A previously unseen screenplay from Charlie Chaplin, the legendary filmmaker’s last unrealized project, is being published for the first time in English. The script, titled The Freak, has been reconstructed from a vast collection of the artist’s drafts, storyboards, and personal notes.
The story centers on a fantastical, winged being named Sarapha, described as a human-bodied bird with the ability to heal sickness and foster global peace. Chaplin intended to make a brief appearance in the film as an astonished inebriated man who witnesses the creature soaring over London’s Parliament.
Archival materials indicate that the filmmaker had advanced plans for production, with extensive documentation covering scene details, technical meetings, and designs for the character’s wings. According to sources close to the project, these surviving papers are more comprehensive than for any of his completed films, suggesting he was on the verge of beginning filming.
For the pivotal role of Sarapha, Chaplin had selected his daughter, Victoria, who was a teenager at the time. She has spoken of her father’s intensive research into the mechanics of flight and his determined search for a novel way to depict it on screen—a quest that ultimately remained unfulfilled.
The publication will mark the first comprehensive presentation of the project in its original form. Previously, the script was available only in a limited Italian edition. The forthcoming volume draws from nearly 3,000 pages of the filmmaker’s archives, including his own musical compositions and recorded narrations, offering an unprecedented look into one of cinema’s great lost projects.
