Hugo, Seville
Category: Young Adult > Adventure / Status: Greenlit - In Development / Cycle: 1 / Job Board: Pending
“When a lonely boy finds a haunted guitar, he must learn to master flamenco to free the spirit inside, or be forever trapped himself between the mysterious forces that nurture and destroy creative expression. ”
Sketches by Juan Hernaz
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In a drought-stricken Andalusian village in 1896, a young boy named Hugo lived with his family on their struggling orange grove. The relentless sun beat down on their land, leaving it parched and barren, mirroring the illness that afflicted his father…
Despite these hardships, Hugo found solace in the melodies that danced through his mind, vibrant and full of life, a stark contrast to the world around him. His mother, sensing his increasing isolation as friends fled the unrelenting dryness in search of better fortunes, encouraged him to sell enough oranges at the market to purchase a guitar in the city of Seville—a spark of hope in an otherwise bleak existence.
Hugo could only afford the most weathered and ancient instrument from a cluttered second-hand shop. The guitar was battered and worn, its strings rusted and its wood cracked, yet it held a peculiar charm that captivated him. As he embarked on the journey home, he discovered an unlikely traveling companion—a spirit haunting the battered instrument.
Reluctantly, the specter revealed himself as Paolo, a man condemned for plagiarizing his old dancing partner, Camancha. In her fury over his betrayal, Camancha had unknowingly summoned the vengeful spirit Humdrumbl, who conspired to trap Paolo's essence within the very instrument he had defiled, imprisoning him until he could achieve the impossible: to tutor a child into mastering the passionate art of flamenco.
As Hugo spent days in practice, at night his dreams became vivid with encounters from a moss-covered duende girl named Carmen Ophelia. She appeared ethereal yet grounded, leading him to a hidden rain forest cave, where she revealed a world in which the forces of creativity and destruction waged an eternal battle.
Carmen belonged to the lower ranks of musical spirits, her kind serving as assistants to the unseen muses that inspired human artists. Yet now she stood alone in despair, for all her fellow duendes had vanished without a trace, presumably hunted by Humdrumbl.
He was a high-ranking spirit of creative destruction, twisted by ambition and malice, intent on casting the most promising musicians into eternal limbo by trapping them forever within their own instruments.
Now Hugo and Carmen Ophelia found themselves as the unlikely last line of defense against Humdrumbl's vile scheme. Their path was clear and fraught with peril—they must help Paolo break his curse by turning Hugo into a flamenco master. This was not merely a quest for musical excellence; it was a race against time to release Paolo's spirit and prevent the villain from achieving his malicious goals of obliterating creativity.
Together they faced daunting challenges as they delved deeper into the heart of flamenco, battling doubts and insecurities while unlocking the magic hidden within their melodies. The fate of music—and the soul of Andalusia—depended on them.
Macguffins are assembling. Follow this project in GUFF: Macguffin’s Character Issues to be the first to know when the team launches, receive notifications of open roles, and engage in the creative process.
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“Hugo, Seville”
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