2005 Tribeca/Sloan Screenplay Development Program

The projects selected for the 2005 program were Hubble by Shawn Lawrence Otto and Love is Brilliant by Penny Penniston.

The writers were assisted by an advisory committee that included acclaimed screenwriter/director Nora Ephron and award-winning physicist Brian Greene. Scene readings with professional actors as well as discussions with filmmakers, writers, and scientists were held at the Tribeca Film Festival.

In the tradition of Amadeus and A Beautiful Mind, Hubble is the magnificent story of one of history’s greatest and most flawed geniuses and the even more magnificent universe he sought to map. In 1931, Edwin Hubble became the most famous man in the world. He was heralded as the greatest astronomer since Galileo. His discoveries had an irrevocable impact on both Einstein’s theory of relativity and religious interpretations of the origins of heaven and earth. But Hubble was a haunted man, dogged by mysterious secrets from the past and by enemies that threatened to destroy everything. How could a man who spoke with a British accent, wore a cape, and carried a cane be from Missouri? Why did none of his stories of his past match the claims of others? How could his wife Grace knowingly perpetuate all of this? Driven by intense ambition and a longing for something that was lost long ago, a man whose life is cloaked in pathological lies paradoxically discovers one of science’s greatest and most enduring truths.

A Magna Cum Laude graduate of Macalester College, SHAWN LAWRENCE OTTO has actively been writing and producing for Hollywood since 1998. In relatively short time, Otto has distinguished himself by capturing a number of highly prestigious screenwriting grants and fellowships for his work. Most recently, Otto wrote and co-produced House of Sand and Fog, starring Ben Kingsley and Jennifer Connelly. He wrote and is currently producing Dreams of a Dying Heart with Kristin Harms, and is in pre-production to direct another of his writing projects, Shining White. When not writing and producing, Otto is a guest lecturer of creative writing at Macalaster College, Hamline University, The Loft Literary Center, The University of Minnesota, and Saint Cloud State University.

I grew up fascinated by questions about the nature of reality, the meaning of life, the structure of the universe, so much so that I was one of few kids I know who truly loved physics class in high school. In college I took a degree in a strange brew that combined physics with psychology, philosophy, and neuroscience. So it was with great delight and immense pleasure that I took on the story of Edwin Hubble, the greatest astronomer since Galileo, the man who discovered that there were other whole galaxies of stars beyond the Milky Way, the man that discovered that the universe was expanding, the man whose work led to the very idea of the Big Bang, the man that caused both Einstein and the Pope to change their minds and embrace his vision. This was the same man who, at the same time, was an almost pathological liar, a Missourian who wore a cape and carried a cane and spoke with a British accent, a man who managed to alienate almost everyone he encountered, yet whose few friends and allies were fiercely, deeply loyal, a man who at the height of his blazing worldwide fame was, ironically, sadly, quite alone, a man who spent his whole life searching the far corners of space and time for something that was forever lost. This is a story about science, about fallibility and rivalry, about the pursuit of truth and God and the meaning of things. But it’s ultimately the story of one man’s search for something deep inside himself. It is one of the grandest stories I have ever encountered, and it was an immense privilege and honor to sit at Major Hubble’s feet, and to redraw some small portion of the great intellectual and emotional seas that he traversed.

Love is Brilliant is a romantic comedy with a brain—a love story between two scientists. Henry is a neurotic physicist with a deep fear of public speaking. Ginny is a perky but brilliant southern belle. As the pair team up to work on a paper for an important physics prize, Ginny falls in love with the work and Henry falls in love with Ginny. In the midst of multi-million dollar machines, awesome computing power, and the world’s most powerful physics lab, this tale proves physics, at its core, is a fundamentally romantic subject. It gives us a glimpse into a larger universe. This story, while about science and scientists, is rooted in magical realism. It is a blending of Like Water for Chocolate and L.A. Story; a whimsical twisting of reality and fantasy. The future changes the past and brings two physicists together. They fall in love despite his neurosis, her husband and their firm belief that there is no such thing as destiny.

After graduating with a Radio/TV/Film degree from Northwestern University in 1992, PENNY PENNISTON worked for five years as an advertising copywriter for EURO RSCG Tatham in Chicago, Illinois. In 1998, Penniston left Tatham to become a freelance copywriter and to pursue an interest in playwriting and screenwriting. As a playwright, Penniston began by co-adapting The Roaring Girl, a 1611 comedy by Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker. This play had its world premiere in 1999 with Shakespeare’s Motley Crew in Chicago, Illinois and was nominated for Best Adaptation by Chicago’s Joseph Jefferson Committee. Penniston’s second play was now then again, which was adapted for the screen as Love is Brilliant. It ran for 17 weeks, received wide critical acclaim and won a Joseph Jefferson Citation for Best Adaptation. Penniston currently serves as Head of the Playwriting Department at Northwestern University.

I am sort of a Physics fan. I follow it the way that some people follow The Cubs or the latest boy band. I buy the magazines. I read the books. I form passionate opinions based on lots of enthusiasm and a few scraps of knowledge. I wrote Love is Brilliant because, to me, physics is a fundamentally romantic subject. It’s romantic in the literary sense of the word: it seeks to articulate nature. Byron and Shelley did it with poetry; physicists do it with numbers. Each has its own eloquence, but both inspire awe in the grandeur of our universe. “Love is Brilliant” is a romance set in this universe: a universe which confounds us, surprises us, and ultimately works things out in a way that is far more interesting than we could have ever imagined.