Stone's War | Madogianni

Title: STONE'S WAR

Genre: Action War Romance - (novel adaptation)

Page Count: 168 pages.

Status: written on spec - looking to option

Production: medium budget

Logline: Enlisted by the Secret Service to eliminate the leading Nazi organizer behind the making of an alleged atom bomb, a hired assassin falls in love with a German undercover agent and tries to escape with her back to England.

Synopsis: Stone’s War follows Edward Stone, a half-British, half-German war major serving for the British Army, as he is sent to Germany in an undercover mission to assassinate Albert Speer, the well-known architect who is acting as Minister of Armament next to Hitler. In Germany he meets Elke, a German undercover agent, hired to help him. A bombing that almost kills them cements their romantic relationship. When the assassination day comes, Stone promises to Elke that he will come back for her but fate has other plans for them. Back in England, the SOE informs him that Albert Speer is still alive. Despite his wish to be sent back to Germany to finish the job, they send him to war in Italy. After almost two years and too many PTSD-worthy memories, the war is over and Stone is given a new task: to help in the denazification process in Berlin. Back in Germany, the SOE blackmail him into another mission in exchange for Elke. Stone accepts and reunites with her. As they plan the new mission, they are targeted by the Russian NKVD who have their own post-war interests. As the conflict escalates, Stone and Elke, with the help of the SOE, flee Germany for good. Bedraggled and exhausted, at a railway station in Lincolnshire, Elke reveals to Stone that she is pregnant.

Time & Space: The film opens with the death of Albert Speer in 1981 as a prelude to the main story. The film takes place for the most part between 1943 and 1947. It mostly unravels in Berlin with a few scenes in Italy and London.

Languages: English, German.

Comparables: Allied meets Schindler’s List.

Edward Stone undergoes an identity crisis when he realises that war is futile which is similar to Oskar Schindler’s change of faith who decides to use his status and leverage to save Jewish people. While for Schindler this is prompted by a glib in his conscience, for Stone, Elke becomes the anchor against which he can measure his morality. Stone’s War in its core is as much a love story as Allied.