A BearWalker Takes Possession Of An Ottawa Woman And Causes Her To Be His Unwitting Accomplice In A Reign Of Terror
CROOKED TREE
A BearWalker Takes Possession Of An Ottawa Woman And Causes Her To Be His Unwitting Accomplice In A Reign Of Terror
“One of the masters of terror-suspense.” Publishers Weekly
“It makes your hair stand on end. A cross between Jaws and The Exorcist.” NY Newsday
Crooked Tree - Announced
Written By, Robert C. Wilson
The centuries old practice of the bearwalk has returned to what the first peoples of the north woods called the land of the Crooked Tree. For the Ottawa, the bearwalk was traditionally a method to join with the animals of their world on terms of equality and as a show of respect. Similar beliefs were common among almost all hunting societies around the world. But as it is with any great power comes the danger that it will be abused. One such corrupt practitioner who had turned sacrament into sacrilege has taken the art of the bearwalk one step further… he has mastered the ability to control another human being.
Plotline
The customarily docile bears in the north woods inexplicably turn aggressive because of the bearwalk, an ancient practice of transmigration of souls of people into animals by those who inhabited the Great Lakes region before the coming of the Europeans. Small town attorney Axel Michelson comes to realize his Native American wife Janis, a descendant of Ottawa chiefs, is possessed by the same evil that possesses the bears, and to stop the rampage, to save his wife, Axel must learn the old ways and defeat the ancient evil on its own terms
Interview with Robert C Wilson
Writer & Creator of Crooked Tree Franchise
Crooked Tree is a best-selling novel, both in the U.S. and worldwide with numerous foreign language editions. As the writer of the novel and the screenplay, and now the producer of the movie, how did it all start?
I conceived of a story of terror-suspense in the North Woods of Michigan with black bears being the agent of that terror. But why would normally reclusive black bears go on a rampage, was an early question. I decided to have them controlled by an outside force, and my research led me to the bearwalk, and that in turn led to a lifetime interest in the culture and history of the First Peoples of the North Woods.
The concept of the bearwalk is both mystical and powerful. How did that help your development of the high suspense of the story?
The bearwalk guaranteed credibility to the underlying theme of the novel, and the script. But as I discovered, the bearwalk was not unique to the Ottawa. Almost all hunting societies of the circumpolar regions in the northern hemisphere had similar beliefs of the transmigration of souls into animals. I believe the reason for that is that quite simply people are people and when in similar situations and faced with similar circumstances, they react in similar ways. The black bear was the apex predator in their realm, human-like in some aspects, and it was only natural that diverse peoples created similar beliefs about their most revered and feared prey.
How did you go from novelist to screenwriter to producer?
The movie rights were optioned multiple times by major studios with Academy Award directors attached, but for reasons unrelated to the story, the movie was not made. So I decided to produce it myself, which led directly to a relationship with Hollywood veteran Giovanni Jackson. And I wanted to engage as many Native Americans in the project as I could, and that led to a relationship with Clifton Chippewa who has an incredible background in some of the biggest Hollywood movies of the last two decades.
How has your passion for storytelling shaped the creation of Studio of the Americas?
What began as an effort by Clifton Chippewa and me to bring Crooked Tree to the screen, blossomed into an idea to create something much broader and more significant than a single film: an entire studio for the development Native American stories, as well as an incubation hub for Native filmmakers to create stories on any subject in any genre or Native craftsmen to learn life-sustaining skills in the film arts. We described it as the “Tyler Perry Studios” for Native Americans, and as fate would have it, one thing led to another and TPS invited us to establish our offices within their movie-making complex in tax-incentive friendly Atlanta.
