That's a great story, Glenn, on all levels. I would think in today's world with so much Internet sharing such a strange story could never again happen, but who knows?
And of course you realized the dream of every film buff, actually getting a movie made from your writing! On Mon, Dec 5, 2022 at 2:40 AM Glenn Taranto <exit82afi...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hello All - > > Roughly 20 years ago while I was at the gym getting ready to hit the > treadmill I was looking for something to read as I walked along. I found a > discarded Penny Saver that had an article regarding a 1957 murder. A boy > about 6 years old, who had been wrapped in a plaid blanket and left in a > JC Penny Box, was found in the woods off Susquehanna Road in Fox Chase, > Philadelphia. The case came to be known as The Boy in the Box. Also > America's Unknown Child. > > The police in what seems a macabre idea took photos of the lifeless body > looking as if he were still alive. No one came forward. No one claimed the > body. Nothing. The case went cold. > > I was so sad and disheartened. I couldn't believe it. How does such a > thing happen? Why would anyone do this to a poor defenseless kid? > > A few days later as I sat eating in a Baja Fresh, pictures started > flashing across the front of my brain. All these pictures were so clear and > vivid to me the next day I sat down and wrote the first twelve pages of > what would become my first screenplay. Working backward I devised a story > about a present day detective whose son died of heart disease and how he > comes to grips with his own loss when he investigates a recently unearthed > corpse of a boy buried under a building that's being demolished. > > I was so focused it took about two weeks to complete. Then the real hard > work began. Trying to get someone to read the damn thing. It took another 5 > years. Through a series of events actor turned producer Al Corley read it > and liked it. After many rewrites and a sudden brain storm I knew I finally > had something. While driving up La Cienega passing Wilshire I realized what > the major element missing from the script was. The detective's son didn't > die from heart disease, he was taken at a carnival and never seen again. > Now the discovery of the dead boy is more visceral. With greater purpose > the detective sets out to see if he can still find the killer. > > Hard to believe my very first script got sold and got made starring a > plethora of namey people including Josh Lucas, Jon Hamm and Jessica > Chastain. Both of whom were literally on the cusp of stardom. Hamm had just > wrapped the first season of Mad Men. > > The film retitled, STOLEN, unfortunately did poorly. I found solace in the > fact that the check cleared, about a hundred or so people got work from it > and all the major stars were eager to do the movie upon reading my draft. > That was in 2007. > > Now, as utterly impossible as it may sound, 65 years after that little boy > was murdered he finally has a name. It will be revealed this week. Through > modern DNA techniques police have figured out who he was and say that > criminal charges could still be filed. > > I cannot begin to tell you how thrilled I was to learn all of this. Not > that my script or the movie had anything to do with it. It's just something > I've been carrying around inside for 20 years. I don't believe in the word > closure when it comes to such things. I doubt the whole story will be told > so many years after the fact. At last that child has a name. And that in > and of itself is cause for a moment of reflective peace and everlasting > gratitude. > > You can find the recent article I read here: > https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/the-boy-in-the-box-americas-unknown-child-philadelphia-police-name/ > > Thanks for reading - > > Glenn > > ------------------------------ > > To unsubscribe from the MoPo-L list, click the following link: > https://listserv.american.edu/scripts/wa-american.exe?SUBED1=MoPo-L&A=1 > -- Bruce Hershenson and the other 22 members of the eMoviePoster.com team P.O. 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