The Missing Screenwriter: Diary of a Madman

19 September

Written by Ford Harris

journal One of the great mysteries that the Missing Screenwriter case has thrown at us is the fact that we have a journal of unusual events in Robert Hurley’s life leading up to his disappearance. The journal is in Hurley’s handwriting, and it also contains several sketches of naked women being subjected to the ritualistic practices of a secret society called “Dark Onto Light“. Some of the pages in the journal were torn out completely. If recovered, these missing pages could be invaluable to the investigation. Unfortunately, I don’t know what happened to the pages, so I would like to make it a long term goal to find them.

In my last blog, I briefly described how Hurley fell in love with a call girl named Natalya. It all started when Hurley decided to research the storyline for Notes from the New World (directed and produced by Vitaly Sumin), which is of course a modern retelling of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Notes from Underground. He allegedly hired a prostitute for his research, and later fell in love with her.

Hurley was indeed passionate about writing. He was also concerned with a certain amount of authenticity, or first-hand experience. Perhaps that is the reason why he was always getting into trouble. Hiring a prostitute for his research, for instance, was one way to tell a story – that is, to know everything there is to know about someone and what type of character they might represent. It is totally possible that Hurley wrote in a diary to get into a specific mindset. He wrote himself into the story to have a better grasp on how his characters might react if he were in the protagonist’s shoes. This would explain why his ideas weren’t written in third-person. But a book of script ideas doesn’t explain his disappearance. There is a chance that Hurley was kidnapped… Or worse, buried in a grave we may never find. To get some insight into the missing screenwriter, let’s review some of Robert Hurley’s entries.

In the September 10th entry, Hurley explains how he needed proof about the ritualistic cult’s existence and their connection to the Russian mafia. Hurley and Natalya followed her bosses to their monthly ritual. Then he witnessed it for himself:

They use golden daggers and take turns slicing their arms and dripping the blood into a gold cup. Each take turns sipping from it. A woman was tied down in the center of the room with a 5-point star drawn in the center. They all gathered in a circle and chanted, then they cut into her wrists and drank her blood. I’m so afraid for Natalya.

Discovering the mere existence of the cult is troubling. If the cult is exclusive, then a writer with the heart of a journalist is only making himself out to be a target. Hurley and Natalya had every right to panic. On November 11th, Hurley describes how he began to lose touch with himself…

I feel as if I have missed a boat somewhere, one that would take me from the euphoria of youth to the contentment of adulthood; to a place where fear and insecurity would–if not immediately vanish–at least drain away from me like the blood from a fishing boat. Instead I’m stuck in a perpetual way station, waiting for things to get better.

But things didn’t get better. A few days later, we know that Natalya seemed to distance herself from Hurley. At this time, Hurley revealed his second script, Shades of Blood, to Natalya. The script was based on the information that he unearthed on the secret society. He was certain that Natalya was afraid of what might happen to them if they tried to reveal secrets about the cult. Hurley, on the other hand, was committed to telling the story. He needed to investigate further.

On November 22nd, Hurley writes:

Today Natalya told me she hid some money in my room that belonged to her mafia bosses. Now they believe I had something to do with it! She came into my room in a panic looking for a box. I didn’t know what she was talking about then she admitted what she’d done. She told me to be careful because they may come after me looking for the cash. I’m scared for my life.

It seems that, despite the fear that was expressed in his writing, Hurley wanted to get the film made. But there were two factors acting against him: He wanted to reveal secrets about the cult, and Natalya stole money from the Russian mafia, which is incidentally associated with the cult.

A third factor could very well be his mental state, and how erratic his behavior was before he had disappeared. It would not be too much of a surprise if the Russians kidnapped and/or murdered Hurley and Natalya. If this were the case, and the mafia had been to Hurley’s apartment, why would they leave behind Hurley’s journal? Did they think that it would throw us off in our investigation? Perhaps. The events described in the journal are questionable. Even the existence of the journal itself raises more questions than answers. But why leave behind some secrets on the cult, rather than keeping everything from us? The journal gives us some insight into “Dark Onto Light.” But Hurley’s website goes into even more detail.

In my next blog post, I will cover what we know so far about “Dark Onto Light”. I will also talk about why this information is available to us and why it hasn’t been fully suppressed by the forces acting against this investigation.

Be sure to visit our website and learn more about Robert Hurley and the film that was made about his experience at Dostoyevsky Reimagined: The Making of Notes from the New World.

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