In a quest for Nobel prizes, publishing rights, and bio-patent riches, virus hunters the world over search for antiquity's deadly pathogens that may lie dormant in the frozen tundra. In this story, microbe-obsessed detectives push the envelope of risk as they pursue the source of one of the most lethal and mysterious outbreaks ever - something inhabitants of the day feared even more than the Black Death: The so-called "English Sweate".
Is 21st Century Man, let alone his immune system, prepared to face the consequences of this reckless archaeology?
"Svalbard" will invite a comparison to the classic monster-in-the-ice film, "The Thing", but it is really a case of "reality seeming to imitate art". Whereas that classic would probably have been as good if it were shot in the Sahara, my story can only follow what's really going on in the world: The ice is where these bugs are being dug up. Expeditions have already been mounted for the Black Death, Spanish Flu, and others.
So, perhaps "The Thing" meets "Contagion" is an appropriate analogy.
If you'd like to view this tense, realistic story, I look forward to sending it to your attention. (Also available as Pilot + Episode One)
Producers: Please contact me for the full script/synopsis, or buy the Kindle version at
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AUW0R7Y
Note: Best Feature Screenplay (Sea of Art Festival July 2022)