Santa Claus is a recluse in my story who decides enough is enough. He's been a recluse for centuries now that people no longer believe he exists. Reason he became a recluse, in Santa's own words; "Everybody was being naughty to each other." Reason he's decided to do a comeback in Santa's words; "Because people now think that I don't even think exist anymore!" "So I've decided to come back, to let everybody know that you're all still naughty!" Examples of naughty could be Prime Minister's Questions. and wars in Syria and everything. I'm thinking mishaps here and there leading to a courtroom setting starting the story as Santa Claus takes the stand to testify and get cross examined by an opposing team of lawyers telling an interested courtroom his story and ending in a Christmas miracle preformed by Santa making everybody believe and accept Santa as fact rather than fiction. The prosecution could give us a flashback to how he came to be in court. Santa could give a flashback of an account that goes back a couple of hundred years, so we flashback to Santa's beef with humanity starting long ago and how people were warring and being naughty, so, little Santa P.O.V on colonial history and slave trade perhaps or whatever starting it, some reason to label humankind less than perfect; and Santa deciding to go on a strike until we all acted nice, but that never happened and here we are today and Santa has decided that that isn't going to work. So he came back this Christmas to let everybody know; That he does exist. That we're all still very naughty (perhaps naughtier still) because we're not nice to each other and we have genocides and ethnic cleansing and sectarian violence and modern day slavery and human trafficking and and anything else I may be missing out on, like organised criminal drugs being the reasons and arms sales driven by hate greed and power, and racism, homophobia, Islamophobia etc, all of it, Santa won't be happy.
As ever I'm thinking screenplay and cliché Santa, like Santa suit, beard... And, for my own amusement, I want to sneak Coco-Cola's logo somewhere out of sight on his red Santa suit and do a close up of it as Santa sits down as a nod to Coca-Cola's marketing campaign that turned him into wearing Coca-Cola red in popular culture.
How do I get preachy with my Santa Claus? Like, how do I begin to reference something without a cut away to explain it and retain my courtroom setting? I'm going to have to use dialogue and flashbacks, but, if only the reader/audience see the flashbacks and references, how do I make my characters see it - that's not fantasy, that a New York City court judge would allow in their court. So, no magic mirrors. No fantasy court. Real world court, fantasy defendant, defendant is a recluse believed to be make believe, defendant has a message to tell. That message is "You're all too naughty to get gifts from Santa Claus!" The defendant even if I have to and pull some poetic license strings, have to write my Santa Claus being tested and proved sane and not lying and a simple ground breaking blood test as my Santa Claus is centuries old and looks no older than 65, my Santa Claus will be allowed to take the witness box as one Santa Claus, a stateless undocumented alien with an American or British accent, saying he's from The North Pole. I'm still sticking to his trespassing fo par from being unaccustomed to modern customs being the reason for his arrest in Long Island on his way to the United Nations.
This week I liked it, the 1994 version, and, I was assured that my story was different. That was an insanity plea hearing and a trick I missed (because when I saw that, I wished I wrote that - it was genius), and there was no flashbacks. I've ruled that out for being like my story, other than Santa Claus NYC Courtroom Setting. I also saw It's A Wonderful Life yesterday/Halloween this week too after watching and ruling out A Miracle On 34th Street. I'm now thinking the only other thing I could think of now that's even remotely like my story (now) might be the original 1943 Heaven Can Wait, but that's an afterlife courtroom, after I was sure I had A Miracle On 34th Street on my hands but I saw it to see and I really didn't, which was good, a little close for my liking, but, different story, different Santa, not at all the story or Santa Claus I want to write.. No one owns NYC or setting a story there. My Santa Claus organically wound up in a NYC courtroom because of the United Nations is there and people live in Long Island and I want him being arrested in a family home trespassing and I'm making it he was distracted 'by innocent Christmas Joy' stopping in Long Island en route to the UN. Then I was sure it was something if not A Miracle On 34th Street that, maybe it was It's A Wonderful Life - both A Miracle On 34th Street and It's A Wonderful Life I saw for the first time ever this week (and I'm glad I did) because of my story and me wanting to know if I might have another person's story, but then finding my story's my story, and I like it.
