THE LEGEND OF THE TREE OF GOOD AND EVIL synopsis (LEGENDS part one)
LOGLINE
PITCH
Twelve-year-old Olivia wishes her town was a kinder, better place to live. A magical apple tree appears and gives superpowers to all who eat from it; but it’s addictive, and the powers soon turn dark. Olivia must travel to another dimension to redeem herself, her family, and her town from the curse of the Tree of Good and Evil.
SYNOPSIS
When a fast-growing tree-shoot springs up in the middle of Olivia Genesee’s backyard, her parents pick it like a weed. Asking herself why everyone has to be so mean, the 12-year-old seventh grader from the town of Humansville would have loved to climb its branches one day. She desperately wants Humansville to be a better place to live. As she heads off to school, it starts raining. When she returns home, she is excited to find a full-grown tree in her backyard. The tree is filled with green leaves and red, juicy apples. A dripping wet player piano sits next to it, making haunting music.
As her parents and brother Nathan come home, they join her in the backyard. Each is perplexed by the mysterious tree. Olivia bites into a gorgeous, shiny apple from the tree, but her dog Meatloaf barks a warning—worms are crawling from the fruit. Olivia drops the apple after swallowing a chunk, and Meatloaf kicks it under a bush. Out of curiosity, everyone in Olivia’s family eats the glistening apples on the tree anyhow. Despite their attempts, there is no way to turn off the player piano. It plays creepy music all night long and keeps the neighbors awake.
The next day, Olivia and her family have superpowers from the apples. They are each taller in stature and stronger in form than they have ever been. With bulging muscles, Olivia can lift the family car from the driveway. Nathan can throw the football to the end of the street; his mother and father can rearrange the dining room furniture in minutes. Despite the worms in the apples, everyone in her family craves more apples and the results of eating them. Meatloaf continues to bark at them . . . to no avail. Olivia’s mother even makes batches and batches of homemade applesauce so they can eat handfuls of the fruit at once. Life seems so much easier when eating the shiny apples, except when Olivia gets detention at school for slamming the bathroom door shut and breaking a window. She also bumps a lab table in chemistry class and accidentally knocks it over, shattering its glass bottles and flasks.
After school, Olivia notices a scantily dressed woman crawling in the tree, singing along with the player piano. The woman says the tree has the power to bring life or death, and Olivia gets to decide which one she wants for her town. Named after Eve, the first woman, she says her name is Evelyn and shares the legend of the Tree of Good and Evil with Olivia, saying the Tree appears from time to time to test people. After all, when Olivia said she wanted Humansville to be a better place, she did ask for the Tree’s appearance. Until the town understands its faults, how will it ever be a more gracious place to live? Evelyn recounts the time when Eve and her husband Adam ate its apples and were kicked out of Eden. She observes that Olivia and her family have clearly become obsessed with the Tree’s cursed apples. Evelyn says the apples give the people too much power, and it will eventually destroy them.
When Evelyn disappears, Olivia gathers the apples from the Tree and hides them in her bedroom so no one else can get any. But as soon as she picks the apples, the Tree grows more fruit. Meatloaf barks at her as she hides the apples, howling at the fruit, instead of being tempted by it. As man’s best friend, the dog tries to protect Olivia from the poison. Even if the apples make her big and strong, Olivia decides she doesn’t want to be controlled by them and doesn’t think anyone else should, either. The apples grow back overnight. Later that night, Evelyn appears asleep on a tree branch, mumbling something to Olivia that her family can’t see Evelyn. Why? Simply put, her family did not ask for the Tree.
Although Olivia tries to stop eating the apples, she suffers from withdrawals and feels like she’s hallucinating. She thinks she has no choice but to eat another apple. After she eats the fruit, she temporarily feels better, but then ends up destroying everything in her path. She realizes that she got her powers too easily and did not earn the responsibility that comes with them. Hours later, she feels even worse, almost like she’s dying, and craves more apples. Olivia’s family and neighbors who have stolen apples from the Tree act in destructive ways, damaging the neighborhood. The Tree keeps producing more bad apples.
Longing to save Humansville, young Olivia begs a very jealous Evelyn to tell her what to do. Although she wants to help humans learn a lesson, Evelyn also withholds information for a solution from Olivia. As merely a messenger, Evelyn says she will never be a true human being and hates humans for their freewill. After a wrestling match with Olivia, Evelyn admits that she knows of a second tree, the Tree of Life . . . in Eden. The seeds of its fruit create an elixir that reverses the curse of the apples on the Tree of Good and Evil. She says there is a window that opens next to the Tree of Good and Evil at midnight on the seventh full day of the Tree’s appearance. When the player piano plays a magical song, it announces that the window is allowing a person to travel to Eden. If Evelyn helps Olivia through the window, she wants Olivia’s assistance in becoming human. Olivia vows she will help Evelyn in any way that she can.
When the window finally appears, Olivia jumps through it to find a golden tree, the Tree of Life. Then, Olivia realizes that she is unable to get back through the window to Humansville. Sticking her head through the window, Evelyn gloats that she tricked Olivia into leaving her friends and family in Humansville. Evelyn demands to be human. If Olivia wants to come back to her hometown, she can beseech Adam II, the new ruler of Eden. Evelyn says that it is only Adam II who can change her into a human being, and he has previously refused her request, saying that she is only a messenger and does not have the strength for freewill. If Olivia doesn’t speak to Adam II now, Evelyn says there is no hope for anyone in Humansville—Olivia’s has three days, or her family and friends will never recover from the effects of the apples.
After Olivia seeks help from the residents of Eden to meet Adam II, she finds him on his throne of supernatural fire. Anyone who approaches his throne with fire from a natural source immediately melts. Upon hearing Olivia’s story, Adam II speaks to Evelyn through the window and chastises her for her lack of compassion for Humansville. Although he originally sent Evelyn to grant Olivia’s wish for a better Humansville, Evelyn was not supposed to cause any havoc. Even though it was Evelyn’s first foray into the town, Adam II forbids Evelyn to ever become a human being. As punishment to Evelyn, he commands her to appear chained to the original Tree of Good and Evil in Eden for eternity, saying she will be a sign of the dangers of evil. She weeps in regret.
As Adam II opens the window to Humansville and sends Olivia home, he gives her golden apple seeds from the Tree of Life. He tells her to make an elixir from the seeds to save her dying family and friends. Then he asks her to save one seed and plant a Tree of Life in Humansville as redemption. After returning to Humansville, Olivia visits her middle school chemistry lab, makes the elixir, and runs to her family and friends with the potion. Meatloaf the dog goes with her, helping to save lives. As Olivia rids the town of the cursed apples, the ground in her backyard splits apart, opens its mouth, and swallows the Tree of Good and Evil, and the earth closes over the disappeared tree. As a reward for passing the test, the player piano remains. Olivia takes the piano inside her home. Although it now plays more hopeful melodies, she also learns to play it herself. All the while, she watches blossoms bloom on the Tree of Life as it grows in her backyard, wondering what test it might bring Humansville next. She realizes that Humansville improving itself was never that simple.
THE LEGEND OF THE TREE OF LIFE synopsis (LEGENDS part two)
LOGLINE
PITCH
Olivia Genesee’s Humansville backyard holds a Tree of Life, but in the world of Eden on the other side of the Tree, evil Prince Ubel has overthrown Adam II and plans to create his own species to subordinate humans around the universe. Called to action by Evelyn, named after the first woman, Eve, Olivia and her dog Meatloaf enter that other realm where she poses as a convert to Prince Ubel’s cause, then finds keys and a golden sword that might save the day. In the line of duty, Olivia restrains the evil Prince, enters a labyrinthine system of underground rivers and caves, and finds the imprisoned Adam II. Freeing him and bringing him and the original Tree of Life back to the surface, Olivia sees Adam II restore order in Eden and free Evelyn from chains to reward her loyalty. Back in Humansville again, Olivia realizes her family never even knew she was gone.
It has been several months since the Tree of Life stood tall in 12-year-old Olivia Genesee’s backyard in Humansville. With the Tree of Good and Evil gone, all seems quiet and serene. Then one night in a thunderstorm, lightning hits the Tree of Life, and it cracks through the trunk of the tree into its roots. It causes a sort-of short circuit in the universe and opens the transporting window between Eden and Humansville. Listening to the player piano in her living room once again play a triumphant song to announce the window’s opening, Olivia and her dog Meatloaf run into the backyard. Evelyn, named after the first woman Eve, delivers a message to Olivia. Although Evelyn can’t crawl through the window—because she is chained to the original Tree of Good and Evil in Eden for eternity—she warns Olivia that Adam II has been captured by an evil ruler named Prince Ubel. He wants all the power from the original Tree of Life in Eden, and he has sent lightning storms to all the places in other worlds where seeds were planted to grow secondary trees. If she is brave enough, Evelyn asks Olivia to visit Eden and help save Adam II and the original Tree of Life, which Prince Ubel has uprooted from the springs in Adam II’s estate and hid in an unknown location. If Prince Ubel controls all the power of the Tree of Life, he will have the ability to decide the life and death of every soul everywhere, and he will most likely destroy them and their children to create his own species—a species that would make any humans subordinate to them. Prince Ubel’s new race without freewill would control any humans who are not eliminated. Evelyn tells Olivia that she only has minutes to decide if she is up to the task. The window will soon close, and Olivia will not have a second chance to slip through the window. Worried her family will wonder where she went, Olivia scribbles a note in the dirt saying: “Be right back.” Before thinking about it too much, she jumps through the window and sits next to Evelyn, chained to the Tree of Good and Evil.
Rain pours as Olivia and Evelyn sit beneath dripping tree branches in Eden. Evelyn explains that Adam II has been gone for days, and Eden is desperate for someone to find him and the missing Tree of Life. Then to Olivia’s surprise, out from behind the tree trunk jumps Meatloaf. She wasn’t aware that her dog had followed her through the magical window from Humansville. As the dog starts to howl, a looming figure walks in the shadows until he appears to the women. Holding the sword that was supposed to guard the Tree of Life in Eden, Prince Ubel threatens the women to join him with the rest of Eden. He tells them that Adam II has only days to live and that the power from the Tree of Life will then be his forever. The Prince taunts Evelyn and says that he would surely free her from being chained to the Tree of Good and Evil, if she serves him. Unable to think of anything else to do other than lie, Olivia tells Prince Ubel that she will join him in his reign. Secretly, in her heart, Olivia plans to defeat Prince Ubel at the earliest moment and free Adam II, but she can’t convey this to Evelyn in front of Prince Ubel. Evelyn gasps and refuses to join Olivia in her supposed betrayal. Then Prince Ubel decides that Evelyn’s fate chained to the Tree of Good and Evil is worse than death, so he leaves her chained to the Tree, and he departs with Olivia and Meatloaf on horseback.
Later that evening, Olivia arrives at Prince Ubel’s camp outside of Adam II’s palace. He gives her a tent and says that his soldiers will move into Adam’s palace once his belongings are removed. The Prince says he wants to put Olivia in charge of identifying all the Trees of Life throughout the cosmos. If she could organize them into an exact list, then Prince Ubel would be sure they were all destroyed with his lightning attacks. He shows her the key for the vault in his tent, where the maps of the Trees of Life are held in safe keeping. He tells her to arrive early in the morning to start her job. When Olivia asks Prince Ubel where he is keeping Adam II, the evil prince threatens Olivia with the sword that once protected the Tree of Life in Eden. When Prince Ubel is not looking, she grabs the key to the maps. She apologizes with tears and runs with Meatloaf into her tent to sleep for the evening. While in the tent, Olivia whispers to Meatloaf that he must go out during the night and spy for clues. After she sends Meatloaf out, she sneaks back over to Prince Ubel’s tent and spies through the curtains to see where he has kept the sword that protected the Tree of Life. As she peers through the curtain, Meatloaf returns with no clue as to where Adam II might be. He whimpers and digs in the dirt.
Curious as to what else might be in the vault, Olivia slips into Prince Ubel’s tent with the key while he is asleep and opens the vault door when his guards are not looking. Next to a set of maps is a second key, which Olivia believes might be able to free Adam II. As she lifts the key and the maps from the vault to take them with her, she notices the missing sword, lying next to Prince Ubel in bed. She looks at Prince Ubel who is fast asleep and then glances at the feet of his guards, who are circling outside the tent. With Meatloaf causing distractions with the guards, she decides that she has no choice but to restrain Prince Ubel now and put herself in charge until Adam II can be found. After tying and gaging the Prince, she recovers the sword. Meatloaf runs into the tent and barks. As other soldiers approach the tent, she points the sword at the guards and declares that she is now the ruler of Eden, and they will bow to her or be destroyed with the rest of the prince’s soldiers. In terror, the guards flee as a beam of light streams from the sword and knocks them off their feet.
Before any more guards arrive, Olivia grabs the sword with the maps and the two keys and flees with Meatloaf on horseback to Evelyn. When Olivia arrives to Evelyn, she gasps and asks if Adam II has been found. Still unable to find Adam II, Olivia unrolls the maps from the vault. Fascinated with how many seeds have been planted from the Tree of Life in other worlds, Evelyn asks her if she and Meatloaf checked in the caverns below the palace for Adam II and the uprooted Tree of Life. She said there is a channel of rivers that runs beneath the palace into caverns. Maybe there is still time to find Adam II in captivity. So, Olivia and Meatloaf set off on a small boat with a lantern that descends into the caverns. As they hold up their lantern and descend into the caverns, the water rises toward the ceiling, and the boat also nears the top of the ceiling. After struggling along a dark corridor, they come across Adam II behind bars in a corner of the cave. The Tree of Life had been placed next to him in a glass case. Olivia uses the second key that she found in Prince Ubel’s vault, and it opens the cell door.
Thankful for his release, Adam II tells her he thought he would eventually drown in the daily rising water. She tells him that she tied up Prince Ubel and took control of the kingdom, but Eden is in disarray, and they must hurry before someone else tries to put themselves in charge. Worried that they still might drown, Olivia hurries back into the boat with Adam II and Meatloaf. She props the tree on the front of the boat, as Adam II holds it, and they float to the surface. After almost capsizing, Olivia and Adam II return to the surface with the Tree of Life. However, Adam II is concerned it won’t grow. Now in charge of his kingdom again, Adam II carries the Tree on his back and replants it firmly beside the springs of his palace. Slowly, over a few days, the Tree begins to bloom. For her faithfulness, Evelyn is released from being chained to the Tree of Good and Evil. Adam II once again sends Olivia back to Humansville with seeds from the Tree of Life. After returning through the magic window between Eden and Humansville with Meatloaf, the ground opens and swallows the damaged Tree of Life in her backyard. Then, Olivia plants a seed in Humansville in her backyard to grow a restored Tree of Life, hoping for a second chance. Watching the sun rise over the hills, her family never even noticed she was gone.
THE LEGEND OF THE TREE OF BLEEDING HEARTS synopsis (LEGENDS part three)
When a tree bleeds costly hearts, more courage is needed than ever before.
PITCH
Twelve-year-old Olivia Genesee's backyard starts to bleed red, pink, and white hearts from the Tree of Life that she planted months before. Evelyn, named after the first woman Eve, shows up to tell Olivia that one of her worst enemies is now out for revenge, and Adam II, the ruler of Eden, has disappeared. When he went missing, almost all the trees in Eden bled heart petals. Before it gets worse, Evelyn asks Olivia to finish what she began and rid Eden of an evil regime. Otherwise, the regime will make its way to Humansville, and there's no telling what might happen then.
SYNOPSIS
After planting a second Tree of Life in her backyard, 12-year-old Olivia Genesee notices a strange phenomenon on the branches: tiny little flowers that look like hearts grow from its limbs and cripple the tree and its fruit. As it was growing into a full tree, it looked like the first Tree of Life that grew in her backyard after the Tree of Good and Evil disappeared, but when it grew to full form, it started to change shape and bloom red, pink, and white hearts that strangled the fruit. From a distance, it almost looked like the tree was bleeding. Of course, her family thinks nothing of it and ignores all of her attempts to discuss the mystery with them. On a windy night when her family is asleep, she and her dog Meatloaf dance beneath the tree in a storm of falling hearts. Fascinated at their shape, Olivia grabs them in her hands and studies them. She collects enough to make a design across the top of her player piano. As the player piano plays its magical song, the window to Eden opens for the third time. Free of her sentence of being chained to the original Tree of Good and Evil, Evelyn, named after the first woman Eve, stumbled through the window from Eden covered in red heart flowers.
Evelyn tells Olivia that Adam II has been threatened by the brother of the deceased Prince Ubel that Olivia defeated, named Prince Asmodeus. Adam II disappeared while sitting on his throne when Prince Asmodeus charged his sanctuary. Although Evelyn tried to save Adam II, she was unable to protect him. Evelyn begs Olivia to return to Eden with her once again and help save the kingdom from Prince Asmodeus. With Adam II missing, the kingdom is vulnerable to a corrupt ruler. Reluctant to return to Eden again, Olivia questions how much help she would be at protecting the kingdom. Evelyn explains that if Prince Asmodeus gains full control of Eden, then he will come for Humansville next. She says that the original Tree of Good and Evil and the original Tree of Life still stand in Eden, and they are the only thing keeping Eden from becoming overtaken with evil. After Adam II died, she explains that many of the trees in the land bled hearts, which is why the phenomenon began in Olivia’s backyard. All the while, Meatloaf whimpers as the player piano continues its concert at the sight of Evelyn covered in red, heart-shaped flowers. Olivia is not sure what to think and wishes that everything could be made right in the world.
Before the sun comes up, Olivia decides to travel with Evelyn back to Eden. Meatloaf, her faithful canine friend, accompanies her. As Olivia travels through the magical window to Eden, she is confronted by a vision of Adam II. Olivia arrives in Eden and explains to Evelyn that she just saw him in the tunnel between Eden and Humansville. Then, she sits at the trunk of the original Tree of Good and Evil in tears. Red, pink, and white hearts cover almost every tree in the kingdom, and the petals blow in the wind and cover Olivia’s hair. Evelyn brushes the petals from her face, so that she can see clearly. Wanting to wash the flowers from her body, Evelyn asks Olivia to come with her to the springs at Adam II’s palace, so she can bathe in the waters. She explains to Olivia that she tried to save Adam II’s life and was instead almost helpless. As Evelyn and Olivia tread across Eden in an attempt to defeat Prince Asmodeus, Olivia has visions of Adam II, and it gives her motivation to save the land.
As she washes in the springs, Olivia again sees Adam II standing next to the original Tree of Life that grows by the waters. After a moment, his image fades away, and Prince Asmodeus marches into the grounds with a group of guards. Olivia grabs Meatloaf and hides behind the Tree of Life. Evelyn swims and hides in the corners of the springs. She whispers that she thought Asmodeus was in hiding, in fear for his life. Neither Olivia nor Evelyn can hardly breathe. Studying the Tree of Life, Prince Asmodeus rants and raves. He asks his guards to figure out how to open the widow to Humansville. He wants to overtake Humansville because Olivia killed his brother. Covering Meatloaf’s mouth until the evil Prince leaves, Olivia sees another split-second vision of Adam II, after which Prince Asmodeus retreats with the guards. Evelyn hops out of the springs, and she flees with Olivia to the hills, where Adam II’s sister, Princess Bethany, lives in hiding. According to Evelyn, Bethany’s son, Jairus, is the next man in line to be king. In the meantime, the Princess is deciding if she wants to be Queen or pass the right to her son.
As Olivia and Evelyn approach Princess Bethany’s cottage in the hills of Eden, Jairus steps out on the front porch with a spear. He runs to greet the two women and embraces them. He is honored to meet Olivia. He knows that she rescued his missing uncle and defeated Prince Ubel. He invites Olivia and Evelyn inside his mother’s cottage and hopes that none of Prince Asmodeus’ guards followed them. That evening, they have an elegant feast, and Princess Bethany explains that she wishes to pass the crown to Jairus. They are in hiding until they can figure out how to defeat Prince Asmodeus. As Evelyn talks with the Princess about Humansville, Jairus and Olivia dance by the fireplace. He kisses her and gives her the sapphire necklace from around his neck in gratitude of what she did for Eden. She places it under her shirt. Then she has another momentary vision of Adam II and wonders why she is seeing his face again.
Before Olivia can regain her composure, Prince Asmodeus’ guards burst through the cottage door and captures Princess Bethany. Jairus knocks out several guards. Petals from the bleeding trees blow through the door into the fireplace. With Princess Bethany missing, her son is the new King of Eden. Olivia promises to help him as much as she can. Olivia suggests that she, Evelyn, and Jairus leave before Prince Asmodeus sends more guards for a second attack. Then Olivia sees Adam II again holding the bleeding hearts, as though they had the solution of how to defeat Prince Asmodeus. She asks Jairus: “Do you think the bleeding hearts from the trees can be used to kill Asmodeus?” He explains that it has been said by a wise soothsayer that the bleeding hearts act as poison to anyone who has evil in his heart. If the person has good in his heart, then the hearts act as protection. This is why the trees produced hearts when Adam II went missing. It’s like they were crying to protect Eden. Wondering how the bleeding hearts could ever defeat Prince Asmodeus, Olivia gathers as many petals as she can in a wooden bin. After a few minutes, she suggests making the petals into a potion-like serum that can be used to tranquilize Prince Asmodeus. She suggests baiting Asmodeus at the Tree of Life by the springs. Jairus agrees, and the trio collects as many bleeding hearts as they can and crush the hearts. Once the potion-like serum is made, the trio heads to the Tree of Life. Upon reaching the Tree, Jairus stands in front of it, screaming: “Come and find me!”
Within minutes, Prince Asmodeus arrives with a legion of guards, and he charges toward Jairus. Olivia climbs up the Tree of Life, grabs its sword, and sends a beam of light at Asmodeus that knocks him from his feet. She does the same to his other guards. Evelyn runs to Asmodeus and pours the potion down his throat to put him into a coma-like sleep and then his guards. In a vision, she sees Adam II standing next to Asmodeus with grief. After returning to Adam II’s throne, King Jairus is officially ruler of Eden, and peace will once again be restored. Before Olivia steps through the window to leave Eden, Jairus kisses her and hopes that she will one day return. Then Adam II suddenly appears in a vision from another realm with his sister Bethany and grants Evelyn’s request to become a human being. After all the trials, she is finally responsible enough for freewill. He says that Olivia has saved not only Eden, but also Humansville, and he is eternally grateful. Although the trees in Eden have stopped bleeding hearts, one tree grows strong at the place of Adam II’s disappearance—the original Tree of Bleeding Hearts grows through his throne. All three original legendary trees stand tall in Eden and radiate domes of light as sacred testimonies to the reign of Adam II. Olivia returns to Humansville with the relief that the evil that started in Eden ended there. The ground opens and swallows the crippled tree in her backyard. Then, three symbolic trees of the original Trees of Eden shoot out of the ground and stand tall in Olivia’s Humansville backyard: The Tree of Good and Evil, the Tree of Life, and the Tree of Bleeding Hearts. Every time Olivia sees the trees she is reminded of the battle in Eden and that nothing should be taken for granted.
Copyright 2022 Jennifer Waters
