CYCLONE PRODUCTIONS, INC. Presents
GOOD LUCK MISS WYCKOFF is a contemporary version of the acclaimed novel by Pulitzer Prize, Academy Award winning playright, William Inge (Picnic, Come Back Little Sheba, Splendor in the Grass, Bus Stop).
The film will be produced from a screenplay by veteran producer, Robert Weinbach, two time winner of the Houston International Screenplay Competition.
To be produced on location in Kentucky under the Kentucky Film Incentive Program, GOOD LUCK MISS WYCKOFF concerns a shocking, controversial and ultimately tragic relationship between a white spinster high school teacher and a young Pakistani scholarship student/athlete who works at the school as a janitor
in a small town US college community.
The starring role of Evelyn Wyckoff is a tour de force vehicle for a major actress in this powerful and gripping contemporary version of Inge’s haunting story of ill-fated lust and sexual repression.
The subtext is punctuated by the corrosive and perverse forms of political correctness rampant in modern American society which further dramatizes issues of racism, censorship and the virulent discrimination against women in third world countries.
SYNOPSIS
Set in a fictionalized Southern town (present day), GOOD LUCK MISS WYCKOFF deals with an abusive
sexual relationship between a white, virginal, high school teacher and a young Pakistani student/athlete at the adjacent junior college who works at the school as a janitor. Evelyn Wyckoff, feeling hopeless, isolated and struggling to come to grips with her sexuality and emotions, is encouraged by her doctor to find a lover, which culminates in a series of disturbing events.
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FILMMAKERS VISION
“GOOD LUCK, MISS WYCKOFF” is to be filmed with artful and inspired imagery that has the potential to engage the audience on a deep psychological and emotional level. The cinematic approach will incorporate imaginative, yet disconcerting production design, embellished by innovative lighting and a vivid color scheme spiced with impressive doses of disturbing fantasies and erotic anticipation, as the narrative begins to uncoil, building tension to its final, spectacular and shocking climax.
The role of Evelyn Wyckoff requires an actress of great psychological insight and technical virtuosity capable of eliciting compassion and an understanding of human character. Evelyn must be viewed with compassion by supplying insights into her personality and inner turmoil, but with the knowledge that her relationship with Rafi must eventually reach a tragic end but, that still resonates with rays of hope. The approach dramatically to her character and personality are, in part, the result of an accumulation of forces tending to constrain her from expressing her sexual feelings. Evelyn’s final awakening is a stunning climax of dramatic impact conveyed by artful, emotional manipulation to make the audience cringe at her actions and yet, feel the ultimate release of her inner anguish.
Structurally, there will be a series of developing relations of characters and changes whereby a certain pattern begins to emerge. The town politics and literary censorship issues provide a subtext that reflects the dehumanizing forces in modern society today. The town is the same in a contemporary setting as it was decades ago with issues of political correctness even more absurd today than they were 40 or 50 years ago. Evelyn Wyckoff recognizes these absurdities and tries to break out with tragic results.
Evelyn’s interior fantasies will be reflected through stylized dramatizing and ambiguity. Techniques to reflect Evelyn's multilayered internal personality may be achieved by using a pattern of visual and aural devices to create an ambiguous subliminal effect enriching the development of story and character through “etching” of detail and visual complexion.
Especially important will be the expressive use of music and sound design whereby a rich yet, unsettling score will help to create a palpable atmosphere underpinning the emotional shifts in the story.
Cinematically, the overall movement of the camera and lighting techniques will give the picture a unique style. The composition and lighting can also evoke a canted view of the characters, much like a cubist painting depicts a subject's face that is not normally viewed. Thus, allowing the film to develop in space and time, a special conscience in and of itself.
Finally, the small town American setting and its distinctive complexion will tend to make the town and its locations a character unto itself, taking on the surface and guise of a warm and friendly place yet, seething with underlying turmoil neath its sometimes bland or even unexciting veneer.
A primarily semi rural setting with a small community college complex imposing its imprint on the town further provides an opportunity to explore a specific compositional tapestry, whereby the drama can be played out against a background of architectural forms sliced from contrasts between light and shadow.
The emotional explosion is hers. The emotional experience is yours.