I have decided to make a screenplay I wrote in 2016 publicly available. Posting it here because it’s another thing I wrote that will never see the light of day, and I think it’s kinda cool and worth reading despite that sad fact. I also want to combat the constant feeling I have that I’m not making any progress at all in my writing by publishing this thing here. Most likely none of you will read it. At the very least, a couple of you might click on the thing and scroll and then close the window. But I can’t not share this anymore.
It’s called LEVITTOWN, and it’s a biopic about the real estate developer William Levitt. Those that know me are well aware by now that I’m obsessed with the concept of the suburbs in any work of fiction be it a novel or a film. Through my research I stumbled upon this William Levitt figure, who was known as the “inventor of the suburbs.” I took several trips to the library, I spent lots of time researching him, and reading about that era of American history and real estate. LEVITTOWN was a very big deal to me. I submit it to a couple screenplay competitions (and lost every single one).
I was 24 when I wrote it, and in my head I was thinking it was going to be my There Will Be Blood. (Another source of inspiration to me was the last season of Boardwalk Empire; I think what they did with Nucky Thompson’s childhood was incredibly original and effective).
An important thing to note about Levitt: he was, in some ways, the world’s first Donald Trump. He was seen as this successful guy who did a lot right, but there was also something very problematic about what he did. For example, he refused to sell houses to blacks because he thought they would devalue his precious neighbourhoods.
That leads me to my next important thing before you read this: I wrote this before the film Suburbicon came out. I have heard terrible things and I have not seen it. However, I have heard there is a small amount of overlap. So just know: my script came first, and although George Clooney’s film covers similar territory my script is an entirely different story altogether.
Anyway, this is not a perfect script by any means. But I’m sharing it because I think it’s a great snapshot of where I was creatively in the fall of 2016. There are probably typos, and looking back I could have done a lot better. But I was so excited to tell this story, I didn’t really care about making it perfect really.
Enjoy.
