Ben Affleck, Honorary Baby Boomer?

WWII Movie Proposal

Who remembers the film about the illicit love affair that doomed the couple, but they somehow made it work?

Or the story about the regular-guy genius who fits in with his crowd?

How about movie where one character links historical events in an action packed narrative?

NW Boomer counts them down as Titanic, Good Will Hunting, and Forrest Gump.

Ben Affleck could have been in them all. He was in Good Will Hunting, an Academy Award winning screenwriter with Matt Damon, but the other two?

He could play Billy Zane’s role today in Titanic.

The same with Tom Hanks’ Forrest.

Is it time for Mr. Affleck to sweep all three movies into one story? Yes.

Here’s how:

Ben is old school enough to remind us of movie stars of the past. Not the past of Dustin Hoffman and Al Pacino, but the past of Jimmy Stewart and Gregory Peck.

Tall guys like Ben, who stands 6’4″, make the rest of us feel better. He’s not an optical illusion star standing on boxes to tower over the cast. The space he takes up is the same you take up.

Baby Boomers take to Ben because he does things that matter. This WWII movie proposal pushes the same envelope.

It goes like this:

• The daughter of a research scientist teaches school in a Japanese city and moves closer to the war zone when student families move to outer defense islands.

 

• The grad-school son of a monied Wall Street investor who endows the school with his elaborate amateur science lab joins the Army against his father’s wishes after Pearl Harbor. 

 

• The son moves through turning points of the War in the Pacific until he finds himself on the same island as the teacher.

 

• Together the teacher and the grad-student save her kids and moms, then track the rogue Japanese soldiers who turn on their own people to save face.

 

• As they learn more about each other, the teacher makes corrections on the grad-student’s research work.

 

• Together they push technology into the future, saving American lives while Japan burns in the later days of WWII.

 

• After the war she watches him fly home where he is accused by his father of collaborating with the enemy. A bright future grows dim with that smear.

 

• Instead of taking the easy way out and watching the glowing discoveries he made with the teacher fade away, he tracks down those who want him out of the picture and clears his name.

 

• But post-war industrial espionage and the dawn of the Cold War force his hand another direction.

This story is an original screenplay based on historical events. The idea came from interviews with veterans. I wrote the script during a masters class, rewrote it after analysis from Script Shark and BlueCat.

This timeless story of great love and family deceit on a world stage needs the sure hand Ben showed in Argo, the gravity he brought in Kevin Smith’s films, and the hammer he drops on important issues.

Is Ben Affleck a Portland baby boomer, a boomer, or is he someone who embodies those values? From the looks so far he’s the sort of parent you’d hope kids would have, the sort of husband wives need, and a guy not afraid of making the right call.

Is Pearl Street Films the right company to take this project on?

You’ll know when I know. That’s what this baby boomer blogger does.