Chasing Snow

Middle-class gangster James Snow wants out of the crime life, but he must deal with an ornery boss who successfully persuades him to donate his body and skills to one last job. Along the way, James communicates with his loving girlfriend who wants him home, and tries to dodge a whole minefield of murder, betrayal and collateral damage that comes with this drug operation. Only one more thing needs to go right than wrong for James, and his loved ones, to survive.

  • Dylan Ullman
    Writer
  • Project Type:
    Screenplay
  • Genres:
    Drama, Gangster
  • Number of Pages:
    66
  • Country of Origin:
    Canada
  • Language:
    English
  • First-time Screenwriter:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Writer - Dylan Ullman
Writer Statement

Growing up in Southwestern Ontario, I was given the freedom and opportunity early to consume movies and TV, mostly VHS tapes and later DVDs largely of my own choosing, which I would wear out and scratch up just from repeated plays, sometimes immediately rewatching them. One such film for me with this replayability was "Wayne's World". Another major early cinematic influence was introduced to me by my dad: the John Hughes classic, "Planes, Trains and Automobiles". We would even listen to an audio-track-only (no described audio!) version of the movie on road trips. Perhaps an unconscious attraction to this media was the feeling that it was vaguely Canadian, which is a partially correct take: the movie's co-star is one of Canada's finest comedic actors ever, John Candy (nicknamed "Johnny Toronto"). The Aurora, Illinois where Wayne Campbell lives in "Wayne's World" might as well have been Aurora, Ontario in my young mind... and created by another Canuck: the irreplicable Mike Myers.

When I devoted intention and paid attention to movies enough to discern, critique and curate, I "branched out", becoming curious about this Tarantino fella. I had heard his name growing up; the iconic "Pulp Fiction" poster featuring Uma Thurman as Mia Wallace, with the red and yellow graphics, had flashed before my eyes many times. I finally watched it, and I was astounded. This felt like "Hollywood", and remains so to a great extent.

To call this screenplay "Chasing Snow" a one-to-one combination of "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" and "Pulp Fiction" is inacurrate, but I do strongly feel it to be at least a spiritual hybrid of these two movies that influenced me so deeply and got me to pay attention, to emotion, to suspense, then to the filmic technique of emotion and suspense and much, much more.

All of this thinking, this path, started with a delightfully peculiar living in Southwestern Ontario, among all its influences from within and to the south of its border.