THE CELLO Or While Rome Burns
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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 would-be President “Darren” touts his Great Wall of Amerika in the context of climate change and pandemic. 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 – May 16, 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 – frat guy with lots of inherited money; ambition to become President of the United States (ideally Owen Wilson) 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] NEWSCLIPS – today’s reality outside the scene of the dinner that didn’t happen can be simulated. 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 – shown in the “mirror of memories” [with permission] Deep fakes of deceased persons: Martin Luther King and John Lennon, including the white cello of the Magical Mystery Tour OPTIONAL Famous Actor Cameos Using Deep Fakes. THE CELLO has integrity without any actor cameos. There are more deep fakes in this screenplay than needed to show where they could be inserted. Deep Fakes 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, deep fakes or shot vs green screen. What each says is his/ her own statement. This screenplay has more deep fakes 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 comedy 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 TIMELAPSE. FROM DAY TO NIGHT. 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. Rapid time lapse from afternoon 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.