Hamit Wins Third Screenwriting Award for "CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE"

LOS ANGELES & LONDON - Oct. 15, 2017 - PRLog -- Francis Hamit has won a third screenwriting contest with his screenplay for the forthcoming feature film CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE. The Elizabethan-era historical thriller is slated to be produced primarily in the United Kingdom by famed Producer Gary Kurtz. On September 16, 2017 the screenplay won the "Best Thriller Screenplay" prize at the GO International Independent Film Festival in Washington, DC. Hamit's previous awards for this work were at the 2016 Hollywood Book Festival and the 2017 New Renaissance Film Festival in London.

The film will only briefly touch on Marlowe's literary career. He wrote some of the best-regarded plays and poetry in the English language, but at the same time was involved with the Secret Service and worked undercover against the Catholic church at the Jesuit seminary at Rheims.

"There is documentary proof of that," Hamit said, "In the form of a letter from the Privy Council to the authorities at Cambridge University ordering them to award Marlowe his degree. The big question, addressed in this screenplay, is what else did he do and when, while he was becoming famous for plays like Tamburlaine and Doctor Faustus and becoming part of Sir Walter Raleigh's freethinking 'School of Night'?

"Shortly before his death in what has been alleged to be a dispute over a bar bill, he was arrested for heresy. He was preaching atheism and disputing the divinity of Jesus at a time when religion was politics and Queen Elizabeth claimed the 'divine right to rule', while the Catholic Church labeled her an illegitimate ruler and plotted to assassinate her and place Mary, Queen of Scots, on the English throne in her place so they could pull England back into the Catholic faith.

"Here is Marlowe, famous but a well-known brawler, bully, drunkard and open homosexual at a time when other men were burned at the stake for that; too famous to try as a traitor, and involved with Queen's favorites such as Edmund Spencer and Sir Walter Raleigh.

"So she had him killed. The other three men in the room were all agents of her secret service and friends of Marlowe. It was passed off as an accident and the Coroner made quick work of the investigation. The man who took the blame, Ingram Frizer, was his patron's business agent as well, and received a royal pardon a month later.

"This is a tragedy, but also written as a thriller so we can explore other events Marlowe may have been involved in as a secret agent. It's mostly speculation on my part, based upon research and my knowledge of modern intelligence operations, but meant to be entertainment rather than a documentary. I was careful to stay within the boundary of known facts."

For additional information contact Francis Hamit.

011 (818) 285-8112
email: marlowefilm@earthlink.net
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