Lindy Grads Are Moviemakers on a Mission

Joe Sikorski and Mike Calomino, both writers and 1985 grads of , have a story that begs to be told.

The long-time friends and collaborators have co-authored a screenplay that earned the Best Original Screenplay 2010 Award in the Long Island Film Festival’s Screenwriting competition.

The script – entitled Fragments from Olympus: The Vision of Nikola Tesla – also qualified as a Quarter Finalist in The American Screenwriting Competition. It sheds long overdue light on perhaps the greatest inventor ever, according to the screenwriting duo.

Sikorski, a four-time award-winning writer/director/producer, and Calomino, an award-winning author/screenwriter/playwright, have the talent and track records to bring this cinematic venture to the big screen.

Sikorski started Colossal Molehill Productions to make Fragments from Olympus a reality. He already has his teaser/promo in hand featuring veteran actor Leo Rossi, who’s lending support to the venture. Sikorski and producer Victor Elefante are now working passionately to secure the $4 million in financing needed to produce the film.

As an independent film, Fragments from Olympus can be made far less expensively than a Hollywood movie, the filmmakers contend.

“We can afford to do things in-house that would’ve cost millions to do in the past, from large set pieces, pyrotechnic displays [to] views of Wardenclyffe, Tesla’s lab,” Calomino said. “We already have the state-of-the-art technology we need to do this.”

The Hollywood-caliber teaser was done for only $700, surely indicating what Colossal Molehill can deliver within the projected budget.

Passion has fueled this project all along, which spans almost a decade of research for the screenwriters. Hardly a household name – few even know who he is – Tesla pioneered modern electricity, radio, microwaves, X-rays, radar, the remote control, robotics and missile science. He held hundreds of patents and poured his life’s work and money into his inventions to help humankind.

Though Tesla mesmerized many running in New York’s elite circles, he had no interest in money for his own gain, and walked away from more than a billion dollars in royalties. In addition, the egos of other inventors, including Edison and Marconi, undermined his efforts.

Although his genius continues to benefit the entire world, Tesla, a Yugoslavian immigrant, died penniless in a New York hotel room January 7, 1943, just days before his meeting with President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Tesla had a prototype for a “death ray” weapon he claimed could project an energy beam particle strong enough to melt an airplane’s engines from 250 miles away. Tesla termed it a “peace ray” and hoped it would aid the Allies during World War II.

Just after his death, a prototype of the ray was reportedly shot down over South America as U.S. government officials attempted to bring it to General Dwight D. Eisenhower in Europe.

Sikorski and Calomino’s award-winning script recounts Tesla’s story through the posthumous FBI investigation that ensued after the plane crash to track down Tesla’s papers and experiments. Sikorski secured the declassified FBI documents via a Freedom of Information request, and the findings figure heavily into the film, which is more of a drama than documentary.

A thriller with overtones of science fiction, the film is a redemptive labor of love to vindicate the struggles and present the enormous contributions of this misunderstood, eccentric scientist. It’s of special significance to Long Islanders, as much of Tesla’s work was done here at the Wardenclyffe Laboratory and its transmitting tower in Shoreham between 1901 and 1905.

The lab was initially financed by J. Pierpont Morgan (JP Morgan) with the goal of having Tesla transmit electricity to connect all of the world’s stock exchanges. Tesla instead hoped to transmit free electricity wirelessly to the entire world. Morgan stopped the financing, saying, “If anyone can draw on the power, where do we put the meter?"

Corporate greed ended Tesla’s vision then, but Sikorski and Calomino’s vision to tell this important story now in an epic film could also help Tesla’s scientific genius and research continue.

By building the preservation cost of Wardenclyffe into the $4 million production budget, “Wardenclyffe could become a great revenue-generating asset to the community by transforming it into a Tesla Museum and science center,” said Jane Alcorn, president of the non-profit Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe, who’s rallying behind this production. 

The site is currently for sale by AGFA Corporation, and time is ticking, noted Alcorn and the filmmakers, as Wardenclyffe could be saved before the cameras roll.

Sikorski and Calomino contend that financiers would realize a sound investment and benefit from the immeasurable marketing/PR potential this would attract. The duo also touts that it’d benefit Long Island as well as Tesla’s research into the future and facilitate a free shooting location for this film – a tribute to Tesla, who, according to the duo, so richly deserves one.

Colossal Molehill’s teaser Fragments from Olympus: the Vision of Nikola Tesla can be seen online. The film is also on Facebook. Investors can also find the film online here.

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