The best ideas, for a writer, often come from the headlines. Theodore Dreiser turned a factual murder case into his great novel, An American Tragedy. So I've come up with something; maybe yes, maybe no, so far as being great fiction.
I'm thinking of a screenplay based on the news made by Christopher Reeves ("Superman") when he visited Israel to find a cure for his paralysis. That someone from America traveled to Israel to praise the Jewish State and not to serve as a human shield for Palestinian suicide bombers, that of itself is news, but not part of our discussion.
I guess I'm asking screenwriters out there to see my idea to its conclusion, though anyone else is welcome to listen in, and even contribute. All I ask is credit for the story, and of course, the money. (I've got lawyers.)
Our theme is a lethal weapon. But most weapons destroy. This one heals. Imagine a weapon that can heal the world ? what power that would be!
So. . . Reeves goes to Israel, which is famous for its scientific advances, especially in the field of medicine - like stem cell research, which, when fully realized, can cure all kinds of afflictions. But we (being writers and not scientists) don't know enough about this, so what we do is go flashback.
Back we go to the 1940s and 1950s, when the entire world lived in terror of Infantile Paralysis, yes, polio. People were afraid to breathe the public air, that's how bad it was. Kids were kept home from school, from parties, from swimming pools, from the movies, yet still, hundreds of thousands were stricken, even adults. Every man, woman and child gazed up to the heaves for a cure (this is real stuff, we're not at the fiction part yet) and behold, along comes Dr. Jonas Salk.
Salk has a vaccine to immunize all of civilization against polio. The vaccine is made public April 12, 1955, and the world rejoices. Salk? He could have patented the medicine, made a fortune, but does not do so. Despite this vast achievement, and such self-effacement, he is never awarded a Nobel Prize and is refused membership in the National Academy of Sciences. (Go figure.) These snubs do not deter him from being universally acclaimed as, "The man who saved the children".
Okay, here's where we start taking liberties with the facts. Suppose Salk decides to patent his discovery after all. Let's say this son of Polish-Jewish immigrants suffered anti-Semitism when he went to school in New York, and bears a bit of a grudge. (Incidentally, how many anti-Semites are alive today or walking around without crutches all because of a Jewish scientist? Also, given the Jewish genius for scientific medical research, I am sure that the cure for cancer went up in the smoke of Auschwitz. Sorry, I didn't mean to get off topic.)
So, instead of going public with his discovery, Salk goes off to Israel. (Getting my drift?) He tells Israel, ?Look, I've got a bomb. Not an atomic bomb, not a hydrogen bomb, but a polio bomb, the cure for the epidemic. It's yours.?
Now, the leaders of Israel are wise people (I told you, this is fiction). They decide that anybody who wants this vaccine must come to Israel with ? love. No more UN resolutions condemning Israel, no more incitement and bombs from the Arabs, no more Jew-baiting from Europe, no more Israel-bashing from NPR, and the BBC and the rest of the "cycle-of violence" news media, no more anti-Jewish hate-fests at Oxford, Columbia, Rutgers and all those other moral equivalency universities. No more poetry from may-his-name-be-erased. You want the vaccine? Come, but say farewell to your arms and your hatred. Come in peace and go in peace. Say Shalom! (Christian Zionists get all the vaccines they want, for free.)
Yes, this is Israel's Love Bomb! What happens after this? I'm not sure. I guess the world goes to Israel on bended knee.
I know, that's too neat. That's why I need help. But I think this can work. Maybe even for real. I mean, if the Israelis do come up with a cure for paralysis and related afflictions, wouldn't it be something if they kept it to themselves and dispersed it only to their friends and contrite enemies? Imagine Kofi Annan, Jacques Chirac and all the princes of Saudi Arabia arriving at Ben Gurion Airport with kisses on both cheeks for Ariel Sharon. No, you say? These Israelis are not smart enough to pull off something like this? They've forgotten chutzpah?
All right, then, get me Spielberg.
I'm thinking of a screenplay based on the news made by Christopher Reeves ("Superman") when he visited Israel to find a cure for his paralysis. That someone from America traveled to Israel to praise the Jewish State and not to serve as a human shield for Palestinian suicide bombers, that of itself is news, but not part of our discussion.
I guess I'm asking screenwriters out there to see my idea to its conclusion, though anyone else is welcome to listen in, and even contribute. All I ask is credit for the story, and of course, the money. (I've got lawyers.)
Our theme is a lethal weapon. But most weapons destroy. This one heals. Imagine a weapon that can heal the world ? what power that would be!
So. . . Reeves goes to Israel, which is famous for its scientific advances, especially in the field of medicine - like stem cell research, which, when fully realized, can cure all kinds of afflictions. But we (being writers and not scientists) don't know enough about this, so what we do is go flashback.
Back we go to the 1940s and 1950s, when the entire world lived in terror of Infantile Paralysis, yes, polio. People were afraid to breathe the public air, that's how bad it was. Kids were kept home from school, from parties, from swimming pools, from the movies, yet still, hundreds of thousands were stricken, even adults. Every man, woman and child gazed up to the heaves for a cure (this is real stuff, we're not at the fiction part yet) and behold, along comes Dr. Jonas Salk.
Salk has a vaccine to immunize all of civilization against polio. The vaccine is made public April 12, 1955, and the world rejoices. Salk? He could have patented the medicine, made a fortune, but does not do so. Despite this vast achievement, and such self-effacement, he is never awarded a Nobel Prize and is refused membership in the National Academy of Sciences. (Go figure.) These snubs do not deter him from being universally acclaimed as, "The man who saved the children".
Okay, here's where we start taking liberties with the facts. Suppose Salk decides to patent his discovery after all. Let's say this son of Polish-Jewish immigrants suffered anti-Semitism when he went to school in New York, and bears a bit of a grudge. (Incidentally, how many anti-Semites are alive today or walking around without crutches all because of a Jewish scientist? Also, given the Jewish genius for scientific medical research, I am sure that the cure for cancer went up in the smoke of Auschwitz. Sorry, I didn't mean to get off topic.)
So, instead of going public with his discovery, Salk goes off to Israel. (Getting my drift?) He tells Israel, ?Look, I've got a bomb. Not an atomic bomb, not a hydrogen bomb, but a polio bomb, the cure for the epidemic. It's yours.?
Now, the leaders of Israel are wise people (I told you, this is fiction). They decide that anybody who wants this vaccine must come to Israel with ? love. No more UN resolutions condemning Israel, no more incitement and bombs from the Arabs, no more Jew-baiting from Europe, no more Israel-bashing from NPR, and the BBC and the rest of the "cycle-of violence" news media, no more anti-Jewish hate-fests at Oxford, Columbia, Rutgers and all those other moral equivalency universities. No more poetry from may-his-name-be-erased. You want the vaccine? Come, but say farewell to your arms and your hatred. Come in peace and go in peace. Say Shalom! (Christian Zionists get all the vaccines they want, for free.)
Yes, this is Israel's Love Bomb! What happens after this? I'm not sure. I guess the world goes to Israel on bended knee.
I know, that's too neat. That's why I need help. But I think this can work. Maybe even for real. I mean, if the Israelis do come up with a cure for paralysis and related afflictions, wouldn't it be something if they kept it to themselves and dispersed it only to their friends and contrite enemies? Imagine Kofi Annan, Jacques Chirac and all the princes of Saudi Arabia arriving at Ben Gurion Airport with kisses on both cheeks for Ariel Sharon. No, you say? These Israelis are not smart enough to pull off something like this? They've forgotten chutzpah?
All right, then, get me Spielberg.