Land of the Free: The Feature Screenplay

LAND OF THE FREE - the novel by Lynn Santer (adapted from this feature screenplay) was launched at the World Wildlife Fund's 25th celebrity anniversary in Australia (November, 2003) and has been in the top ten best-seller list on Amazon.com in the "Intrigue/Espionage" category. In 2001, Lynn Santer arranged for Alfred Hitchcock's star of "The Birds" and "Marnie", Tippi Hedren, to meet a woman Lynn describes as the "Mother Theresa of animals", Meryl Harrison (Chief Inspector of the Zimbabwe National SPCA). Meryl Harrison has saved and safeguarded the lives of literally hundreds of thousands of animals, regularly facing the very real prospect of meeting a gruesome death for daring to intervene. "War Veterans" (on the payroll of the corrupt Zimbabwean government) have threatened to axe Meryl to death on numerous occasions, and in 2003 she had to be flown for emergency life-saving surgery to Johannesburg. Meryl has been awarded internationally on multiple occasions for her bravery. Bonding over their love of big cats (Tippi has a big cat sanctuary north of Los Angeles) Lynn, Tippi and Meryl planned a covert mission to expose brutal atrocities against endangered big game by some of the wealthiest and most powerful men on earth. To achieve their mutual goal they enlisted help from a real life "A Team" of ex Special-Forces commandos. Lynn's feature screenplay chronicles in fiction what they all went through in reality to get this dramatic story out to the public. This included not only trying to organize a covert mission behind the glitz and glamor of high profile events, but also having to overcome the seemingly insurmountable obstacles put in their path time after time. Aside from the political and financial muscle they came up against (in both the US and Zimbabwe) as Lynn was unable to speak openly about the mission she was vilified by the media as a charlatan. Lynn was also dragged through audits by the Criminal Investigation Bureau, the Office of Fair Trading, and the Tax Department. Nonetheless, this determined band of unlikely collaborators doggedly refused to give up the fight, echoing the words of one of the Safari Club's most eminent members claiming (in both conviction and irony) "We will prevail.” On 23rd September, 2004, Lynn Santer joined Tippi Hedren for a joint book signing at Barnes & Noble's flagship West Coast bookstore, The Grove.