Faking Thunder
An original feature screenplay based on actual events
Storms aren't always what they seem
In 1863 Alabama, a widow sends an enslaved man to fetch her town's salt, and sends her eleven-year-old daughter with him, to protect him as much as he protects her. Their road runs straight through a Union raid and the Confederate forces chasing it.
About the Story
FAKING THUNDER follows Jep, a middle-aged enslaved man, and Katie, the eleven-year-old daughter of the household he serves, as they haul a wagonload of salt across Alabama and into Georgia, salt a whole town needs to keep its food from spoiling. Their road lies in the path of Union Colonel Abel Streight's raid and the Confederate cavalry under General Nathan Bedford Forrest chasing it, and as the armies close in, the two journeys converge.
Jep and Katie make an unlikely pair, bound by real affection and a talent for getting on each other's nerves. Each protects the other in ways the other can't, and the road deepens a bond that was already there. Wry humor, mounting danger, tenderness and moments of heartbreak run through it, all set against a true chapter of the Civil War that history has largely left behind.
Its cinematic DNA will feel familiar: the sweeping journey and lived-in characters of Lonesome Dove, the young-girl/older-man dynamic of True Grit, and the deepening bond across Southern lines of race and station in Driving Miss Daisy. FAKING THUNDER blends those touchstones with a little-known true story into something distinctly its own.
Genre
Southern Historical Western
Setting
Alabama & Georgia, Spring 1863
Written by
Jason Abraham
Status
Available for representation, option & purchase
History recorded the battles. Between the lines were the people.
Downloads
Feature Screenplay · Historical Drama · Based on Actual Events
Behind the Thunder
A Little About the Fellow Who Wrote It
Jason Abraham is an Alabama native who decided a perfectly good career wasn't enough to keep him occupied.
A lifelong lover of good stories, colorful characters, and history, Jason eventually started writing some of his own. Only took him a few decades.
His writing wanders between historical drama and contemporary storytelling, often involving unlikely friendships, questionable decisions, and ordinary people finding themselves in extraordinary situations.
He enjoys mixing humor with hardship, creating characters who aren't always right, aren't always wrong, and occasionally don't know the difference.
He lives in Alabama, where he's currently deciding which story gets to ruin his free time next.