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Shadow on the Heartland

A successful Wall Street attorney reluctantly returns to rural North Dakota to help his family fight against an agricultural corporate giant that's quickly taking over the food industry with dangerous GMO seeds.

Wyatt Fielding hasn't been back to North Dakota for eight years. The year is 1998 and the country is flying high on start-up IPOs and Wall Street ingenuity. His entire life has been about getting away from the depressed economic climate of the Midwestern rural existence. He's forced to return just when life couldn't be more perfect, he's just been made Junior Partner at his law firm and he's contemplating proposing to his beautiful girlfriend. But his parents desperately need his help, they're being sued for patent violation by the agriculture giant, D-Tech, and the company has placed a lien on their farm. The catch is, Wyatt's parents never planted D-Tech patented seed. His investigation brings him into the murky waters of the food industry, the ethics of food patents and the safety of genetically engineered food. He finds out the patents of seeds follow the seed itself, it doesn't matter that the Fieldings never bought or planted the seed. This flies in the face of the history of both farming and patent law. At this time in the 1990s, agriculture companies took plant samples secretly from farmers if it was suspected that the farmer planted a patented seed without paying the licensing fees. The best resolution Wyatt can help his family come to, is a bluff that he will not pursue a counter-lawsuit to challenge the ethics of patenting living organisms that, by their nature, mutate and cross-pollinate and he won't pursue an investigation of corruption in government agencies when he discovers that government officials have gone back and forth to and from D-Tech working for both the corporation and the government over the past few years. Even though the company drops it's case against the Fieldings, Wyatt's father had to destroy his granary of seeds and the stress of this legal situation aggravates his heart problem, killing him. Wyatt is left to pick up the pieces of life, during his time in North Dakota, he loses his job at the firm because his firm once represented a company that was acquired by D-Tech and the firm is beholden by a confidentiality agreement that is retro-active. He decides that this is a cause worth fighting for and moves on from NYC and North Dakota to help other growers save their livelihoods and try to keep corporations from dominating and controlling the food supply.

Script Excerpt Interview
Written by:
Format:
Screenplay
Starring Roles For:
Christian Bale
Chris Cooper
In the Vein Of:
Erin Brockovich
The Verdict
Posted:
06/09/2011
Updated:
07/08/2024
Author Bio:
-2024 Emerging Screenwriters QF Sandwich Generation -2024 8 & a Half Film Awards SELECTED La Hacienda & Thirst -2024 Hollywood Gold Awards Sandwich Generation -2024 Casablanca Film Factory WINNER La Hacienda -2024 In-Roads Fellowship Semi Finalist La Hacienda -2024 FARO Concurso de Cinema WINNER La Hacienda -2024 L.A. Script Competition Semi-Finalist La Hacienda -2023 Tokyo International l Film Festival Winner: La Hacienda -2023 Horror Bowl Awards Finalist La Hacienda -2022 Thirst short film Screenings at Golden State FF, Sydney Indie Shorts, Marina Del Rey FF, Silicon Beach FF, Culver City FF & Texas Arthouse FF (partial listing) -2022 Short Story published in book titled It Could Be Anyone's Leg -2020 My 4 Bodies Screencraft Semifinalist (play) -2020 Sandwich Generation Filmmatic Semifinalist (sitcom) -2020 Water (short, preproduction) -2020 Record Man: The Bob Koester Story (in production) -2018 100,000 Miles a Second Writer/Producer (short) -2018 Page Awards Semifinalist -2018 Knight Finalist -2017 Nicholl Quarterfinalist -2017 Page Awards Semifinalist -2017 Knight Finalist -2016 Knight Finalist -2016 True Story Semifinalist for When Doves Cry -2015 Screenwriters Workshop Winner -2012 Champion Screenwriting Competition Finalist for Anatomy of a Town 2012 Contest of Contests Finalist for Anatomy of a Town -2011 Writers on the Storm Quarter-Finalist for Anatomy of a Town -2011 Chicago Screenwriters Network Finalist for One More Day -2011 Bluecat Fellini Semifinalist for Anatomy of a Town -2010/11: KCBX-FM Radio Production of Anatomy of a Town to air during the 2011 San Luis Obispo Film Festival -2010 Champion Screenwriting Competition Finalist for Anatomy of a Town -2010 Santa Fe Writer's Project Finalist for Anatomy of a Town -2010 Austin Film Festival Second Round for Anatomy of a Town -2010 SWW-MN Leave 'Em Hooked Winner for Date of Death -2010 IFP-MN Screenplay Finalist for Anatomy of a Town -2009 PAGE Awards Quarter Finalist for Anatomy of a Town -2009 IFP-MN Screenplay Finalist for Anatomy of a Town -2008 SWW-MN Leave 'Em Hooked Finalist for Anatomy of a Town -2006 Fringe Festival Production (Director/Co-Writer) -2004, IFP-MN Screenplay Finalist -University of MN graduate, BA in English Creative Writing.

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