THE CELLO or while Rome burns . . . Zann Gill Screenplay for a Feature Film eDK LLC & TBD

LOGLINE From the 1% to the 99%, we’re all in this together.

PITCH – The table is set for a luxury dinner party as fires ramp up nearby and pandemic spreads. Before Charyn's guests show, the power is shut off to millions of homes. What we IMAGINE becomes reality as a white supremacist touts his Great Wall of Amerika in the context of climate change, pandemic, and social collapse.

On this 40th anniversary of the NYC murder of Beatles star John Lennon, stories, not facts, drive action. PO BOX 4001 LOS ALTOS, CA 94024 USA TELEPHONE: 650-292-0751 http://MoodyStudio.com [email protected] Draft date – September 10, 2020 WGAw Reg | International Copyright © 2020

1 THE CELLO ACTORS CHARYN – screenwriter hosting a dinner to inspire her next screenplay; beautiful older actress who can sing and dance

DARREN – white supremacist with lots of inherited money and an ambition to become President of the United States

WALT – desperate neighbor with an autistic son, dying mother-in- law and angry wife (needs a great comedy actor)

MAGNUS – singer/ musician/ actor / writer; attractive; wise; any age; “Viking look” – we have a potential great attachment

PEDRO – former Silicon Valley entrepreneur gone bust; now a chef

MOHAMMED – composer from Persia, now in the U.S. with a day job as a FedEx delivery man

JON – African-American with a big, bold vision for global justice – inspired by Dr. Joseph Okpaku and Dr. Robert Bullard

YOKO ONO – fortieth anniversary of the murder of John Lennon [words that follow the song “Imagine” – with permission]

Real Characters in the Story: Charyn, Magnus, Pedro, Walt, Mohammed

Charyn’s Memories from her youth c. early twenties: Charyn’s Mother, Darren, Jon

JOHN LENNON – song “Imagine” [with permission]

NEWSCLIPS – today’s reality outside the scene of the dinner that didn’t happen shown in the “mirror of memories” [with permission] Digital twins of deceased persons: Martin Luther King and John Lennon, including the white cello of the Magical Mystery Tour

OPTIONAL Famous Actor Cameos Using Digital twins. THE CELLO has integrity without any actor cameos. There are more digital twins in this screenplay than needed to show where they could be inserted. Digital twins for actor cameos (with actor permissions) would not only be less costly than green screen but also emphasize a key thread in the film – fake news.

2 Actor names, and what each actor says in the “mirror of memories,” or in Charyn’s nightmare, are examples. A few actors/ producers of the film, who care about climate change and our Presidential leadership can contribute cameos, digital twins or shot vs green screen. What each says is his/ her own statement. This screenplay has more digital twins than optimal to show how quotes from actors who have spoken out can fit into the story.

THE CELLO

The opening introduces the tone of magical realism and black satire on the edge of horror.

DINING TABLE. AFTERNOON. SUNNY DAY. Opening shot. Elegant table set for a dinner party of eight. Gorgeous silver candelabra with candles waiting to be lit. Two crystal wine glasses at each place setting, one for white and one for red wine.

VACANT DESIGNER HOUSE. SUNNY DAY. The camera starts close in, zooms out to capture the whole dining table, then turns to a perfectly kept, elegant designer house, apparently empty.

A MODERN POMPEII – DESERTED EMPTY HOUSE. The elegant simplicity of the house is revealed by the camera’s mysterious slow motion investigation of details. What evidence is the camera looking for? There’s an emptiness and silence about the place. The camera captures gorgeous details, examines a collection of African tribal sculpture set against a white modern gallery interior. Deserted. There’s a sense of Pompeii — that this house is frozen in time. Who lives here? Where are the resident(s)?

The camera roams through patio doors to a multi-level deck with a gorgeous view of rolling hills.

TWO RAVENS. The camera sees two big black ravens against the serene vista of the hills. The camera slowly zooms toward them, watches them until they both fly away, soaring up to the clouds.

3 The camera walks down the steps, capturing details as if they were clues, and finally finds a beautiful older woman, CHARYN, dressed for a dinner party. She’s fallen asleep outside.

Dazed by the heat of the sun? Zoned out on cocaine? Drunk? Will she wake up? Unclear. She has a Sleeping Beauty stillness.

Next to her deck chair is an artist’s blank white paper notebook and pen. The camera approaches the notebook, examines the open facing pages with words and a doodle that looks like a cross between a cross word puzzle and a labyrinth and a picture of the brain. The words are

Story Threads: art, assassin, Cinderella, guests, imagine, memory, music, Musician....

The eye of the camera reads each word carefully. The word assassin jumps out of the page. Blood hits the word and streams down the page.

Cinderella is a youthful animation of the woman asleep.

Imagined guests arrive at the front door of the house bearing gifts.

Music plays.

A Musician, dressed in white, plays a white cello, which expands magically to white out the screen.

The camera looks around at the context of the notebook, the details of the paving, the dry branches of trees nearby, the sense of heat. Branches CRACK and break. Small creatures are hiding. Ants are making a trail. The camera searches for details and finally takes a position to watch the scene over time.

TIMELAPSE. FROM DAY TO NIGHT. Rapid time lapse from afternoon blue sky to an apocalyptic orange sky to sunset to darkness. The automatic system turns both indoor and outdoor lights on in a blaze of designer light as the sky grows dark. The woman continues to sleep.

BLACKOUT. Suddenly all lights SPUTTER off. Red emergency sensor lights blink on.

CHARYN wakes up startled, shocked that she’s fallen asleep for so long, flustered and confused that the lights have gone out. She

4 checks her phone, finds that it’s dead. She picks up her notebook and pen, puts them in a cloth shoulder bag.

She walks around in the almost dark (some starlight/ moonlight) of her garden, patio, and deck in a daze. Finally, she gathers her wits.

She goes to the deck table. Two glass hurricane candle holders are turned upside down, awaiting emergencies. A cigarette lighter is also covered by a glass. She removes the cigarette lighter and lights both candles, carrying them up to the now dark house.

Her journey up the path from the deck to her own dark house has a sense of mystery and foreboding. Strange SOUNDS surprise her. The audience feels malicious intent and discomfort from not knowing why the lights went out.

CANDLELIGHT. Charyn lights the candles in the silver candelabra on the empty, beautifully set dining table. Then she goes to a kitchen cupboard, pulls her notebook out of her bag and sets it on the counter, with the ribbon marking her current page.

She adds the word “candles” to her word list and as she does so, the candles seem to come alive. She leaves her notebook on the kitchen counter but puts the cloth bag away as she pulls out more candles to have more light.

INSERT. The Film Director is sitting at a table outside, using a flashlight to read the screenplay. To viewers, there is mystery about who he is and what he’s doing. Is he an assassin? Did he turn off the power? Is he now planning a murder? Camera zooms in on his face, squinting as he looks up at the windows of the house. The viewers don’t know why he’s there.

BACK TO SCENE Charyn brings out more and more candles until the house is ablaze with candle light.

Then she takes out three big emergency flashlights and carefully positions them as spotlights on large African sculptures, who preside over the set with eerie authority.

The perfectly set dining table still awaits eight guests in silence.

5 THE MIRROR OF MEMORIES Carrying a candle, Charyn walks to a large antique, gold-framed mirror, covering an entire wall. She faces this mirror, which reflects her image, and sometimes her memories. She asks the mirror questions as a “Mirror, mirror on the wall...”

CHARYN (to the Mirror) Whom should I suspect?

Charyn’s image in the mirror is her alter ego, her wiser intuition, dressed differently, not just a reflection.

CHARYN’S IMAGE IN THE MIRROR Suspect a man who will try to use you.

Charyn frowns, unsure how to interpret this warning. She speaks to her own image in the mirror.

CHARYN (to the Mirror) How does he get in?

CHARYN’S IMAGE IN THE MIRROR You let him in.

NOTE: Throughout the film, Charyn uses the mirror to ask questions. Old media clips appear in “the mirror of memories.” The power is dead, so this is not a television. These are Charyn’s memories and her wiser intuition answering her questions.

She sees media clips that she remembers from when she was a child, teenager, young adult.

DREAMS & FANTASY. As Charyn watches her memories (media clips in this mirror), she speaks to herself quietly.

CHARYN (musing) Without power, all that streams are my Memories.

In the huge, gold-framed mirror Charyn watches the beginning of John Lennon singing “Imagine.”

6 GUNSHOT interrupts and wipes out the image.

Yoko Ono today appears in the mirror. Digital twin, with her permission, synthesizing her face and spoken words below:

YOKO ONO John Lennon’s assassin asked for his autograph six hours before he murdered him. Imagine...

The images in the mirror disappear. Charyn sees herself now reflected in the mirror, imagining.

CHARYN (to the Mirror) Imagine... How will this dinner inspire my screenplay?

CHARYN’S IMAGE IN THE MIRROR It won’t happen.

Charyn winces. As if trying to materialize the dinner, she continues to place more candles in the eerily silent house. We hear her FOOTSTEPS and matches being IGNITED. We sometimes wonder if we hear other FOOTSTEPS.

CHIMES break the silence. Charyn goes to the door. Chimes signal that this Visitor is today, with the power out, not a memory.

PEDRO (to Charyn) Dessert is delivered! You got lucky. (setting the dish down) I made dessert this afternoon before the power shutoff. It’s a recipe that’s delicious hot, cold, or room temperature.

CHARYN What did you make?

PEDRO (to Charyn) Our House Special.

7 CHARYN Poached pears in Merlot with crème fraiche?

PEDRO Touché. Pears symbolize wisdom and health. They’ll inspire you.

CHARYN What if no one comes?

PEDRO I’m here with my poached pears. They’ll summon your memories and your imagination.

Pedro goes to the kitchen to unpack the dessert. He pulls out the Cuisinart [PP xxx], plugs it in, then realizes there’s no power. By hand he chops the dark chocolate [PP xxx] and mint.

OUTSIDE. MUSICIAN SITTING ON A BENCH IN FRONT OF THE HOUSE. A handsome young MUSICIAN, wearing a tuxedo, sits on a bench in front of Charyn’s home, making notes and waiting to arrive at exactly at the time agreed. He has a battery-operated penlight attached to a notebook that appears to be his memoirs. He writes, “Dinner Party – The Memory Experiment.”

He looks at his watch. Thirty seconds to arrival time. He closes his notebook, puts it back in his briefcase. Then he stands up. He starts playing the CHIMES at the front door like a musical instrument, breaking the silence.

Inside. Charyn hears the music of the CHIMES, realizing that, played with this skill, chimes are a true musical instrument. Hesitant, since she’s accustomed to the doorbell, Charyn goes with a candle to the door. She looks through the peephole, then opens the door.

The Musician stands at her door, wearing a tuxedo. He has several instruments in cases.

CHARYN Was that the wind? Or were you playing the chimes?

The MUSICIAN smiles.

8 MUSICIAN Guess. (shrugs) I couldn’t ring your doorbell. Power’s out. Another huge fire. Power outage hit 2 million homes. Yours too, it seems.

Aerial View of the town, all dark. Drones with cameras capture the fires up north, blazing wildly out of control. Helicopters and fire brigades are frantically trying to subdue Nature’s fury. But the chaos is growing. The drones recede back to the black town where all electric power has been extinguished.

MUSICIAN (cont., as if confidential) You’re in luck! I brought antique instruments. Nothing electrical. I can make music, even when the power’s out.

Charyn is still flustered. The Musician and Charyn look at each other as if more is at stake. The Musician breaks the awkward silence.

MUSICIAN (cont’d) May I bring my instruments in?

CHARYN (distracted) Uh... I’m worried that the guests won’t show. My phone’s dead. No one can call.

The Musician is already bringing his instruments in. He’s arranging them artistically against the wall.

MUSICIAN If your guests don’t show, I’ll play music just for you. My music will attract your memories.

The Musician starts unpacking his instruments. Detail of the instruments, treating them visually like sculptures.

9 CHARYN Music to call in my memories? Do you have telepathic skills?

MUSICIAN Together we’ll call in your memories. We may not like the memories that come. But they’ll be memories we should deal with.

CHARYN (skeptical) What kind of memories?

MUSICIAN Powerful memories. Not... all good. But... we’re in this together. We’ll survive.

Charyn squints, uncertain.

CHARYN I just booked a Musician.

MUSICIAN I know. But music can become magical.

As Charyn weighs this proposition, she gets out several bottles of wine. She looks the musician up and down critically. The Musician is accustomed to arrogant, rich people treating him however they will. It’s a job, so long as they pay. He’s oblivious.

CHARYN (hautily) Is that tuxedo yours? Or rented?

The Musician stares at Charyn as if he sees this question as improper. SILENCE. Awkward moment.

CHARYN (cont’d) Don’t take offense. I just collect detail.

10 MUSICIAN But that’s irrelevant detail. If you were tapping into my psyche, you’d never ask that question.

He continues to line up the instruments he’s brought: clarinet, piccolo (transverse), flute, pan flute.

Charyn joins him. They both look at the instrument lineup. There’s still a shade of testiness in their interaction.

CHARYN Where’s the cello? I asked for a cello. I told the girl: “I must have a cello.”

They face each other. Again, a deafening SILENCE. The Musician remains calm and completely professional. He’s apparently accustomed to difficult clients. He’s neutral and unobtrusive, no matter what goes on around him. He does what he was hired to do, play background music.

CHARYN (cont’d. repeating) I said: “I must have a cello.”

The Musician shakes his head sadly.

MUSICIAN I’m sorry. The cellos were all gone. Not one left today. I tried to call you, but your phone was dead.

Exasperated, Charyn pours herself a glass of wine. She doesn’t offer wine to the Musician, a mere employee.

MUSICIAN (cont’d) Don’t worry. I’ll make it up to you. You’ll love these instruments. You’ll be so glad there was no cello.

The Musician is a few meters away from the table. Next to the Musician is the “mirror of memories,” which covers an entire wall. The Musician starts to play. Charyn walks over to the mirror.

11 CHARYN Can music call in memories?

CHARYN’S IMAGE IN THE MIRROR Try it.

Charyn wonders what her intuition is telling her.

Pedro is arranging several pears to serve. The pears glisten as if coming alive as they are topped with crème fraiche, grated chocolate, pomegranate seeds and a sprig of mint. Pedro comes out of the kitchen.

PEDRO The pears are ready...

CHARYN (explaining to Pedro) The dinner wasn’t delivered.

PEDRO To bring the dinner hot, that Chef would have hit the power shutoff. You should have used me. I make a vegetarian nut loaf with Moroccan spicing that’s to die for. (gesturing its shape) Cooked on an old-fashioned wood barbecue – no power issues.

CHARYN I wish I’d known.

PEDRO Nuts are the future. I brought some walnuts for the pears.

CHARYN But if the guests don’t show...

PEDRO We’re here. Music and dessert are all you need. I always make more food than the client orders. I brought a dozen poached pears, so you’ll have pears for several days if your guests don’t show.

12 The DOORBELL RINGS.

MUSICIAN (to Charyn) Listen. My music called in one of your Memories.

Charyn looks perplexed.

MUSICIAN (cont’d, explaining) That visitor must be a memory because the doorbell rang. The power’s out.

Camera shows only the hand of Charyn. Hand opens the door. As Charyn opens the door, the camera only shows her arm, her main body is out of frame.

Charyn opens and sees JON, young African American, standing at the threshold.

CHARYN (to Jon) Come in. Sit down.

Pedro comes in from the kitchen.

PEDRO May I serve you a poached pear? And something to drink?

JON No, thanks. I can’t stay long.

Pedro bows and returns to the kitchen. The camera surveys Jon’s face up close.

CHARYN (VO) It’s curious that you’ve come now. I was just wondering what inspired your grand vision. I thought, “I must ask Jon.”

JON How it all started?

13 CHARYN Your story about the call that changed your life.

JON That was not when I got my Ph.D. Not my first university job. It was when I first felt called.

The camera surveys Charyn’s face up close as she muses on the word “called.”

CHARYN What do you mean “called”?

JON (smiles, remembering) It was an actual call. But it was also a symbolic call. A lawyer called me. She’d just filed a lawsuit in federal court. Bean versus Southwestern Waste Corporation. She hired me to collect data.

CHARYN That sounds like an actual job. (pause) How did it turn into a “symbolic call”?

JON Only about 20% of Houston’s population is black. But 75% of Houston’s garbage dumps were being put in black neighborhoods. Federal civil rights laws had never before been invoked to charge environmental discrimination. That lawsuit was the first time. (pause) For me, this was more than data collection. It became my passion.

CHARYN ... and the field you’ve called “Environmental Justice.”

14 JON It’s one challenge – the environment and social justice. Rich and poor — we all go down if our Earthship sinks. (pause) That lawyer became my wife. Environmental Justice is our life work.

CHARYN I read her book “Shades of Justice.”

JON You know its subtitle?

CHARYN What was it?

JON “In a Court of Law, passion is power.”

CHARYN (nods) Passion drives how we act, more than fact. Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio proved that.

The Musician plays background music as Jon and Charyn talk.

JON (looks at his watch) Gotta go. But don’t forget...

CHARYN Huh?

JON Go to Africa.

Jon, a memory from the past, fades into thin air.

CHARYN (to the Musician) I went into the Peace Corps after college because of Jon. Africa.

15 CHARYN (cont’d) This African tribal art is from my time in the Peace Corps.

The camera slowly surveys the art, all lit by candlelight. Tribal masks and statues. Ritual figurines. Powerful iconic figures. The camera looks at detail and zooms in on faces.

Charyn adjusts the flashlights as the Musician looks at each sculpture.

MUSICIAN You got the art. But did you get the message?

CHARYN Ritual art objects tell us about ourselves.

Charyn opens her notebook. The stream of blood that flowed down the page when the camera looked at the word assassin now expands into a blood red Rorschach ink blot.

CHARYN (VO) Like a Rorschach ink blot – we all see it differently.

The camera ZOOMS IN to the face of the Musician, listening, then into the face of Charyn as she speaks.

CHARYN (cont’d) What friends say about these sculptures tells me who they are.

Charyn adjusts the flashlights, which serve as spotlights on the sculptures. She relocates some candles to cast large shadows on the wall. Pedro comes in from the kitchen. The camera looks at their detail, focusing on a figurine with a pensive, wise look.

CHARYN (cont’d, to Pedro) Since the guests haven’t come, let’s sample your pears now.

16 PEDRO I love to sample my work.

Charyn returns to the table. After taking a sip of wine, she sets down her glass and moves her finger along the edge of the crystal so that the glass intones the key of the song that the musician is playing.

Pedro brings in three bowls with pears, offers one to the Musician, who’s committed to stay professional. He declines.

PEDRO (cont’d, to the Musician) I brought extra. You’re not eating one that our client ordered. (pause) You may have music clients who’d like my cuisine. I may have catering clients who’d like your music.

The Musician is committed to maintain his role. He declines again, courteously. Pedro takes the extra poached pear back to the kitchen, stopping enroute to examine an Edo Pendant Mask from Nigeria on the wall.

PEDRO She looks worried.

As Pedro looks at the statue, we hear the voice of Mumia Abu Jamal on Prison Radio.

MUMIA ABU JAMAL (VO) In times like these, every tribe needs a keeper of its collective memory.

Pedro and Charyn sit down at the table set for eight to sample the pears.

CHARYN (after the first bite) Your pears are a work of art. What made you a great chef?

17 PEDRO Being an entrepreneur in Silicon Valley. I raised millions in two rounds of financing.

He looks around the room, stressed by the memory.

PEDRO (cont’d) Then... in a cluster fuck of a deal, I lost it all.

CLOSE on his face, shaking his head.

PEDRO (cont’d) I thought I’d be cool like Antonio Garcia Martinez and “torture data until it confessed, predict user behavior, and (faster and faster) get people to buy shit they don’t need with money they don’t have.”

The candle flames lean into his words.

CHARYN (squinting as she listens) Why didn’t it work out?

PEDRO I couldn’t turn my torture into a best-selling book. I was just (pause, shakes his head) an abysmal failure.

CHARYN Did you have to give up?

PEDRO Give that up. Yeah. (pause) My doctor said, “Your blood pressure’s skyrocketed. And your migraines aren’t going away. Hear the signals?” I quit, became a chef. (pause)

18 PEDRO (cont’d) And you? What do you do when you’re not hosting a dinner?

CHARYN I’m a screenwriter.

PEDRO Ah... Can you turn your torture into a story? What’s your screenplay about?

CHARYN A dinner party that went south.

Pedro LAUGHS.

PEDRO Aha. I get it now. Will my poached pears be in it?

The poached pears shiver with delight.

CHARYN They deserve to be. No power. No dinner guests. No dinner. But... (shrugs) something else will happen.

PEDRO Curious – hard to predict.

Pedro’s eyes fall on Charyn’s notebook, lying neglected on the table. He reaches out to grab it, then stops suddenly, realizing that it’s not his to grab.

PEDRO (cont’d) May I?

CHARYN Sure.

Pedro picks up the notebook with Charyn’s word list. The Musician was playing. Now he stops to listen, growing more and more intrigued.

19 PEDRO (cont’d) I wondered what this list was about. I’m curious.

The camera surveys the scrawled list:

Story Threads: art, assassin, candles, Cinderella, guests, imagine, memory, music, Musician, pandemic, paranoia....

PEDRO (cont’d) I don’t see “pears” on your list. May I add them?

CHARYN Yes. Please also add “dead heat, fires, power out”...

PEDRO This list reminds me of Leonardo da Vinci’s word lists called the Codex Trivulzianus, which were generally edited out when his Notebooks were published.

CHARYN Amazing you know that. That’s a source of inspiration for me. Raymond Stites, the psychologist who analyzed Leonardo’s word lists, inspired me to use word lists to tap my subconscious.

CLOSE – A crossword puzzle twists and animates into a labyrinth on Charyn’s notebook page.

PEDRO (VO) This crossword puzzle/ labyrinth might offer clues.

BACK TO SCENE PEDRO (cont’d, skeptical) Cinderella is a cult anti-heroine. Why is she on your list?

20 CHARYN She’s innocence — easy to manipulate and abuse.

PEDRO Brainwashed to think she has just one escape – the Prince.

CLOSE – Charyn’s face as she recalls the story. CHARYN’S MOTHER appears in her memory, a fashionable, wealthy socialite.

CHARYN (VO) This started as a screenplay rewrite. An aging Cinderella recalls the suitors of her youth — bitter that she didn’t pick the prince. (musing) No one ever writes about what happens to Cinderella AFTER she got the prince. Her story is over when she gets the prince. (pause) Or it’s over because she didn’t get the prince.

BACK TO SCENE. Pedro nods.

CHARYN (cont’d) We need a new story. About Cinderella living a creative life.

DELIVERY. The CHIMES RING. Charyn jolts to attention.

She hesitates, since she expected the doorbell, looks at Pedro, wondering. Then she goes to open the door. Flower delivery service from FedEx [PPxxx]. Charyn signs for the delivery, takes a large bill from her stash hidden in the corridor closet to give to the delivery man, who’s noticeably surprised.

POSTMAN How did you know? This will help. I’m a struggling composer.

CHARYN Where from?

21 POSTMAN Persia. The Statue of Liberty was my symbol of freedom.

The Statue of Liberty viewed from above.

POSTMAN (cont’d, chuckles sadly) But... it didn’t quite work out that way. So, FedEx.

CHARYN (nods, sympathetic) I’m sorry. (takes the bouquet) Was there a card with the flowers?

POSTMAN I didn’t see one.

CHARYN I ordered this bouquet for my dinner party. I was just curious if flowers come with a card.

The postman looks at Charyn quizzically, frowns, considering what to do. He takes a pen and writes a note in a little notebook, puts it in his left pocket. Then he produces an insert card from his right pocket, writes a second note and puts it with Charyn’s flowers.

POSTMAN Sorry ma’am. It was windy and must have blown away... There was a little card. I’ve just signed this one with an M.

CHARYN M stands for?

POSTMAN Mohammed – that’s my name.

Charyn takes another big bill from her stash hidden in the closet and gives it to the postman. The Postman nods, bows in thanks. Charyn smiles, closes the door, turns around. SIGHS. She puts the new flowers into a vase and drops the card onto the table next to the vase without reading it.

22 Pedro sees the little card on the table next to the vase of flowers.

PEDRO (cont’d) What’s this little insert card?

CHARYN Came with the flowers. I forgot to read it. What does it say?

Pedro picks up the card, reads aloud.

PEDRO (reading) “You will know when you hear the cello.” (frowns) Sounds like one of those fortune cookies that tells you nothing. I hate fortune cookies like that.

Charyn looks at it, frowns, wondering.

CHARYN What fortune would strike you as clever?

PEDRO Dunno. You’re the writer. But... it’s got to be a fortune that gives advice.

CHARYN (ponders this) “Beware of the man who brings too big a bouquet.”

PEDRO Great. You’ve got a budding career as a fortune cookie writer. (pause) Maybe your story exposes how easily people are brainwashed to follow a cult leader. Maybe this suspicious guy with too big a bouquet leads a cult.

23 CHARYN (imagines that storyline) But I like this cello fortune. It gives advice from a guy who was a composer back in Persia.

PEDRO Lost his shirt like I did and had to become a postman?

CHARYN I’ll never see him again to ask what he meant.

PEDRO (winks) His message is your Rorschach inkblot. Figure it out.

Pedro hesitates. Then he’s struck by a bright idea.

PEDRO (cont’d) What if the “cello” is a thread in your screenplay?

Pedro opens Charyn’s notebook to the list. The Rorschach inkblot reforms into a shape that looks more like a dark red mahogany cello.

PEDRO (cont’d) May I add “cello” to your list?

CHARYN (adamant) No! There is no cello.

The Musician plays to emphasize that point.

INSERT Terrorist Attack. Smoke from an EXPLOSION. Chaos of people running. A man wounded.

24 CHARYN (VO) My puzzle is to weave these threads into a screenplay. Assassin, cult leader, paranoia.

CLOSE – The wounded man is Stan. Jon is trying to resuscitate him.

BACK TO SCENE

Pedro and Charyn savor the pears as the Musician plays. The audience is jarred by the contrast of a terrorist attack juxtaposed with an elegant dessert to classical music. The CHIMES start to clash wildly, as if a hurricane hit.

PEDRO Sounds like one of your guests is terribly impatient for you to open the door.

Pedro packs his bag.

PEDRO (cont’d) Tell me how he likes the pears. My wife and kids are home in the dark. And I’m worried about you too, alone in the dark.

The camera catches the Musician’s face, bemused that Pedro thinks Charyn is alone.

PEDRO (cont’d) I’ve left my jacket in the hall closet. (whispering) There’s a gun in the pocket. (winks) Just in case some cult leader comes with too big a bouquet.

Pedro embraces Charyn. The Musician frowns. The music is silent. Pedro opens the door and slips out quickly.

WALT stands at the door looking disheveled, like he’s just been through something.

25 He throws his suitcase into the house onto the floor before he steps over the threshold. He’s a nervous wreck.

WALT (false cheerfulness) Just your neighbor checking in. You may need me to protect you. It’s getting wild out there.

CHARYN (suspicious) Need you to protect me? C’mon.

WALT Do you have a back-up generator?

Walt looks around the house as if casing the joint.

WALT (cont’d) Guess not. Is your fridge backed up? We’ve got no food we can eat.

CHARYN No fridge, but I’ve got poached pears.

WALT Sounds great. I’m starving. But I really need a shower. ... you look gorgeous. I have time tonight. No rush.

He smiles coyly.

CHARYN Why do you have time tonight? All of a sudden.

WALT (losing it, desperate) My wife’s gone ballistic over this power outage. I can’t stand it anymore. Then there’s my autistic son. We’re out of meds.

A movie clip plays in the “mirror of memories” here.

26 WALT (cont’d, VO) 15 times as many cases of autism today as 50 years ago. Country’s going nuts.

BACK TO SCENE WALT (cont’d, shakes his head) My son bit me. Can you believe? It’s like living with a wild animal.

ZOOM in on a crazy, angry child biting Walt. CLOSE. Walt’s face in pain at being bitten.

WALT (cont’d) And my mother-in-law. I never liked her. And now! Her oxygen tank’s gone dead with the power outage. She may have caught the virus. And my wife’s freaking out. You can’t imagine. Her mother might just die on us. (pause) And we don’t know how we’ll get the body out.

Charyn can’t stand to listen to Walt anymore, goes to the “mirror of memories” for relief. She turns back to Walt and the tirade resumes.

WALT (VO, cont’d) Our electric car is dead too. Can you believe?! (pause) My boss at the mortuary forced me to take unpaid leave. The Mortuary closed because of the pandemic. When there’s a pandemic, or fires, they close down and send us all home.

People on stretchers wearing face masks and gloves being wheeled places (abstract, strange, like a dance of death).

27 WALT (VO, cont’d) You’d think they’d stay open. People dying all over the place.

Walt looks around Charyn’s house, curious to check out what he sees as his new home.

CHARYN Your car’s dead, so you couldn’t get to work anyway.

WALT (at his wits end) True. I can’t do anything to conjure up power to start our car. Or run my mother-in-law’s oxygen tank. And I can’t stand watching the whole scene. (pause) It’s like a living hell at my house. I just had to get away to regain my sanity. (cont’d to Charyn) That’s what great neighbors are for, isn’t it?

Walt acts like a puppy dog, reaches out to embrace Charyn against her will. WALT (cont’d, oblivious) Gotta take a shower before anything else. You got water? Our water’s off too.

Walt starts to undress, simply dropping his clothes on the hall floor as if he’s lived with Charyn forever. The Musician is watching, astonished.

The Musician, discreet, swallows and starts to play music.

Then Walt looks hard at Charyn. Their eyes meet. The Musician plays a romantic song.

WALT (cont’d) You know. I always did love you.

28 WALT (cont’d) All my family obligations got in the way. But... tonight’s the night. (pauses, winks) Our dream come true. Charyn, just to be alone with you....

CHARYN Walt, I didn’t invite you here. Go back to your family.

Walt is desperate to get Charyn to take him in. He plays his last card.

WALT (pleading) I had a scary premonition that some deceptive man would come in here and rape you, right in your own home.

Walt paces, wringing his hands with worry. CLOSE – Walt’s face imagining a rape.

WALT (cont’d) I can imagine every detail. You need me to protect you.

CHARYN (amused) I don’t think so. (pause) I don’t need you to protect me. I can take care of myself.

The Musician plays a “forceful” song. Walt ignores all the indicators.

WALT The scent in this room is amazing! Were you hosting a dinner party?

CHARYN Yes, but the guests never came.

29 WALT I came. I’m the surprise guest you’ve been waiting for.

Charyn purses her lips, now even more annoyed.

CHARYN Don’t assume that what you want is what I want.

WALT (not hearing) What’s this amazing scent?

CHARYN Poached pears in Merlot with crème fraiche. I only have dessert. The dinner never came.

WALT (imagining the taste) Ah... Sounds like dinner to me. We’ve been out of food for two days. I’m starving. I can eat all the poached pears you’ve got.

The poached pears huddle, not wanting to be eaten by Walt.

CHARYN I need to save some, in case other neighbors come over. Maybe everyone’s out of food.

WALT That’s why every homeowner should keep a gun. Times like these. When the virus is spreading, terrorists are lurking, and the power is out. If you’ve got food, water and power, every damn neighbor will be trying to move into your house.

The Musician starts a confrontational song.

30 WALT (cont’d) Food, water, power, AND music! Now that’s a luxury. Fiddling while Rome burns... How quaint!

The Cello plays a STRONG BASS to object.

CHARYN (now furious) We don’t have a cello.

WALT (shrugs) Maybe that’s a good thing.

The Cello continues to assert herself, but Walt cannot hear her DARK MELODY.

CHARYN We don’t have power either. And we’ll be out of food soon.

WALT Surviving on music? Hmmm.

Charyn hears FOOTSTEPS and flinches. Walt seems oblivious.

WALT (cont’d) Ever hear about the Survival Condo Project north of Wichita, Kansas? An armed silo used as a nuclear warhead from 1961 ‘til it was decommissioned in 1965. A real estate developer got this big idea to...

CHARYN ...to what?

WALT To convert this former missile silo into luxury condos for rich dudes worried about the breakdown of civilization.

View of underground fortresses for the rich.

31 WALT (VO, cont’d) Condo walls have L.E.D. “windows” showing live video of the prairie above the silo. Owners can choose pine forests or other views.

BACK TO SCENE.

WALT (cont’d) It’s in times like these that we gotta lock up and hunker down. Stock up on food. Load our guns.

Charyn hears more FOOTSTEPS as if many people are nearby.

Crowds Outside. The camera pans out the big glass window. Quick flash: many faces seem to be staring into the window from the dark. This has the feel of a dark horror movie. Charyn and the Musician think they’ve seen this apparition, look at each other, bewildered. Walt, oblivious, rattles on.

WALT (cont’d) Good thing you and I care about each other. Quick shower first, dear. Then I’m all yours.

Walt is standing in the middle of a pile of his clothing on the floor.

CHARYN Go back to your wife, your son, your mother-in-law. They need you.

Walt’s not listening. He disappears into the bathroom. Charyn SHUTS the door on Walt. She walks over to the mirror and the Musician.

CHARYN (cont’d, to the Mirror) How can I get rid of Walt?

MIRROR Ask the Musician.

Charyn turns to the Musician with her question.

32 MUSICIAN We can bring in a Memory to get rid of Walt. But what if your Memory is worse than Walt?

CHARYN Nothing’s worse than Walt.

MUSICIAN (imagining) Each Memory comes for a reason, whether to warn you or...

CHARYN Why do you see my memories?

MUSICIAN We’re in tune. My music calls your memories, so we see them together.

The candles have started to burn down. Charyn IGNITES a match and relights the candles on the table, walks back to the mirror, musing to herself.

CHARYN (to the Mirror) Should I do this?

MIRROR Yes.

CHARYN (to the Musician) All right. I’m ready.

The doorbell RINGS. The Musician nods to Charyn, then looks toward the door. Walt is still in the bathroom.

Charyn hesitates, then gets up and goes to the door. The scene shifts back thirty years. (feeling of transformation to another generation).

Camera shows the scene from her back (over her shoulder). A young JON in a new jacket is behind the door. He didn’t release the bell. It continues to RING, signaling urgency.

CHARYN Jon?!

33 JON I came to warn you.

CHARYN What happened?

JON (shaking his head, distraught) The police murdered my friend Stan. Just... strangled him in cold blood. When he was handcuffed, so he was no threat. He had no weapons.

CHARYN Unbelievable.

JON You’re not safe here.

Charyn and Jon stand on opposite sides of the table. The musician quietly plays in the background.

JON (cont’d) There are already early warning signs. My friend Stan called, said he was in danger. I got there too late. (shakes his head, distraught)

CHARYN Don’t blame yourself.

Jon puts the flowers into a vase in the living room.

JON His funeral’s today.

Jon shakes his head. Long pause. Charyn recalls the fortune cookie as her eyes fall on the vase of flowers, which is beautiful, and smaller than the bouquet Mohammed delivered.

JON (cont’d) Flowers to celebrate Environmental Justice.

34 CHARYN If you can predict the future, suppose I’ve cracked open a fortune cookie. What does it say?

JON Your fortune (pause) is to tell a story about a crisis that strikes us all, rich and poor!” (pause) That’s your call: Write that story.

On cue, Walt emerges from the bathroom, wrapped in a towel. Walt doesn’t see Jon, since Jon is a memory. Pedro saw him, since his pears helped invoke him.

WALT There’s no water. I waited awhile. Not a drop.

Jon nods to Charyn as if to say “I told you so.” He heads out, closing the door behind him.

WALT (cont’d) How can I take a shower without water?

Charyn frowns.

CHARYN Is there water in the kitchen?

Charyn goes to the refrigerator [PPxxx] to run a glass of water. There’s no water in the kitchen either. She looks toward the Musician for insight.

MUSICIAN The water must have been diverted to fight those killer fires. They’re raging out of control.

FLASH to firefighters fighting the fires.

WALT If they have no water, let them drink wine. Who said that?

35 CHARYN Marie Antoinette said, “If they have no bread, let them eat cake.”

MUSICIAN The Gospel of Timothy said, “Add a little wine to your water to improve your digestion and cure your ailments.”

WALT But we still need the water...

Ignoring Walt, Charyn goes to the “mirror of memories” where the APPLE 1984 ad plays (59 seconds): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtvjbmoDx-I APPLE Macintosh 1984 ad [with permission]

Charyn is still disturbed by the 1984 memory when a fancy car [PPxxx] stops on the street.

DARREN steps out and takes from the trunk of the car an enormous bouquet of flowers.

The doorbell RINGS. The Musician gives a confirming look to Charyn, who nods back at him, then looks toward the door. Moment of suspense. Who’s arriving? How do we get Walt to leave?

CHARYN (to Walt) A guest is here. You must go. Now.

WALT (pleading) Come on! I’m your neighbor. We’re going to spend the night together. For the first time. Eating poached pears. Making love by candlelight.

CHARYN Walt, I was never going to spend the night with you. You imagined that.

WALT (trying another angle) Your life is threatened. You need me here to protect you.

36 Charyn stiffens, squints her eyes to slits and faces Walt, who grabs her against her will. The Musician stands, ready to intervene if necessary.

CHARYN (firmly) You could be a threat. You’re really a nuisance. Go home! NOW!

WALT (squints, menacing) I’ve got a gun at home. I could come back with it.

Walt gives Charyn a look, clenches his fists, takes his bag and leaves in a rage. Charyn walks over to the Mirror and Musician, shaking her head.

CHARYN (to the Mirror) Is Walt dangerous?

MIRROR Not yet.

CHARYN (instructing the Musician) When you feel that the climax of the evening has arrived, please play my favorite.

Music TBD. Musician plays a sample. Charyn approves.

DOORBELL again. Charyn walks to the door, waits, takes a deep breath, gathers herself, then opens the door.

The memory of DARREN has arrived. He’s arrogant, egotistical, narcissistic.

DARREN Did someone just leave? (facetious) Your other lover?

CHARYN (shrugs) Just a neighbor.

37 Darren puts an enormous bouquet of flowers on the table and takes a bottle of wine from his briefcase. The Musician begins to play.

Charyn registers the overly large bouquet and stiffens, then pretends everything is fine. She plays this scene, visibly on guard, knowing that she’s been warned. She feigns charm.

CHARYN (cont’d) I ordered a cello. (to Darren) I love a capella cello solo — it would have been perfect for tonight. But they were out of cellos.

DARREN With your body, darling, who needs a cello?

Charyn frowns, looks toward the Musician. The Musician continues to play, a stone-faced automaton, doing his job, hearing, but pretending he sees nothing.

DARREN (cont’d) My dear, you won’t believe what delayed me.

Darren starts pacing the floor, shaking his head in disbelief.

DARREN (cont’d) Mike, a guy I barely know from the Phi Gamma Delta frat said, Guess what he said?

CHARYN No clue. What did he say?

DARREN He said, “Darren, I had a dream last night about the future. In my dream, I imagined that I was a writer. And you. (pause) Get this. YOU were President of the United States. The whole frickin’ United States.” Wha’ d’you make a that?

38 CHARYN Dreams are clues. They don’t always mean what you think.

DARREN The guy’s a fuckin’ loser. A fuckin’ loser. I hired that guy to be my assistant. I think I met the guy two or three times total. Then I fired him. (pause) And this guy has this dream about me, thinks he’s going to write a book about me, like he knows me! Fuckin’ makin’ up all this stuff ‘bout how I’m gonna be President. (pause) Well, of course, he might be right. I might just be President someday. (interrupts the Musician) Hey you. Put these flowers in a vase! (angry) Can’t you see we’re busy talking?! And pour us two glasses a wine for God’s sake! Make yourself useful!

The Musician stops in the middle of piece. Charyn gets out a vase for him, a corkscrew to open the wine, and two wine glasses.

Darren sets eyes the smaller bouquets that FedEx and Jon delivered, looks at Charyn askance.

DARREN (cont’d) Where did those little bouquets come from? (picks up the card and reads) Signed by M? Who’s M?

CHARYN Mohammed – the FedEx guy who delivered that bouquet for my dinner party.

39 DARREN Mohammed? Mohammed?? When I’m President, there’ll be a total and complete shutdown of Muslims coming into the U.S.

Richard Gere appears, either digital twin or green screen cameo (with permission in either case).

RICHARD GERE The worst thing you’ve done is to conflate two words — refugee and terrorist. Refugees are people who need our help. You’re trying to make us afraid of them.

Darren doesn’t see Richard Gere, walks past him to lash out at the Musician.

DARREN (to the Musician) I said, Can’t you see we’re busy talking?! Pour us some wine for God’s sake! Make yourself useful!

Richard Gere disappears. The Musician silently serves the wine, then sits back down. But he doesn’t resume playing. Instead, he pulls out his memoirs notebook and starts taking notes. Charyn and Darren toast.

DARREN (cont’d) To the future! Our future. This wine won hands down in a blind taste test. French sommeliers pronounced it the best. Yeah. Made in America. Know where it’s from? Guess.

CHARYN Can’t guess.

DARREN Blanc de Blancs from the Trump Winery in Monticello. It won Best in Class. It was the Sparkling Sweepstakes Winner!

40 CHARYN Really?

DARREN Yeah, we’ll bring those French to their knees with this wine. Arrogant bastards.

Darren raises his glass in another toast. The Musician is stone- faced, expressionless, watching this display. He’s stopped playing. Silence. Darren is so self-centered that he doesn’t even notice that the music has gone silent.

DARREN (cont’d) To us! To making America great again!

He savors the wine. She tastes it, squints as she tries to figure out his agenda.

CHARYN (curious) Do you see yourself as President? I mean – how would you get elected?

DARREN Simple. Pin labels on your opponents. Call whatever they propose a hoax. Call them “socialists” – that’s a killer label. Call them “liars” — works like a charm too. Nobody ever thinks you’re a liar if you call everyone else a liar.

CHARYN So... you call everyone a liar?

DARREN (shrugs) Anyone who opposes me. Winning an election is like leading a cult.

CLOSE – Charyn sips her wine, starting to see how it fits together.

41 CHARYN How do you lead a cult?

DARREN Simple. First, like I said, call all your opponents liars. (pause) Second, carry a baseball cap in your pocket. (pulls out a collapsed cap) When I want the 99% to think I’m just an ordinary guy, like them, (puts it on backwards) I put this cap on backwards. That’s how they all wear it. Details like that win elections. And, a course, the voting machines can help.

GEORGE CLOONEY appears, either digital twin or green screen cameo (with permission in either case).

GEORGE CLOONEY (to Darren) You’re clueless! You’re in way over your head.

CHARYN (to George) Darren says that facts don’t matter. Nobody cares if he’s clueless.

George shakes his head dissolves into thin air with a WHOOSH.

DARREN (shrugs) Politics is smoke and mirrors. People want stories that make them feel superior! Powerful! Rich! They wanna be like me!

CHARYN So you believe you can be clueless and that what you promise to deliver won’t matter? How will you get voters to vote for you?

42 DARREN One formula: Scare everyone. Attack Minorities. Find a terrorist threat. Or a pandemic – that’ll really scare everyone.

CHARYN You think that formula qualifies you to be President?

DARREN Well,.. somebody’s gotta make America great again.

Charyn walks over to the “mirror of memories.”

CHARYN (to the Mirror) Could Martin Luther King survive if he were alive today?

Martin Luther King appears in the mirror accepting the Nobel Prize. Darren is drinking wine. He doesn’t see or hear the Mirror.

DARREN And you, dear. You’d be a gorgeous First Lady! With that body a yours.

CHARYN I’m a writer.

DARREN (dismissive) Forget that. And... you can’t have terrible art like this on the White House walls. What is this stuff, anyway?

CHARYN African art... from Nigeria.

DARREN Awful... gotta go. Laziness is a trait in blacks. It really is, I believe that. You know, I’m the least racist guy there is. I’m just honest.

43

Suddenly the memory of Jon materializes out of thin air. Jon is very polite. He bows to Charyn and reaches out to shake Darren’s hand. Darren steps back, shocked, refuses to shake hands.

JON (to Darren) You’ve just described an entire human race with one word? Lazy. Did you actually say that?

Digital twin OPRAH WINFREY joins Jon. Digital twin SAMUEL JACKSON joins Oprah Winfrey and Jon.

SAMUEL L. JACKSON (indicating Oprah Winfrey) If my friend Oprah would run for President, she’d beat you any day. It’s when voters stay home that we get stuck with white supremacists like you! We’ll harness our fury!

DARREN (flustered) Like I said, I’m the least racist guy there is.

Jon, Oprah and Samuel dissolve into thin air.

CHARYN So... you say you don’t like African art. Would you prefer Japanese art?

DARREN Hell, no. I mean, really, who knows how much the Japs are scheming to pay for Manhattan property these days?

CHARYN Don’t you mean the Chinese?

DARREN Them too. They’re trying to take over the world.

44 DARREN (cont’d) Now, don’t get me wrong. I’ll make a deal when there’s a deal to be made. You don’t get rich sitting behind a desk. No, I’m not doing that.

Dark-suited LOBBYIST #1 appears out of thin air to the accompaniment of a HURRICANE. He’s ready to make a deal with Darren.

LOBBYIST #1 I represent the oil industry. We’re worth 200 billion dollars a year! And we want YOU to be OUR President! We’ll give millions to your Victory Campaign.

DARREN Together we’ll make America the greatest oil and natural gas producer in the world!

LOBBYIST #1 We love you. Now, here’s the deal. Roll back environmental regulations. Let us frack and drill wherever we will. No cleanup costs.

DARREN You got it! Give me POWER!

HUGE CHEERS AND APPLAUSE [take from State of the Union Speech 2020]. Darren and Lobbyist #1 shake hands cordially.

DARREN (cont’d) Imagine crowds cheering when I announce our oil deal! You’ll be so rich. And I’ll be so loved! (pause) I won’t need to run for re- election.

As Lobbyist #1 fades into thin air, LOBBYIST #2 fades in to the WHOOSH of a WINDSTORM. The two lobbyists meet on the surreal

45 corridor of dissolution. Darren and Lobbyist #2 shake hands cordially.

LOBBYIST #2 I represent the healthcare, pharma, and insurance industries. We spend hundreds of millions lobbying. We have patents and exclusivity to protect! No generics. We want YOU to be OUR President!

DARREN (smiles, nods agreement) We’ve got pandemics and panic... People running so scared their ours to control! We can exploit these crises.

LOBBYIST #2 You’re our man. We’re worth over a trillion dollars a year. We want everyone on private insurance. No cost controls. And if there’s a pandemic, you’ll subsidize us from taxpayer money! Won’t you? We’ll give millions to your Victory Campaign.

DARREN It’s a deal.

HUGE CHEERS AND APPLAUSE [take from State of the Union Speech 2020]. Darren and Lobbyist #2 shake hands cordially. Lobbyist #2 fades into thin air.

BRAD PITT appears, either digital twin or green screen cameo (with permission in either case).

BRAD PITT All these deals you’re making will ramp up our national debt.

Darren stiffens, angry, ready to lash out. Brad Pitt stands and faces him, completely calm. We’re not sure if Darren sees him or not.

Charyn and the Musician have been standing on the sidelines together, whispering and watching Darren. Now Charyn steps away from the Musician toward Darren.

46 DARREN (con’t) I’m sorry, dear. Urgent business I had to deal with. (sips more wine) Amazing bouquet. This wine is a born winner.

Darren now realizes that the Musician has been silent, listening to his deal-making and taking notes in his notebook. He hasn’t played any music in a long time. Darren walks over to stand between Charyn and the Musician, threatening the Musician.

DARREN (cont’d) Why aren’t you playing? You’re being paid to play.

The music starts again. Darren starts SHOUTING over the music.

DARREN (cont’d) In this great country the hatred is beyond belief. (pause) Hatred and disease make people afraid... The more hatred and fear there is, the more likely I am to get elected!

CHARYN What about gun control?

DARREN (pounding his fist on the table) We cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks and protests. Thank God for the military!

The Gold Framed mirror shows the Oklahoma City Bombing, then a series of mass shootings.

CHARYN (VO) The Oklahoma City bombing and all these mass shootings?

BACK TO SCENE

47 DARREN Outsiders are dragging us down. “Block immigration!” – that’s my motto. Terrorism’s gotten so bad, every homeowner should own a gun, just for self-protection. (pause) If I become President, we’re going to Make America Great Again. Because, you know what? Americans are the best of the best! (sips wine) La crème de la crème. We’ve gotta show our superiority to the world! We can take what we want!

Darren reaches out to grab Charyn. She resists.

DARREN (cont’d) We can do what we want.

Darren embraces Charyn against her will.

DARREN (cont’d) We can run this world!

Charyn extricates herself, using the fact that Darren’s glass is low as an excuse. She refills his glass again to avoid another confrontation with the Musician. Darren lifts his glass to toast Charyn.

DARREN (cont’d) And you know what, dear? When you’re my First Lady, you’ll have a platform to launch your own line of beauty products: cosmetics, perfumes, fashion.

CHARYN I’m a writer. I don’t want to launch a line of beauty products.

48 DARREN Forget that. I know what’s best for you, like I know what’s best for this country. Those shawls over there. (issued like a command) Bring ‘em over – I bet we could mass produce those designs.

Charyn hesitates, narrows her eyes. She and the Musician exchange looks. He nods: they agree that she’ll play along with Darren’s commands, set him up on a pedestal.

CHARYN (slightly facetious tone) Great idea, Darren.

The Musician is also playing along. He starts a new, cheerful song. Charyn walks to the mirror.

CHARYN (cont’d, to the Mirror) This dinner was supposed to inspire my screenplay. But when the lights went out, the story took over. It started writing itself.

CHARYN’S IMAGE IN THE MIRROR That’s life, isn’t it? You’re the hero of your life story. But... sometimes your story writes you.

The Musician continues to play accompanying music as Charyn goes and stands in front of the mirror folding the shawls.

DARREN What’s that scent coming from the kitchen?

CHARYN Poached pears – made especially for you.

DARREN (with contempt) You cooked them yourself?

49 CHARYN No. A chef made the poached pears... I ordered them... just for you.

DARREN Which chef? What’s his name?

CHARYN Pedro.

DARREN Pedro? Pedro?? Sounds Mexican to me. Don’t get me going on the Mexicans. When I’m President, I’m going to build a Wall to keep out all those Mexican criminals and drug addicts and whatnot trying to come up here where they don’t belong.

FLASH COLLAGE OF THE GREAT WALL OF AMERIKA (border wall) collapsing, Mexicans taking a blow torch to the wall. Mexicans scaling the wall and a Monsoon Storm with strong winds blowing down sections of the wall.

JENNIFER LOPEZ appears in the “mirror of memories” either digital twin or green screen cameo (with permission in either case).

JENNIFER LOPEZ Fools build walls, lock us out. Put us in cages. Don’t do that if you want to be President of the United States!

JENNIFER LOPEZ swirls and disappears with a WHOOSH of a windstorm as LOBBYIST #3 fades in. Darren and Lobbyist #3 shake hands cordially.

LOBBYIST #3 We can build the wall of your dreams! I’m from the real estate and construction industries. Deregulate development.

DARREN (smiles, nods agreement)

50 There will be huge contracts to build my wall. DARREN (cont’d) Watch me spin this Wall Story. Fans will love it. It’s so... concrete!

HUGE CHEERS AND APPLAUSE [take from State of the Union Speech 2020]. Darren and Lobbyist #3 chuckle.

DARREN (cont’d) Imagine crowds cheering — like they did for Hitler in the 1930s. The Wall is so symbolic. It’s a media icon!

Lobbyist #3 fades into thin air.

CHARYN I heard those black suits. If you divert billions to build your Wall, where will you find money for a pandemic?

DARREN (sips more wine) Don’t worry, dear. Money is my department. You just promote the souvenirs.

Charyn is still facing the mirror, folding shawls.

CHARYN (to the Mirror) After the Fall of the Wall, where will he get money for health care for us all?

THE MIRROR shows selected Images of the Wall. Neon colors make the Wall look surreal (see Appendix 1)

DARREN (not seeing the wall) Just imagine! A thousand years from now — Our Wall will be like The Great Wall of China!

51

DARREN (cont’d) They’ve got a Wall. An old wall. If we don’t build a new Wall, we’ll be a third world country.

The enormous antique gold-framed mirror shows scenes of The Great Wall of China.

DARREN (cont’d, VO) The Great Wall of China is a tourist monument. Tourists travel from all over the world to see it.

The enormous antique gold-framed mirror shows scenes of The Great Wall of China crawling with tourists.

Views of luxury hotels.

DARREN (cont’d, VO) They’ll stay in luxury hotels at tourist sites near The Great Wall of Amerika.

The enormous antique, gold-framed mirror shows scenes of the Berlin Wall.

DARREN (cont’d, VO) Remember the Berlin Wall?

The enormous antique gold-framed mirror shows scenes of tearing down the Berlin Wall.

CHARYN The Berlin Wall was torn down thirty years ago.

DARREN Well, whatever you think of Hitler...

Triumph of the Will. Film, commissioned by Hitler, (German: Triumph des Willens) – 1935 Nazi propaganda film directed,

52 produced, edited, and co-written by Leni Riefenstahl about the 1934 Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg, which was attended by more than 700,000 Nazi supporters. Clip from this film TBD

DARREN (VO, cont’d) Hitler knew how to win over crowds. His recipe was simple: combine White Supremacy with racism and stir.

BACK TO SCENE DARREN (cont’d) The white majority loves to hear that they’re superior.

CHARYN White Supremacy plus racism...

Triumph of the Will. Clip from this film cont’d

DARREN (VO) The public’s not very smart. Make voters feel that, by electing you, they’re joining the upper class! They’ll be members of America’s gated community – insiders in our cult!

CHARYN (VO) Then the Great Wall of Amerika is a Gate that says, “We’re superior! All you immigrants are beneath us!” We’re locking you out! We see you as terrorists!...

BACK TO SCENE

DARREN You’re right on the money, honey. That’s my formula. Let’s make DC the world headquarters of Disaster Capitalism. Scare voters with terrorist threats and pandemics.

53 Weed out the poor — we need to reduce the population anyway. CHARYN (facetious) Hasten the old dying, since we can't afford the social security they paid for? Funnel trillions to big companies and the rich?

DARREN You got it, Babe. They'll support my campaign! It’s a winning formula.

CHARYN What about the arts? Culture survives because artists pursue their dreams. And social service? And learning? And health care?

DARREN (ignoring her) Keep it simple – money to the rich. The Wall is our symbol — the sign that we’re superior!

CHARYN (shaking her head) There’ll be lots of opposition to that wall.

DARREN Only from politicians with Mexican wives. (shrugs) And they’re already prejudiced.

CHARYN You said you want to make crowds stampede. How will your Wall do that?

DARREN (shrugs) People are animals. When you yell “DANGER,” they stampede. Then they’re your herd. (pause)

54

DARREN (cont’d) But you’ve got a point. A pandemic might work better than a Wall. It’s all in the advertising.

Darren stretches his arms out to embrace both strategies.

DARREN (cont’d) First, superiority. A multi- billion-dollar Wall to symbolize our superiority. Like dollars symbolize wealth. Then, vulnerability and risk. A pandemic threatens everyone.

Darren puts his hands on Charyn’s shoulders. She flinches.

DARREN (cont’d) Our new, All-Amerikan WALL turns the whole United States into a gated community. (pause) We’re protecting our interests AND the prosperity of our great nation by keeping the riffraff out. (pause) Crowds love the subliminal message that we’re superior. Works like a charm.

CHARYN Your wall stands for the opposite of what the Statue of Liberty stood for!

View of the Statue of Liberty.

CHARYN (VO, cont’d) Your Wall says we don’t welcome talent from the rest of the world!

BACK TO SCENE

55

DARREN (sugary, changing the subject) Charyn, when you’re my First Lady, you can design the exclusive Great Wall of Amerika collection of souvenirs to be sold at the Wall.

CHARYN You didn’t hear me. I’m a writer.

DARREN (exasperated) You didn’t hear me. I’m the boss. And I said, “Forget about being a writer!”

Darren slugs down more wine. He’s getting drunk.

DARREN (cont’d, slurring his words) There’s millions to be made in tourist souvenirs. (pause) Crystal trophies and exclusive offers in numbered, limited editions! Only at The Great Wall of Amerika!

Darren starts pacing the floor. But he’s too drunk to walk straight. He stumbles, realizes he’s got to blame someone. He points an accusing finger at Charyn.

DARREN (cont’d) That last bottle of wine was yours. I never drink bad wine. That was off. It’s making me sick. Where’s your bathroom?

Charyn leads Darren to the bathroom and returns to take it out on the Musician.

CHARYN (under her breath, angry)

56 You chose which memories to bring back! You brought Darren back! Why did you do this to me?

MUSICIAN (whispering, but matter-of-fact) We both brought Darren back!

CHARYN (shaking her head) Darren is worse than Walt.

MUSICIAN Darren is a cult hero. He’s our Minotaur.

CHARYN Now I know why I drew that maze in my notebook.

MUSICIAN That maze is the whole web of fake news that props up this guy and his cult.

The Musician and Charyn wonder what to do. Darren breaks in like a bull in a china shop, revived by his bathroom break.

DARREN Imagine this!

He waves his arm like a magician’s wand and presto, in the mirror of memories, we see luxury hotels under construction and new hotels opening. DARREN (cont’d, VO) Our construction companies can make billions building The Great Wall of Amerika. And the hotels near the wall. Huge economic incentive! Infrastructure!

The enormous antique gold-framed mirror shows mammoth statues of Ramses II in Egypt.

BACK TO SCENE DARREN (cont’d)

57 I’m doing what Ramses II did for Egypt. Making all those statues of himself, he was creating jobs for the poor! CHARYN That’s so generous of you, Darren! We need a 50 foot statue of you – right in Times’ Square!

Darren imagines this idea, looks up, trying to picture it, smiles at the thought.

CHARYN (cont’d) Or better yet... what about a statue of you? On a pedestal in the ocean? As boats arrive, their first image of America will be a great bronze statue of YOU, even bigger than the Statue of Liberty!

Darren tilts his head, imagines, smiles, walks over and embraces Charyn. Then he brashly tries to take her dress off. The Musician watches, revolted. Charyn resists, first politely, then more forcefully, then appealing to the Musician for help. But the Musician is following their plan, “going along” like a zombie and staying out of it.

INTERCUT. Charyn VO (describing Darren) and live (resisting Darren)

CHARYN (VO) Half an hour after Jon left for the funeral, Darren’s hands started to undress me. He was on automatic.

CHARYN No... Darren! Let’s just dance.

CHARYN (VO) He got more aggressive. I was “any woman.” Didn’t matter.

CHARYN Darren! You’re drunk!

58 CHARYN (VO) I was his property.

CHARYN (fed up) Stop!

A clip from Springtime for Hitler plays in the Mirror of Memories.

DARREN (to save face) Hey, Charyn, we’re just dancing! (commanding the Musician) Play us some dance music, boy.

Dance music follows. Darren and Charyn dance. The Musician sings for the first time. Charyn is amazed at how good a singer he is. Darren is impressed at how good a dancer Charyn is. Darren steps back to watch her.

DARREN (cont’d, to Charyn) Wow, you’ve got the moves. I can launch your career as a dancer right now.

CHARYN I’m a writer!

Views of luxury hotels. Zoom into hotels to nightclubs with dancers. DARREN (cont’d, VO) We won’t wait ‘til I’m President. My Dad and I own luxury hotels. We need dancers like you.

Charyn finishes her first dance with a flourish. The Musician breaks from the stone-faced, zombie, expressionless character he was before. The Musician stands to announce the next number.

MUSICIAN In honor of our future President, Charyn, can we come up with a song and dance number? Conceived and

59 created for your VIP guest this evening?

Charyn nods, intrigued by this idea.

MUSICIAN (cont’d) Just give us a moment to rehearse.

The Musician rips out some pages in his notebook where he was developing song ideas when he wasn’t performing. He and Charyn confer in front of the mirror, improvising some dance moves.

CHARYN (to Darren) We’ll improvise. We’ll see how it goes.

At first Darren is thrilled that Charyn and the Musician are performing in his honor.

Song: “Speaking for the One Percent”

CHARYN & MUSICIAN (duet, dance) Thanks for giving us a chance 7 To compose this song and dance 7 All voters know that it’s no accident 10 Wealth makes you self-confident! 7

They bow to Darren, who loves it.

CHARYN & MUSICIAN (cont’d, duet, dance) All hail, our new President! 7 Speaking for the one percent! 7 All Hell to pay unless you get your way! 10 Wealth makes you irreverent! 7

They sing the next lines, appealing to Darren. CHARYN & MUSICIAN (cont’d, duet, dance) We can’t waste another day 7 We’ll... be careful what we say 7 We know the rich will give you what you want 10 Just empower those who count! 7

60 DARREN (spoken) What about the Great Wall of Amerika? Get that into our song!

MUSICIAN (spoken) Great idea! Let’s get it in. Please give us a minute.

Charyn and the Musician confer about how to add verses about the Great Wall. Song: “The Great Wall of Amerika”

CHARYN & MUSICIAN (duet, dance) If you ask us where to go 7 We can say we’re in the know. 7 Forget esoterica. Head to the 10 Great Wall of Amerika! 7

Top place on our map to fly 7 Souvenirs – cool things to buy 7 Mementos of our future President, 10 Who’ll win, not by accident! 7

Singers, Dancers, It’s your show! 7 Don’t look down. The scene below 7 Is just esoterica. Head to the 10 Great Wall of Amerika! 7

CHARYN (spoken to Darren) We need an ending. Just a minute.

So far, Darren loves how this song is being composed on the fly in his honor. Charyn and the Musician confer about an ending for the song.

CHARYN & MUSICIAN (duet, dance) Squander billions on YOUR wall 7 Keep the Army Corps on call 7 Spend our money. Call your bluff! Enough! 10 Great Wall of Amerika! 7 Great Wall of Amerika! 7

61 CLOSE. Darren’s face shifts from drunken appreciation to drunken anger. He winces.

CHARYN & MUSICIAN (cont’d, duet, dance) When we have another chance 7 We’ll do our dictator dance 7 Spend our money! Then get tough! Cream puff! 10 Great Wall of Amerika! 7 Great Wall of Amerika! 7

Darren likes this song less and less.

CHARYN & MUSICIAN (cont’d duet, dance) As our future president 7 Where can we seek help and how? 7 Stay bitter on twitter. Won’t matter 10 We can act. We’ll pivot now. 7

Forget that our great nation 7 Still has an obligation 7 To care about its people and their needs 10 Who but you should do good deeds? 7

Fires burn and rivers run dry 7 Can’t you see we live a lie? 7 Impending crisis tells us what is fact. 10 We’ll pivot ‘cause we must act. 7

Darren is uncomfortable with the new direction of the song. He now realizes that the Musician has very cleverly taken away his dance partner. Charyn is having a great time with the Musician, rather than dancing with him.

He’s the odd man out, the unnecessary third. They’d be happier if he just left. Darren, furious at having been so fooled, swigs down the last of his wine and breaks it up.

DARREN (screaming) Where’s your head, boy? I’m outta wine. Refill my glass!

62 Charyn stops dancing. The Musician stops singing, freezes, unmoving, stone-faced. Charyn fills Darren’s wine glass to avoid a confrontation. Darren squares to the Musician, angry. But the musician is bigger and stronger than he is. Darren looks for a way to save face.

DARREN (to Charyn) Fire this idiot!

Charyn steps between Darren and the Musician, turning to face Darren.

CHARYN (handing Darren his glass) A friend of mine went to a funeral today. Someone we both knew was killed in a terrorist attack.

DARREN (contemptuous) A war hero because he got captured or killed? I like people who weren’t captured or killed, okay?

CHARYN I don’t feel well. Please go now.

DARREN Look, girl. I can find lots of pussy with bigger boobs than yours. (with contempt) I don’t need you to be my First Lady.

The Musician rises slowly, solemn and deliberate. The Musician is now standing. Silence. Tension rises. Darren senses the Musician’s anger, squares to the Musician.

Now the Musician is furious. Darren looks for a way to save face.

DARREN (cont’d, to Charyn) This guy was a hired hand. Now he thinks he’s running the show! Fire him!

63 The Musician moves forward toward Darren, very slowly, deliberately. Darren is incensed, as if the Musician has insulted him.

DARREN (cont’d) Who are you calling a “war zone”? This is now man to man. The Musician is taller and more fit.

MUSICIAN (slowly, under his breath) You’re lucky that I don’t have a cello. (booming voice) If I had a cello, I’d smash it over your head!

Charyn GASPS, as if she’s about to faint.

She goes to the closet, takes the revolver from Pedro’s jacket pocket in the closet and points it at Darren.

Charyn walks to the other side of the room as she continues to point the gun at Darren.

CHARYN (to Darren) You said every homeowner should have a gun. Are you ready?

The moment of suspense stretches. Charyn is still pointing the gun at Darren. Darren is frozen in fear. The Musician has frozen, watching, silent.

DARREN Charyn, wait a minute ...

CHARYN I’m not throwing away my shot... [reference: HAMILTON]

Charyn SHOOTS the gun at the ceiling. The ceiling opens into a perfect circle, revealing a beautiful view of the night sky. Plaster streams to the floor.

Darren WHOOSHES up through the hole in the ceiling and is sucked up into a dark storm cloud in the starry night sky.

64 MATT DAMON appears in the “mirror of memories” either digital twin or green screen cameo (with permission in either case).

MATT DAMON Sometimes all you need is 20 seconds of insane courage.

Charyn waves her hand in front of her face to spread the smoke. The pistol is still in her hand. She flips the cylinder, letting the remaining cartridges fall down on the floor.

Then she calmly brings the pistol to eye level, pointing the pistol at the camera, so the camera can see her eye through the empty cylinders. Then she sets the pistol down on the table. The camera pans down and examines the cartridges and plaster on the floor.

MERYL STREEP appears in the “mirror of memories” either digital twin or green screen cameo (with permission in either case).

MERYL STREEP True freedom is understanding that we have a choice in who and what we allow to have power over us.

Charyn acknowledges Meryl Streep before her image fades.

The Musician in the background stops playing, sits motionless, smiles with a secret thought.

Charyn walks back toward the Musician. But she doesn’t get there. On her way, she collapses on the sofa, exhausted. The Musician plays music. Charyn falls asleep.

The camera examines Charyn on the sofa, a “Sleeping Beauty” frozen motionless in time in a sort of coma – strangely still.

CHARYN’S NIGHTMARE

Bird Migration. LEONARDO DICAPRIO (either digital twin or green screen cameo, with permission in either case) looms large against the sky as a huge flock of birds migrates from danger, screeching desperate CRIES of warning.

LEONARDO DICAPRIO Listen! Our planet's alarm is calling us to wake up and act! Realists must make the environment their top priority.

65

Fire Stampedes. Animals are stampeding away from the fires.

ROBERT REDFORD (either digital twin or green screen cameo, with permission in either case) looms large in this wild scene.

ROBERT REDFORD The meter is ticking. We need nature. We need reality, not just virtual reality.

Traffic Jam. People are trying to drive away from fires. They’re stuck in the smoke, locked in a standstill traffic jam. Helmeted motorcyclists weave through the stopped cars.

JULIA ROBERTS (either digital twin or green screen cameo, with permission in either case) appears surreal, in the midst of the stopped traffic.

JULIA ROBERTS The older you get, the more you understand how fragile life is.

Fleeing Fires. People are grabbing handfuls of belongings, rushing away from burning houses. Mass migration. Encampment in the wilderness. Pedro arrives with food for the starving.

Storm surge. People grabbing handfuls of belongings, rushing away from storm-ridden homes. Sea level rise. Mass migration.

Rounding up the homeless. Police arrive and brutally force the homeless into police vans and from there into prisons – views of black people in prisons.

MARTIN LUTHER KING (digital twin with permission) appears at the Statue of Liberty.

MARTIN LUTHER KING America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked insufficient funds. But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt.

BACK TO SCENE

66 The camera examines Charyn on the sofa, a “Sleeping Beauty” frozen motionless in time in a sort of coma – strangely still.

CHARYN (talking in her sleep) Who will be reduced, side-lined, disabled by a pandemic?

CHARYN (cont’d) Will it mean we get universal health care?

CHARYN’S NIGHTMARE (cont’d) Hospital without power trying to serve victims of a pandemic. This is a strangely white, surreal scene, perhaps done with overexposure. This could be a surreal dance performed by dancers with white face masks and white hospital gowns (green screen) and ventilators. Walt and his autistic son and mother-in law in a wheel chair with an oxygen tank are trapped in the middle of this dance.

Pandemic Panic. People madly buying groceries. Store shelves empty. No toilet paper. No bread, No milk etc.

CHARYN (cont’d, VO) Pandemic fear and social chaos shows what doesn’t work faster than a climate crisis.

The military attacking. People fleeing war-torn cities. Mass migration.

Statue of Liberty. View of the Statue of Liberty and Mohammed, looking up at the statue that meant so much to him.

OPRAH WINFREY (either digital twin or green screen cameo, with permission in either case) at the Statue of Liberty.

OPRAH WINFREY Where are American values? The future of life as we know it is defined by what we do, or don’t do, now.

67 DARREN AS A GIANT ANGEL. Darren, presiding over the scene, looms large, like a strange, surreal giant, in a white suit, with ornate gilded wings.

Behind Darren is a huge crowd of adoring supporters in a rally, carrying placards with red flag stripes and white stars on blue and the words,

“We love you!” hand-written in many styles with magic marker.

The rally follows Darren. All hold their placards high until Darren finishes speaking (below).

DARREN (GIANT ANGEL) I just had a vision from God. He said I’ll probably be called The Messiah. But... He said I’d have to agree to a crown of thorns and a crucifixion. So I took a pass. Thanks anyway! [Credit: Comedian David Baddiel, twitter]

Song: “I’M THE MESSIAH” – draft for this song password cello

Nobody’s bigger or better than me I‘m the Messiah, as you can now see. Those black suits are well paid to be my friends,

So watch what you do, ‘cause they’re watching you.” You must do what we suggest Or you could face a house arrest.

And we could stage a terrorist attack. We’ve got money. That’s our voice. You’ve got nothing. And no choice.

We’ll never let you rise. We will strike back! Because you shot our angel, We’re not pleased. And we can seize Your assets. Plus... we’ve got some dirt on you. We’re worth so many billions That we don’t need civilians.

You shot our Angel. That was betrayal!

68 You know how we’ll get even We’ll force you now to listen.

It would be wise to do as we advise. Nobody’s bigger or stronger than we We’ve got armed forces, as you will soon see.

Darren flaps his wings, making a great clackety, motorized BR-R- R-R-R. DARREN (GIANT ANGEL) (cont’d) Greatness or gridlock? Vision or vengeance? (commanding) Send in our troops!

EXPLOSION. The people in the adoring crowd drop their heads and let their placards drag on the ground as the parade disperses in all directions in complete chaos.

Behind the crowd in the rally are the three Lobbyists, followed by many others like them, all wearing black suits and white shirts. Possible song: “You shot our Angel.”

CROWD OF LOBBYISTS (different people speaking) You shot our ANGEL. He cut us special deals, gave us tax breaks, dropped regs, made us rich. He sent the troops to fight for our money! We loved him!

MARK RUFFALO (either digital twin or green screen cameo, with permission in either case) looms large in front of the crowd.

MARK RUFFALO He called neo-Nazi and white supremacists ‘very fine people.’ Enough is enough. White supremacy is tearing us apart. The black-suited lobbyists drop their heads and disperse in every direction, turning into a blur. Out of that blur,

FedEx delivers a Cello. A surreal FedEx truck arrives strangely in the dark. Mohammed steps out, wearing a white lab tech’s coat. He has a delivery for Charyn – a cello in a case. Using a flashlight, he opens the case to show Charyn a white cello.

69

Details of the cello illuminated by flashlight. An eerie combination of night light and cello reflections of moonlight and the flashlight makes the cello seem a ghostly apparition.

Pair of Ravens. A pair of black ravens arrives at a scene of carnage. The camera ZOOMS IN close to them. Their SOUND is like speech. Words of wisdom that we can almost comprehend.

ROBERT DE NIRO (either digital twin or green screen cameo, with permission in either case) appears in the scene with the ravens or as VO in a view of Charyn sleeping.

ROBERT DE NIRO Time passes. Whatever you plan to do, do it. Now! Don’t wait.

BACK TO SCENE The camera examines Charyn on the sofa, a “Sleeping Beauty” frozen motionless in time in a sort of coma – strangely still.

CHARYN’S NIGHTMARE (cont’d) – “ATTACK OF THE NEIGHBORS” CROWDS of people, are outside the windows of Charyn’s home, staring in, POUNDING urgently at her front door. A surreal wake up call. At first we see from inside the house the crowd outside the windows. Then we are outside the house, watching the chaos.

The Film Director appears to be directing the crowd attacking Charyn’s house. Who is he? This (maybe) assassin from the beginning of the film has still not been identified.

WALT is a particularly angry member of the crowd, co-directing operations with the Film Director. “Neighbors,” with Walt in the lead, wearing LED emergency headlamps, are furiously attacking Charyn’s house.

BACK TO SCENE The camera examines Charyn on the sofa, a “Sleeping Beauty” frozen motionless in time in a sort of coma – strangely still. Suddenly Charyn shudders, SCREAMS out in her nightmare in fear, wakes up with a jolt. The Musician comes over to the sofa.

MUSICIAN Are you all right?

The Musician has transitioned from being a stone-faced zombie, expressionless, to being an actor in this drama.

70 CHARYN (flustered) Strange nightmare. I felt like I was seeing the ghost of the future.

Charyn sits up, shakes herself awake.

MUSICIAN Why did you ever go out with a guy like Darren? I’m surprised.

Charyn responds to the Musician.

CHARYN (apologetic) I met Darren at a fancy party when I was in college. He was my mother’s Cinderella dream for me. She said,

THE MEMORY OF CHARYN’S MOTHER appears.

CHARYN’S MOTHER Imagine. You can marry a rich man. He’ll support you so you can live a creative life.

Charyn’s mother smiles, a semi-transparent memory.

CHARYN And there he was. Darren.

MUSICIAN Your mother’s dream come true.

CHARYN All that inherited money. But he’d never let me live a creative life.

Charyn nods, knowing well that the Cinderella formula was flawed. She looks off into the distance, pensive. Charyn’s Mother dissolves into thin air. Charyn accosts the Musician.

CHARYN (cont’d) I never want to see Darren again.

71

MUSICIAN You won’t. You shot that memory. Or rather, “We dealt with him.”

The Musician goes to the dining room table, picks up the notebook with the list of story threads. He smiles at Charyn.

MUSICIAN (cont’d) I’ve been curious to see this list. May I?

Charyn nods, agrees. The camera surveys the list with earlier additions:

Story Threads: art, assassin, candles, Cinderella, guests, imagine, memory, music, Musician, pandemic, panic.... pears, dead heat, fires, power out.

Each of the words that was animated before quivers as he focuses on that word. But then the Musician looks at Charyn’s drawing of a maze, which starts to vibrate and morph.

MUSICIAN (cont’d) Your drawing should also be a word on your list. Maze...

ANIMATION OF THE LABYRINTH. Charyn’s crossword puzzle becomes a maze/ icon of the brain, then comes to life and evolves into a labyrinth. Charyn and the Musician are both trapped in this animated labyrinth, trying to find each other. Through doors, down halls, blocked by walls, each searches alone. They find each other in the core of the labyrinth.

BACK TO SCENE

Charyn and the Musician are back in the real world in the same positions they were in when they found each other in the labyrinth.

MUSICIAN (cont’d)

72 I’m glad that I’ve been on your list from the start. May I add more threads to your list? (pause) crowds, frat guy, neighbor, storms, unwanted visitors, and the Great Wall of Amerika!

CHARYN And please also add the “cello.”

The Musician smiles, adds his words and “cello” to the list. The camera surveys the list with all the new additions.

Story Threads: art, assassin, candles, Cinderella, guests, imagine, memory, music, Musician.... pears, dead heat, fires, power out, crowds, frat guy, neighbor, storms, unwanted visitors, Great Wall of Amerika, cello, list

At the word “frat guy” Darren appears. At the words “neighbor,” “storms” and “unwanted visitors” the apparition of Walt appears in a storm.

At “Great Wall of Amerika,” the labyrinth wall grows to a great height.

At “cello” John Lennon appears and hands the white cello to Mohammed, who hands the white cello to Charyn. The cello morphs and expands until the entire screen is white, except Charyn, who’s pale “in the white.”

MUSICIAN And the word “list” itself should be on your list.

“On the white” all the words play, topped by the word “list.”

CHARYN (VO) The word “list” on its own list? That’s a paradox.

BACK TO SCENE

MUSICIAN

73 What if this screenplay is about the paradox of what we can’t predict?

CHARYN You’ve turned your music for fancy dinners into music for our next crisis...

MUSICIAN And you’ve turned your screenplay from an elegant dinner for the 1% into a Big Question: “How will the 1% face our next crisis?”

CHARYN Do you like playing for fancy dinners?

MUSICIAN It’s source material. You’d be amazed at what people do right in front of me. They act like I don’t exist. (pause) I’m writing my memoirs.

Fifty Dinners: Confessions of a Musician

CHARYN (curious) Will I be in your memoirs?

MUSICIAN (laughing) If you approve and critique...

CHARYN The paradox we can’t predict is that how we all shift will define our futures.

MUSICIAN

74 If that shift could turn your nightmare into a new dawn...

CHARYN (shrugs) Pedro shifted from high tech to food. Jon has been powering this shift all his life. The postman shifted from bringing mail to bringing empathy. Walt went home. But... Darren?

MUSICIAN Those few who can’t shift must get out of our way. Guys like Darren must be quarantined so they don’t drag us all down. There will be crazy men who shoot the singers. (pause) But if the singers hold the majority and don’t yield power to crazies, we can do this.

Charyn slowly goes to the empty dining table where the candles have burned down. She IGNITES a match, lights more candles on the table. Pause. Then she sits down, exhausted, on the sofa near the musician.

CHARYN (cont’d, to the Musician) Play something slow and quiet. Very quiet...

MUSICIAN What music would you like?

CHARYN Music for when the power went out. When the guests didn’t show. When we had to improvise. And when... You had the clue.

MUSICIAN I had the clue? What was the clue?

CHARYN The absence of a cello.

75

The Musician LAUGHS. He plays a bit, then stops abruptly.

MUSICIAN So how was the absence of a cello the clue?

CHARYN I imagined a world where the rich see that (sung) Their silver platter doesn’t matter. Money is no guarantee. CHARYN (cont’d, spoken) When there’s no cello, no guests, no dinner, no power... there must be something else.

MUSICIAN Bell Labs mathematician and cryptographer Claude Shannon was known as the father of information theory. (cello sequence) He defined absence as a property of information, of signaling. (pause) He thought each information signal would be co-defined by the many other signals that could have been sent but weren’t — those absent messages.

CHARYN The absent melodies of the cello?

MUSICIAN Yes. Information is the most basic level. (pause) Beyond information lies wisdom.

MUSICIAN (cont’d) And then, maybe we can imagine ourselves as instruments in the symphony of life.

76

CHARYN Please try these pears now. And tell me your story.

The Musician sits on the sofa. Charyn brings two servings of pears, sets them on the coffee table, sits down next to the Musician on the sofa.

MUSICIAN Imagine a cello. This would be the moment when the cello carries the melody. Cello music to be selected. Charyn and the Musician both look up, imagining the melodic voice of a cello. Beautiful CELLO MUSIC starts to play.

MUSICIAN (cont’d) Do you hear the cello?

Charyn nods, entranced by its sound.

MUSICIAN (cont’d) The absent cello is making music.

Charyn looks up, nods, listens, then looks at the Musician. Charyn smiles, goes over to the dining table, brings Magnus the card from the Postman. The Musician reads it, smiles, puts it on the coffee table between their two dishes of poached pears.

MUSICIAN (cont’d) When you hear the cello, you tap into the mysteries...

The Musician embraces Charyn.

Digital twin of John Lennon. The camera zooms out to include the mirror where we see John Lennon with the white cello played in Magical Mystery Tour.

CHARYN You never told me your name.

MUSICIAN Magnus.

77

At last the Musician has a name – he’ll be Magnus from now on.

CHARYN Ah. You’re a Viking? (quietly) Where does your name come from?

MUSICIAN/ MAGNUS Magnus the Good was the bastard son of Olaf II of Norway. Magnus was named for Emperor Charlemagne — Carolus Magnus 'Charles the Great.' Magnus stops, not wanting to say too much.

CHARYN Go on.

MUSICIAN/ MAGNUS Magnus’ father Olaf was an Emperor, who became a Saint. Magnus’ mother was a slave to the Queen. (pause) As an illegitimate child, Magnus would have been forgotten. But he was King Olaf’s only son. He succeeded him as King.

CHARYN Tell me more.

MUSICIAN/ MAGNUS He ruled Norway and Denmark until his mysterious death in 1047. He may have drowned – no one knows for sure.

CHARYN You are a Viking.

MUSICIAN/ MAGNUS Well. That was a thousand years ago. But I’ve thought about Magnus the Good. I’ve wondered what it means to be half royalty — half slave.

78 CHARYN What do you think it means?

MUSICIAN/ MAGNUS Royalty believed their ancestor was the Norse God of Wisdom, Odin.

MAGNUS (cont’d) Odin had two ravens: Thought and Memory.

TWO RAVENS (repeat shot from the beginning of the film) The camera sees two big black ravens against the serene vista of the hills.

MAGNUS (VO) His first raven, Thought, looked forward, predicting the future. His second raven, Memory, looked back at the past.

The two big black ravens are speaking to each other.

MAGNUS (cont’d, VO) Odin sent his ravens out each day to fly across the world to gather knowledge for him. But knowledge alone was not enough. Odin wanted wisdom.

The camera slowly zooms in on the ravens, watches them until they both fly away, soaring up to the clouds.

MAGNUS (cont’d) Magnus’ mother was a slave. The absence of royal blood on his mother’s side gave him Humility to see and accept reality — to make the best of hard circumstances.

Magnus starts to play a song.

MAGNUS (cont’d, singing)

79 The Sun will rise tomorrow at dawn, Whether or not the power is on.

Charyn smiles, nods. Song: “We’ll Walk at Dawn”

CHARYN & MAGNUS (duet) We’ll rise in silver-tipped light, 7 Flush with wonder at the night, 7 As the moon drops from sight, and starlight fades, 10 You and I will walk at Dawn. 7

CHARYN & MAGNUS (cont’d, duet) We slept through dreams of reason 7 Saw hellfire, lynching, treason. 7 Then we awoke to wander down the path 10 Knowing that our fear was gone. 7

Having left so much behind 7 Those many threads we might unwind 7 Thought, Memory, our own curious mind 10 Stories lost, we’ll never find. 7

You and I will walk at Dawn. 7 Down the path, through the dry blades, 7 As two ravens call out to us and say 10 Wake up to this fresh new day. 7

CUT TO Charyn and Magnus, seen from behind, walk away from the house together as the sun rises at dawn. They walk down a dirt path with tall dry grass on either side, as described in their song above.

A pair of ravens nearby CALLS OUT to them.

LEONARDO DI CAPRIO (VO) (digital twin or green screen) We only get one planet. Humans must be accountable on a massive scale for the wanton destruction of our collective home.

John Lennon’s song Imagine plays as Charyn and Magnus walk into the distance.

80 After the film ends, experts on digital twins of different nationalities appear on the screen, probably also implemented as digital twins.

Experts on digital twins represent diverse nationalities, showing that this amazing, but also ripe for abuse, technology is widespread:

• Ricardo Baeza-Yates – CTO NTENT, Adviser to the screenwriter • Emil Elfrem – Founder, CEO, neo4j (as Expert #3) • Jen-Hsun "Jensen" Huang – Founder, CEO Nvidia • Yaroslav Goncharov – Founder, Wireless Lab, and many others...

DIGITAL TWIN EXPERT #1 All digital twins used in this film are animated likenesses of famous people. All were approved by the real people they represent or their heirs. But the same great technology that enables all the positive applications of digital twins can also be used to create deep fakes that are not approved. People can be made to say things they never said. (pause) Beware of digital twins...

DIGITAL TWIN EXPERT #2 Artistic use of digital twins in film allows dead actors to reappear. This made possible the reverse aging of Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which won three Oscar Awards. What once cost so much that only Hollywood films used it is now easy to abuse.

DIGITAL TWIN EXPERT #3 Feeding big data to our graphical database software, neo4j performed analytics on hundreds of thousands of fake twitter accounts & tweets used to sway the 2016 election. Now, with fake moving images...

81 DIGITAL TWIN EXPERT #4 ...in deep fakes there’s a powerful political weapon to mislead voters or influence the public to believe what those in control want them to believe.

DIGITAL TWIN EXPERT #5 Though artificial intelligence is used, both to create digital twins and to detect deep fakes, technology to build digital twins is advancing faster than capacity to detect deep fakes. The experts in this technology are working with experts in cybersecurity...

Digital twin experts should not speak the words of the screenwriter. They should speak in their own words, to be edited down for the sound track here.

The credits roll to the music of John Lennon’s IMAGINE [with permission] over a backdrop of documentary footage shot during the making of THE CELLO.

//END//

82 Appendix 1 – Background information and potential inserts in The Cello (optional, subject to revision) page 2 Owen Wilson for the role of DARREN (young Trump) – https://www.buzzfeed.com/conzpreti/does-donald-trump-look-totally-like-owen-wilson

African American Inspiration for the character of JON – Dr. Joseph Okpaku http://earthdecks.net/about/ and Dr. Robert Bullard https://drrobertbullard.com/books/

Much can be simulated, e.g. using NVIDIA tools: Unreal Engine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjAL95ZTNXg Fires: https://developer.nvidia.com/flameworks Crowds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0xCYm6B9yE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EH1S4T-ipZ0

Digital twins for actor cameos (with actor permissions) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUfJOQKdtAk&feature=emb_logo Background: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUfJOQKdtAk&feature=emb_logo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_of_the_Future https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FaceApp page 4 Music idea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOPRCCyQlz8 page 6 possible clip for “dreams and fantasy” [MTV clip, with permission, MTV credit at end, not in clip] 03:23-03:28, then 03:30-03:51 (26 seconds) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6uNI0SLMds

John Lennon’s song IMAGINE. First 1:02 of this film, visuals and sound, framed by the mirror [with permission] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOgFZfRVaww page 17 Edo Pendant Mask from Nigeria on the wall, e.g. https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1978.412.323/

Mumia Abu Jamal on Prison Radio February 4, 2020. Timing xxx https://www.prisonradio.org/media/audio/mumia

83 page 27 Perhaps have a movie clip play in the “mirror of memories” here, such as this clip of dolls 07:58-08:09 = 11 seconds from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6uNI0SLMds (with permission) page 28 Mirror of Memories. One option, something like this: 05:22-06:07 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6uNI0SLMds [45 seconds – with permission] page 43 Martin Luther King appears in the mirror accepting the Nobel Prize. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1964/king/acceptance-speech/ 00:37-01:00 = 23 01:27-01:45 = 18 01:47-02:01 = 14 03:01-03:07= 6 Total = 1 minute 11 seconds page 51 & 52 The Great Wall of America • The Border Wall collapsing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOebX099dG4 • Mexicans taking a blow torch to the wall. • Mexicans scaling the wall. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/12/05/border-patrol-viral-video- mexicali/2626474001/ • Monsoon Storm – winds blowing down sections of the wall page 59 A clip from Springtime for Hitler plays in the Mirror of Memories: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDfIW_bKj64 Or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPXHRX8Q2hs page 66 Martin Luther King voice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smEqnnklfYs 04:19–04:44 page 68 – 9 DARREN AS A GIANT ANGEL.

84 Darren, presiding over the scene, looms large, like a strange, surreal giant, in a white suit, with ornate gilded wings.

Note: We’ll use a high res image of the carved wooden gilded wings, left.

Behind Darren is a huge crowd of adoring supporters in a rally, carrying placards with red flag stripes and white stars on blue and the words,

“We love you!” hand-written in many styles with magic marker.

The rally follows Darren. All hold their placards high until Darren finishes speaking (below).

page 69 Song “You shot our Angel” Joe DeCicco, who composed RUMORS in HELLO WORLD, could do an outstanding job turning the lines of the lobbyists above into a song. http://earthDECKS.net/impact/ password impact page 70 – Attack of the Neighbors “Neighbors,” with Walt in the lead, wearing LED emergency headlamps, are furiously attacking Charyn’s house.

Potentially use Bruno Caverna’s play-fight style – https://play-fight.com/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_msyHE7LBOc page 77 We do not have good quality imagery of John Lennon with the white cello, so this will need to be a digital twin reconstruction. https://equipboard.com/pros/john-lennon/blue-jay-way-white-beatles-cello and https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/solobeatlesphotosforum/3-november-1967-uk-weybridge- sunny-heights-t7371.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=106&v=KiC_96xhbq4&feature=emb_logo https://theconversation.com/magical-mystery-tour-a-rare-beatles-flop-but-it-paved-the-way-for- monty-python-87547

85 Appendix 2 – THE CELLO is proposed as a

movie pilot for a

POW!tm Impact Network, making media actionable to

Power Our World

Keep your eye on our world

The next generation of social media is coming. IBM didn’t see Microsoft and APPLE coming. They didn’t see Google coming. Google didn’t see Facebook coming. Facebook didn’t see what’s coming next — the POW! Impact Network, driven not by advertising but by people who care about our world. • POW! Impact Network and associated knowledge platform under development (two patents issued, third pending) • PR strategy dev’t and PR campaign for THE CELLO and for its POW! Impact Network; • pre-org for Kickstarter campaign planned for late 2020

If the COVID 19 lockdown lifts: • May – June – finalize actor attachments and animation team • May – June – casting call @ Google facility that we’ve used for this purpose before because team members work for Google; finalize other cast members not pre-attached • July maximum 2 week shoot scheduled at a designer home set in the Bay Area or LA + Green Screen Shoot • Animation development before and after live shoot • July – August – Editing • September 2020 – An almost impossible release shortly after Labor Day, but worth trying • September – November 2020 – Kickstarter Campaign promoted with release and to raise awareness of the POW! Impact Platform for THE CELLO. Kickstarter averages 50,000

86 unique viewers per month. A viral campaign can bring many more viewers to Kickstarter and also raise support for our mission. • November 2020 – post-Kickstarter celebrations in collaboration w/ event network(s)

THE CELLO will be a mascot for an actor, artist, musician, film maker and everyone campaign to secure ethical leadership of the US in the November elections and to spread that work to all nations, creating a global network of people committed to saving our planet. Because of the associated knowledge platform that we’ll build with THE CELLO, those artists for whom there’s no part in the movie itself can be featured on our platform. We aim to have bio pages featuring all those who contribute to THE CELLO initiative and potentially also a podcast series.

THE CELLO can be downloaded at http://earthDECKS.net/cello/ password cello earthDECKS is committed to develop a "next generation social network" manifesting collaborative intelligence (C-IQ) to save this planet. THE CELLO is the first step. http://earthDECKS.net/next/ password next

The idea of introducing movies with games was a first step (described on the page next above). Our short demo PLASTIC http://earthDECKS.org tested our second step — a portal to a knowledge platform with resources on the topics raised in the film and links to a network of those working on challenges introduced by the film.

What we demonstrated on a small scale with the short film PLASTIC, we’ll now apply after we complete the feature film THE CELLO, demonstrating how our knowledge platform (two PaaS patents issued, third pending) can transform feature films into learning resources, giving them a long tail and a long life, and enriching the learning experience.

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