The Last Screenplay

In his heyday, Johnny Hilton was one of the most powerful screenwriters in Hollywood, he got the privilege to meet Steven Spielberg on the set of his first big movie Jaws back in 1974 and even wrote a draft of the screenplay for Close Encounters of The Third Kind . But now he’s stuck living with his wife in Guntersville, Alabama, trying to write novels, and get an agent in New York to get a book deal so he could have the book adapted into a movie, and become a hot screenwriter in Los Angeles again. But things are kinda slow, and his wife has packed his suitcases and ready to kick him out.

‘’I’ve had just about enough of this bullshit Johnny, your days as a screenwriter are over, go out and get a real job.’‘ said Johnny’s wife Nancy.

‘’Baby, things’ll pick up once I get an agent.’‘ he begged.

‘’Get the hell out!’‘ she exclaimed.

Johnny got his suitcase, left the house, got in the car, and drove off. He looked out at the highway, didn’t know where he was headed. He drove down the road, feeling desperate. He turned right at a motel, and stopped. He got his stuff, and went inside to check in at the information desk at the lobby.
He pulled out a credit card, and handed it to the clerk who put the data into the computer at the front desk. The clerk’s eyes bugged out when he saw who it was, he couldn’t believe he was in the presence of someone from Hollywood.

‘’Are you the screenwriter who married Nancy?’‘ the clerk asked.

‘’Yeah,’‘ Johnny replied.

‘’Enjoy your stay!’‘ exclaimed the clerk.

Johnny walked out of the lobby over to where his room was located, and opened the door with the key. He went over to the night stand, and scribbled something on the notepad with a pen. He pulled a .44 caliber revolver out of his pocket, put in his mouth, and blew his brains out!
Days later after his body was removed, Guntersville police, and members of the local media ransacked his hotel room. A reporter named Ted Callison found the notepad which Johnny had wrote on before he took his own life.

‘’What’d you find?’‘ asked a police officer.

‘’I think it’s a suicide note.’‘ Ted replied.

‘’What does it say?’‘ asked another police officer.

‘’My writing career has turned to shit, my wife has kicked me out, and have nowhere where else to go. As I pull the trigger, I want the world to figure out who I was, what my goal was, and what stood in the way of my goal.’‘ he read.

‘’How do we find all of this out?’‘ asked the first police officer.

‘’I’ll start by asking his wife.’‘ replied Ted.

Ted was soon in Johnny Hilton’s home which he had been kicked out of before committing suicide. The journalist sat down at the dinner table to talk to Nancy about what happened.

‘’Do you know what the passage at the end means? About who he was, what his goals were, and what stood in the way of his goals?’‘ he asked.

‘’He wrote these novels, and tried to get an agent to get him a book deal, he hoped it would lead to him writing a movie version of one of them so he could have a big comeback.’‘ she replied.

‘’Do you know what may have stood in the way of him getting what he desired?’‘ he asked.

‘’I got so frustrated with him not getting employment after we left LA, I got to the point where I just didn’t care anymore.’‘ she responded.

‘’So this was the reason you kicked him out?’‘ he questioned.

‘’Uh Huh,’‘ she said.

Ted was now in the office of film and television producer Sam Caldwell who had worked Johnny Hilton many times over the years. He took a seat in front of Caldwell’s desk, and Ted had his pen and notepad ready as he handed Johnny’s suicide note to Caldwell.

‘’His widow mentioned his goal was to write a novel so he could get a book deal and turn it into a movie.’‘ Ted mentioned.

‘’Lots of has beens in Hollywood try writing a book as a way to get back in the business through the back door, but it never works.’‘ Caldwell laughed.

‘’About the last part of the note, do you know he meant by something standing in the way of his goal?’‘ asked Ted.

‘’I don’t have a clue, I lost touch with him after he left for Alabama with his wife.’‘ Caldwell replied.


‘’Could you tell me more about his career?’‘ Ted asked.

‘’Well, he started writing screenplays in the mid to late 70's and at the start of the 80's, but he started writing flops so he go to the point where he was reduced to writing and producing television until the 90's, and then he up and left for Alabama.’‘ replied Caldwell.

‘’Why did he leave for Alabama?’‘ Ted asked.

‘’I don’t know the exact reason why, but I think his wife was from there.’‘ Caldwell said.

‘Well, thanks for your time.’‘ Ted responded.

‘’One more thing, this quote at the end of the suicide note about who he was, what his goal was, and what stood in the way of his goal, it’s an old quote made by legendary writer Paddy Chayefsky about what he felt were the three main ingredients of storytelling.’‘ mentioned Caldwell.

Ted was in a room at The Hollywood Hotel as he dialed his phone number in Guntersville long distance. His wife was on the on the other end, and they missed each other a great deal.

‘’Hi honey, this big story just got a whole lot bigger, it turns out Johnny Hilton’s suicide has something to do with an old legendary writer who’s been dead for almost 25 years named Paddy Chayefsky. I’m gonna have to fly to New York to dig up some stuff on Chayefsky, and see how it links to Hilton’s suicide.’‘ commented Ted.

‘’When are you coming home?’‘ she asked.

‘’I don’t know, I told you this is a big story. But I’ll be home soon baby, I love you.’‘ he responded.

Several days later, Ted was in a New York public library sitting at a table with each of the collected works of Paddy Chayefsky as well as Chayefsky’s novel entitled Altered States. He flipped through the novel, and then he gazed at the plays he wrote at the beginning of his career. Ted was amazed how much talent Chayefsky had at a young age and how much of life experience he put into those plays since a lot of the main characters were Jewish and living in The Bronx.

He then looks at the teleplays Chayefsky wrote during The Golden Age of Television, what grasped Ted was how dark and realistic they were compared to the light and phony sitcoms of the era such Ozzie and Harriet. Ted then examined the screenplays Chayefsky wrote for the big screen in the final years of his career. He came across the screenplay for Network, one of Chayefsky’s last films in 1976, where the main character Howard Beale, a newscaster threatened to commit suicide on the air for being forced into retirement. Then it just hit Ted!

‘’Damn! A failed film and television writer wanted to write a novel, and a legendary film and television writer who wrote a novel. The failed writercommits an act of suicide imitating an attempted suicide from one of the legendary writer’s last films. Hell, this guy wanted to be Paddy Chayefsky!’‘ Ted shouted.

‘’Shhhhhhhh!’‘ said the librarian.

Somewhere between heaven and hell, the screenwriter who committed suicide Johnny Hilton sat at a computer typing one more screenplay. He typed ‘’Ted got back to his hotel room in New York, and began typing the big story on his laptop. END OF ACT THREE FADE OUT END OF SCREENPLAY.’‘ The journalist Ted Callison now had his big story, and the fallen screenwriter Johnny Hilton now was now able to realize his dream of being the next Paddy Chayefsky, However, the downside was he couldn’t realize it until he reached the afterlife.