Kafka’s metamorphosis would have made a great sf premise if he’d turned Samsa into a giant 17-year cicada. Every 17 years, he turns into a cicada for 4-6 weeks and is betrayed by family and instead of committing suicide as in original, he runs away and starts a new life elsewhere
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In this version, the story opens with Samsa (played by Jeff Goldblum, who by a happy coincidence is 4x17=68y old right now so perfect) anticipate his, 5th turning. He’s tired of running. Maybe this time he should just end it all. He’ll be 85 at next turning, is it worth it?
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We learn through flashback that he was born a cicada and abandoned, surviving on garbage behind a dumpster and adopted when he turned into a human baby at 6 weeks. He grows up with a vague unconscious memory of birth trauma, so his first adult turning at 17 is a relief.
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We learn he was:
a) a star athlete high-jumper 0-16
b) an underground hacker/drug dealer 17-33
c) a Family Man Normie 34-50
d) a warlord in the Middle East 51-67
We learn how he figures out his 17 year cycle after b, using bith internal signs/vibes and synch with cicadas.
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In the last turning he was prepared and carefully stage-managed his disappearance at 51, leading money etc for family, giving them closure and a new life. But it didn’t go as planned. The lives of his family fall apart after he leaves. So at 68 he’s considering a do-over or death
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I knew Dan would bail me out of a narrative impasse. We has MOTIVATION! twitter.com/hondanhon/stat
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Daughter didn’t know why dad left, but has a sort of asymptomatic version that gives her cicada sense superpowers every 17 years without ‘turning her’ but she senses there’s a dark side and her fathers’s disappearance is related. She figures out his story through detective work.
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She figures out where he is and goes to Iraq to find him, not realizing she also has key to curing him with her mRNA research. Will she find him? Will he want to be treated? Will she save herself from worsening cicada transitions or turn it into a controlled perma-superpower?
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Exposition footnote: she is only part cicada because half genes, but it can dominate in later years.
But the question for both of them is: is it a blessing or a curse?
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This is extremely time-sensitive. Please get this optioned and Jeff Goldblum signed on before he gets too old to play the role. Shooting must begin now to capture real cicada footage.
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Alternately, this is also acceptable as a Korean movie. Something very Korean about it. Vague mood melange of Old Boy, Train to Busan, and Parasite, though not plot related.
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