LUDWIG
& SLY

In 1805 Vienna, the great composer Ludwig Van Beethoven struggles mightily to complete his famous 5th Symphony. Creatively blocked, emotionally destitute, nearly deaf, and repeatedly sabotaged by his toxic love affair with the aristocratic Josephine Brunsvik, Ludwig decides to seek relief from his troubles with a restorative stroll through the woods. Along the way he encounters a field of psylocibin mushrooms and after ingesting a small handful is transported in time to 1971 San Francisco, materializing in the living room of Sly Stone, of Sly & The Family Stone fame, who is also experiencing a creative crisis and under tremendous pressure to finish his latest record. Inspired by each others genius, together they endeavor to help one another rediscover “The Muse” and complete their respective projects.

 

But things take an unexpected turn when Ludwig falls for Bettina, a local Naturopath and Healer, who is determined to help Ludwig regain his hearing. With the help of Bettina’s apprentice, 13 year old Boy Genius Neil DeGrasse Tyson, who surmises that Ludwig’s presence in 1971 is likely to fatally disrupt the Space/Time Continuum, the foursome embark on a journey to help Ludwig return to 1805, and with the aid of magical mushrooms, they accompany him back to Vienna, where all are greeted by a repressive society bemused by their anachronistic presence, and led by the lunatic Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte who has a long standing feud with Beethoven and is determined to vanquish him.

 

Events in 1805 Vienna come to a head at the Annual Fashion Gala, where Sly is now leading the house band. Neil, reduced to using his pencil and the stars to calculate a safe return to 1971, and Bettina, anxiously weighing a lucrative offer to become the City’s Mistress of The Herbs, urge Ludwig to resolve his toxic relationship with Josephine and complete the 5th symphony. Tensions between Beethoven and Napoleon finally explode into hand-to hand-combat in The Royal Ballroom after Bonaparte publicly humiliates the great composer, and the foursome is forced to flee. Grappling with the dilemma of whether to accompany his friends back to 1971 or remain in Vienna as an outlaw, Ludwig returns to the psylocibin mushroom field to wait out the magical re-opening of the time portal with his companions.

 

But the deadline may have expired for this odd collection of artists and great thinkers, and Napoleon’s troops are in hot pursuit…