My T —
I had the day off and went to a diner.
A couple of old men, 80s, sat down at the booth in front of me.
They had a boyish charm, like the ushers at my church in Boston.
80 going on 8.
They seemed like retired aerospace engineers.
(There are plenty of companies like that in this neighborhood.)
They couldn’t stop talking about — their model train sets.
What would go where, how to build this, what they hoped to add.
I immediately thought of my dad.
My dad was blue collar, a mechanic — not a professional at all.
When I was a kid though, we built a model train set together.
(It’s completely destroyed now.)
As you can see, a story began to form:
An adult son returns home to take care of his aging dad.
Everyone thought the dad would die first but the mom did.
The dad and son have a rocky relationship.
The dad ignored the son during his childhood.
Instead the dad spent all his time building his model train set.
Without involving the son.
The dad ignored both the son and the mom.
So the bad blood runs deep.
(OK so you see who this story is really about now.)
The dad, now old, has a best friend also into model trains.
So the son feels like a third wheel — it’s a triangle:
DAD – FRIEND – SON
(MODEL TRAIN SET IN THE MIDDLE)
The son now has to compete with the model train and the friend for his dad’s attention.
Here’s the beautiful parallel:
The dad had a shitty childhood that he never talks about.
That’s why he’s obsessed with the model train set.
It’s his dad’s way of remaking his own childhood.
(The model is what his dad wanted his childhood to be like.)
Except in the process he’s ruined his son’s childhood.
His son is now trying to rebuild his childhood.
Or at least make peace with it.
I even have the ending. I think it’s perfect.
(I think you’ll think so too but I won’t spoil it.)
I even have the title:
The dad is fixated on building this one railroad crossing.
Exactly like the one he remembers from his childhood.
So the title would be “The Crossing.”
Where their lives, hopes, dreams, past, present, reality cross.
Crash, really.
(This has made me a little teary.)
It’s also fun just to make movies about things you love:
Trains — I loved my train set.
Subcultures — model railroad people are OBSESSIVE NUTS.
Like me!
I don’t think this story is big enough for Best Picture.
Best Original Screenplay, maybe…
I take a day off and before lunch I have a new 9-month project.
It’s L.A. — stories are in the air.
I will write this one.
I already have the Penpal one, the Perfumer one, the Anniversary one, the Sci-Fi one…
…the script I’m not telling you anything about because it’s a surprise one…
…I’m forgetting some.
I want to write a screwball one too — I love those.
My scripts will be different from your scripts.
It’s OK.
You’ll make mine edgier. I’ll make yours…I don’t know.
Yours will probably be better than mine anyway.
Let’s just not push each other off a roof or anything.
— Your D