STORY COVERAGE
‘The Establishment’
Feature Film
Carrie Paupst-Shaughnessy
Carrie is President of The Development House Inc., a development service company. Working with companies, such as Alliance Atlantis, The National Screen Institute, CTV and Breakthrough Films, The Development House has worked on both film and television projects. She has story edited many independent feature projects including Love, Sex and Eating the Bones by Sudz Sutherland, A Problem with Fear by Gary Burns, Treed Murray by Bill Phillips, Saint Ralph by Michael McGowan and Lie with Me by Clement Virgo. She has also worked on documentary series for Life, Discovery and MTV. Carrie also develops her own projects including a new teen series in development with the CBC and Amaze Film & Television titled Sugar Shack.
President - The Development House Inc.
2000 — 2005 (5 years)
Creative Analyst - Telefilm Canada
2005 — Present (4 years)
- Select feature films in all stages from development through post
- Particular focus on talent building of producers, writers, directors and story editors
TITLE: THE ESTABLISHMENT
GENRE: ACTION/POLITICAL THRILLER
WRITER/S: SHAWN MCATEER AND
NATALIE WALLACE & SCOTT PARISIEN
FORM & LENGTH: 172-PAGE SCREENPLAY
PERIOD: 1800’S – PRESENT DAY
LOCALE: EUROPE & USA
PRODUCER: SHAWN MCATEER
BUDGET: HIGH
MARKET: THEATRICAL
PREPARED BY: THE DEVELOPMENT HOUSE, 1235 BAY STREET, SUITE 1000, TORONTO, ONTARIO CANADA M5R 3K4
LOG LINE: A journalist must run for his life from the powerful Freemasons when he uncovers their centuries-old conspiracy to gain political control of the entire world.
SYNOPSIS: The Freemasons’ plan for a “new world order” begins in the early 1800s when their leader, LORD NATHAN ROTHCHILD, single-handedly buys control of the entire British economy with a clever stock trading plan. One hundred years later, the next phase of the plan includes gaining control of the American Federal Reserve, creating the United Nations, and influencing high-level officials in various countries around the world. Key Freemason members at the turn of the century include J.P. MORGAN and the ROCKEFELLER FAMILY. Their ultimate goal is to create one government – made up of their own members – that will control the world.
But during the course of their planning a small leak occurs. DRAKE BRODY, a businessman posing as a new initiate, begins infiltrating and gathering the evidence he needs to expose the Freemasons’ conspiracy. When the Freemasons find out, they have Brody killed. But what they don’t know is that, in anticipation of an attempt on his life, Brody had already forwarded all of his research to his lawyers and instructed them to keep it hidden until they became aware of someone else who was investigating the Freemasons’ activities.
Flash forward to the present day. STONE GREGORY is a reporter for the New York Times whose work covering the shady dealings of the Rockefeller family attracts the attention of Brody’s lawyers. They forward all of Brody’s research to Stone, who is shocked by the depth and breadth of the Freemasons’ plans. Based on Brody’s work as well as his own, Stone begins to write a book-length expose. But he isn’t careful about it, and word reaches the Freemasons that there’s a rogue “file” out there disseminating information that they don’t want people to know about. They begin surveillance on Stone and his new wife, news reporter JODIE, in an attempt to figure out just how much of a threat Stone poses.
Meanwhile, tensions are heating up in the Middle East, and Stone’s insider government sources tell him that the Freemasons are somehow involved. Also, due to a suspicious outbreak, American citizens are flocking to free clinics to receive smallpox immunizations. What they don’t know – and what Stone comes to realize – is that the outbreak was orchestrated by the Freemasons, and the immunizations are actually microchip implantations. The microchip, called the “InfoChip”, will allow the Freemasons to track every citizen.
Stone finds himself in a very dangerous position when the people around him start dying and several attempts are made on his own life. Then Stone finds out that the Freemasons are very close to their goal of world domination. By inducing a nuclear war in the already-unstable Middle East and engineering a “terrorist” attack on Washington to kill thousands of government officials, martial law will be invoked. At that point, the “shadow government” (created in case the existing government is somehow rendered ineffective and is, of course, comprised of Freemason members) will take control and form one world government under the guise of quelling a world nuclear holocaust.
Armed with this knowledge and concrete proof thanks to his insider informants, Stone and Jodie hijack the airwaves and expose the truth to the public before the Washington attack. The Freemasons’ plot is foiled, and the world remains safe from their clutches.
RECOMMENDATION: THE ESTABLISHMENT is a high-budget, action/political thriller suitable for widespread theatrical release. With its epic, far-reaching story, it also has a potentially international appeal.
THE ESTABLISHMENT has a great concept and strong basic conflict elements with a lot of potential particularly because of it is well-researched based on true world events. The maxim, story and character motivations from historical set-up (first 44 pages) to final chapter with Stone Gregory are ‘the only way for evil to thrive, is by good men doing nothing’.