I posted my Screenplay--Best Players One By One - Treatment in Medium: https://pjchuz.medium.com/best-players-one-by-one-0d665be9cdc6 

Later I will post the entire script here too.

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Again - The Treatment -

FILM TITLE:  Best Players One by One – Treatment

Author:  PJ Chuz (Joseph Chu)   (pjchuz@josephiniandwm.com / 647-354-3323)

Logline: After discovering her half-sister has drowned in Lake Huron, a First Nation woman travels to Toronto with her dementia-suffering grandfather to unravel this horrible murder. Teaming up with Detective 5G of Toronto PD, they expose and capture a serial killer.

Treatment:

Part - I

Sitting at the vanity table in her bedroom, Gail Finklestein is making an earring with down feather, tiny white beads, threads, and silver wire. She is proud of her heritage, from an Ojibwe mother and a Jewish father.

Gail lives alone in Toronto, her half sister, Celiy Marcqs stays at the Manitoulin Island home, taking care of the ailing mother and their grandfather Old Jerry, who is suffering from Dementia.

Gail has grown into womanhood as graceful and fragile as a porcelain statuette and as beautiful and innocent as a down feather.

Celiy being a much older sister, is very protective of Gail, and loves her deeply.

Gail teaches at Primary School in charge of Grade 4 students. She has a boy friend, Darrell Avalos, who is a CEO of a successful Advertising Firm, DA Ads.

Darrell and niece Anna are avid Gamers, presently hooked on Nintendo Super Mario 3D games – Switch.

Anna is the daughter of Darrells brother – Daniel. Annas mother lost her life in a freaky highway multiple vehicle accident. Daniel remarried, but the stepmother, Joan DeVere, did not get along with Anna, when Daniel, Joan, and their newborn son, Donald, relocated to Vancouver, Anna was left with Darrell and her grandmother (from the mother’s side), Mrs. Claire Young in Toronto.

When Anna was a Grade 4 student, Gail was her teacher. Now 2 years later, Gail and Darrell are lovers. Often, Gail stays with Darrell in his posh apartment for several days, or even weeks at a time.

Life is peachy and perfect for Gail, until …

Alex Drago is an Inuit Artifact Sales Agent, representing several female Inuit artists.

One day, around Darrell’s posh apartment, Gail discovers an Art Gallery specialized in Eskimo Art.

As she loiters outside the Gallery, she bumps into Alex. He is there to replenish the artwork.

When Alex learns that this young, innocent, and pure classical beauty is half Ojibwe, he is totally taken by her.

He offers himself as a Sales Agent for her hand-made indigenous style jewellery.

Secretly he begins to stalk Gail and Darrell, and requests to visit her Manitoulin Island home.

The first chance comes up is when Gail and Darrell are going to visit the Island, she invites Alex to go with them. He accepts the invitation.

But on the day of the trip, Alex fails to show up due to some urgent matter on hand.

The actual reason is Alex breaks into their home, hacked into their computer, and set up a spy camera in their room.

The next day, he flies over to the Island and continues stalking Gail and Darrell.

On the Island, Celiy is over joyous to see Gail, but does not hide her dislike of Darrell.

On the last day of their stay on the Island, Gail brings Darrell to her Secrete Garden, a secluded patch of grassland among the dense wooded area near Janet Head Lighthouse. It is a secrete garden of her childhood, she made three friends in there from the beginning: a Snowshoe Hare, a Chipmunk, and a Painted Turtle.

In her fairy-tale atmosphere, they make love. He tries to remove her blouse, but she begs him not to, not only she has friends watching them, but also her skin is sensitive and allergic to a lot of harmful things. He buries himself underneath her clothing.

The next day Darrell flies off north to Yellowknife for the production of a Vehicle Commercial. It will take about 3 weeks to finish shooting.

Alex sees a window opened for advancing on Gail. He purchases some handmade boxes for packaging of her artworks and/or for her tools and materials storage. He volunteers to set up a website for the on-line market. His bold physical aggressions scare her off. He comes up with a final scheme.

Sending a fake email from Darrell, Alex conjures up Gail to go to the Island to meet with Darrell there. Alex accompanies and helps her trip in such a short notice, by flipping the airfare and renting a car for her to drive around the Island.

But he drives her directly to her secrete garden, and violently rapes her. He even pushes her into a bed of poison ivy after the assault.

He temporarily leaves her, to gather a camera and a rope for souvenir photo of her strangulation.

Gail is in total shock. She walks out of the poison ivy patch and wonders back to her secrete garden. There she comes out of the daze, yet the trauma is too much for her to endure, her body is covered all over with rashes and red hives, she has puffed-up eyelid and swollen lips, and her left-nipple becomes a three-headed monster.

Crying silently, she walks through the tree trunks towards Lake Huron. A small green turtle calls out to her. She looks back, sees the turtle in the grass. Tears pour out from her eyes; she says to the little turtle: “…tell Celiy I love her…” then disappears into the Lake.

Searching for her, Alex also returns to the garden and finds traces of her drowning herself in the Lake. He sees the little turtle crawling in the grass and kicks it into the lake.

The Principal of the Primary School calls Mrs. Marcqs enquiring her daughter Gail has been skipping her classes for 3 days now.

Mother Marcqs reports daughter missing to Ontario Provincial Police. Celiy and Old Jerry travel to Toronto to investigate.

P-II

Celiy tries all possible contacts, including Alex’s phone number, enquiring information about Gail’s whereabouts.

The OPP reroutes the whole case to Detective Giorgio Cinque of Toronto PD 52 Division. Celiy connects with Detective Cinque and start their official investigation.

Two days later, Mother Marcqs informed Celiy Manitoulin Police found a handmade wooden box that was washed up on shore near the lighthouse, so the box is forwarded to the Detective.

Detective Giorgio Cinque is nicknamed by his colleagues – Detective 5G, it is all because that Canadians are not sure how to correctly pronounce his last name. English speaking people say “SINK,” French speaking people say “SANK,” some people jokingly call him Detective SUNK. To avoid this confusion, they nicknamed him “Detective 5G.” The last name should be called: “CHIN QUAY,” In Italian it means number “5.”

They first check out Gail’s home and find Alex’s phone number, they briefly talk to him on the phone.

Detective 5G wants to check out Darrell’s apartment too. Celiy says that could be arranged through Anna and her grandmother, Claire Young.

In Darrell’s apartment, in a storage closet, Celiy and Mrs. Young find a whole lot of various handmade boxes.

The next day, Detective 5G informs Celiy that the box has arrived. The box is exactly like the wooden ones in the closet. Inside this water-soaked and stained box there is a faded manufacturer’s label. Celiy starts to shake uncontrollably.

In Darrell’s apartment, they thoroughly examine these similar boxes. All are empty except one. It is a utility box contains packages of colorful beads, wires, and they find a folded hand-written note.

To Celiy’s horror, it is a suicide note! written by Gail!

It is Gail’s witness account of a violent rape conducted by Darrell to an unknown woman. Gail says she could not face the fact that the man she loves is such a monster, so she wishes to end her life, there is nothing for her to go on anymore.

Celiy bursts into tears, she is in emotional turmoil and cursing at Darrell being such a monster and murmuring that she is going to kill that monster.

Detective 5G is skeptical, saying that it is unlikely, a woman seeing her boyfriend roughing it out with another woman, then commits suicide herself.

But Celiy says that he does not know her sister, it possibly is the very truth, and she knows her sister won’t be able to accept this. Besides, she also knows who the other woman is. She is a Counter Salesgirl in a Noble Corvine Art Studio on the Island, which carries some Antique Indian Hunting Knives with colorful sheath, and some Pipe Tomahawk. In that studio Celiy witnessed Darrell was flirting with that Salesgirl.

Detective 5G tries to calm her down. Telling her that the police experts will examine the note to authenticate it first. He asks Celiy to leave this matter to the police, and do not do anything on her own.

Because of all the boxes and this new evidence, Detective 5G decides to go to the Island and to check out all the locations related to the case. It will be a 3-day trip.

Celiy offers her help. Detective 5G then asks her to obtain a piece of Gail’s handwriting, then deliver it to the Police for comparison to the Suicide Note.

Three days later, not only Detective 5G is returning to Toronto, but Darrell is also back. He leaves message on the answering machine that he can be at home in about 30 minutes.

Alex is the first one received this message, he quickly entered Darrell’s apartment intending to remove the spy camera.

But his plan is interrupted by the returning of Anna, Celiy, OJ, and Claire. Alex retrieves into the kitchen, then hides in the laundry room.

They listen to Darrell’s message on the phone. Everybody is excited except Celiy. She wants to talk to Darrell alone regarding that troublesome suicide note.

Celiy sends everyone out to a close-by Gelato Parlor and confronts Darrell alone.

She starts her short soliloquy by reminiscent about the pure joy of rearing up Gail and watching her turned into a graceful woman and maintained innocence at heart. Darrell is baffled when she told him that Gail has been missing for quite some time now. For they have been exchange emails twice a week.

Celiy says Gail has witnessed him raping the counter salesgirl from the Antique Shop Studio on the Island. This accusation drives Darrell berserk. During their heated argument, short-tempered Celiy grabs the Indian hunting knife and slashes Darrell on the shoulder.

Unfortunately, this bloody scene shocks everyone in the Gelato Parlor group who have just returned. Anna runs away in screams.

Dropped the knife in hand, Celiy runs after Anna trying to explain things to her. Worried about Anna, Darrell requests Claire to bring Anna back so to show her he is okay.

Alex reappears. He picks up the knife and stabs Darrell to death, then he put the knife into OJ’s hand and exits the scene.

Minutes later, a timid Celiy returns to the apartment but is in total disbelief of what she sees.

Detective 5G rushes in right after her, and he is also in total disbelief that Celiy has taken things into her own hand and comes to this tragic ending.

Celiy is taken away by the Police.

P-III

At the Police Station, Detective 5G is analysing certain points to Celiy; he thinks that Gail’s disappearance and Darrell’s death are related, and the number one suspect, is Alex Drago, Gail’s newly acquainted Sales Agent. Being only her business representative, Alex seems to be in control of Gail’s every movement, as if he were stalking her.

The police can not charge Celiy right now, because the knife is no where to be found.

Their discussion is interrupted by Mrs. Claire Young, who brings in an important piece of new evidence. It is the sweatshirt that OJ was wearing on the day Darrell was killed. OJ, Anna, and Claire are staying at Gail’s home, since Darrell’s apartment is cordoned off as the crime scene. Claire was scolding OJ as being untidy by dropping changed clothing all over the place. She was going to do the laundry; she discovers there is blood stain on the cuff of the right sleeve.

Then there comes a second interruption, this time, a police officer brings in Anna and OJ, they broke the cordoned tape and entered the crime scene without permission.

Anna brings in several other evidence. First, because certain undiscernible electronic light flickering in the room, OJ will make noises and extend the arm pointing to that direction. This behavior leads to Anna’s discovery of the spy camera in Gail’s bedroom. She wants to check if there is spy camera in Darrell’s apartment too. Yes, there is one set up on the potted tall plant in the corner of the living room.

She also wants to gather some game cassettes, then she thinks there is something caught between the wall and the corner of the filing cabinet of game cassettes.

Detective 5G comes up with a scheme to catch a killer …

Celiy calls Alex, providing him with complete updates of the case; the Police can not charge her yet, because the knife is missing, and no one seems to know what happened to the knife.

The police think they overlooked a fact, that it was OJ, the only one left with Darrell before he is killed, therefore OJ should be the number one suspect. In order to find out, after the killing what did he do with the knife, Detective 5G is going to conduct an interrogation right in the living room of Darrell’s apartment, hoping that will help OJ to remember everything and telling them the truth.

Before the Interrogation, Detective 5G with the help of Celiy, prepares OJ for the finale. Since the discovery of spy camera set up by Alex, the Police believe Alex will be watching the whole procedure.

But no matter how hard they ask the question, “Where is the knife?” OJ is just sitting there still, with no answer. Frustrated Detective 5G declared that the interrogation is wasting of time and a total failure. OJ is going to be brought back to the Police Station and to put through some harsher methods. Celiy protests that they can not apply the 3^rd Degree to a 75-year-old man with Dementia. Detective 5G says he only meant for the Truth Serum.

Alex searches for the spy camera video, finds the place where he put the knife into OJ’s hand, and what OJ did next. OJ walked immediately to the filing cabinet and took out several game cassettes. But he threw the knife on the top of the cabinet first, and it skidded all the way to the back and dropped into the corner and got stuck there.

That night, Alex sneaks into Darrell’s apartment and shifts the filing cabinet, and retrieves the knife, only to find that it is a wooden replica with a note on it, says: “We’ve got you!”

ENDING

1 Shots of frozen Lake Huron over-imposed on the floating Gail sealed in ice.

2 Celiy by the bank outside the garden, lamenting, accompanied by Theme Song, performed by Ontario Indigenous Rock Group Midnight Shine.

3 Gail (Half naked) in the lake playing with drifting white feathers.

4 Dundas Square, drone shots.

5 Gooderham Building, panoramic view.

6 Darrell, Anna, Jerry Playing Games.

7 Car Ads – cars under artic light, changing color.

8 A bed of feathers disturbed up in the air, or Camera Crew making this shot.

9 Government’s investigation on missing indigenous women.

10 Lisa LaFlamme explaining the name “5G” before signing off CTV National News.

11 Animation à la Nintendo mode, Jerry in Elves white costume chasing after a flying rooster in the sky.

12 Jerry as Elves animation plays further on and accompanied by Drake singing Summer Kisses and Winter Tears, followed by Drakes rap music version.

(Note: Hopefully the Production Team will search and find a Canadian Indigenous Woman Director to be at the helm of directing this film.)

FIN