Zombipanda
My Boom-Boom's mostly gay
18-22 page story, in progress.
PAGE ONE
The first panel consists of the top eighty percent of the page.
1.
EXT. CITY - NIGHT. Downtown. A mirror-windowed skyscraper looms in the background. Seated high on the building is a logo, basically the McDonald's golden arches turned on their side to make an E. In the foreground is a bus stop. The back wall is splashed with an advertisement: a fit runner in the starting position centered on the ad, with "just do it" written prominently in the upper left hand corner. JACKY METRO stands with his back to the panel, spray painting over the ad. He's a white boy in his mid-twenties, scrawny, dark haired fade, blue eyes, green hoody with cargo pants, a messenger bag stuffed with spray cans. The hood is pulled up.
1.1.1 CAP: There are seven cities.
1.1.2 CAP: There have only ever been seven cities.
1.1.3 CAP: There will only ever be seven cities.
1.1.4 CAP: What we see are mere configurations.
2.
CU OF THE BUS STOP. JACKY sits waiting for the bus. The graffiti is revealed: a slovenly, hairy oaf ****ing the runner from behind.
1.2.1 CAP: Just do it.
1.2.2 CAP: Because consumers don't grow on trees.
PAGE TWO
1.
EXT. CITY BUS - NIGHT. A billboard is pasted onto the side of the bus. Monochrome. MAUSY THE MINSTREL MOUSE sits at an austere dinner table with a bib and a utensil in each hand. In front of him, a fat, stuffed pig. Underneath: " Minstrel Maus sez Munch". Mausy is a minimally-lined and cheery cartoon character, a fusion of classic Mickey Mouse with the more racist exaggerations of a black sambo. The speech bubble comes from the bus interior.
2.1.1 LYDIA: You always pick just the sexiest spots for our little rendezvous, Jacky.
2.
INT. CITY BUS. JACK sits beside LYDIA, a waifish pale thing in her late twenties, dark eyed, dark haired, a keen and sharkish professional in a tight black dress, perfectly out of place on public transport. There's a book in her lap.
2.2.1 JACK: See, I was thinking a nice dark club, a bottle of red wine...
2.2.2 LYDIA: Business tonight. Besides, we both know you're accounted for.
3.
2.3.1 JACK: ****, Lydia, no one ever told me. Who's the lucky girl?
2.3.2 LYDIA: Whole city's lucky for you. That's why we picked you.
2.3.3 JACK: Hnf. Now I'm lucky too.
4.
CU. LYDIA presses the book into Jack's lap. "American Encyclopedia of Organized Crime in the Twentieth Century". Her finger trails the hardback cover.
2.4.1 LYDIA: I've dog-eared the juicy parts.
5.
EXT. CITY BUS stopped to unload. Lydia walks briskly away from the bus. The billboard on the front of the bus has rotated. " Bugsy Siegel's Secret Vault Uncovered!" A shot of the Flamingo Hotel is superimposed with the face of ERIC CAMERON, a smug young **** with frosted hair and a vaseline smile. He clawed his way up the mindless entertainment commentary profession. "Live, With Eric Cameron!" In the corner, a logo for LEAN: Lansky Entertainment Action Network.
PAGE THREE
1.
EXT. MOVIEDROME. NIGHT. It's a small video rental joint specializing in indie and foreign films, nested in a fairly bohemian part of town.
3.1.1 RANDALL: And ole girl wants you to poach Bugsy's hidden treasure? From under our generation's Dick Clark?
2.
INT. MOVIEDROME. Nick stands behind the counter, breaking up weed on its surface. RANDALL lounges back against the counter, shaggy haired lanky new hippie youth, Nick's dealer and friend.
3.2.1 NICK: More or less.
3.2.2 CAP: More more than less.
3.2.3 RANDALL: Yeah, Belloq? You gonna do it?
3.
TIGHT SHOT. Nick sprinkles the green across a rolling paper.
3.3.1 NICK: Dunno. He's kind of a ********er, yeah?
4.
INT. WIDE. The rolled joint is tucked in Nick's mouth as they round for the front door.
3.4.1 RANDALL: No. Total ********er. Dude's Minstrel farm raised, complete Orange County plastic. ****er's probably got a mouse branded on his ***.
3.4.2 NICK: Figure I should?
5.
EXT. MOVIEDROME. NICK and RANDALL smoke beside the front door.
3.5.1 RANDALL: Nick, lemme tell you a story about Eric Cameron...
PAGE FOUR
1.
INT. CELEB NOW SET, one of those cheesy, shiny facades to a fluff entertainment news broadcast. A slightly younger and meticulously tanned ERIC CAMERON behind the heavy desk, grinning white.
4.1.1 CAP: Back in the day, Cameron's still scrub but he's coming up. Been pulled up out of the farm leagues. No more televised sing-a-longs in silly rodent caps. No more lip-synched homo-erotic group choreography on bright-light sweat-slick stages. No, he's a reporter now.
4.1.2 ERIC: ...as we bring you breaking news on the exact contents of singer Vivica Langley's epic purge at hip LA restaurant Nava. Carla Rod--
4.1.3 CAP: Even got a gopher working for him. Little goth girl - chubby body, cute face, pulls the normal tasks. Coffee here, , dry cleaning there...
2.
CU. ERIC's manner contorted into a dramatic o-face, fingers clenched on his script.
4.2.1 ERIC: Nnnnnnnn!
4.2.2 CAP: occasional blowjob as the situation demands.
3.
He's regained his composure.
4.3.1 ERIC: Carla Rodriguez has exclusive, live coverage from the restaurant's bathroom stall.
4.3.2 CAP: So one day she calls in. Cat's sick, and she needs to spend the afternoon, Idunno, spoon-feeding it warm soup and wrapping it in a heated blanket.
4.
ERIC, purchasing flowers from a street stall.
4.4.1 CAP: Eric, natural kind-hearted boss that he is, wants to show that he cares for the hired help. Roses.
5.
Now at the fish market
4.5.1 CAP: Fine albacore tuna.
6.
Apartment door. ERIC, with flowers in one hand, the bundle of fish tucked in his other arm.
SFX: KNOK-KNOK
7.
ERIC has stepped through the door. He's reaching into his belt even as he presents the gifts to his assistant. ****-eating grin.
4.7.1 CAP: Even delivers it in person.
8.
RED
4.8.1 CAP: Fires a clean round square into sniffling puss' face.
9.
Flowers and tuna hit the floor, messy package splattering the carpet as it bursts open.
4.9.1 CAP: "Better see you bright and early tomorrow."
4.9.2 CAP: "Enjoy the fish."
PAGE FIVE
1.
EXT. NIGHT. A low lying city block in silhouette. Small businesses in a seedier part of town. Laundromats, jack shacks and ethnic restaurants on the left end give way to higher tenement apartments on the right. NICK, bag slung over his shoulder, hauls himself onto the roof of the shortest building, far right. Over the course of the page, he makes his way across the slow climbing skyline.
5.1.1 CAP: People think graffiti is an expression of self, an act of defiance, marking your tag for everyone to see. pissing out a line of demarcation. And mostly they're right. Some of it's true for Nicky, even.
2.
Back pressed against a rooftop A/C unit as the laundromat's proprietor peers at the roof from below.
5.2.1 CAP: But for the cats that are really up, it's something more. The real epic pieces are squared away - abandoned tunnels, warehouses, factories - vast top to bottoms squirreled into the forgotten crannies of the city, Lascaux masterworks hidden so deep they won't be seen by anyone but the writer and the town.
5.2.2 CAP: Part of it's self-preservation. The time it takes to throw up real art makes public places tricky, and there's always some punk looking to tag it over.
3.
NICK, full run as he builds the momentum to bridge the distance to the next building's fire escape.
5.3.1 CAP: But when you really break it down, it's all about that intimacy. Just you and the town, and in those hours, in the whole sprawl, there is only you.... and her....
4.
He hoists himself up onto the side of the rooftop, bag dangling precariously from his shoulder. A can falls free, spirals to the alleyway below.
5.4.1 CAP: She is a schizophrenic lover, but he knows all her faces, knows every inch of her body.
5.
BIRD'S EYE. NICK, exhausted, sprawled on the top floor of the abandoned tenement. The roof has long crumbled away, and all that's left of the top floor is a single, piecemeal brick wall.
5.5.1 CAP: He is her tattooist.
PAGE SIX
1.
NICK, facing the wall, as he sketches the parameters of the piece.
6.1.1 CAP: Needle touches flesh and the Metropolis coos.
2.
The design starting to take shape: the facade of a train station's frontside, bright colors and exaggerated, loose corners.
6.2.1 CAP: He works on instinct. It is Terminus he needs, and as he tickles, coaxes her...
3.
His ear pressed to the finished piece. Knuckles rap on the front door.
6.3.1 SFX: KNOK-KNOK
6.3.2 NICK: C'mon baby....
4.
A brief glimpse of TERMINUS, city in transit, metropolis of corridors and trains, all black smog and gray steel.
6.4.1 CAP: she restlessly wakes from sleep. And Terminus aligns, so briefly, with this city.
5.
Silhouette. The wall is flush with the right side of the panel. NICK steps through the wall...
6.
and out into the next panel. Ground level. It is an alleyway, and he is now dressed immaculately - a clean white suit cut in the style of the mid-forties, a fedora cradled in his hand.
PAGE SEVEN
EXT. NIGHT - SPLASH. NICK stands examining his new clothes as he settles the hat on his head. He is dwarfed by the Flamingo Hotel, which is just cranking into its grand opening. Cars line the front door, and well-dressed folks mingle in.
7.1.1 CAP: December 26, 1946. The Flamingo Hotel.
7.1.2 NICK: 'ppreciate it...
PAGE 8
1.
NICK stands at a crowded roulette table.
8.1.1 CAP: Meet Las Vegas in her adolescence, a wild-eyed bright-smiling girl lonely in the desert, just looking to get ****ed.
8.1.2 NICK: Thousand on double zero.
2.
Same shot. The CROUPIER, brow raised.
8.2.1 CROUPIER: 00. Gentleman wins again.
8.2.2 CAP: And Nicky Metro's all too happy to oblige her. He walked in with a cold fifty dollar bill.
3.
Two slinky femmes hang onto NICK's arm now.
8.3.1 CAP: The girls on his arm could be his great grandmother, but they sure don't look it.
8.3.2 NICK: Let it ride.
8.3.3 CAP: But for now, it's business.
4.
A mean looking legbreaker in the background murmurs to another guard.
8.4.1 CROUPIER: Gentleman doubles up.
8.4.2 CAP: And Lansky's men are in the business of keeping her cherry intact.
5.
One of the legbreakers has sidled in behind NICK. The other stands to his side.
8.5.1 THUG: Maybe you should come with us, sir...
8.5.2 NICK: Funny, I was thinking Diana and Elise here should come with me.
INSET: The thug's gun presses against the small of NICK's back.
8.5.3 THUG: They'll be here when you get back. Lead on, high roller.
PAGE 9
1.
The walk-in freezer of the Flamingo. The camera is centered on NICK, tied to a chair, breath making fog. He's sporting some mean bruises.
9.1.1 CAP: The Flamingo Hotel. Where they keep the ice cream.
9.1.2 THUG (off panel): Got the joker right in here, Mr. Siegel.
2.
Silhouette. A very irate BUGSY SIEGEL stands over a prone NICK. He's steadily driven the Flamingo into debt during the period of construction and the Syndicate who's been funding it is none too happy. He's irate, scared, and looking for something to take it out on.
9.2.1 BUGSY: Never seen you before, brother. What sort of business you in?
9.2.2 NICK: I'm a fortune teller.
3.
SFX: KRAKKKK!!!
4.
BUGSY rubs his knuckle, turned away from NICK now. NICK, in turn, sports a nasty cut along his eye where the gangster's punch hit.
9.4.1 BUGSY: That so, bright boy? And here I thought you were in the business of stealing my money.
9.4.2 NICK: Maybe I could read your fortune. Prove it to you.
5.
SLIVER SHOT. CU BUGSY's brow raised.
6.
A thick, red loogie hits the freezer's floor.
9.6.1 NICK: Your Empire will make billions and span centuries.
7.
BUGSY's cracked a smile. An arm slung around his goon, he turns towards the door.
9.7.1 BUGSY: Just maybe I like this kid after all. Maybe we give him some time to cool off while we ring Lansky.
8.
NICK, alone in the freezer.
9.8.1 CAP: Believe it or not, it's exactly where Nicky wants to be.
9.8.2 CAP: 90% of this business is getting the **** beat out of you.
PAGE 10
All the panels are shot in stark black and white. The lights have been killed in the hotel, and NICK operates on a sort of internal navigation.
1.
BLACK
10.1.1 CAP: Lessons from school-age magic camp clear the knots.
10.1.2 CAP: And some pre-planned vandalism clears the lights.
2.
CU of the Flamingo's electrical box. A frowny face with its eyes X'ed has been scribbled on the face of the box, and as a superscript to it, a crudely drawn clock marked 12:30. The marker has been left atop the box.
10.2.1 CAP: Lady Vegas was sweet enough to read his short hand.
3.
NICK, wedging a broom handle into the freezer door.
10.3.1 CAP: History lesson. Bugsy pumped exorbitant dough into the Flamingo. Private sewers for each bathroom. Boiler room rebuilt from the bottom up. A kitchen renovated... and renovated.... and renovated again.
4.
He pushes a heavy shelf out of the way.
10.4.1 CAP: Rumor is, the kitchen work was cover for something else. A secret vault buried in the sands of Vegas. Pirate treasure. Yar!
10.4.2 CAP: In short, he binged like... well... an addict in Vegas...
5.
A dark stairwell burrows deep beneath the kitchen. A heavy door with those handles that look like a ship's wheel glimmers at the bottom of the stairs.
10.5.1 CAP: Except it wasn't his money. Millions upon millions in loans from the Syndicate. And when opening day didn't pay out.... And opening week didn't pay out.... And opening month didn't pay out... Well, everybody dies sometime...
10.5.2 CAP: Except they hadn't heard the rumor. And when the new owners came around to renovate the kitchen once again, Bugsy's treasure got buried as deep as the man himself.
6.
His hands are closed on the handle to the vault, ready to turn.
10.6.1 NICK: Enough foreplay, baby. Let's get you undressed.
PAGE 11
SPLASH - NICK stands in the massive underground vault, which is entirely empty.
11.1.1 NICK: Well, someone's getting ****ed tonight.
11.1.2 CAP: Hell of a town...
PAGE 12
1.
A cross-section of a room in the El Rancho, a western themed hotel. MORNING. The view allows us to see into the hotel room, where a girl is conked out in bed and champagne bottles are scattered along the carpet, as well as onto the patio, where NICK stands, in his bathrobe, toking off of a sherlock while he talks on his cell phone.
12.1.1 CAP: The El Rancho Vegas, first hotel on the Vegas Strip. New Year's Day, 1947.
12.1.2 NICK: I think I've seen The Sting and Usual Suspects enough to know when I'm being played.
2.
LYDIA, sprawled across her chair in a posh office. She's occupying her time watching TV while she talks on the phone.
12.2.1 LYDIA: Of course his tomb's empty, Nicky. Man got into a lot of debt to a lot of bad people. We aren't talking Egyptian pharaohs here. It's not like he thought he could take a big pile of gold to Hell with him.
3.
12.3.1 LYDIA: You aren't being paid to rob Siegel's treasure. You're being paid to leave something in there. You're a vandal, not a thief. We wouldn't ever force you to betray your principles.
12.3.2 LYDIA: You've heard of the Merry Pranksters, right?
4.
The hotel. NICK has stepped back into the room. He blows a stream of smoke towards the ceiling. In his bed, the girl stirs.
12.4.1 NICK: sure.
12.4.2 LYDIA (via phone): Well, it's something like that.
12.4.3 NICK: Yeah, yeah. I get it now. You're Kaiser ****in' Soze arentcha?
5.
LYDIA's office. She smiles like a cat, pleased.
12.5.1 LYDIA: Good night, Nick. I'll see you in a couple of days.
12.5.2 NICK: See ya in sixty years.
6.
The hotel. The GIRL, propped up in bed, watches NICK, bleary eyed. He's flinging the phone away.
12.6.1 GIRL: Mmmmm...? Whussat inner han'Nicky?
12.6.2 NICK: A toy, baby. Forget about it.
PAGE ONE
The first panel consists of the top eighty percent of the page.
1.
EXT. CITY - NIGHT. Downtown. A mirror-windowed skyscraper looms in the background. Seated high on the building is a logo, basically the McDonald's golden arches turned on their side to make an E. In the foreground is a bus stop. The back wall is splashed with an advertisement: a fit runner in the starting position centered on the ad, with "just do it" written prominently in the upper left hand corner. JACKY METRO stands with his back to the panel, spray painting over the ad. He's a white boy in his mid-twenties, scrawny, dark haired fade, blue eyes, green hoody with cargo pants, a messenger bag stuffed with spray cans. The hood is pulled up.
1.1.1 CAP: There are seven cities.
1.1.2 CAP: There have only ever been seven cities.
1.1.3 CAP: There will only ever be seven cities.
1.1.4 CAP: What we see are mere configurations.
2.
CU OF THE BUS STOP. JACKY sits waiting for the bus. The graffiti is revealed: a slovenly, hairy oaf ****ing the runner from behind.
1.2.1 CAP: Just do it.
1.2.2 CAP: Because consumers don't grow on trees.
PAGE TWO
1.
EXT. CITY BUS - NIGHT. A billboard is pasted onto the side of the bus. Monochrome. MAUSY THE MINSTREL MOUSE sits at an austere dinner table with a bib and a utensil in each hand. In front of him, a fat, stuffed pig. Underneath: " Minstrel Maus sez Munch". Mausy is a minimally-lined and cheery cartoon character, a fusion of classic Mickey Mouse with the more racist exaggerations of a black sambo. The speech bubble comes from the bus interior.
2.1.1 LYDIA: You always pick just the sexiest spots for our little rendezvous, Jacky.
2.
INT. CITY BUS. JACK sits beside LYDIA, a waifish pale thing in her late twenties, dark eyed, dark haired, a keen and sharkish professional in a tight black dress, perfectly out of place on public transport. There's a book in her lap.
2.2.1 JACK: See, I was thinking a nice dark club, a bottle of red wine...
2.2.2 LYDIA: Business tonight. Besides, we both know you're accounted for.
3.
2.3.1 JACK: ****, Lydia, no one ever told me. Who's the lucky girl?
2.3.2 LYDIA: Whole city's lucky for you. That's why we picked you.
2.3.3 JACK: Hnf. Now I'm lucky too.
4.
CU. LYDIA presses the book into Jack's lap. "American Encyclopedia of Organized Crime in the Twentieth Century". Her finger trails the hardback cover.
2.4.1 LYDIA: I've dog-eared the juicy parts.
5.
EXT. CITY BUS stopped to unload. Lydia walks briskly away from the bus. The billboard on the front of the bus has rotated. " Bugsy Siegel's Secret Vault Uncovered!" A shot of the Flamingo Hotel is superimposed with the face of ERIC CAMERON, a smug young **** with frosted hair and a vaseline smile. He clawed his way up the mindless entertainment commentary profession. "Live, With Eric Cameron!" In the corner, a logo for LEAN: Lansky Entertainment Action Network.
PAGE THREE
1.
EXT. MOVIEDROME. NIGHT. It's a small video rental joint specializing in indie and foreign films, nested in a fairly bohemian part of town.
3.1.1 RANDALL: And ole girl wants you to poach Bugsy's hidden treasure? From under our generation's Dick Clark?
2.
INT. MOVIEDROME. Nick stands behind the counter, breaking up weed on its surface. RANDALL lounges back against the counter, shaggy haired lanky new hippie youth, Nick's dealer and friend.
3.2.1 NICK: More or less.
3.2.2 CAP: More more than less.
3.2.3 RANDALL: Yeah, Belloq? You gonna do it?
3.
TIGHT SHOT. Nick sprinkles the green across a rolling paper.
3.3.1 NICK: Dunno. He's kind of a ********er, yeah?
4.
INT. WIDE. The rolled joint is tucked in Nick's mouth as they round for the front door.
3.4.1 RANDALL: No. Total ********er. Dude's Minstrel farm raised, complete Orange County plastic. ****er's probably got a mouse branded on his ***.
3.4.2 NICK: Figure I should?
5.
EXT. MOVIEDROME. NICK and RANDALL smoke beside the front door.
3.5.1 RANDALL: Nick, lemme tell you a story about Eric Cameron...
PAGE FOUR
1.
INT. CELEB NOW SET, one of those cheesy, shiny facades to a fluff entertainment news broadcast. A slightly younger and meticulously tanned ERIC CAMERON behind the heavy desk, grinning white.
4.1.1 CAP: Back in the day, Cameron's still scrub but he's coming up. Been pulled up out of the farm leagues. No more televised sing-a-longs in silly rodent caps. No more lip-synched homo-erotic group choreography on bright-light sweat-slick stages. No, he's a reporter now.
4.1.2 ERIC: ...as we bring you breaking news on the exact contents of singer Vivica Langley's epic purge at hip LA restaurant Nava. Carla Rod--
4.1.3 CAP: Even got a gopher working for him. Little goth girl - chubby body, cute face, pulls the normal tasks. Coffee here, , dry cleaning there...
2.
CU. ERIC's manner contorted into a dramatic o-face, fingers clenched on his script.
4.2.1 ERIC: Nnnnnnnn!
4.2.2 CAP: occasional blowjob as the situation demands.
3.
He's regained his composure.
4.3.1 ERIC: Carla Rodriguez has exclusive, live coverage from the restaurant's bathroom stall.
4.3.2 CAP: So one day she calls in. Cat's sick, and she needs to spend the afternoon, Idunno, spoon-feeding it warm soup and wrapping it in a heated blanket.
4.
ERIC, purchasing flowers from a street stall.
4.4.1 CAP: Eric, natural kind-hearted boss that he is, wants to show that he cares for the hired help. Roses.
5.
Now at the fish market
4.5.1 CAP: Fine albacore tuna.
6.
Apartment door. ERIC, with flowers in one hand, the bundle of fish tucked in his other arm.
SFX: KNOK-KNOK
7.
ERIC has stepped through the door. He's reaching into his belt even as he presents the gifts to his assistant. ****-eating grin.
4.7.1 CAP: Even delivers it in person.
8.
RED
4.8.1 CAP: Fires a clean round square into sniffling puss' face.
9.
Flowers and tuna hit the floor, messy package splattering the carpet as it bursts open.
4.9.1 CAP: "Better see you bright and early tomorrow."
4.9.2 CAP: "Enjoy the fish."
PAGE FIVE
1.
EXT. NIGHT. A low lying city block in silhouette. Small businesses in a seedier part of town. Laundromats, jack shacks and ethnic restaurants on the left end give way to higher tenement apartments on the right. NICK, bag slung over his shoulder, hauls himself onto the roof of the shortest building, far right. Over the course of the page, he makes his way across the slow climbing skyline.
5.1.1 CAP: People think graffiti is an expression of self, an act of defiance, marking your tag for everyone to see. pissing out a line of demarcation. And mostly they're right. Some of it's true for Nicky, even.
2.
Back pressed against a rooftop A/C unit as the laundromat's proprietor peers at the roof from below.
5.2.1 CAP: But for the cats that are really up, it's something more. The real epic pieces are squared away - abandoned tunnels, warehouses, factories - vast top to bottoms squirreled into the forgotten crannies of the city, Lascaux masterworks hidden so deep they won't be seen by anyone but the writer and the town.
5.2.2 CAP: Part of it's self-preservation. The time it takes to throw up real art makes public places tricky, and there's always some punk looking to tag it over.
3.
NICK, full run as he builds the momentum to bridge the distance to the next building's fire escape.
5.3.1 CAP: But when you really break it down, it's all about that intimacy. Just you and the town, and in those hours, in the whole sprawl, there is only you.... and her....
4.
He hoists himself up onto the side of the rooftop, bag dangling precariously from his shoulder. A can falls free, spirals to the alleyway below.
5.4.1 CAP: She is a schizophrenic lover, but he knows all her faces, knows every inch of her body.
5.
BIRD'S EYE. NICK, exhausted, sprawled on the top floor of the abandoned tenement. The roof has long crumbled away, and all that's left of the top floor is a single, piecemeal brick wall.
5.5.1 CAP: He is her tattooist.
PAGE SIX
1.
NICK, facing the wall, as he sketches the parameters of the piece.
6.1.1 CAP: Needle touches flesh and the Metropolis coos.
2.
The design starting to take shape: the facade of a train station's frontside, bright colors and exaggerated, loose corners.
6.2.1 CAP: He works on instinct. It is Terminus he needs, and as he tickles, coaxes her...
3.
His ear pressed to the finished piece. Knuckles rap on the front door.
6.3.1 SFX: KNOK-KNOK
6.3.2 NICK: C'mon baby....
4.
A brief glimpse of TERMINUS, city in transit, metropolis of corridors and trains, all black smog and gray steel.
6.4.1 CAP: she restlessly wakes from sleep. And Terminus aligns, so briefly, with this city.
5.
Silhouette. The wall is flush with the right side of the panel. NICK steps through the wall...
6.
and out into the next panel. Ground level. It is an alleyway, and he is now dressed immaculately - a clean white suit cut in the style of the mid-forties, a fedora cradled in his hand.
PAGE SEVEN
EXT. NIGHT - SPLASH. NICK stands examining his new clothes as he settles the hat on his head. He is dwarfed by the Flamingo Hotel, which is just cranking into its grand opening. Cars line the front door, and well-dressed folks mingle in.
7.1.1 CAP: December 26, 1946. The Flamingo Hotel.
7.1.2 NICK: 'ppreciate it...
PAGE 8
1.
NICK stands at a crowded roulette table.
8.1.1 CAP: Meet Las Vegas in her adolescence, a wild-eyed bright-smiling girl lonely in the desert, just looking to get ****ed.
8.1.2 NICK: Thousand on double zero.
2.
Same shot. The CROUPIER, brow raised.
8.2.1 CROUPIER: 00. Gentleman wins again.
8.2.2 CAP: And Nicky Metro's all too happy to oblige her. He walked in with a cold fifty dollar bill.
3.
Two slinky femmes hang onto NICK's arm now.
8.3.1 CAP: The girls on his arm could be his great grandmother, but they sure don't look it.
8.3.2 NICK: Let it ride.
8.3.3 CAP: But for now, it's business.
4.
A mean looking legbreaker in the background murmurs to another guard.
8.4.1 CROUPIER: Gentleman doubles up.
8.4.2 CAP: And Lansky's men are in the business of keeping her cherry intact.
5.
One of the legbreakers has sidled in behind NICK. The other stands to his side.
8.5.1 THUG: Maybe you should come with us, sir...
8.5.2 NICK: Funny, I was thinking Diana and Elise here should come with me.
INSET: The thug's gun presses against the small of NICK's back.
8.5.3 THUG: They'll be here when you get back. Lead on, high roller.
PAGE 9
1.
The walk-in freezer of the Flamingo. The camera is centered on NICK, tied to a chair, breath making fog. He's sporting some mean bruises.
9.1.1 CAP: The Flamingo Hotel. Where they keep the ice cream.
9.1.2 THUG (off panel): Got the joker right in here, Mr. Siegel.
2.
Silhouette. A very irate BUGSY SIEGEL stands over a prone NICK. He's steadily driven the Flamingo into debt during the period of construction and the Syndicate who's been funding it is none too happy. He's irate, scared, and looking for something to take it out on.
9.2.1 BUGSY: Never seen you before, brother. What sort of business you in?
9.2.2 NICK: I'm a fortune teller.
3.
SFX: KRAKKKK!!!
4.
BUGSY rubs his knuckle, turned away from NICK now. NICK, in turn, sports a nasty cut along his eye where the gangster's punch hit.
9.4.1 BUGSY: That so, bright boy? And here I thought you were in the business of stealing my money.
9.4.2 NICK: Maybe I could read your fortune. Prove it to you.
5.
SLIVER SHOT. CU BUGSY's brow raised.
6.
A thick, red loogie hits the freezer's floor.
9.6.1 NICK: Your Empire will make billions and span centuries.
7.
BUGSY's cracked a smile. An arm slung around his goon, he turns towards the door.
9.7.1 BUGSY: Just maybe I like this kid after all. Maybe we give him some time to cool off while we ring Lansky.
8.
NICK, alone in the freezer.
9.8.1 CAP: Believe it or not, it's exactly where Nicky wants to be.
9.8.2 CAP: 90% of this business is getting the **** beat out of you.
PAGE 10
All the panels are shot in stark black and white. The lights have been killed in the hotel, and NICK operates on a sort of internal navigation.
1.
BLACK
10.1.1 CAP: Lessons from school-age magic camp clear the knots.
10.1.2 CAP: And some pre-planned vandalism clears the lights.
2.
CU of the Flamingo's electrical box. A frowny face with its eyes X'ed has been scribbled on the face of the box, and as a superscript to it, a crudely drawn clock marked 12:30. The marker has been left atop the box.
10.2.1 CAP: Lady Vegas was sweet enough to read his short hand.
3.
NICK, wedging a broom handle into the freezer door.
10.3.1 CAP: History lesson. Bugsy pumped exorbitant dough into the Flamingo. Private sewers for each bathroom. Boiler room rebuilt from the bottom up. A kitchen renovated... and renovated.... and renovated again.
4.
He pushes a heavy shelf out of the way.
10.4.1 CAP: Rumor is, the kitchen work was cover for something else. A secret vault buried in the sands of Vegas. Pirate treasure. Yar!
10.4.2 CAP: In short, he binged like... well... an addict in Vegas...
5.
A dark stairwell burrows deep beneath the kitchen. A heavy door with those handles that look like a ship's wheel glimmers at the bottom of the stairs.
10.5.1 CAP: Except it wasn't his money. Millions upon millions in loans from the Syndicate. And when opening day didn't pay out.... And opening week didn't pay out.... And opening month didn't pay out... Well, everybody dies sometime...
10.5.2 CAP: Except they hadn't heard the rumor. And when the new owners came around to renovate the kitchen once again, Bugsy's treasure got buried as deep as the man himself.
6.
His hands are closed on the handle to the vault, ready to turn.
10.6.1 NICK: Enough foreplay, baby. Let's get you undressed.
PAGE 11
SPLASH - NICK stands in the massive underground vault, which is entirely empty.
11.1.1 NICK: Well, someone's getting ****ed tonight.
11.1.2 CAP: Hell of a town...
PAGE 12
1.
A cross-section of a room in the El Rancho, a western themed hotel. MORNING. The view allows us to see into the hotel room, where a girl is conked out in bed and champagne bottles are scattered along the carpet, as well as onto the patio, where NICK stands, in his bathrobe, toking off of a sherlock while he talks on his cell phone.
12.1.1 CAP: The El Rancho Vegas, first hotel on the Vegas Strip. New Year's Day, 1947.
12.1.2 NICK: I think I've seen The Sting and Usual Suspects enough to know when I'm being played.
2.
LYDIA, sprawled across her chair in a posh office. She's occupying her time watching TV while she talks on the phone.
12.2.1 LYDIA: Of course his tomb's empty, Nicky. Man got into a lot of debt to a lot of bad people. We aren't talking Egyptian pharaohs here. It's not like he thought he could take a big pile of gold to Hell with him.
3.
12.3.1 LYDIA: You aren't being paid to rob Siegel's treasure. You're being paid to leave something in there. You're a vandal, not a thief. We wouldn't ever force you to betray your principles.
12.3.2 LYDIA: You've heard of the Merry Pranksters, right?
4.
The hotel. NICK has stepped back into the room. He blows a stream of smoke towards the ceiling. In his bed, the girl stirs.
12.4.1 NICK: sure.
12.4.2 LYDIA (via phone): Well, it's something like that.
12.4.3 NICK: Yeah, yeah. I get it now. You're Kaiser ****in' Soze arentcha?
5.
LYDIA's office. She smiles like a cat, pleased.
12.5.1 LYDIA: Good night, Nick. I'll see you in a couple of days.
12.5.2 NICK: See ya in sixty years.
6.
The hotel. The GIRL, propped up in bed, watches NICK, bleary eyed. He's flinging the phone away.
12.6.1 GIRL: Mmmmm...? Whussat inner han'Nicky?
12.6.2 NICK: A toy, baby. Forget about it.
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