China Diaries, a six-part TV miniseries
China Diaries (a one sheet)
A 6x60 miniseries Episode Synopses
Based on true events
EPISODE ONE: THE CHINA DIARIES. A phone call changes Stephen Cannon's life. He jets to Hong Kong, retrieves his mother’s diaries, and learns of her escape from Russia, coming of age, Shanghai nightclubs, her disappointing first love, employment with Pan Am/CNAC and is promoted to management in Nanking.
Cast: [STEPHEN] Protag, pilot, 50s, strong willed, poor relationships. [ANNA] Protag, 18, beautiful, smart. [SAUL] Anna’s BF, 18. [MATSUMOTO] 50s, Japanese Ultra Nationalist. [HOVANS] Antag, 40s, cabaret owner, [BILLY] 30s, marine, Anna’s first love. [BORIS] Antag, 40s, Hovans’ thug. [BOND] Mentor, CNAC ops manager, 60s. [PETER] Anna’s father.
EPISODE TWO: NANKING. Anna is caught up in the terror of Nanking. She meets and helps MINNIE VAUTRIN, mistress of Ginling College and saves teen girls from rape and, sex slavery and death. Running for their lives, Anna and CHUNG SI escape the Rape of Nanking by Sampan.
Added cast: [CHUNG SI] 20s, Anna’s assistant. [MINI VAUTRIN] 40s, mistress of Ginling college. [BO FAT] 20s, Yangtze waterman. [CHUNG SI] 20s, Anna’s assistant and escape partner. [MOON CHIN] 20s, pilot.
EPISODE THREE: HONG KONG. Still with Pan Am/CNAC, Anna flees to Hong Kong for a new life, and meets ALEX Cannon, a Clipper pilot. The siege of Hong Kong begins. Anna and Alex marry and flee for their lives with a secret report for Washington Intel as Pearl Harbor is attacked, Hong Kong falls, and WW2 begins.
Added cast: ALEX CANNON, 20s, a Clipper pilot and Anna’s true love. CNAC Captain SHARP, 30s, organizes teams to save CNAC’s remaining aircraft.
EPISODE FOUR: FLIGHT. Leaving the night of their wedding in a CNAC DC-3, the newlyweds escape the siege of Hong Kong to Chungking, then over the Burma Hump to Rangoon and then Trincomalee. Here, they join Pan Am’s PACIFIC CLIPPER fleeing Westbound from Pearl Harbor. The Clipper makes history, becoming the first commercial flight around the world.
Added cast: [CAPT FORD] 40, pilot, Pacific Clipper. Nine Clipper crew.
EPISODE FIVE: AMERICA. After their epic flight, Anna and Alex arrive in the states and report on the infamous Japanese Unit 731. Stalked by ARNAUD BOUCHER Anna is coerced to return to China as a Japanese spy. Instead, she joins the OSS and returns as an undercover agent.
Added cast: [CAPT BERGANTZ] 40s, ONI Washington chief. Stephen’s parents. [ARNAUD BOUCHER] 40s, spy for the Japanese.
EPISODE SIX: CHINA. Anna returns to China, sets up spy ring, confronts Sergei, and is captured. Now, in present time, Stephen shows Akira that it was his father, Matsui Matsumoto that tortured Anna. Both arc, and Stephen finds love in his beautiful translator suggesting a better future.
Added Cast: [MATSUI MASUMOTO] Anna’s tormentor. [SUSIE LIU] Prostitute and ally. [ASHER SWARTZ] 60s, tailor and spy go-between.
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Louis A StannardWriterChina Diaries, the book (Amazon) See IMDB
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Project Type:Television Script
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Number of Pages:60
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Country of Origin:United States
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First-time Screenwriter:No
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Student Project:No
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See IMDB; See Filmfreeway
BIO FOR LOUIS STANNARD
A love for movies, history and working at a local flying field was a big part of growing up in the mid-south. In college, I tried Aeronautical Engineering, discovered I would rather fly airplanes than build them and was accepted by the Air Force as a pilot.
I was a distinguished graduate from pilot training, received a regular commission, and flew the world ending my military career in the Presidential Support Squadron at Joint Base Andrews.
Leaving the Air Force, I landed a job with Pan Am but didn’t lose my love for history and movies. Reading books on both and more, I took courses and began to write -- a lot.
While with Pan Am, I developed and was awarded a U.S. patent for EasyBid, a software solution for crew bidding. Previously, that monthly nightmare was an expensive manual process that took management and crew thousands of hours to accomplish.
After Lockerbie, and some 23,000 hours of flying came Pan Am’s demise. So, after living in Germany, France, California, New England and visiting every continent except Antarctica, my wife and I decided to sail the world in our 47-foot ketch, Sea Jay.
After about four years of cruising, reading, and writing, the cry of grand babies became louder than the next ports of call, so we settled in North Carolina to be closer to family.
Since I was a boy, I have always had a love for history, especially aviation history, prior to and during World War II.
Although not formally trained, I have gained a formidable knowledge of the actual history of the subjects I write about and have become friends with CNAC pilots still alive portrayed in China Diaries. Looking at my sources to write just China Diaries, I count at least thirty-three books, just in my library, with no regard to the extensive on-line research of the subject matter.
Before her untimely death, I had the pleasure of meeting Iris Chang and discussing her book, the Rape of Nanking and the large part the Nanjing massacre played in the China Diaries plot.
I also had the pleasure of meeting and working with, Dr. Peter Stanek, President of the Global Alliance for Preserving the History of WWII in Asia. Peter and his associates were veritable walking history books on the subject.
I flew corporate jets a few years while writing China Diaries, the book, presently on Amazon. I later wrote China Diaries, the screenplay, and a 6x60 mini-series bible by the same name.
I have also written The Three-Sided Fort, No Lights after Sundown, and I am presently working on Familie Mann, also a screenplay and perhaps a book.
I retired from flying and sailing, built a stand-up desk and now write full time.
To date, I have written, China Diaries, The Three-Sided Fort, No Lights after Sundown and the Three-Sided Fort. I am presently writing Willi Mann, a true story of a German family running from the Poles, Russians, Nazis, and Americans in the last days of World War II.