KING OF MOAB

(Based on Actual Events)

Jeffrey Gold
(213) 787-6077
jeffreyfgold@gmail.com

Written by

Jeffrey Gold
WGA Reg. #1579605
EXT. OIL DRILLING SITE - DAY
Super: Based on Actual Events.
Nestled against a gentle hill in the grasslands, a solitary
oil rig churns reliably while workers idle about with little
interest.
Super: Texas, 1948.
One of the men, a DRILLER, with the kind of sun-leathered
face Dorothea Lange would have loved, rubs his beard...
DRILLER
You want us to shut 'er down?
He turns to CHARLIE STEEN (mid 20s), who looks more like an
academic than a chainhand.
Charlie shakes his head.
CHARLIE
A few more meters.
DRILLER
Feet or meters?
Not giving in to sarcasm, Charlie winks...
CHARLIE
Meters.
A black, late 40s Ford with fat white wall tires pulls onto
the site, stopping some distance away. The SUPERINTENDENT,
clearly a man in charge, gets out and shouts...
SUPERINTENDENT
Steen!
Charlie makes his way over to the car. Wiping his hands on
an oily rag, he eyes with suspicion the envelope the
Superintendent pushes on him.
CHARLIE
What's this?
SUPERINTENDENT
(smugly)
A check. What do you think?
Hesitating, Charlie takes it--puts a big smudge on it with
his thumb.
2.
CHARLIE
I just got one three weeks ago.
SUPERINTENDENT
Final check.
Charlie stands there--stupefied.
All of a sudden, excitement flares up at the rig as workers
are whooping and hollering.
Charlie and the Superintendent both turn around.
Acknowledging the commotion...
SUPERINTENDENT (CONT'D)
What luck! Looks like you get to
keep your job after all.
Charlie hands him back the envelope...
CHARLIE
I don't believe in luck.
He walks away--the Superintendent is dumbstruck.
EXT. HIGHWAY (COLORADO PLATEAU, 1946) - DAY
A red '40 Plymouth winds its way through the scorching alpine
desert.
Super: A few years earlier.
It's post-war America, and opportunity hangs in the air--
like in a Hal Riney commercial.
A younger Charlie, sporting thick-rimmed glasses, is behind
the wheel--amiable and carefree.
He pulls off the highway into...
EXT. VEHICLE PEN (TEXAS) - SAME
Trucks, cars, and other vehicles are corralled in haphazard
fashion by a rusty chain-link fence.
Charlie's red Plymouth pulls into the lot with bravado,
sliding to a stop and kicking up a cloud of dust.
A couple of guys in overalls turn around like someone just
ruined their day. Charlie gets out and tosses the keys to
them as if they are idle valets.
A fat OVERSEER with a clipboard, the kind of guy who is nice
to children but not to adults, turns around...
Period
Biopic
King of Moab
Jeffrey Gold
Award-winning and Produced Screenwriter & Playwright
(213) 787-6077
jeffreyfgold@gmail.com
Logline
In this untold 1950s rags-to-riches story, maverick Charles Steen risks it all to search for the
worlds most valuable mineral and helps launch a mining boom bigger than the Gold Rush.
Keywords
Americana, 1940s, 1950s, True Story, Rags-to-Riches, Millionaire, Biopic, Moab, Colorado,
Colorado Plateau, Utah, Texas, Peru, Prospecting, Mining Boom, Boom Town, Oil Drilling,
Wildcatting, Gold Rush, Uranium, Yellowcake, Geiger Counters, Pre-Cold War, Atomic Age,
Science, Geology, Los Alamos, Desert, Cinematic Vistas
Prototypes
October Sky, The Right Stuff, Tucker: The Man and His Dream, Stroke of Genius, The Worlds
Fastest Indian, A Beautiful Mind, Fat Man and Little Boy, There Will Be Blood
Awards
Top 20 Percent - 2013 Academy Nicholl Screenwriting Fellowship Competition, Finalist - 2013 Sundance
Institute/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Screenwriting Fellowship Competition, Finalist - 2013 World Series
of Screenwriting competition (Top 10 Historical/Biographical), Quarter-Finalist - 2013 Final Draft Big
Break Screenwriting Contest, Semi-Finalist (Top 30) - 2013 Screenwriting Goldmine Awards/International
Scriptwriting Contest (UK), Finalist - 2013 Woods Hole Film Festival Screenplay Competition, Winner
- Best Screenplay based on a True Story, 2013 Columbia Gorge International Film Festival Screenplay
Competition, Winner - 2013 Best of State Gold Medal - Screenwriting, Finalist - 2013 Write Brothers
Screenplay Competition, Finalist - 2013 Canada International Film Festival Screenplay Competition
(Vancouver), Winner - 2012 SLFS/USP Fellowship (sponsored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts
and Sciences), Winner (2nd Place) - 2012 StoryPros International Screenplay Contest, Top Ten Semi-
Finalist - 2012 New Hampshire Film Festival Screenwriting Competition, Semi-Finalist - 2012 New
York Screenplay Contest, Quarter-Finalist - 2012 Final Draft Big Break Screenwriting Contest, Second
Rounder - 2012 Austin Film Festival Screenwriting Competition, Second Round - 2012 Cinequest Film
Festival Screenwriting Competition, Winner - 2012 Best of State Gold Medal - Screenwriting