About the Author
Davis Bunn is a
four-time Christy Award-winning, best-selling author now serving as
writer-in-residence at Regent's Park College, Oxford University in the United
Kingdom. Defined by readers and reviewers as a “wise teacher,” “gentleman
adventurer,” “consummate writer,” and “Renaissance man,” his work in business
took him to over 40 countries around the world, and his books have sold more
than seven million copies in sixteen languages.
Unlimited is Davis’s
first screenplay to be released as a major motion picture. The book, Unlimited, is a novelization of the
screenplay.
Q & A
with Davis Bunn
The storyline in Unlimited
is inspired by true events. What actual events inspired the story?
Harold Finch was formerly the
founder and CEO of the first management-leadership consulting groups in the US.
In the mid-seventies he sold the company to H&R Block for over a hundred
million dollars—back when a hundred million actually meant something. Answering
God’s call, he has spent the past three decades traveling the world, teaching
his concepts for free and helping underprivileged children learn that they do
indeed have both a purpose in God’s eyes, and the potential to succeed. His
experiences form the basis for this story.
What ignited your idea for the
characters to create a device that would convert raw wasted energy into useable
power?
I actually wrote the screenplay
for the film before writing the novel. This happens occasionally—Godfather and Love Story were both conceived in this order. While working on the
film script, the producer and Harold and I were discussing what might work as a
basis for the story’s suspense element. We were looking for something that had
the means of revealing this ‘unlimited’ potential in people. I don’t actually
remember who first came up with the idea of wasted energy, but soon as it was
said, we all jumped on it.
Simon Orwell, the protagonist in
Unlimited, is a brilliant, cynical electrical engineering student who
finds danger irresistible. Did you model his character traits after yourself or
anyone you know?
Alas, we all know a Simon. These days, this type of person
is all too common. An individual with huge potential, who allows himself or
herself to become distracted by the multitude of temptations that basically
define modern life. And yes, I do know several such people. Some turn this into
hugely productive directions, thank goodness. Usually to do so requires divine
help, a clarification of focus, and strength they must reach out and ask to
receive.
Many of the characters in the
story are orphans. What parallels do you see between the orphans in the story
and real-life spiritual orphans?
A beautiful question. While
researching the core components of this story, orphanage leaders repeatedly
stressed the need to teach orphans to believe in themselves and their natural
abilities. Too often they see themselves as lost, without purpose, without a
role to play, without chances, without love. What made this story work, I
think, is how Simon Orwell shares these same feelings about himself. And how he
comes to realize God is the only one to fill this need.
The title, Unlimited, has
multiple layers of meaning. What does that title mean to you?
Unlimited was the
title brought to me by the film’s producers. When I first began working on this
story, it was just that, a title. But as I grew to know Harold, and heard him
teach, and read his lesson plan, and then actually applied what he has come to
call his ‘Dynamic Life Retreat’ (see Harold full teachings on his website,
HaroldFinch.com) I have come to agree with them in their choice. Bringing God
into the equation of life’s direction, success, and reaching full potential
does reveal the true meaning of Unlimited.
Movie Trailer
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