Call To Courage

Genre: Family Adventure/Thriller

Script: Original story and screenplay by Mark Stouffer. Screenplay was a finalist in the Sundance Institute Screenwriting Contest, the Splendid Pictures scr(i)pt’s Open Door Contest, and the Carl Sautter Memorial Screenwriting Competition.

Storyline: In this taut adventure, a father takes his son on a summer float trip into the Yukon for his 13th birthday, hoping that the boy will get a sense of the power and beauty of the Great Outdoors, and acquire some of the strength that he’ll need in his passage into manhood. The father is a famous novelist, who in Hemingway style, has great passion for writing about thrilling adventures in the wild. The boy is a budding musician, and shares none of his father’s interest in primal danger. Trouble begins when the pair and their kayak group find themselves stalked downstream by a threatening Polar Bear. Fearing they are food to the animal, they desperately attempt escape, unaware that before their guide drowned, he hid the pelt of the bear’s cub in one of their kayaks. When the father is severely injured in the ordeal, the boy is forced to action, finding in himself the strength and courage to rescue them both, forging a new bond between them.

Status: Mark Stouffer to direct. Mark’s feature and television productions have won over 75 international awards, 2 Emmy Award wins, including Outstanding Achievement in Directing, 9 Emmy Award Nominations, and a DGA Best Director Nomination.