“About fifteen years ago I auditioned for Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra. Bix was there and said I was real smooth. I coulda had the job too, but I thought the Navy was safer.”
- Lieutenant Naquin
Submerged
EXT. OCEAN / TUG BOAT – NIGHT
(Lit by several large spotlights, two Sailors finish tying a grapnel line to the end of the sub while Swede attaches a large hook to the other end of the line.)
SIBITZKY: How’s this gonna work, sir?
SWEDE: You ever drop a fountain pen from a third-story window, blindfold yourself, then try to retrieve it with a bent pin?
SIBITZKY: No, sir.
SWEDE: Well, that’s how it’s gonna work.
The Story
Based on The Terrible Hours by Peter Maas, Submerged tells the true story of the extraordinary deep-underwater rescue of the surviving crew of the submarine Squalus, which sank to the ocean floor while on a test run off the coast of New England in 1939.
The Backstory
The picture was ordered by NBC from a script by another writer, and while the movie was in pre-production I was brought in to do a complete re-write. The movie shot in Rome and Malta, which was cool, and I played a supporting part in it, which was also cool. It had a private screening at the White House which I attended, which was way cool, and I got to meet the President who was not so cool. While writing this, I was also in pre-production for Living With The Dead for the same producer, Stan Brooks. An exciting time. And the movie turned out to be pretty darn good, breaking a number of viewership records for an NBC MOW.