BEAUTIFUL MONSTER A new film written and directed by Karlton Parris
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Beautiful Monster
Nothing, Mary Shelley, creator of the worlds’ most enduring gothic horror, Frankenstein, ever wrote upon the page was as terrifying as her own mind in the final hours of her life.
Beautiful Monster is a dark exploration into the origins of her story; a tale of bodies, rage, lust and heartbreak from a life of sweeping contradictions, a hunger for love and the scandals that consumed her.
A film that is part fact and part twisted fiction, offering an exciting ride into the realms of fantasy, erotica and the human mind.
A place where monsters dwell, demons torment and lovers die.
Karlton Parris
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Synopsis
In Victorian England 1851, in the palatial London home on Chester square London, Florence Shelley, the only living child of poet Percy and Mary Shelley is hosting a lavish if somewhat bizarre fund-raising event. Determined to prove the theory of reanimation, the corner stone of his mother’s story of Frankenstein, having recently learned of his mother’s impending demise due to a cancer of the brain.
A display of a reanimation attempt plus the presence of the side show freaks, hides a darker belief that the freaks hide a mutation in the blood that may be the key to proving reanimation is possible. Below stairs the servant’s gossip all of London is talking about Shelley and rumours of strange experiments and dead bodies.
Over at Bishops Gate prison the infamous child killer, Bertha Bates, also known as the Bethnal green poisoner is to be released from her incarceration into the ward ship of one Lady Jane Shelley
As the disease takes hold Mary Shelley retreats to a sparse attic room with a request for nothing more than a hard bed, a chair, quill, parchment and ink. It is here in a pact with Bertha Bates, a pact formed many years ago, that she dictates the day she will die. With each passing hour of her final days she is haunted by ghosts of dead children, past lovers, and all the people she loved. Among all the beautiful memories of free love, the erotica and burning passions of her youth, a dark ominous presence lurks in her decaying mind, that of her monster. A confrontation is coming, he is seeking a savage revenge and in her final breath comes the realisation that it was a mortal man among her many lovers from who her monster was fashioned. 3
Location
The film is scheduled to be shot on location in Lincoln and the Scottish Highlands. Locations that are gloriously gothic to represent the Villa Diodati and Shelley’s home.
Other locations in the North of England are secured for the asylum and Bishopsgate Prison.
SET DESIGNER: AARON MUNN
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Characters
LORD BYRON/MONSTER
The infamous celebrity, sexual fluidity and psychotic core are all explored through this character. Many believe it is Byron from whom she created her monster and as such in this film Bryon and Mary Shelley’s monster are the same. We can luxuriate in a decadent beguiling character that brings shocking twists, a brooding sexuality a brilliant mind
In the briefest of moments we also catch an occasional gaze upon his humanity when he allows the mask to fall.
ACTOR: KYLIE BROOKS
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Characters
OLD MARY SHELLEY
A remarkable woman recalling a tempestuous vivid life once lived.
In the final days of her life we see both the torment and the genius of the mind that gave the world its most read and enduring gothic horror novel.
We meet the darkness and the light, a compassionate woman who endured many heart breaks but is also a dangerous entity with barbs and stings.
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Characters
YOUNG MARY SHELLEY
It is the contrast between a life unfurling and one ending that is the emotional core of the film. Young Mary is becoming the liberated female and feminist icon she will become. First, she has to navigate the complex relationships and sweeping love story of her marriage to poet Percy Shelly and her overwhelming desire for Byron
Upon that infamous night of ghost stories opium, absinthe and madness she finds her own voice upon the page.
ACTOR: GABRIELLEA LEONARDI
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Writ
Characters
JOHN WILLIAM POLLADORI
Two monsters were created that night upon the banks of Lake Geneva. Polidori is credited with creating the first vampire novel. Byron’s companion and personal physician seen here in a disturbing relationship with Byron that is both complex and frightening. Polidori’s love for his vampire, his lord Ruthven delivers one of the film’s most breath-taking moments when he summons his creation from the night sky in a flurry of wings and black angels.
ACTOR: McCAULEY COOPER
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Characters
PERCY SHELLEY
This was the man who captured the heart of the young Mary Godwin one day after seeing him and many other scholars in her fathers’ study. A vain arrogant dandy but with sparkling wit, a haunting gift of words, prose and beauty. As we find him and Mary at Villa Diodati, they are each grieving for the loss of a child whilst becoming swept into the maelstrom of Byron’s sadistic games and sexual manipulations
ACTOR: EDWARD DARLING
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Characters
CLAIRE CLAIREMONT
Mary Shelley’s infamous stepsister who manipulated the famous meeting of the Shelley’s with Byron in Geneva now caring lord Byron’s child we meet a difficult young woman harbouring many resentments towards her step sister treacherous and envious beautiful complex and simmering with a rage she is dying to unleash
ACTOR: CHARLOTTE DARLEY
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Characters
Bertha Bates The infamous murderess makes for a strange companion and trusted friend to old Mary Shelley. These are two women from vastly opposing classes, but with a common ground, that of the loss of multiple infant children. Bertha is dark, complex but with unflinching devotion to her only friend in all the world
Florence Shelley As her only living child Florence carries the burden of protecting his mother during her final days, whilst trying to prove that the process of reanimation is viable
Jane Shelley Daughter in law to Mary, the two women share a warm and loving friendship. Ultimately it will fall to jane to be the keeper of both Mary and Percy Shelley’s great body of literary works.
Actors: Linda Clark, Olivia Charlotte
Cole, Adam Varah
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Characters
Birdie A young girl caught up in the unfolding horrors at Chester Square. Loyal beyond words to old Mary and when called to act to protect her mistress she does so without a second’s hesitation.
Frau Becker Byron’s German housekeeper. A monstrous woman, perfectly in keeping with the insidious forces at work within Villa Diodati. A servant, a witch and evil mother.
Dr. Simms Old Marys trusted physician. A gentle soul and a decent man now caught in the assisted suicide plot of his literary heroine.
Actors: Mollie Jones, Liz Coombs, Dominic McCavish
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Characters
The Boy
Frau Becker’s young adult son. An ethereal young man to whom horrific experiments are conducted. Innocent, damaged and heart breakingly neglected.
Inspector Crook On the trail of Florence Shelley amid rumours of dark deeds and unnatural practices. This determined policeman will stop at nothing to see Shelley hang.
Ruby Potts The east end prostitute who overhears talk of clemency for Bertha Bates at Bishops Gate prison, and news of her release to the residence of one Florence Shelley. Bates is her mother and Ruby smells money and blackmail.
Actors: Phil Gwilliam, James Darby, Edwina Lee
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Characters
Lady Honeychurch
(Cameo pitch to Miriam Margoyles)
A formidable busy body, crass, vulgar new money, from the North of England’s’ growing industrial era. A wonderful cameo role with one of the films best comedic moments.
Lord Ruthyn
(Cameo pitch to Harris Dickenson)
John Polidori’s beautiful vampire drawn from the night sky in a flurry of black wings. One of the film’s most breath taking and erotic moments, when Polidori, unable to find love among mortals, creates his true love from the darkness of his own mind.
The Water Nymph
(Cameo pitch to Olympic swimmer Sharon Davies)
A supernatural deity, stalking the lives of Percy and Mary Shelley. She 14 waits to pull Percy into her watery veils, filling his lungs with her deadly kiss, as she pulls him below the waves.
khkhh Special effects make-up
Together with the Monster design, the film will include ‘freaks of nature’ that are needed for the reanimation scenes.
Additional effects will be created for the more macabre research into body parts that are synonymous with the Frankenstein story.
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Photography
Approximately 100 supporting artists and locations will compliment and support the story for the gothic horror back drop of the film.
V The photography aim of the film is a rich tapestry of texture and colour via the use of both human and location artistic spaces.
Larger scale shots will involve the reanimation ball, circus big tops, streets of London, Bishops Gate prison and the asylum. Lake Geneva will be portrayed via the use of underwater scenes.
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ment Op Creative Team
Writer & Director – Karlton Parris
Parris is the creative force behind Babydog Films. An award-winning writer, director and lyricist, having penned an array of productions here in the UK & USA, including off Broadway, where the play Beautiful Monster won critical acclaim.
Consultant – Mike Clarke
Clarke is a seasoned director of horror and currently in production with Paul Gerrard on ‘Karli’.
Director Photography – Neil Oseman
Oseman is an award-winning Director of Photography, recent films include The Little Mermaid.
Monster Design – Paul Gerrard Described as a conceptual visionary, Gerrard has produced designs for a multitude of Hollywood films such as Hellraiser and has been critically acclaimed and described by the press as the next Giger.
SFX Mark Danbury
Danbury has been in the industry for 15 years and has worked on TV drama such as Wire in the Blood and films such as Beowulf.
Costume Design – Laura Bourchier
Bourchier is well experienced in period costumes having done numerous Shakespeare productions and more recently work for Peaky Blinders.
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portunit Investment opportunity
Babydog films are looking for sponsors or investors to help with the creation of this film.
Scheduled for a 22 day shoot in June 2020. Actors and creative team are secured.
Company investment is already in place for the trailer October 2019.
For more information on the business plan please contact [email protected].
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THANK YOU
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