen version (1) more palatable for an audience that might not be as into sci-fi, and (2) create a story that begins at the same place–(i.e. Jake being declared dead and needing a new job that leads to him becoming a private detective)–yet without the background required to understand the situation.
For the readers of the Cataclysm Series, there is a natural flow to things, with World War III driving the respective plots and settings. At the end of First Life After: Resurrection, Jake dies and is brought back to life by his shaman mentor, Huemac, out in the Arizona desert. The war ends, and all of Jake’s loved ones believe him dead (as he believes of them). His months of physical and spiritual training with Huemac eventually lead him back home, where he finds his job gone and his circumstances changed–all of which lead him to taking a school security job that subsequently leads to his entry into the world of private investigation.
BOOK VS. SCREENPLAY PLOT: For those who did not read the Cataclysm Series, I had to create a rationale for Jake to be declared dead and come back. In the screenplay, Jake is called in by his old Special Operations commander to do a rescue mission as a personal favor. It’s an off-the-books op with a rag-tag group of commandos. In the end, the mission is a success, but Jake is captured, imprisoned, and disavowed by the American government, who declares him dead. While Jake is behind bars in a foreign country, he befriends Huemac, an aged Native American and another political prisoner. Huemac mentors him in the prison yard on everything from Aikido to meditation to spiritual enlightenment.
Almost a year later, covid-19 explodes onto the world scene, and countries begin shutting down everything. They also begin releasing foreign prisoners and sending them home, so Huemac and Jake are flown back to the United States. Jake, being declared dead, finds his wife has moved on without him and his sons away in college. He has nowhere to go, so he returns to Huemac’s desert home and renews his training. Later he returns home to Emmitsburg to try and reclaim a piece of his life, and lands back in Hunters Run High School–but this time as a security officer. There Principal Chris Lash and Deputy Matt Miller set Jake up with his new jobs…and now we return to the regular plot of Hit & Run.
In the screenplay we will still see a return of Boo Andrews and Chris McNally, but their back stories are changed to be compatriots who served with Jake on the rescue mission. In the end, it all ties in nicely with the normal flow of the book, and the villainous Church of Many Blessings returns as a sinister nemesis to our hero.
Once Hit & Run–the screenplay–is done the editing process, then begins the process of finding a place to send it–which will be an entirely different challenge indeed!
Writing with Jay Vielle 