![WILLIAM WEDIG [director/editor]](http://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5395d5fee4b04553a429538f/1590329838304-J94EL7BB69ZQ15N7UJEF/WW+WRITER+DIRECTOR+EDITOR+LOGO-alpha+cropped.png?format=750w)
LOGLINE:
When the evil half-goat, half-demon known as Krampus kidnaps one of their brothers, a diverse group of young friends must travel to The North Pole to save him, along with the entire Christmas holiday.
GENRE: Adventure/Fantasy
LENGTH: Feature Film (100 minutes)
LOCATION: Brooklyn, NY and The North Pole
WRITTEN BY: William Wedig & Zach Brown
BROOKLYN, N.Y. PRESENT DAY
It’s Christmas Eve and 12-year old Sarie Connelly and her posse of twinkle-eyed pals bubble with excitement. After years of receiving the wrong presents, The Stratford Five (as they’ve been calling themselves, named after their apartment building) have hatched a plan to get precisely the presents they want by sending out their requests a full year early.
But when Sarie’s immature 10-year old brother, Danny, barges in on the Stratford Five’s meeting, the gang plays a joke on him, sending him to track down Santa Claus himself and take a photo. Danny dutifully ventures out and mysteriously vanishes, never to be seen again.
That is until...
ONE YEAR LATER… CHRISTMAS EVE
Sarie and the now estranged Stratford Five all receive magical Christmas cards from the long-lost Danny. He says he’s been kidnapped and is being held captive at the North Pole. He begs them to come save him from the clutches of a dark Santa Claus.
Sure enough on the roof, just like the letter said, Santa’s sleigh lands ontop of the Stratford apartment building and the gang hitches a ride to The North Pole.
But upon arriving, The North Pole is almost unrecognizable, overrun with dark elves and evil forces. And when dark holiday spirit known as Krampus reveals himself as the creator of this corrupt Christmas village, Sarie knows that now she must not only find a way to save Danny, but entire Christmas holiday.
THE NORTH POLE:
Clearly, this is not The North Pole that we all know and love.
The snowy cottages, candy canes trees and Christmas trains have all but been abandoned. In exchange, Krampus has built an evil wonderland complete with a castle that rises high above the village so he can watch his evil plans unfold. On a nearby hill, the abandoned workshop sits covered in cobwebs and snow drifts.
And Santa is nowhere to be found.
What’s more, Krampus has used his magical powers to convert all the Christmas elves into dark ghouls and demons, and placed any resisters into a dark dungeon on the edge of town, built to hold anyone who dares go against his dark wishes.
In the center of the courtyard lies a huge ooze-filled Christmas Spirit Meter. Which was once filled with a sparking vat of Christmas Spirit, but is now mostly filled with tar-like evil Anti-Spirit, with only a sliver of Green Christmas Spirit remaining.
THE STRATFORD BUILDING / BROOKLYN, N.Y.
Nestled between brownstones and streetlights lies The Stratford Building, the place where the Stratford Five gets into most of their mischief. The six story building is right in the edge of Park Slope and this time of year it's covered in snow. Christmas lights line the streets and the nights are cold and icy.
Brooklyn is a melting pot as far as culture and that's definitely the case for The Stratford Building, which is filled with families from all walks of life.
SARIE CONNELLY
A twelve year old Brooklyn, NY native, Sarie can’t wait to see what presents she is going to get each year. But she's noticing that her letter to Santa must not be getting to him, as she never gets what's on her list.
Sarie tells The Stratford Five that she's going to The North Pole in order to save Danny and bring him back home to her mom. But when the rest of the Stratford Five discover her true motivation and turn on her, Sarie is forced to reckon with her own misperceptions of the holiday and learns the true meaning of Christmas: to spend time with those we love and bring goodwill and cheer to all.
DANNY CONNELLY
Two years younger than Sarie, Danny is a bit of a runt and much more family-driven. He knows the true meaning of Christmas and still appreciates the aspect of family and good tidings during the holiday.
But Danny’s time at the evil North Pole has taken a toll on his Christmas Spirit. Which comes as a surprise to Sarie and ultimately plays a big part in her transformation.
CONNOR PRICE
Connor is probably what you would have imagined Prince to have been like at 12 years old. He has a huge heart and always tries to do the right thing.
He's also who Sarie is the closest with out of the Stratford Five, as their apartments are on the same floor. Somewhat of a voice of reason, Connor finds himself struggling as he watches Sarie go along her transformative journey.
AMY WU
Amy is the tom-boy of the group. She races BMX bikes, catches bugs, McGyver's tools, and is afraid of NOTHING. Even with her left arm in a cast (from a BMX bike crash), Amy is still the toughest of the group and finds herself being the protector of Nester, whose far less competent than her at navigating the clutches of the now evil North Pole.
NESTER GREGORY
An “indoor kid” through and through, Nester is basically a genius when it comes to tech and will probably grow up to be a very successful video game designer. That said, he’s currently the most reluctant of the group when it comes to going outside, let alone traveling all the way to The North Pole! But the only thing that has half as much power as video games over Nester, is peer pressure.
CHUCK CLARK
Chuck is the trouble maker of the group -- and the wisecracker of the bunch. He’s hard headed, quick to push back, and the one most likely to become a rock star.
Unfortunately, his family is strict he has no choice but to rebel outside the home. Or else he's going to end up taking over his parent's Pizzeria by the time he's old enough to vote.
KRAMPUS
The horned "half-goat, half-demon" figure who, during the Christmas season, punishes children who have misbehaved.
In the not too distant past, Krampus discovered that Christmas Spirit was at an all time high and that there weren't enough bad little boys and girls for him to prey upon, thus jeopardizing the very need for his existence. So he hatched a plan to destroy the Christmas Holiday forever. By hijacking the Christmas holiday and destroying all the Christmas Spirit, Krampus could convert all the good little boys and girls into bad ones and cement his place in the North Pole forever. So he implanted the holiday with consumerism and greed, took over the North Pole and converted the elves to truly ruin Christmas forever.
Present day: Krampus’s plan is going swimmingly and Christmas Spirit has been going down year after year, nearly hitting zero. And this year, if he can keep it at zero just until sunrise on Christmas Morning, Christmas Spirit will be gone forever.
THE EVIL ELVES
What were once good elves who worked alongside Santa, are now evil possessed elves that are Krampus’s minions that help carry out his evil plan to ruin Christmas. Their weapon of choice?... Blow dart guns, that shoot darts soaked in Evil Anti-Christmas Spirit Ooze. Once shot by one of these darts, the victim transforms to the dark side and joins the evil forces.
Coming from two opposite sides of the spectrum when it comes to the Christmas holiday, we both learned its true meaning at different stages of our lives. As the youngest of six boys, William received a very limited amount of gifts while Zach’s Christmas bounty was quite abundant. We found ourselves having this discussion one afternoon in Los Angeles and that’s when and where Crashing Through the Snow was born.
As a culture, we’ve witnessed a great shift where Christmas has become a marketing frenzy filled with consumerism and huge profits for large companies. In fact, in the United States Christmas spending has gone from $400 billion in 2000 to just under $800 billion in 2019. In 2018 an estimated 114 million US shoppers (over a 3rd of the population) hit the stores on Black Friday alone. We believe that the societal changes in the approach to the holiday have led us to have lost the true meaning of Christmas.
Crashing Through the Snow can be a showcase that can guide us toward a more ethical and moral version of what makes the holiday work, aside from any religious aspect. The optimists in us hopes to encourage people to spend time with family and loved ones, do good deeds for your neighbors, and flood the world with good tidings. We both feel that this script does a great job shining a light on what Christmas has become and what it should be in a unique way. It’s a story that can teach a lesson to all ages, whether it be a 5 year old writing their Christmas list or an adult with their turkey-filled belly whose gearing up with armor in preparation to battle the masses on Black Friday.
- WILLIAM WEDIG & ZACH BROWN
Writers, Crashing Through the Snow
WILLIAM WEDIG
Screenwriter
William Wedig is an award winning writer/director based out of New York and Los Angeles. Wedig's feature, Forged, which he wrote, directed and edited, won Best Film at the HBO Latino Film Festival and stars Manny Perez and 3X Emmy winner Margo Martindale. He also directed 26 half-hour episodes of Cartoon Network show, Team Toon, which premiered on Netflix and starred Disney/ABC starlet Meg Donnelly of Zombies! and American Housewife fame.
Wedig also co-wrote the feature screenplay Evergreen, a 2018 Breakthrough Series winner. Evergreen was written alongside BAFTA-nominated Jeff Wolverton, whose film, The Chubbchubbs, won the Academy Award for best animated short.
Additionally, Wedig directed the feature film Rise of the Dead (Lions Gate Home Entertainment), the TV special Exposure: Sports Illustrated Swimsuit (PSN, MSG), and was a series director on the music series Noisemakers On Noisevox featuring world-renowned music journalist and former-MTV VJ, John Norris. He recently has directed commercials for Discovery Channel, Walmart and has edited trailers and commercials for Vice.
Wedig is a member of The Motion Picture Editors Guild and IBEW. He is the owner and founder of 2W Films.
ZACH BROWN
Screenwriter
Zach Brown is an award-winning writer/director best known for writing/directing the feature film Hard Surfaces, which won Best Screenplay at Downtown Los Angeles Int. Film Festival, Best First Feature at WorldFest Houston, Best Director and Best of Fest at Idyllwild Int. Film Festival. Brown wrote and directed the docu-short The Mountain Man, which gained critical acclaim in North Carolina and Virginia.
As a writer, Brown is known for developing character-driven stories which explore the boundaries of genre. His last two screenplays, entitled Brainchild and The Hadley Project, placed in the top 5% and 10% (respectively) in the Nicholls Fellowship. The Hadley Project was also a quarter-finalist in PAGE International Screenplay Awards.
