Elle Thoni, Writer 

Sloan Grant(s) Received: 2024, Carnegie Mellon University, Screenwriting Award

Project Type: Pilot

Genre: Drama

Length: 60 minutes

Field of Science: Biology, Chemistry, Engineering, Technology

Stage: Development 

Synopsis: 

Welcome to Tamarack, population 62. A lotta people assume that there’s not much going on around here – and they used to be right. But now, this one-stoplight town in the heart of wild rice country is about to become something else. Tesla Country.

Based on the real-life drama quietly unfolding in Minnesota’s Northland, TAMARACK is a one hour place-based drama about a small town that could foretell the future of America’s energy sector.

When an unknown mining company submits a permit for the country’s first ever “green” nickel mine and announces a major contract with Tesla, more than a few locals raise their eyebrows. But that doesn’t stop things from getting a lot “weirder,” as Governor Walz might say. Imagine if NORTHERN EXPOSURE got high with TWIN PEAKS and realized it was living in the same world as DOPESICK.

With a nostalgic Midwestern gothic feel grounded in the gross inequities of cabin culture, TAMARACK turns the small town drama on its head. Far from being set in a “backwards” place, this small town drama gives a rare glimpse at a rural America that has its sights set on the future more than the past. Where local gossip discussed in low tones at potlucks and powwows could add up to National Security considerations.

This is about more than energy. It’s about where the power comes from.

THE PILOT

When JO MORGEN, a chemist at the forefront of lithium battery research is unexpectedly called back to her hometown of Tamarack in the wake of her Uncle Mike’s mysterious suicide, she discovers that her hometown isn’t how she left it. Even her relatives are acting strange (for them) and radio ads are promising new jobs from a carbon neutral nickel mine.

Meanwhile, DAWN PAYER, an impassioned hydrologist hoping to finally get some justice for her tribe of White Earth, discovers alarming evidence of habitat-destroying upwellings along the newly-completed Line 3 construction. When her famous activist aunt LOUISE PAYER refuses to support further research, Dawn knows that it’s up to her to collect the data – but will it cost her their relationship?

Jo and Dawn finally collide on the Mississippi River, and it’s instant chemistry – literally.

But other events are already in motion. A clueless Australian Energy CEO, FLYNN RUSSEL, has just driven into Tamarack, and he’s not afraid to get involved in local politics. Reading the newspaper obituaries, Louise realizes that she only has a narrow window to prevent the mining company from buying up the last of the land it needs. The land that happened to be owned by Jo’s Uncle Mike.

Everything comes to a head at Mike’s funeral, where checks are cut, allegiances are revealed, data results come in, some people get VERY high in the bathroom, and Jo needs to make a choice about whether she’s going to accept the biggest break of her science career – or stick around and try to save her hometown from itself.