| MOON OVER BOURBON STREET 4th DRAFT (An excerpt from act one) Written By: ROBERT F. STEWART & DARIN KUHLMANN WGA# 482636 - C. 1996-2004 EXT. NEW ORLEANS - NIGHT The New Orleans riverfront in the rain. (OS) Music fades in: SINNER MAN, performed by Nina Simone; it mixes with the scream of sirens in the night. EXT. NEW ORLEANS � NIGHT A menacing figure in the rain, running from numerous police cruisers and a roaring HELICOPTER above; its searchlight sweeping the rain swept streets, the Mississippi River and the I-10 RIVER BRIDGE. EXT. FRENCH QUARTER ROOFTOP � NIGHT A SNIPER climbs the fire escape of the tallest building along that particular stretch of river front, rain lashing his back and tactical gear as he �sets up� his weapon, a BARRETTE-LIGHT .50 CALIBER, and begins to sweep the area with a HIGHLY ADVANCED SET OF NIGHT/THERMAL OPTICS. (OS) New Orleans Police radio traffic, bouncing between different units, announces that the man pursued is one ELLIS ROWE, AKA (otherwise known as) THE MACHETE MAN killer. EXT. NEW ORLEANS � NIGHT A TV NEWS TRUCK skids to a stop in a run down warehouse district, halted by a police car blocking the street, its lights flashing. A REPORTER flies out into the rain, to confront the officer. The DRIVER, camera in hand, is close behind him. REPORTER Is it him?! Is it the Machete Man!? - can we get to the scene?! POLICE OFFICER #1 (Squinting As Camera Light Comes On In His Face) You�re standing in the scene! He�s loose out der! (Motioning behind him) Ya�ll got about two seconds to get back in dat truck - or yer goin� to jail! (Losing Patience) NOW - GET THAT LIGHT OUTTA MY FACE AND GET DA HELL OUT-A-HERE! The Reporter and Driver reluctantly head back to their truck, before pulling a tight and angry U-turn to head off into the dark. EXT. NEW ORLEANS - NIGHT Block by block, the man now known as Ellis Rowe is being slowly corralled. By turns, Ellis works his way closer and closer to the river. We see splattered blood across the back of his WET, TORN SHIRT. And the MACHETE� and there� between the clouds... a QUARTER MOON. EXT. SOUTH NEW ORLEANS RIVER FRONT - NIGHT A rain-dappled quarter moon floats on the current of the mud-black Mississippi, as it flows beneath the decrepit structures that make up several river front warehouses and shipping piers. As the storm�s intensity grows, swallowing the moon, we move up and away from the dark water, approaching the darkened doorway of an abandoned, burned-out, warehouse nearby. The building�s decrepit wharf features a number of elevated gangways that reach out over the water. Several creak in the wind, aching to break free and plunge into the water below. INT. RIVERFRONT WAREHOUSE - SAME Ellis kicks the door from its hinges and is suddenly revealed in silhouette, back lit by the sickly yellow sodium arc lights along the street adjacent to the building and a flicker of lightening. Stepping into the building, he is revealed in greater detail as he steps into a shaft of light falling, with the rain, from the rotted ceiling above. (OS) Lightening shrieks to the ground outside, as Ellis passes, splashed and splattered in rain-diluted blood. As he disappears into the waiting shadows, the doorway is raked with flashing blue lights. (OS) tires screech to a stop (outside) as the thunder claps (with bone-jarring resonance) directly overhead. The burnt structure�s pier and beam foundation moans and whispers. Ellis Rowe crashes through the darkness, towards the riverside of the building. INT. RIVERFRONT WAREHOUSE - SAME Water leaks from a hundred breaches in the ceiling. Framed by windows facing the river, Ellis kneels on the mold-covered floor. He drives the tip of the machete into the rotten floor. He removes a leather thong necklace and �gris-gris� (Pronounced Gree-Gree) bag from around his neck. ELLIE ROWE (Breathless Prayer) Oh... Lord Chango, slayer of my enemies! Save me from dis here trouble and protect me from da rivah � guide my hand Chango, and I will spill blood in your honor, I promise it. Hear me Chango, for I am your servant. CU ELLIS ROWE Ellis opens the �gris-gris� bag and pours a portion of white dust into his hand. (OS) We hear tear gas canisters launched through windows as the police move on the building. With reverence, Ellis closes his eyes and holds his dust filled hand to his face, then buries his nostrils in the substance, a light dust cloud forming around his wet face. Ellis inhales deeply from his hand and his eyes immediately fly wide open. His hand falls away to reveal the bottom half of his face, now covered with the powder and looking like some Santeria boogieman... and the world... slows... down... INT. RIVERFRONT WAREHOUSE - SAME - (CGI EFFECTED MOTION) Everything gets slightly soft around the edges as Ellis pours the remaining contents of the bag onto the floor, gracefully tracing a rough circle around his body, and with one fluid motion of his other hand, wiping away the magical substance. A tear gas canister rolls across the floor nearby, spewing smoke like a volcano and echoing loudly. Ellis casts a calm, dead stare toward the first gas-masked police officer as he approaches from out of the darkness. Time ratchets forward � before flying into �MAYHEM OVERDRIVE�. INT. RIVERFRONT WAREHOUSE - SAME - HYPER-REAL, PSYCHO-MONTAGE Ellis becomes a silent berserker, committed to escape. Everything is now in smash and stutter cuts and intense flashes. Cops charging through the dark. Ellis rushing toward the rear of the building, toward the river, toward the SWAT team members securing the piers. Ellis meets one cop after the other, in and out of the dark, and hacks each down suddenly before they can get good aim. Blood, gore, screams and gun smoke. A bullet passes through Ellis� shoulder, spraying the nearby wall with his blood and he barely stumbles, and then only once. Near the rear double doors, an officer steps out and blocks his path, leveling his shotgun. Ellis launches himself at the cop and the shotgun goes off, stopping him in his tracks. INT. RIVERFRONT WAREHOUSE � SAME - REAL TIME Everything has become real again for Ellis. At this close range, his abdomen and chest are a bloody mess. Ellis touches the wound, and stares down at the blood on his hand. XCU ELLIS ROWE�S RIGHT HAND - SLOW MOTION As Ellis lets the leather thong slip over his hand, freeing the machete from his wrist. INT. RIVERFRONT WAREHOUSE � SAME The gun smoke renders the Cop a phantom in shadows. POLICE OFFICER #2 Drop it, asshole - or the next one�s in the face! Before the Cop�s last word is fully out of his mouth, Ellis has flung the machete with terrific speed and force, across the space between them and embedded it in the center of the Cop�s stunned face. The handle protrudes from just below the officer�s chin, the tip rising just above his forehead. The Cop drops to his knees, blood pouring from his mouth. The Shotgun goes off, discharging into the ceiling. Heedless to the falling debris from the rotted roof, Ellis withdraws the machete in one smooth motion as he passes by; throwing an arc of dark blood across the nearby wall. After another beat, the Cop falls forward in a crumpled, wet heap. EXT. NEW ORLEANS RIVER FRONT - SAME Ellis moves swiftly out and onto the piers as other officers come at him from all sides, beginning to fire in earnest. As Ellis runs out the length of the pier, he must dodge breaches in the planking. His foot strikes a plank near the end, causing it to snap, and he falls half way through. Grabbing hold to the pier itself, he hoists himself out of the breach, as he is clearly struck by a bullet� then again- and yet, out of the hole, he moves forward, toward the end of the pier. EXT. SNIPERS NEST � SAME The SNIPER (seen earlier) sights in on the target, looking into the advanced night sight system on the BARRETTE. CU � THROUGH SCOPE The Target Reticule, or �BULLS EYE� drifts across Ellis Rowe�s back, as he runs down the dilapidated pier. The Target settles� the range finder ticking... EXT. SNIPERS NEST � SAME The sniper fires. The Barrette roars, spitting fire like a dragon. EXT. SOUTH NEW ORLEANS RIVER FRONT - SAME As Ellis makes the edge of the pier (OS) the roar of the .50 Caliber arrives, as the round rips through Ellis� chest, lifting him up into the air and launching him into the storming darkness of the Mississippi River. CU ELLIS ROWE (SUBMERGED) The chipped and gore-drenched machete, again tethered to his massive hand, slips down, down, down into the darkness. (OS) SINNER MAN fades into the sound of the river running away... |
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| MOON OVER BOURBON STREET 4th DRAFT (An excerpt) Written By: ROBERT F. STEWART & DARIN KUHLMANN WGA# 482636 - C. 1996-2004 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. [email protected] |
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| "...She walks everyday...through the streets of New Orleans
She's innocent and young...from a family of means I have stood...many times...outside her window at night To struggle with my instinct...in the pale moon light How could I be this way...when I pray to God above I must love what I destroy...and destroy the thing I love Oh you'll never see my shade...or hear the sound of my feet While there's a moon...over Bourbon Street..." Excerpted from: MOON OVER BOURBON STREET Written By: STING Album: DREAM OF THE BLUE TURTLE HEAR TRACKS @ STING.COM |
| MOON OVER BOURBON STREET |
| voodoo dreams, african queens, and things that howl at the moon... |
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