One Beautiful Summer starring Tom Hanks
BIOGRAPHICAL EPIC FAMILY MEMOIR
1920s & ’30s,1940s & ’50s,1960s & ’70s
Logline
Arthur Delamont is a trailblazer in the education of youth through music. Between 1934 and 1974 he makes 14 trips to England and Europe with his boy’s band; some three, four or five months long. They have an agent and are for hire playing the vaudeville circuit, concerts, carnivals and regattas.
Genre
Biographical,Epic,Family,Memoir
Short Summary
His boys beat England’s best adult Collier bands in contests because there are no youth bands. They play like pros although they are only between the ages of 12 and 18. In 1939, they are in England when war is declared and are chased back across the Atlantic by a U-boat. The stuff of legends!
Many boys go back to England after 1939 and pay the supreme sacrifice. Back home, his boys go on to become the who’s who of the Canadian musical establishment playing in orchestras, symphonies and often bands of their own, even Duke Ellington’s. 200 championship awards over a fifty-year period.
Setting
England and Europe
Based on a True Story
Yes
Plot – Premise
Internal Journey/Rebirth
Plot – Other Elements
Coming of Age,Meaningful Message,Philosophical Questions
Mature Audience Themes
Information not completed
Main Character Details
Name: Arthur Delamont played by Tom Hanks
Age: 76
Gender: Male
Role: Mentor
Key Traits: Adventurous,Aspiring,Aggressive,Charming,Complex,Confident,Engaging,Heroic,Leader,Honorable,Patriotic,Religious,Visionary,Romantic,Strong Moral Code
Additional Character Details
Name: Dave McKenzie ( 60s Manager)
Age: 25
Gender: Lgbt
Role: Antagonist
Key Traits: Confident,Adventurous,Empathetic,Underdog,Modest,Obedient,Skillful,Lone Wolf,Unapologetic
Additional Character Details
Name: Garfield White (30s Manager)
Age: 30
Gender: Lgbt
Role: sidekick
Key Traits: Aspiring,Confident,Faithful,Gracious,Naive,Obedient,Charming,Crazy,Underdog,Narcisstic,Skillful,Funny,Secretive
Additional Character Details
The author has not yet written this
Development Pitch
This is a movie treatment of the 1968 two-and-a-half-month tour of England and Europe by 76-year-old Arthur Delamont and his Vancouver Kitsilano Boys Band. It is both poignant and bittersweet as it looks at coming of age, the end of life, and of the education of youth. It is also about remembering the past so you can see the road forward. All the characters are affected by one or the other, and no one more so than Arthur Delamont, who is thinking about quitting his band and retiring after he returns. He feels City Council doesn’t care about the arts in Vancouver and, more specifically, all he has achieved over the past forty years. “Who has done more to promote the city of Vancouver abroad over the past decades than me,” he asks. When he approached City Council for funds for this trip, they gave him one thousand dollars, barely enough to cover the airfare for one boy, not 39 boys and one girl. Through flashbacks, his story unfolds. He realizes what he has achieved by giving hundreds of boys a taste of success at a young age is far too important. Everywhere he goes on the trip he sees his boys in his memories and realizes he needs to keep coming back so he can see them all once more.
About The Author
Christopher Best has written 20 books and 5 treatments for screenplays over the past 22 years. His books draw heavily on history and strong character development. The themes of his treatments center around the fight of the little guy against the establishment, growing old, and coming of age drawing on his experiences growing up in the sixties. There is always a strong musical component in his works as he played in bands, taught public school music and studied with the likes of Leonard Bernstein.
Target Audiences
Age: 18-34,35-54,55+
Target Gender: Universal
Publishing Details
Hard Copy Available
No
WGA Number
Information not completed
Supplemental Materials
The Best Little Movie House in Vancouver 