Perfect Creature

Written by

Glenn Standring

SHOOTING SCRIPT

14 May 2004

1A EXT: PROLOGUE ON BLACK - NIGHT

The screen is black, music evoking religion and danger begins.

We see death tolls appear through this graphically.

The plague - 5 million souls. Virulent Small Pox - 10 million. Mutated Influenza 30 Million Souls...

Lilly Thinking they had discovered Gods secret code for life, the Alchemists experimented with genetic science. They had no idea what they had unleashed.

We begin to see a strange medallion sweeping through smoke, slowly revealing itself.

FADE UP:

2 INT: DOCTORS SURGERY - DAY2

We are very close on a bespectacled eye. It stares at us and then looks down.

Cut to the object in the Genetic Doctors hand; it is like an x-ray, yet the image looks remarkably like a DNA profile.

We reveal the genetic Doctor, sitting at his desk, smoking a cigarette. The surgery and the clothes suggest the year, yet there are small things that are different, not what you'd expect to be around at this time. Standing next to him in the dusty haze of the room is a younger doctor; an apprentice who looks attentive.

The apprentice nods and then looks up. There is someone else in the room. A woman - who we now see is pregnant. There is something about her that suggests more a prisoner or psychiatric patient than a normal pregnant mother.

ApprenticeDOCTOR Strange?

We see the woman; she's like a hollow person, hardly aware of where she is. The Doctor shuffles papers. Finds what he wants.

The woman now looks up. And tentatively speaks.

The woman drops her eyes. We see the Apprentice Doctor, almost pitying the poor woman.

Apprentice DOCTOR (to woman) You won't have to worry. The Brotherhood will take him...

We are closer on the woman now. Tears begin to glisten in her eyes as we drift closer to her.

Apprentice DOCTOR (continuing; off) ...raise him in the church, teach him. He's special. You should be proud. It's a blessing really, he'll want for nothing. Not like the rest of us?

We track in closer, closer, to the woman, then continue, right into her eye, through the fluid, to see the room reflected upside down at the back of the retina. This dissolves to an upside view of... 5

3 INT: HOSPITAL, OPERATION ROOM - DAY3

POV, baby's view, in an operating theatre.

Cut to

The woman we saw earlier with the Genetic Doctor; she has just given birth. The baby is placed on linen blankets and cleaned by a nurse.

A man now enters the operating theatre; we can tell the Doctor is uneasy. The man is dressed in a perfectly cut suit. He does not wear a surgical mask. His eyes are a piercingly clear light gray. He enters with two other men who look similar to him. By his side there is also a pristine boy; perhaps 8 years old, the same piercing eyes. They both approach the baby. The man stares serenely at the baby, all bloody, lying on blankets.

The little boy then shares a glance with the woman who has just given birth. She seems to recognize the boy.

Augustus then leans forward and gently opens the baby's mouth.

We see the baby close. In the otherwise baby-like mouth we see something strange. There are two tiny fangs protruding from the otherwise smooth gums.

We see Augustus smile. In his mouth too, we see two perfectly pointed teeth.

Cut to

We end close on the baby; its piercing eyes.

DISSOLVE TO: 6

4 PRODUCTION TITLE: ON BLACK.4

Perfect Creature

The title fades. Then another title appears.

Queen's Imperial Winter Residence,

The Pacific Colony

100 years later

DISSOLVE TO:

4A EXT: CITYSCAPE - NIGHT4A

We see a city, seething with smoke from coal fires, steam from engines, alien distorted Victorian spires are silhouetted against the moody, moonlit sky which is literally filled with dirigibles and strange flying machines that seem Victorian, of the industrial revolution, but that are also strangely futuristic. It is 1969, but not our 1969.

5 EXT: STREET - NIGHT5

A street. The look - of the film and the night - is silver, almost metallic moonlit skies. A hazy mist hangs in the air. Wet, steel pools of water on the dark footpath where a man stands. He stares up at a zeppelin passing overhead, its shadow obscuring him briefly until it passes away. Then we see him.

The man is handsome, in a perfectly cut long wool jacket; dark gray. He wears perfectly shiny black shoes and we can see the surrounding street reflected in them; Victorian, Gothic buildings. This man is Silus. He surveys the street. While the houses are beautiful, they're run down.

Silus - his eyes are the purest light gray you have ever seen - takes a long long inhale through his nose, his eyes closing briefly as if trying to sense/smell something. He stops the breath and opens his eyes. They are clear, full of purpose.

He bends down to the footpath, runs his hand along its surface, almost caressing it. He closes his eyes. The camera moves in, to end close on Silus' ear. As this happens the soundtrack - all the noises in the night - become amplified. We see Silus' face, see him concentrating intently. We hear several individual noises. First a very quiet pitter patter.

Cut to

A cat, stealthily moving between some thorny rose bushes.

Cut to 7

Silus again; concentrating even more. Now the distant sound of trickling water.

Cut to

A drain pipe, leaking.

Cut to

Silus once more. This time we can hear "plop, plop, plop."

Cut to

A pool of water. Then "plop" as a drop hits it. The drop is not water. The drop is a red liquid, thick, now dispersing in the water. And another drop, "plop." High speed CRANE UP from

this pool, up up the side of a building to end on a FACE in the shadows. We can see reflective, gleaming eyes. And a mouth, with blood dripping from it.

Cut to

Silus again. His eyes flicking open; we see the footpath reflected in those perfect light gray eyes.

Music - brooding, ancient - begins to hum as Silus slowly rises, as if his limbs have the power to make him float, so perfect and powerful are they. A small smile has appeared on his lips; it is the smile of a man who knows that something very dark, something very dangerous, is close by.

Slowly his hand slips into his jacket. He holds it there, watching, surveying the street immediately ahead of him for the slightest movement. He sees it. On the wall of an old Georgian Mansion across the road, a shape on the side of the wall, almost imperceptible, hidden in the shadows and brickwork. A CREATURE on the side of the wall.

Silus begins to move forward now, everything in perfect shining silver slow motion. As he moves forward he pulls a gun from his jacket - it is silver, organic and glass, art nouveaux styling - and points it ahead of him as he glides forward.

The creature on the wall senses the movement coming towards it, moves a little and then, like a spider, scrambles along the side of the wall, heading away from us.

Silus fires. A bullet of silver explodes from the gun, seems almost to hang in the air for a moment, reflecting the moon above, before hurtling at high speed towards its target.

The shell explodes the wall next to the creature, who stops suddenly in the light so that we can see it. 8

A man. With reflective animal eyes and blood on his purple lips. And teeth; the teeth of a vampire. This creature immediately dives from the wall to the ground, just avoiding another two bullets that crash into the wall.

LA as the man falls directly towards the camera.

Silus now rushes forward, holding his gun out in front of him; he moves forward gracefully. He can see the man skillfully climbing up an adjacent derelict building. Silus tries to follow but his way is blocked by wire and fencing. He raises his gun towards the man once more, but he is gone.

Close on Silus' enigmatic face. Those eyes. And in his mouth, two perfectly pointed fangs.

Cut to

6 EXT: CAFE - NIGHT6

We are outside a cafe; the cafe is a warm glow against the cold night. We see past the fine falling rain - through the large glass window that has swirling silver art nouveaux designs lacing across it - to a table inside, by the window, where two pristinely dressed men sit.

Cut to

7 INT: CAFE - NIGHT7

We are inside. Closer on the two men. One is SILUS. The other man is AUGUSTUS; the man we saw in the operation theatre before. Augustus has hardly aged at all.

We see Silus. He remembers.

Cut to

8 INT: ROOM, FLASHBACK - NIGHT8

Flashback from Silus' memory; a dead girl on a bed, blood splattered across her pillow.

Cut to 9

9 INT: CAFE - NIGHT9

Silus' face. Pull out to reveal we're back in the caf�.

SILUS

It is taken care of.

Augustus lifts a beautifully designed glass and silver pipe from the onyx table at which they sit, then settles back into a fine hardwood chair. The chair's swirling, delicate back creeks as he takes a puff on the pipe.

Silus shakes his head, no. The opium in the pipe crackles.

Augustus places the pipe down, blows a smoke ring as a Chinese woman, dressed in a sarong, brings over two finely cut crystal glasses and sets them before the men, then leaves. Silus now lifts the glass and we see what it contains. Blood; dark and red and viscous. Silus takes a sip, then looks over to the bar.

There is a young woman there, sitting at the bar, being treated with great care by several of the elegantly dressed patrons; the young woman laughs, enjoying the attention. Tubes run from the young woman's arms. These tubes carry her blood into a conch shaped glass bowl. We see the Chinese waitress fill another glass from the bowl.

Silus watches, blood slightly present on his ashen lips. And we see two perfectly pointed fangs hanging in his mouth.

Silus now turns to Augustus, still looking unconvinced.

Cut to

10 EXT: JAMESTOWN SLUM, STREET - DAY10

Close up of a NEWSPAPER. On it we see a banner headline. "Influenza Vaccine Shortages lead to Black Market Trade." We pull out to reveal the paper is lying on a foot path. Wind blows the newspaper out of shot and we tilt up to the street.

The street is wet, glistening. The rain, rain rain rain. The Edwardian and Victorian buildings of the street might seem beautiful, but they are not. They are largely derelict. We see a woman standing in a doorway out of the rain. 11

She is wrapped in a black plastic jacket that she pulls about her. A man approaches her.

They both move to one of the tall buildings; a four story, ancient tenement that looks empty, almost derelict.

They quietly move up the steps of the place and then pause. There is the bleep from a strange looking valve powered Walkie Talkie; hereafter called an RT.

11 INT: JAMESTOWN SLUM, TENEMENT, HALLWAY - DAY11

CRASH CUT to the door of the building swinging open wildly, a hand held camera on the shoulder of Lilly and Jones.

A large, grubby looking woman stands in a long, grim hallway, mop in hand. At the far end of the hall another door disconnects from its hinges and collapses inwards, two men appearing out of the rain.

We see a gun in Jones' hand as he moves towards the woman, who has her hands up and is getting down on her knees.

The camera then pans wildly, left and right. Then Lilly's foot kicks in a door to our right, revealing a dank office and a man, half naked, reaching for a gun. A woman is lying on a cot and she's screaming. She is instantly recognizable as a prostitute.

From this POV we see Lilly's hand pointing a gun at the SLUM LANDLORD, who is now slowly easing back into the scummy office.

We now finally cut to see Lilly. She is around 25; an intelligent, handsome 25. The man Jones appears at her shoulder, leering. Jones is the type of guy you just know will go to seed at 40. But that's still 10 years away. Jones stares at the Slum Landlord who is trying to cover himself.

12 INT: JAMESTOWN SLUM, TENEMENT, HALLWAY - LATER12

The hallway again. The other two men we saw entering at the beginning are talking to the woman with the mop. One of the men is taking notes.

We pan to the office, to see Lilly and Jones standing before the Slum Landlord, who is now wrapped in a towel and sitting in a chair.

Another man now approaches Lilly.

13 INT: JAMESTOWN SLUM, TENEMENT, HALLWAY - CONTINUING13

Halfway down the hall there is a door, Frank opens it displaying a set of stairs leading down.

Lilly pulls a dark surgical-type mask over her face, then slowly moves down the steps into the oblivion below.

14 INT: JAMESTOWN SLUM, TENEMENT BASEMENT - CONTINUING14

Cut between Lilly's POV and her face, her eyes glimmering in the sub-light as she moves down the stairs very carefully. 13

And finally the horror is revealed. In this basement there are 10 or 12 people, lying on the floor. Most of them are silent, but a couple moan. One, a woman, pleads to Lilly.

The woman extends her arm. It is covered in sweat; grimy. The glands at the side of the woman's neck are distended and swollen, her eyes bloodshot.

The room is a version of hell. Lilly's eyes glisten.

Cut to

15 INT: JAMESTOWN SLUM, TENEMENT OFFICE - CONTINUING15

Jones has the Slum Landlord by the throat.