VOTE NOW FOR TASK 2 in the "Ultimate Screenwriting Challenge."

[Joe Calabrese]

TASK 2 for the Ultimate Screenwriters Challenge!

TASK 2 is done and up.

Voting from October 9th - October 23rd, Midnight


In a hypothetical scenario, the entrants were hired to write a synopsis for a project a producer wants to develop and if its good enough, be hired to write the entire screenplay.

When voting, keep in mind:

1. All entries must meet the parameters set forth in the first letter and any changes requested from the second letter.

2. The story should grab the largest audience base for it's particular genre. In other words: if it is a sci-fi, it should be a great, marketable sci-fi. Don't judge based on genre, but the greatness within each genre.

3. Which impressed you? Which would you like to see made?

PM your VOTE here with the ENTRY # in the subject line by October 23rd, Midnight

 

[Joe Calabrese]

LETTER 1

"Glad to have you on board.

I've had this idea for a while but it needs to be developed. What I want is to make a confinement thriller, like "Phone Booth or "Cabin Fever," but a location that's new and different (forget airplanes-- two films this month-- Jeez. Should have jumped on that.

I want a tough and gutsy female protagonist. I have an "in" with Jennifer Love Hewitt and she's dying to work with me on this. Make sure your lead fits her. I want some humor but let's keep it edgy and to genre. Please... No monsters, werewolves, vampires or aliens. That's so ninetees. I'm thinking maybe a serial killer or something supernatural, but with a fresh twist, but I'll leave it up to you if you have something cool.

Don't worry about sending me a formal synopsis, just a one page pitch with the story-line loosely in place. I want to know the main players-- good and bad, what the hero is up against and how it will end. Make me excited!

I enclosed a sample of a synopsis I normally expect.

Can't wait to read it in two weeks, however keep in touch frequently because I have some things I'm working on with my finance people that may change the scope of the film.

Sincerely,

Bob Shot

President
Big Shot Studios."


LETTER 2 (sent a week later):

"Hope the synopsis is coming along good.

Got some good and bad news and we have to make some changes as a result.

We got the financing in place and the budget is no longer an issue. Go ahead and add a lot of special effects or an expensive set if you think it's needed.

Jennifer Love Hewitt called and said she has a series commitment for the next 16 months so she's out of the project. Screw her, I got someone better.

Orlando Bloom is looking to get away from the whole epics thing and wants to change his image to boot, so I got him to commit for this project. So for the protagonist let's go with a Bloom type, but with a slightly darker edge. Let's give him issues.

Also, we have an Asian horror/thriller director attached now. He's had few solid supernatural hits, but he too wants to change his image and doesn't want to do supernatural for a while. He is, however, hot on doing an alien/space or serial killer project.

Bob Shot"

 

[Joe Calabrese]

ENTRY 1

Entry 1
Title: The Eye of the Beholder


ZIO DEMARCO, late 20's, a loner, headstrong and hard-shelled, returns home after three years after learning that his sister GISA, 15, is missing. When arriving, his father FRANK admonishes him for having the nerve to show his face in his house. Zio's mother ELLA tries to calm them down to no avail. Zio leaves outraged.

The next day Zio goes to the police station drunk and loses his temper on DET. HALDRIC and CHADWIN who asure Zio they are doing everything they can. DET. JESSIE CHASE, late 20's, follows Zio. Over drinks she tells him that Gisa might be connected to the serial murders she's investigating. The victims were killed exactly like Martha Bower, the murder Zio's brother MARC, 20's, is serving time for. Chadwin and Haldric refuse to see it.

Gisa's bestfriend DANA tells Zio and Jessie that Gisa had a letter that her brother Marc gave her. Marc was adamant that Gisa give the letter to his father, she left it at Dana's house the night she disappeared. She agrees to meet Zio later to give him the letter. She never shows. The next day she is found murdered. The letter nowhere to be found. Jessie talks with Dana's mom at the funeral. She said Dana came home edgy and scared the night of her murder, then left again. She left a note, but couldn't quite understand. It says..."The eye of the beholder sees everything."

Meanwhile Zio returns to his parents' house and learns that Marc was killed by another inmate. Frank loses control and lashes out at Zio. He and Jessie become intimately involved. He tells her how he helped convict his brother.

Meanwhile Gisa is gagged and bound to a post in a small dark room, the only light gleaming through a hole in the ceiling. Through the hole she can make out a giant cross hanging above what looks like a make shift alter. Before her is a bomb, 14 hours and 6 minutes in counting.

Zio and Jessie go to the prison to talk to the man who killed Marc-LON. He doesn't know who the guy was, he had a tattoo of an eye on the back of his head, gave him a carton of cigerettes if he agreed to off Marc. Zio and Jessie check out the tattoo parlors in town. They spot a man with an eye on the back of his head walking out of a club. He takes off running and gets away. Zio questions the the BARTENDER in the club, he tells Zio the man calls himself "The Beholder".

The two of them go to Haldric and Chadwin. They already spoke to the man in question, his name is VAUGHN GREGOR. He had an alabi for Dana's murder. Jessie breaks into Haldric's office and obtains an address and place of employment. While at his job site, a factory on the coast. Zio notices an abandoned light house a few miles out, a small boat tied to it's dock. Zio realizes the connection. From the top of the lighthouse one could see everything.

At the lighthouse Vaughn is waiting for them at gun point. He confesses that he committed the other murders along with Martha Bower. Marc found out when Vaughn had bragged ot him about the killing in prison. Zio takes a chances and grabs for the gun, shooting Vaughn in the leg. Gisa screams. Zio races down the steps and sees Gisa and the bomb. 4 min. and 22 sec remaining. He hurries and unties Gisa. The three of them take the boat, leaving Vaughn there. Just as they are far enough away, the light house explodes, the giant cross flies through the air barely missing the boat.

Three months later, Jessie and the Demarco's sit down together and have dinner. Zio has good news, he and Jessie are engaged. Frank congradulates them and toasts to their happiness.

 

[Joe Calabrese]

ENTRY 2

Entry 2
TITLE: MERCY

CHRISTIAN, mid 20s, shops for a birthday cake withhis girlfriend, KIM, mid 20s. The cake says “Happy Birthday Rebecca.” Kim is unhappy with the fact that Christian still feels the need to celebrate his ex’s birthday, especially since it’s been five years since she died.

The next day Christian goes to work at his job as a pediatric oncology nurse. He comforts a sick little girl named KATIE and administers some medicine before tucking her in for the night. The next morning, Katie is found to have died in her sleep. Christian is called into the HOSPITAL DIRECTOR’S office. The hospital director questions the spike in pediatric
cancer patient deaths at the hospital. He suggests that Christian resign before others start asking more questions. Christian tells Kim that he lost his job and she breaks up with him.

Looking for a new beginning, Christian goes for a job as a real estate agent. He’s given his own listings on the condition that he sell a penthouse apartment by the end of the week or else he’s out. Christian goes home and it must be his lucky day because he already has a voicemail from a girl who wants to see the apartment.

The next day Christian shows ALICE, mid 20s, the apartment. She’s a doctor and they click right away. Alice likes the place but wants to think about it. He gives her a business card, she offers him a stick of gum in return. He puts it in his mouth as he watches her leave (or so he thinks), passes out.

Christian comes to in a hospital room, all alone with a now malicious looking Alice who clues him in to what’s wrong with him. Christian has a type of poisoning that will cause his body to atrophy. He’ll become paralyzed from head to toes in a matter of 48 hours. Christian begs her to save him. She tells him tough, an antidote wasn’t available for her sister.
She warns him that if he tries to escape, she’ll finish him like he did her sister. Christian tries to figure out what Alice means.

Christian tries to use his charm to get MARTHA, 40s, a surly nurse, to help him. He tells her about what happened with Alice, but she doesn’t want to hear any of it, and instead ties Christian to his bed.

Alice comes back to torment Christian. Plays mind games with him, reminds him of his pending doom and his dark past. Martha tries to help Christian escape but Alice gets her fired. Christian tells Alice the reason he played the part of the angel of mercy, his girlfriend (Rebecca) was sick and she begged him to help her go in peace but he refused. After seeing the hell chemo put her through, he regretted that decision. He apologizes if anything he did ever hurt Alice. She tells him that Katie had a chance. She was next on the organ recipient list. Alice removes a scalpel from her coat and traces light marks around every one of Christian’s organs saying that the paradox is perfect – Christian will be able to give sick people a second lease on life once she finishes with him. Christian is able to get control of
the scalpel and stabs Alice. He cuts his restraints off and a battle ensues. Alice ends up killing Christian. His last words are “I’m sorry.” He means
it.

Kim puts a cake down in front of Christian’s grave. It says “Happy Birthday Christian.”

 

[Joe Calabrese]

ENTRY 3

Entry 3


FRANK ARMITAGE is an aging Hollywood action star, whose wife dies of unknown causes. To escape the barrage of media attention, Frank holes up on the small New England resort island of Harrisport. Harrisport is home to an exclusive hotel known as The Four Winds, which is housed in a converted lighthouse. Two weeks after Franks arrival, the tiny island is shocked by two strange deaths--a millionaire hotel guest and a short-order cook from the hotel's cafe.

Enter AIDEN CONWAY, a ruthless young investigative reporter. He has painstakingly traced Frank to The Four Winds, and follows him. Aiden is convinced that he has located Hollywood's first serial killer, and poises to break the story. He begins to set up a network of informants among the hotel staff: a maid, a concierge, and a busboy. Aiden's three new friends are drawn together by their mutual distrust of the wealthy and powerful resort patrons, and they start watching Frank.

Meanwhile, a third unsolved murder (a Broadway actor recovering from plastic surgery) has driven most of the guests away. An off-season hurricane threatens to shut the resort down completely, so Aiden and his new cronies speed up their investigation.

As the storm hits, Aiden's sleuthing uncovers the truth--the killer is not Frank Armitage, but Aiden's friend the teenage busboy, JOSH REYNAR. When Josh was twelve, he witnessed his mother's murder by an abusive boyfriend. A few years later, he took revenge, and left his home in New York. He has become obsessed with ridding the world of misogynistic "vermin," a phrase he uses indiscriminately for anyone from the dead millionaire, who belittled his young girlfriend, to Frank Armitage--his new target.

Teaming up with PAUL YURACH, the concierge, and THERESA SCHALLER, the maid, Aiden hunts the near-deserted hotel for killer and victim. After a harrowing chase through the basement and up into the unused portion of the lighthouse, Aiden and Theresa corner Josh just he is about to kill Frank. Josh tries to silence Aiden, and falls from the roof of the lighthouse into the sea.

With Frank and Theresa as witnesses, Aiden gets to be the hero of his story; and Frank is cleared of suspicion after his wife's death is ruled a suicide.

 

[Joe Calabrese]

ENTRY 4

Entry 4
TITLE: SHELTER FROM THE STORM

ADAM LANGLY, a doctor, has moved to New Orleans with his eight year old daughter MADISON to escape the memories of his wife’s murder in New York City. He has taken a position at a hospital and has been dating RITA McKENZIE, the head E.R. nurse at the hospital. A hurricane is on its way, people are being evacuated and all staff are called into the hospital. Adam takes his daughter Madison with him to the hospital.

As the storm intensifies the flood waters rise trapping the patients in the hospital. BILLY PEPPER, an older veteran police sergeant and his rookie partner, PAUL HARRISON move patients to the second floor. Billy thinks of Rita as a daughter and does not trust Adam. He’s checked into Adam’s past. Billy tells Rita that Adam’s wife was murdered. The murder remains unsolved, as were a string of other homicides in the area. The homicides coincidentally stopped when Adam moved away and the victims all happened to be Adam’s patients.

Adam is reassuring his daughter that the hospital is safe from the hurricane. There is a scream from down the hall. Rita has found the body of an old man, a patient of Adam’s, brutally murdered, like an operation gone very wrong. Billy arrests Adam on the spot. Rita tries to convince Billy to let Adam go, but he refuses. Adam pleads with Rita to take care of Madison. Rita looks for Madison, but cannot find her. The other children, when questioned, remember a policeman taking Madison away.

Rita helps Adam escape and they go to find Paul, but run into Billy. Billy is angry that Rita let Adam go. Paul walks into the room and when confronted he pulls his gun, shoots Billy in the head and knocks Adam out. When Adam wakes up he is in an operating room. Rita is conscious and strapped to an operating table, Madison handcuffed to a chair. Paul tells Adam that a few years ago his wife was taken to a hospital ER where she needed emergency surgery. Adam was the surgeon and Paul’s wife died during the operation. Upset by his wife’s death Paul killed Adam’s wife, performing his own operation and leaving her on the table. Paul continued to kill Adam’s patients until Adam left New York. Paul followed him to New Orleans. Paul now gives Adam the choice, he can operate on a conscious Rita without anesthetic or Paul will kill Madison. Billy bursts into the room, bloodied, but alive. He shoots Paul, but only hits him in the arm. Paul rushes out of the room and Adam follows him onto the hospital roof. The hurricane is raging, Adam and Paul fight, struggling in the wind. A sudden gust of wind picks up Paul lifting him from the roof. Adam reaches out to grab him, but Paul is taken by the wind.

The worst of the storm is over; the doors to the hospital are unsealed and people in boats help to move the patients. Adam helps to load Rita and Madison in a boat when Paul leaps from the water and drags Madison from the boat. Adam grabs at some debris and comes up with a surgeon’s scalpel. He lashes out at Paul, slices him open and he falls into the water finally dead.

 

[Joe Calabrese]

ENTRY 5

Entry 5
TITLE: The Sanctity of Confession


JONATHAN WARD, late twenties, a quiet and unassuming man sits in a circle with several other MEN of various ages. It is a weekly support group for adult men who, as boys had been sexually molested by a priest. The attention is on Jonathan who is questioned about his feelings now that the convicted priest who molested him several years ago has been brutally raped and murdered in prison.

FATHER TERENCE SWEENEY, late fifties, is appointed by the archdiocese to quietly investigate the growing complaints against Catholic priests who victimize their young parishioners. Sweeney invades the support group. He expresses to the group his desire to sit in on their meetings as a way to help them not lose faith in Catholicism and to aid him in his investigations. An open vote is taken. The group wants Sweeney to get out. What is discussed in the group stays in the group. Father Sweeney appeals to Jonathan who is the only one to vote in his favor but, even Jonathan says he is much too late to help them keep the faith.

At each weekly meeting Jonathan befriends a different man from the group. They each have their own horrifying ordeal of being victimized by a priest. Coincidentally, each week their priest is found dead. After the third death in three weeks the news media and police detectives are all in a frenzy. The circumstances around each death point to suicide but, it makes no sense to the public because in Catholicism suicide is a grave sin. The only connection the three priest have is that they are being investigated by Father Sweeney. Although Sweeney is not considered a suspect he is questioned extensively.

Father Sweeney does nothing to aid the police but, he does go back to the support group for help. No one will talk to him except Jonathan and they soon become each other's confidant. Father Sweeney discusses his conflicted feelings with investigating his own kind. Jonathan tries to get him to divulge the names of those priests who have been accused. But, Sweeney hides behind the sanctity of their confessions and will not name them.

Jonathan has a confession of his own. He confronted each of the dead priests. He points out the wickedness of their sins, being very specific about the effect it has had on the one he molested -- each man from the support group. He convinces them that they have already committed such a grave sin that suicide will not matter in the eyes of God. He reminds them how his priest was brutally raped and mutilated while in prison and that their fate will be the same. He leaves them extremely conflicted with the thoughts of what they have done, and the means to commit suicide: a gun, a noose, arsenic poison in a syringe, etc...

Father Sweeney is horrified at his confession but being so devout knows that he cannot divulge any of this information to the police. He tries to convince Jonathan to turn himself into the police. But Jonathan will only do this if Sweeney makes public the names of all the priests that he is investigating. Neither will budge. They are at a standstill.

 

[Joe Calabrese]

ENTRY 6

ENTRY 6
TITLE: SKIN

AUGUST VAN HOTTEN, an experienced homicide cop whose hobby is taxidermy (stuffing dead animals), is summoned back to his old stomping grounds by his reluctant ex-boss, CAPTAIN ABALARD, who has a serial killer case on his hands, and is under pressure from the Major's Office to solve it fast. So far three bodies have been found in different areas of the city. Ordinary people with ordinary lives and jobs. When Remington talks to Chief Medical Examiner DR. SUSAN MERRIWEATHER, he discovers all that's left of the victims is their skins. Major organs, intestines, and skeletons have been expertly removed and the skins stuffed so they appear to be living human beings in natural poses.

Susan is intrigued by August's relation with Abalard, whom she thinks is a cretin. August refuses to tell her anything unless she agrees to have dinner with him. But their romantic meal is interrupted by the discovery of a fourth victim. August and Susan examine the victim together and discover a microscopic puncture on the seam at the back of the neck where a needle entered. Lab analysis reveals a poisonous chemical mix that requires further analysis. In the meantime August checks up on an old case of his which Abalard had ordered closed, leading to a conflict that resulted in August's demotion and transfer. The case involved the murder of a young prostitute in a hotel room. August tracks down the retired former owner who doesn't want to talk, but August finds a lever, the owner's wayward addict son, and promises to arrest him and put him into detox. The owner thinks he'd recognize the guy who was with the prostitute the night she died. August arranges for him to secretly visit the station house to view records and maybe I.D. the killer. Abalard almost catches them but luck's on August's side -- until the owner identifies Abalard. The owner catches a glimpse of mug shots of the serial killer victims, he recognizes them, they were at the hotel that night too. August sends him home and tries to figure how to play this. Later that night a fifth victim is discovered. It's the former hotel owner. Abalard tells August they got a lucky break -- they have a great description of the guy who visited the owner before he was found, and they're pulling in a bunch of suspects!

Lab analysis reveals the poison used on the victims is an anesthetic used by marine biologists. To make up for their ruined meal August takes Susan to Seaworld on her day off and learns from the director that the anesthetic is used to knock out sharks who require veterinary treatment. On a below-ground tour of the shark tanks August spies something among the rocks. He calls in divers who find human skeletons. Someone's been giving the sharks midnight snacks. A Seaworld employee suddenly goes absent and August pursues him. The employee tells August he's on parole, that Abalard threatened him with prison if he didn't feed the sharks from a special box. But before August can take action he's arrested and charged with murder.

Forensics analysis of August's taxidermy tools reveals they were used on the victims! August has been framed but good. Susan visits him in prison and asks, was she to be his next victim? He tells her everything and begs her to find the Seaworld employee, but she refuses. He challenges her to compare his taxidermy with the victims, again she refuses. Abalard comes to mock him but August overpowers him and swaps clothes during the prison shift change! He hurriedly exits as Abalard and sets off to find the Seaworld employee. He does find him -- at the bottom of the shark tank. As the cops close in, August calls Susan and asks her to check the murdered prostitute's M.E. report. Did they take a DNA sample? Susan reluctantly requests a DNA match search. It comes up with Abalard's name. The prostitute was his daughter. Susan calls the D.A.'s office and has the warrant on August cancelled. Abalard is arrested instead, and finally August and Susan get to have their romantic meal together, but not before August arranges for the former hotel owner's son to go into detox.

 

[Joe Calabrese]

ENTRY 7

ENTRY 7
TITLE: Madman’s Mine

JAMIE, a striking geologist, is at the entrance of “Madman’s Mine” to stop TROY, host of the reality show “Survival,” there to film a series. Troy ignores her and starts a generator. There’s a surge, it goes dark and electricity crackles down the tracks, into the mine. They restart the generators, the lights fail again, and fingers of lightning crawl around the cavern walls.

When the lights come back ARISON (Bloom) is standing there, he says “You’ve helped him escape”. He pulls out a weapon, blows up the entrance to the mine, trapping them inside. He turns and begins to walk down one of the shafts as the lights go out again.

Some stay to clear the entrance, others follow him as he hunts down EDORE, a genetic scientist who has transformed himself into an ‘advanced form of life’ (monster), who was locked in a state of suspended animation and exiled to earth thousands of years ago. They crawl through caverns and down shafts hunting, and finally cast members start to disappear. A woman from the group at the entrance shows up and informs them that the others are dead.

Troy has kept the cameras running but now tries to force Arison to open the cave so they can escape. He just knocks the host out and starts to leave him. Jamie forces Arison to wake Troy and they continue to hunt through the mine. People keep getting killed and the others start to panic except Troy, who’s reviewed his video footage and is thinking Emmy.

Crew keep dying, Arison finds an old bunk area with rusty picks and shovels. Now they have a place to hide and weapons so Arison leaves them. Jamie realizes they aren’t really safe and goes off on her own. She finds a pool with a metal pod under the water, it’s Edore’s prison.

She dives in, when she comes up Arison is there and looks her over. “You’re hot.” He then goes on to explain he means her skin temperature is rising, a reaction to minerals from the pod, in the water. He scans her with a device then sprays her. She thinks it’s a medical kit, but he explains it will create a compound to help her, but it’s designed to synthesize a specific poison to kill everything alive in that mine except him - to make sure Edore can’t escape.

Back at the bunk area, Edore breaks into their hiding place and starts killing the crew. Arison drives him off and chases Edore into the tunnels, the survivors hurry to the mine entrance to try and dig their way out. Jamie, torn, decides to help Arison.

Edore set a trap; Arison falls, hanging over the edge of a seemingly bottomless mine shaft. Edore comes in for the kill; Jamie fights him off long enough for Arison to push the monster down the shaft. After killing Edore, Arison and Jamie realize they like each other.

Arison climbs down to claim the body, Jamie leaves to join the people back at the entrance. Arison finds the bottom but no body, just a small tunnel leading out. He’s about to release the poison to kill Edore, and the others, but decides to go to the entrance instead. Edore is there, and as the diggers begin to break out he attacks. Jamie uses her rock pick to try and prevent him from escaping. As he’s about to kill Jamie Arison shows up and saves her.

 

[Joe Calabrese]

ENTRY 8

ENTRY 8
TITLE: Purgatory

A man, LENARD TAFT, wakes up in a massive two-story room, filled with books. He has no recollection of who he is or why he is here, and is wearing a dirty suit covered in blood. Six other people wake up in the room at the same time, and they too have supposedly forgotten who they are.

The seven people begin to talk to each other, and no one appears to know more than anyone else. They decide to look for a way out, but the only way out appears to be sealed by a massive metal door, with ‘Radiation’ written on it. Most of the people sit down in the middle of the room in an effort to talk out the situation, but LENARD begins to browse the thousands of books that occupy the room. Through his searching, he stumbles upon a copy of ‘Dante’s Purgatory’ on one shelf, and removes it and begins to examine it. On the inside, there is a message written in blood: ‘Forgiveness can only come with the shedding of blood.’ There is a button on the shelf behind where the book was, and LENARD presses it. The majority of one wall rises into the air, uncovering a large glass window; through the window, the remains of a city are seen, now smoldering ruins.

The members of the room are scared, and one girl panics and tries to break through the window and escape. The girl is beaten to death by the other members, though, because they fear if she breaks the window, radiation or a disease might come in. The other members begin to examine the books as well, and one stumbles on a book titled ‘The Chronicles of Humanity’s Demise’ which reveals how the world ended. The members begin to question why they are here; LENARD proposes a theory that they are stuck here to make up for past sins.

The members begin to have flashbacks about their past lives, triggered by reading about the historical figures who caused the end of the world. Blame is soon passed around, because it is realized that one of the people in the room was one of the men who launched nuclear weapons at a country. The man is then brutally murdered in rage. LENARD remembers that he was the son of the President, who urged his father to ‘strike the enemy before they strike us’ essentially initiating the end. LENARD is scared of this, and further arguments and fights come about as to who should be blamed about this. Everyone forgets trying to escape and stay alive in favor of revenge. Eventually only LENARD and one man remain, the man who supposedly unleashed a deadly virus within LENARD’s country. LENARD murders this man, overcome with guilt and fear, he grabs an axe on one wall and breaks through the massive wall overlooking the ruins.

The wall shatters, revealing a small office, not a decimated metropolis as depicted before. Immediately LENARD knows what happens, and kills himself with the axe. It is revealed that two weeks earlier, a drug company was creating a test to see if their new drugs, which supposedly created new memories, would work.

 

[Joe Calabrese]

ENTRY 9

ENTRY 9
TITLE: THE ICARUS EFFECT


JONNY INDIGO, late twenties, fumbles with a flask and a ‘specimen cup’ in a dingy bathroom stall. He exits the bathroom into the cavernous medical center of the Baikonur Cosmodrome -- home of the Russian Space Agency. Jonny aces a battery of physical tests, and lies his way through a psychological screen aimed at exploring his musical preoccupation with suicide. Jonny is the troubled, drug-addicted rock star of a British mega-band. He has paid the Russian Space Agency $20 million to buy a trip to the International Space Station (ISS).

Jonny travels to the ISS in a Soyuz capsule, carrying a payload of defense equipment with SERGEI KARPOV and YURI ULSHENKO, both men who prefer machines to people.

On the ISS, Jonny meets DUKE BRADFORD – a pompous American astronaut and LUPE ESTEBAN, a Spanish biologist with an infectious passion for life. Lupe conducts experiments on meteorites – culturing them for signs of life in zero gravity. Jonny has two tasks to perform during his stay on the ISS – a lab yeast experiment, and a ‘space walk’ with Yuri to deploy the defense satellites.

The first task goes off without a hitch. The yeast grows. Jonny finds himself fascinated with the small organisms’ drive for life, and forges a bond with Lupe. They soon connect on a more physical level, and discover the libidinous delights of zero gravity.

During the ‘space walk’, Jonny’s true intentions are revealed. He has purchased the trip to commit the perfect suicide. As he untethers himself to float off into space, Yuri is flung from the robotic arm. Jonny saves Yuri, but causes the robotic arm to collide with the ISS, damaging the laboratories. The meteorite and the yeast experiments are contaminated. Inside the ISS chaos unfolds. The robotic arm has been sabotaged and the contaminated experiments begin to mutate. As Sergei, Yuri and Duke argue over the sabotage, Jonny and Lupe seal off the experiments and jettison the modules. Then Sergei falls ill -- massive hyperthermia and spiking blood pressure, shock and cardiac arrest. Lupe makes a desperate call is made to NASA mission control (Houston), but a hurricane interferes with communication. Yuri contacts Russian mission control, but no one knows for sure what he is saying. Then Yuri falls ill (same symptoms) and dies. At this point, Lupe confides in Jonny that Duke is trying to sabotage the flight. Jonny doubts her until Lupe gets trapped in an air lock. Jonny tries to free her, but is beaten by Duke. Jonny learns that Duke found his stash of cocaine, and overdosed Sergei and Yuri. Duke has been hired by a terrorist group to ensure the defense satellites are not deployed. Duke ultimately gives him the chance to float off into space – to achieve the perfect suicide he had planned. But Jonny has fallen for Lupe and her zest for life. He fights back and ends up locking Duke in an air lock, and shutting off the oxygen. He rescues Lupe. They contact Russian mission control and learn that the ISS has been quarantined due to the contamination of the experiments. The situation is desperate – running out of air and supplies.

As Jonny and Lupe resign themselves to spending their last moments of life together, NASA mission control comes back with the news that a rescue team has been deployed and supplies are on the way. Jonny returns a changed man, with a happier lease on life.

 

[Joe Calabrese]

ENTRY 10

ENTRY 10
TITLE: UNDER

Louisiana Deputy LOUIS “CUTTER” BOYLE arrives home after a three-day search and rescue for victims of Hurricane Katrina to find his family brutally murdered, his wife raped. He breaks. Pulls his gun out and puts it to his head…His walkie-talkie screams. “Cutter we need you!” A hijacked train derailed and plunged into a culvert. Most of the train is completely underwater and it is sinking deeper. He puts the gun down. Back to business.

At the crash site, Cutter is introduced to FBI agent, JAMIE MCCOY, who will go with him on the rescue. As they descend, Cutter learns that McCoy has been chasing a serial killer called The Swamp Devil for the past year. The Devil hit New Orleans just before Katrina and has been cutting and raping his way through the flooded areas. McCoy knows that he got on that train. Cutter knows he killed his family. He sees images of them in every surface. He’s losing it.

They separate when part of the train breaks off and sinks further…with Cutter inside. He continues his descent and meets up with six survivors. Knowing that one of them could be a killer, he cautiously leads them up to safety. He meets CHARLIE, 40’s and his 5-year old daughter, KAYLA; two elderly men, MARCUS and AUSTIN; SHELIA, 30’s a mother who has lost her son in the wreckage; and JOHN, 30’s, business suit. As he surveys them, images of his wife flash in his mind: who did this? Is it him? They struggle up. Shelia is in hysterics over trying to find her son. Charlie and Kayla try to remain positive. Kayla tells Cutter that her mother is dead and Charlie is all she has in the world. John is silent.

The first to fall is Marcus. Sheer exhaustion. He sits and won’t move. They beg. He refuses. They don’t have time and reluctantly leave him. Austin stays. He pulls out a flask and the two give a toast to friendship as the darkness envelops them.

Cutter and the rest come to a flooded car. Connor pulls a gun. He want’s Cutter’s air tank. They fight. Connor grabs the air tank. Cutter shoots him. The air tank is punctured and explodes. Water pours in. Not much time. They have to swim for it.

They start up. And it’s a long way. Sheila sees her son’s body, panics and drowns. About half way up, Kayla runs out of air. Charlie grabs her. Smiles and blows his last breath into her. He puts her hand in Cutters and sinks into oblivion. Cutter holds her close and swims to the surface. They make it. After, Kayla sits with a blanket and hot chocolate. Cutter reflects. Two lost souls with no family. McCoy interrupts. He tells Cutter that he has an artist’s rendering of the Swamp Devil and wants to know if he recognized him with any of the survivors. He shows the picture.
It’s Charlie.

 

[Joe Calabrese]

ENTRY 11

ENTRY 11
TITLE: TRADING CAGES

The guarded and seemingly nonchalant space trader JOE CAGE thumbs his nose at authority, even the mighty ten-foot tall, four-armed ALIENS who have colonized Pluto. His misadventures begin when his latest smuggled cargo is stolen by a band of Alien SPACE PIRATES who leave Cage for dead.

In his unconscious state Cage connects with LORALIE LIANIE the broken, formerly tough as nails, no-nonsense woman. Cage, who is cursed with the ability to read human minds, watches Lorelei in her nightmares as her subconscious relives her recent brutal rape at the four hands of one of the Pluto Colony’s higher ups: Alien STASH McSURN, the slick, greedy, evil President of Orion's Belt Mining Company.

Lorelei’s shrink, a callous, bored Earthling interventionist, DR. ADAM WADER, has heard it all; what happens to others is of no concern to him. He clocks in, listens to his required sob stories, and clocks out, spending his salary on cheap women and liquor. During a tryst he learns of Lorelei’s fate: to be forced to choose between joining the brothel or dying.

Cage is captured, tortured, and accused of staging the heist, which included rare meteor mined crystals. While in prison Cage again meets Lorelei in her nightmares, though he distances himself from her by asserting it is only his dream, since his mind reading has never before allowed him access to another person’s dreams. Meanwhile Lorelei, who has made her choice, is locked-up nearby awaiting her public execution after being unfairly tried and convicted for interspecies mating.

Cage negotiates for his freedom with Stash, the one who, unbeknownst to Cage, set him up by hiring the Pirates. As he repairs his ship Cage, guarded by the parole officer robot PETEY, learns of the public execution and recognizes images of Lorelei from his subconscious voyages. Cage decides to save himself and soars as far away as possible, but he can’t escape Lorelei’s nightmares. Worse yet, he also suffers from his own nightmarish memories of the rapes and violent deaths of his mother and sisters at the hands of the four-armed Aliens.
When Lorelei realizes a stranger is visiting her nightmares, she begs his help. But Cage refuses to take part in the certain suicide mission, especially without an insider to assist. Lorelei coaxes an insider’s help – her therapist Dr. Wader - promising him favors once she is out.

Finally revenge and his unavoidable love for Lorelei drive Cage back to the Pluto Colony, where he gets unexpected help from Petey whose computer brain makes him the most fair judge of all, thus overriding the orders of his Alien makers. Cage arrives just in time to save Lorelei from the physical advances of Dr. Wader, causing the spiteful doctor to alert Stash and his Alien cronies.

Cage, Lorelei and Petey make it off Pluto, but are immediately engaged in battle with the Space Pirates. This time Cage knows what to expect and, with Petey and Lorelei’s help, is able to out maneuver the Pirates and make it to Earth where, after some helpful therapy, they live…well, if not happily ever after, at least happier then before.

 

[Joe Calabrese]

ENTRY 12

ENTRY 12
TITLE: NEXT STOP, HELL

KYLE, late twenties, good looking, sits at a bar with coworkers. They’ve all been fired in a layoff and are commiserating. Kyle tells everyone he shouldn’t have been let go and the company is going to pay. On the tv above the bar, a news report: For the past 2 days, the 6-train has stopped on the tracks at 3AM. The lights went out, and when they came on, someone was dead. GREG, early thirties, announces he’s taking a cab home. LEE ANN, mid-twenties, cute and sassy, and a bit drunk calls Greg a *****. At 2:30, the group leaves the bar. As Greg hails a cab, Lee Ann runs across to the subway. Kyle chases her and after trying to stop her, goes into the subway with her. Greg yells after them, “I’ll see you at your funeral!”

Once inside the subway, they stop to buy a ticket. A train comes in, but they just miss it. They end up sitting on a bench in the deserted subway, and talk about getting fired. Lee Ann’s story is filled with sadness, Kyle’s with bitterness and anger. She lays her head on his shoulder. He softens a bit, and we can tell he likes her. He asks her if that news story scares her. She tells him, when she was younger she was always afraid she’d jump off the platform in front of a train. The subway always meant death to her, but she didn’t know why. The train pulls up and they get on it. The clock behind them reads 2:50.

A cop stands on the car they get into but just as the train doors are about to close, he gets off and chases someone who jumped the turnstile. They ride a bit. And then, the subway stops, lights on. The door opens at the end of the car, and a disheveled man walks in. Kyle and Lee Ann grab each other’s hand nervously and watch him slowly walk through the entire car, and go through the opposite door. They agree to get off at the next stop as the train moves again.

Then, the subway stops with a hard jerk. The lights go off. The lights come on and Kyle is standing in an empty subway car, the doors still closed. He races through the entire train calling Lee Ann’s name. In the last car, he sees a man, slumped over in his seat, with blood dripping onto the floor. The doors open at the next stop and Kyle gets off. He hears a cry and then notices a door closing. He opens the door and sees a tunnel. BENSON, a transit cop, sees Kyle and chases him into the tunnel.

Benson catches up with Kyle and grabs him. They struggle until they hear Lee Ann. Kyle explains and the two of them search through the maze of tunnels. They find her tied and blindfolded with a bomb on her lap. Benson explains to them the timer is set to go off in a half-hour, not enough time to get help. Benson then says he can change it. They hold their breath. Finally, he proudly tells them he did it. They now have ten minutes. He walks off, explaining that he and his friend were fired from their transit jobs last week and it’s payback time. Kyle sits on the floor next to Lee Ann. She puts her head on Kyle’s shoulder like she did before. She points out to Kyle he should run for his life. He says, “Don’t be a *****,” and kisses the top of her head.

 

[Joe Calabrese]

ENTRY 13

ENTRY 13
SPIDERS AND SNAKES

RUSSELL BLAKE struggles as a literary writer and editor in New York City. It’s a hard life because his work gets little recognition; he’s broke and constantly fighting with his ex-wife.

Russell’s life is crap until he gets a letter from EMILY VAUGHAN. Like a patron of the arts from the 19th century, Emily invites her choice of up-and-coming writers to stay at her home “for the season.” With a reputation for being eccentric, she is known as Louisiana’s other Anne Rice or the Stephen King of the South, but under her tutelage, many obscure writers have become famous. Russell jumps at the opportunity and heads for town of Rochambeau.

Rochambeau is a sleepy town and an anachronism of the Old South, now crumbling in an “air of dignified decay”. Isolated on the edge of the bayou is Emily’s antebellum mansion. It was once it was a sugar plantation, where particularly troublesome slaves were sent to be worked to death. The mass grave of anonymous slaves is a testimony that this place was as much a death camp as a plantation.

The household at the mansion is a small, but odd collection of savants, artisans and other hanger-on’s. Russell quickly fits right in. Every other year or so, depending on whim and fate Emily picks one special student not just to be her protégé, but also to be the object of her obsessive love. At first Russell and his writing thrives on the attention and sex, but he begins to question the relationship and wants to leave.

Russell awakens the next morning shackled with the very same chains and
devices once used on slaves. He’s able to move through the house but he can’t run away. Emily and her fiercely loyal entourage plan to murder Russell and even make art out of his death, as they had done with Emily’s other lovers. Then they’ll bury Russell in the slave graveyard where no one wants to disturb what lies under the soil.

Kept as a prisoner and trapped in the mansion, Russell has to use all his courage, cunning and strength to fight his way out and escape. After the carnage, Russell brings the State Police back to the mansion but any evidence of his story is lost as the building burns down. The State Police treat Russell as a prime suspect in the arson. Russell is allowed to return to New York but finds that he’s been black listed in all the literary circles.

Like other femme fatales from such films as Play Misty For Me and Fatal Attraction, Emily is in the city waiting for him.