Ahoy thar DAKOTA!

06.13.07

PHILADELPHIA ENQUIRER, DeVito's scene on "The View" had its sweet resolution . . . Danny DeVito (Matilda) still needs backers, however, for his latest Jersey Films project ― The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, based on the popular children's book.

“I've got Morgan Freeman, Pierce Brosnan and Dakota Fanning, but the studios are giving me a hard time,” says DeVito.

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, by Avi, © 1990 Orchard Books.

SYNOPSIS: Charlotte Doyle (Dakota Fanning), is a 13-year-old Schoolgirl who boards the merchant ship Seahawk in 1832 for a voyage from England to her home in Providence, Rhode Island. Charlotte is raised in an upper-class family and, wants very much to be a proper lady. Her family has already gone to Rhode Island and she was left to come alone in order to finish her year of schooling at the Barrington School for Better Girls. As the other families that were supposed to accompany her mysteriously fail to appear, Charlotte finds herself the only passenger on the transatlantic voyage and the sole female on board.

     Charlotte is devastated by the deplorable conditions on the ship and thinks of the crew as her inferiors. Captain Jaggery (Pierce Brosnan) is the only person Charlotte can relate to on the ship. Early in the voyage, she meets Zachariah (Morgan Freeman), an old African cook. Zachariah gives Charlotte a small dagger “for her protection” and tells Charlotte that the crew seeks revenge against the captain for some of his actions. She later has tea with Captain Jaggery. During this meeting, Captain Jaggery tells Charlotte that he has a few muskets and that these are the only guns aboard the ship. As the voyage passes, Charlotte slowly mingles with the crew and reads to them from her books.

     Later, Charlotte finds herself watching a member of the crew sew. The needle snaps and Charlotte offers to get a new one for him. She goes into the forecastle, the crew's room. While looking for the needle she sees a pistol (contrary to the captain’s words) and a round robin, a pact telling of an imminent uprising of the crew against the captain. Charlotte goes to tell Captain Jaggery, who then calls the crew on deck. They arrive with weapons, ready to attack, but none do so because of the captain's muskets. Charlotte is forced to take sides in the mutiny. A member of the crew is killed and Zachariah is flogged mercilessly by the Captain. Charlotte does not think as highly of Captain Jaggery anymore and feels that he is rather cruel.

     Charlotte decides to join the crew to make up for causing the death and whipping of the two-crew members. She is at first rejected, but then the crew agrees to let her join if she can climb to the highest point of the ship, the royal yard. After an arduous climb, she comes back down successfully.

     The captain leads the ship into a hurricane. In the commotion, the First mate is killed with Charlotte’s knife. The captain charges Charlotte with the murder of the ship’s First mate. The captain finds Charlotte guilty after the trial. Though sentenced to be hanged, she ends up confronting the captain on the bowsprit and as Captain Jaggery was about to fall over board, Charlotte had the option to save him, or let him fall to his watery death. The captain falls into the ocean and drowns. Her friend, Zachariah, tells the crew they need a new captain, and Charlotte is chosen to be the ships new captain.

     A few days later the Seahawk docks in Providence, Rhode Island, where her family lives. However, Charlotte finds her family unwilling to believe her story, and they disapprove of her outlandish tales. Eventually she decides to leave her family and return to life at sea, the place where she now believes is home.