Brief

A team of engineers stumble across a primeval jungle in the heart of the Ural Mountains where time stands still. Inside the cavern, they also uncover a society of historians who use the jungle’s strange gift to travel through time and chronicle the mysterious deaths of historical figures. The historians will do anything to keep their society a secret, putting the engineers in grave danger.

What We Liked

- A secret society of historians time traveling to different parts of history to form relationships with famous figures and uncover how they met their ends fits so well in the current media landscape as it has a little bit of everything. It dabbles in true crime, embraces science-fiction, and the stories themselves include personal drama and even romance. These are adventurers searching out new worlds in our own backyard, so to speak.
- Film: The blend of genres is so engaging to such a huge swath of people, and depending on which angle is leaned into it could draw in different crowds at the box office. It also has the potential to be internationally successful, especially if it focused on countries that have large movie industries abroad, such as China. Well known historical figures, especially if from those international regions, translate well globally.
- TV: There’s no shortage of material to be mined here. Human existence is full of historical figures that we’d love to sit down to dinner with, and there are just as many unsolved mysteries across the millennia. This is the sort of show that will run for several seasons as there could always be something new to uncover. The historical figures featured would all get their due as well in the show format, and some could easily be stretched over more than one episode. It could also be easy to cast cameos with A-list actors who want to play these figures, which would generate a larger fanbase.
- Key points: Team of engineers is diverse; Multiple female leads; Potential for international audience; Cast of well-known historical characters; Could easily expand to cover more time periods.

Synopsis

PETER LANGE and his team of international engineers are called in to investigate all the accidents and deaths plaguing the construction of a tunnel through the Ural Mountains. An old flame, ALINA GORSKY, is on the project, and she, Peter, and his team follow a MYSTERIOUS WOMAN running deep into the tunnel. A cave-in traps them with no supplies and dwindling air. They find a cavern filled with prehistoric plants and animals, as well as a cabin that Peter and Alina investigate. Inside are hollow books filled with small computers. Alina picks one and plays it, revealing RACHEL ANDERSOHN giving her account to BYRON MAGUS. A member of a society called EHS, Rachel is sent by Byron to study the death of van Gogh and other mysteries surrounding the painter. Time doesn’t pass in the cavern and they were able to set up Relativity Chambers allowing them to travel through time.

Rachel works at a brothel that van Gogh and fellow artist PAUL GAUGIN frequent, and van Gogh confides in her that Gaugin is regularly getting him drunk and raping him. Van Gogh and Gaugin have a fight which results in van Gogh’s ear being cut off, but Gaugin lies to the police and the story that van Gogh cut off his own ear spreads. Rachel goes forward a few years to try to prevent his suicide, but she can’t directly interfere and fails. Rachel is furious that she can only record history and not change it. She vows to destroy everything at EHS. Peter and Alina choose another Chronicle to read. BONNIE MAIER is sent to be Edgar Allen Poe’s Chronicler, and Byron warns her not to get too attached so as to not be driven mad like Rachel.

Bonnie investigates Poe’s mysterious death, and she realizes that Poe has undiagnosed tuberculosis that ravaged his central nervous system due to a head injury. The week prior to his death, Poe was reported missing according to historical record. One of the predominant theories for Poe’s death, as he was found in someone else’s clothes outside a bar-cum-voting spot, is that he was “cooped.” This process involved forcing a kidnapped participant to vote several times as a form of election fraud.

Bonnie befriends Poe and is with him when he trips and hits his head in an alley, passing out. Byron removes her physically from the scene so she can only watch. A HOMELESS MAN trades his own clothes with the unconscious Poe’s, and Poe is found by two IRISHMEN who hold Poe below the voting bar for a week. Poe’s cousin, NEILSON POE, is involved with the cooping ring, and he’s horrified to learn they’ve jailed Poe. Afraid of being found out, Neilson has them leave Poe outside the bar so that history remembers him as a mad drunkard. This doesn’t explain Bonnie’s head injury theory, so she goes back even further. She sees that when Poe was merely two, his FATHER threw him into the wall in a fit of rage. Bonnie is disenchanted with EHS and goes to look for Rachel to help her.

“The Life of Nicholas Romanov II” won’t play for Alina and Peter, and Byron himself walks into the cabin. He tells them that he’s not allowed to Chronicle Nicholas’s life as it could cause political problems. EHS, or the Empirical Society of Historians, has a goal to record accurate history and learn from it. Time traveling to the Russian Revolution, Byron poses as a soldier who guarded the Romanov family after they were forced to abdicate the throne. Byron becomes infatuated with Princess Anastasia and helps her escape Russia. They live happily for a year until they’re discovered by soldiers and Byron is shot. He “dies” and another woman gifts her identity to Anastasia, knowing who she is. Byron finishes his tale, and Bonnie and Rachel come in. They’ve killed the rest of the engineering team and destroyed the Chambers, but still can’t let them go knowing about EHS. They’ve been sabotaging the tunnel the whole time to keep the cavern from being discovered. Peter and Alina run, and Alina is killed. Peter Chronicles his own experience of finding the cabin and hiding in the jungle.

About The Author

Judy Johns Heathcoe is an artist, writer, and musician, and has published several articles, poems, and short stories online under the name JD Heathcoe. Other than novels, stories, and poems, she writes songs and plays. She currently lives in Anniston, Alabama.