Source material: Island book trilogy (Shipwreck, Survival, Escape)Characters Luke Haggerty From: Haverhill, Massachusetts
- 16 years old. Handsome with shaggy brown hair and tall for his age.
He is the leader of the survivors and also the only CNC member who
isn’t troubled. The principle at Luke’s school found a gun in his
locker, a gun belonging to Luke’s friend who framed him. He is warm
hearted and friendly to all the others, except J.J who is somewhat his
rival.
Portrayed by: Chris Massoglia 
J.J Lane From: Beverly Hills, California
– Oldest of the survivors at 17, has blonde hair and blue eyes with
sharp good looking features. He is the son of a famous actor which has
given him a cocky, entitled attitude. He is often jealous of Luke which
causes them to clash. J.J was expelled from school for a series of
actions including getting caught with alcohol in class, ditching
school, and fighting with other students. After stealing his father’s
motorcycle and crashing it through a museum window, his father decided
to send him to CNC.
Portrayed by: Alexander Ludwig 
Charla Swann From: Detroit, Michigan
- 16 years old. She is African American, athletic build and almond
eyes. Extremely athletic, she plays basketball and runs track for her
high school. Just a sophomore but is nationally recruited and already
committed to play basketball for the University of Notre Dame. Her
mother passed away when she was young, so to pay for her sports her
father works three jobs which is still barely enough to get by. To try
to help her father out she tries to steal and sell a diamond ring from
the jewelers. However after getting caught, the judge says she needs
the CNC program.
Portrayed by: Keke Palmer 
Ian Sikorsky From: Lake Forrest, Illinois
- 15 years old. Brown hair, green eyes, scrawny build. Ian is a
self-titled “nerd” who spends most of his time watching TV and surfing
the internet. His favorite channel is the Discovery channel which gives
him knowledge in survival situation. He was sent to CNC for computer
hacking. “This nerdy loner may very well be the difference between life
and death for the entire crew.”
Portrayed by: Matt Bennett
Will and Lyssa Greenfield From: Huntington, New York
-Will is 16, Lyssa is 15. Siblings who are constantly at each other’s
throats, during one of their fights Will ends up in the hospital
getting stiches. The hostility between the two is why their parents
decided to send them to CNC. Will is husky and not the most attractive,
while Lyssa is as Will describes “the perfect, good-looking kid of the
Greenfield family.” She has dark blonde hair and green eyes.
Portrayed by:
Will: Doug Brochu 
Lyssa: Peyton List 
*Note
on casting, you may not some of these people but I tried to keep it
realistic, because an A list actor may fit the description but odds are
they are never going to do a TV pilot.
Pilot: The pilot will start off by showing six young people working on The
Phoenix for the CNC (Charting a new course) program. The program takes
troubled young people, and makes them work as a team on a ship for 4
weeks as they sail from Quam back to the United States. As we see each
character, it will flash back a few days to show the audience why these
six kids ended up in this program. First they met J.J Lane, who after
hearing about his explosion from school, grabs one of his movie star
fathers bottles of alcohol and his motorcycle keys and goes for a joy
ride. J.J ends up losing control of the motorcycle and crashes it
through a museum window. J.J’s father being a celebrity has its
privileges and he is able to keep his son out of legal trouble, however
on the car ride back home he tells J.J he will be leaving for the CNC
program.
The camera returns to the boat and we are introduced to
Charla Swann. When the audience firsts sees her flashback, they see her
apartment which tells the audience her family does not have very much
money. Charla is eating breakfast with her dad, who tells her that he
cannot make it to her basketball game because he is has to work at two
of his jobs all day and into the early morning. Charla is disappointed
because her dad had not been to a game all season and this was the day
she was going to sign her letter of intent to play college basketball
for Notre Dame, even though she was just a sophomore . After the
basketball game Charla is walking home and she walks past a jewelry
store, where she sees plenty of expensive diamonds. Charla gets the
idea that if she were to steal just one diamond she could sell it and
maybe her dad wouldn’t have to work as much to pay for her sports,
because she could use her new diamond money. Having never stole
anything in her life, Charla has no real idea of how to pull it off and
ultimately she is caught. The police give her an option of paying a
hefty fine or four weeks on the CNC program, easy choice for a family
with no money.
As the camera returns back to the present, the
audience sees a girl and boy bickering back and forth, the next
flashback introduces Will and Lyssa Greenfield. At their New York home
Will and Lyssa are in yet another fight, they are shouting back and
forth and their parents are trying to break them up to no avail. Lyssa
eventually pushes Will, who trips over his feet and crashes into some
cabinets. The cabinet topples over and a glass vase shatters and cuts
Wills forearm, he is rushed to the hospital and given fifteen stiches.
While in the waiting room Mr. Greenfield informs Lyssa that both her
and Will would be going on a program that will make them get along and
work together.
Panning back to the ship, Ian Sikorsky is checking
anchor lines, and then the show goes into his flashback. Ian is in the
schools computer lab working on two computers. He is hacking into the
school system and gaining access to tests that are stored on the
schools private server. As Ian was finishing up, the school principle
and super intendant walk in. They were informed of his actions once he
broke through the firewall. The principle gives Ian a choice, he can be
expelled and get marked on his public records or he goes to CNC for
four weeks.
Once again the camera is back on the ship and Luke
Haggerty is staring at his reflection in the bathroom mirror when his
flashback begins. Luke is sitting in class when the intercom buzzes and
the school secretary announces “Luke Haggerty to the office, please.”
Luke arrives to the principal’s office where he sees his parents and
two police officers. The principle reveals that they had found a gun in
Luke’s locker. When Luke denies the claims, a police officer holds up
the gun which Luke knows is his friend Reese’ gun, but he doesn’t say a
word. The police tell Luke that in order to avoid juvenile detention he
can choose the CNC program. He does.
The pilot will also pick up
one week into the four week cruise. A storm is approaching and when it
gets to the boat they are caught up in it. The captain is swept
overboard and shortly after the first mate, Mr. Radford abandons on the
lifeboat as the ship is taking in water. The kids decide to abandon the
ship and swim to a nearby island using life vests and debris that fell
off of the ship. Ian, Charla, and Luke wash up on the island first. An
unconscious Will washes up next. J.J and Lyssa are nowhere to be found.
Ian suggests that maybe they didn’t make it but Luke says that the need
to search the beach and make shelter. End pilot.
Direction of the series: I read this book when I was younger; it is made for middle school age
kids so the first change I made was making the kids older. In the book
the kids are 12-15, I made them 15-17 because that is more believable
to an audience, especially for a survival story. I then expanded back
stories a little bit and matured the characters. After the pilot
episode, there is going to be many challenges, learning to live on the
island, finding the others are among the things that will develop over
the course of the first season. Will waking up with amnesia and not
remembering the ship or his sister will be a solid story arch. Once,
the group finds Lyssa and J.J, J.J will start to challenge Luke and
test him, resenting his authority. Season 2 brings in illegal traders,
One of the kids being shot, relationships forming between the kids.
Also with the maturation of the kids, the danger will up'd, the
violence will be up'd.
_________________
- Come at me bro -
Subject: Head of Household #9 
Fri Apr 20, 2012 12:57 am
