Posted on 08/24/2006 3:02:10 PM PDT by Pharmboy
HAVERHILL - Several independent movie makers and script writers are interested in bringing controversial Colonial heroine Hannah Duston to the big screen. Scott Baron, CEO of Los Angeles-based Dynamo Entertainment, a new film-making company that seeks to produce as many as five low- to mid-budget movies per year, said his writers have already started developing a script about Duston "to see if we can do her story justice while creating a moving and exciting film."
Duston made history March 15, 1697, when she was kidnapped by Abenaki Indians, who killed her infant daughter by bashing the baby's head against a tree. Two weeks later on March 30, Duston escaped with her nursemaid and a young boy from an island in the middle of the Merrimack River near present-day Concord, N.H., by killing and scalping as many as 10 of her captors.
"The Colonial time and locale of the story really caught my eye," said Baron, stepson of prolific movie producer Art Levinson. "There seems to be such a reliance on weaponry, gadgets and explosions these days. But Hannah Duston's story is compelling without relying on such devices.
"This is a story not only with a strong female lead but also a solid tale of triumph over adversity and overwhelming odds," Baron said.
Hollywood has served up such recent movies based in Colonial Massachusetts as "Amistad," "The Crucible" and "The Scarlet Letter."
Benjamin Jackendoff, another Los Angeles film producer who recently worked with director Larry Cohen on "Phone Booth," is also intrigued by Duston's story, which he said he read about as a college literature student and recently in a newspaper account of her re-emergence as a controversial figure in Haverhill.
"Her story is every parent's worst nightmare," Jackendoff said. "She's a strong, complex and ambiguous character. That lends itself to a narrative that combines the very different versions of her story from Cotton Mather and the Abenaki. After working with Larry Cohen, you can't help but see the commercial potential for a thriller in a story like that."
In a version of the story by the Abenaki tribe, Duston is more blood-thirsty murderess and less victim. In the Abenaki account, she befriended members of the tribe, got several of them drunk and then slaughtered them with a hatchet as they slept.
In the Colonial version, Duston returned home to Haverhill in a canoe, and the government rewarded her with 50 pounds sterling and other gifts. In 1879, she became the first woman in America to be immortalized with a statue, and her story was told in accounts by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Cotton Mather and Henry David Thoreau. Although she is the heroine of several books, she has yet to be portrayed in a movie.
Interest in Duston's story and her past were rekindled recently when she was made official ambassador of this Saturday's battle of the bands organized by Team Haverhill and the city. Posters of Duston holding an electric guitar, in place of the axe she wields in her Main Street statue, have been hung throughout the city.
Media accounts of Duston and Haverhill have appeared in newspapers across the country since The Eagle-Tribune published a story Friday about the city's use of Duston as a symbol of its downtown revival.
"It's the ultimate feminist story," said Rebecca Day, a Massachusetts native and freelance writer who has done script development for Hallmark Entertainment and Lifetime Television. "It has all the qualities of a hot Lifetime movie. I would pitch it as 'Ransom' meets 'The Crucible.'"
Day said she is particularly intrigued by Duston's psychological makeup.
"What interests me is exploring what made her tick," Day said. "I think the story perfectly illustrates what happens when one's world turns into chaos. A person really has to go into survival mode, regardless of what role society thinks he or she is supposed to play. Although women at this time were considered second-class citizens, I think it's funny how many men so easily became her followers and admirers."
Constantine Valhouli, principal of a Bradford company that specializes in revitalizing historic urban centers and who is helping to promote the music festival, said he has spoken to representatives from New York and Los Angeles production houses about Duston.
"Hannah's story would make a good film for the same reason she makes a great symbol for Haverhill," Valhouli said. "Her story of courage and conflict is timeless. Change the details slightly and it is still happening around the world."
Day, the Los Angeles producer, said he believes Duston's story could be produced on a reasonable budget and still connect with audiences.
"The biggest issue that films like this will face is that period films are often expensive to produce," he said, noting that the most recent film of the genre, "The New World," was a critical disappointment. On the other hand, "Dances with Wolves" grossed over $424 million, and "Last of the Mohicans" made over $100 million, he said.
Haverhill reporter Shawn Regan may be contacted at 978-373-1000, or sregan@eagletribune.com.
WOW!
She didn't do it, "just for the fun of it". She did the scalping, so she could claim the price on their heads.
Ditto, though in my case, distant.
Nor sure about the Cherokees. In some tribes, your one eight would put you in the money.
or Emerson or Webster...
What if 1/16?
Great grandmother married very young...(she was absolutely beautiful)...
..I think she ran away from home.
Dad was always confused if she was 100%, or only 1/2....but she looks totally 100% to me.....
If 1/2, that would make me 1/16, right?
...My grandmother would have been 1/4, Dad 1/8, I 1/16.....
Or I might be 1/8
My Wife is a tenth generation grand daughter of Hanna Dustin.
I walk softly around her. : )
She didn't kill the baby, the captors did.
The baby was only a few weeks old, and was hungry. They wanted her to make it stop crying, but would not let her stop to feed the baby.
What happened to the captors was a result of them killing the baby.
It was a wild tale even then. She did it to prove her story, and there was a bounty for Indian scalps.
They paid the bounty to her husband.
"In the new version. The child will be killed by an evil corporation run by a white Christian. "
Bush's fault.
Yeah, when it comes to survival whatever sex...
" I don't think I'd take the time to hack their scalps off "
Yes, I'm sure you are way more righteous than she.
Keep the cutlery away from that lady!!
She was very tall....high cheekbones...darker skin.
Whether 1/8 or 1/16....is fine with me.
When we visited the statue, I had her stand beside it and hold up her hand while I took a picture.
The holding up of her hand was so I could remember which was which.
My husband's grandmother was Indian but I'm not sure from what tribe. She lived in Ogdensburg area and had very high cheekbones and black hair. (and 19 kids!) They were French Canadian but she had a lot of Indian blood in her.
Ever been through anything remotely similar?
Probably not. Therefore you aren't really qualified to judge her.
Did you consider that the people of that time chose to honor her? They did not view her as a savage, even though they knew full well what she had done, in fact they considered her a hero.
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