Tag: screenplay

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THE BRUCE BROTHERS

Film Treatment: THE BRUCE BROTHERS

Logline: The brutal fight for Scottish independence fractures the bond between the brilliant but pragmatic King Robert the Bruce and his fiercely loyal but increasingly unhinged younger brother, Edward, forcing them to confront whether the ends of freedom can ever justify their monstrous means.

Tone: A gritty, visceral, and psychological historical drama in the vein of The Outlaw King and The King, focusing on the complex cost of leadership and the corrosive nature of war on family.

Characters:

  • ROBERT THE BRUCE (CHRIS ARMSTRONG): In his 40s. The King of Scots. A strategic genius and a natural leader, but weighed down by the immense moral and political burden of kingship. He is pragmatic to a fault, often making cold calculations for the greater good. His goal is a stable, independent Scotland, but the path to it is staining his soul.
  • EDWARD BRUCE (JOE JUKIC): Late 20s/Early 30s. Robert’s younger brother. A formidable, fearless, and terrifyingly effective warrior. His loyalty to Robert and the cause is absolute, but it is fueled by a deep-seated rage and a thirst for glory that borders on the berserk. He is the unleashed id to Robert’s calculating ego.
  • ELIZABETH DE BURGH (to be cast): Robert’s wife. His emotional anchor and moral compass. Her captivity by the English is a constant source of pain and strategic weakness for Robert.
  • SIR JAMES DOUGLAS (to be cast): The “Black Douglas.” A loyal lieutenant to Robert. He shares Edward’s ferocity in battle but channels it with more control, serving as a contrast to Edward’s descent.
  • AYMER DE VALENCE (to be cast): The ruthless English commander, representing the relentless pressure of the opposition.

SYNOPSIS

ACT I: THE FRACTURED CROWN

Opening: 1306. The aftermath of Methven. Robert’s army is shattered, his family and allies captured or killed. He and a handful of survivors, including a bloodied but defiant Edward, flee into the wilderness. This is not a glorious beginning but a desperate, humiliating scramble for survival. We see the core dynamic: Robert is already thinking three moves ahead, despairing at the cost. Edward sees only the insult and burns for immediate, brutal retaliation.

As Robert rebuilds his campaign through guerrilla tactics (showing the famous spider scene not as inspiration, but as a moment of grim perseverance), Edward is his most effective weapon. He takes castles with audacious, reckless assaults that Robert’s more cautious commanders would never attempt. Edward’s bravery is legendary, but Robert begins to see the warning signs: a relish for violence that goes beyond necessity, a contempt for prisoners, a belief that fear is the only true currency.

The central conflict is established: Robert needs to win the peace, to be a king who can rule. Edward only knows how to win the war.

ACT II: THE HAMMER AND THE ANVIL

  1. The stunning victory at Bannockburn is the brothers’ apex. Robert’s masterful strategy sets the trap, and Edward’s ferocious command of a schiltron or the cavalry charge is the hammer that breaks the English army. They are heroes, united in triumph. Scotland is, for the moment, free.

But victory exposes their rift. Robert, now a true king, must court diplomacy. He seeks recognition from the Pope and a lasting treaty with England. Edward sees this as weakness. To him, the enemy is humiliated but not destroyed. He argues for invading England itself, for carving out a kingdom of fire and blood.

Frustrated and sidelined by Robert’s politics, Edward’s violent impulses find a new outlet. He leads punitive raids into England that are so savage—massacring civilians, burning crops to the bedrock—that they become counterproductive, hardening English resistance and embarrassing Robert’s attempts to appear a legitimate sovereign. Their arguments become explosive. Robert is trying to build a nation; Edward is only interested in destroying an enemy.

ACT III: A KINGDOM OF ASH

  1. To channel Edward’s destructive energy away from undermining his diplomacy, Robert makes a fateful decision. He supports Edward’s ambition to open a second front by invading Ireland, to forge a Gaelic alliance and squeeze the English from the west. Robert gives his brother an army and a title: High King of Ireland.

At first, it works. Edward is in his element: conquest. He wins stunning victories against overwhelming odds. But his rule is one of terror. He alienates the very Irish allies he was sent to secure through his brutality and arrogance. Reports filter back to Robert of massacres and impaled bodies lining the roads. Robert is horrified, but he is too far away and too busy securing his own borders to intervene effectively. He is complicit.

The film culminates in the Battle of Faughart (1318). Edward, outnumbered and refusing to wait for reinforcements, charges headlong into the English/Irish army. It’s not a tactical decision; it’s a suicidal act of hubris. He is killed, his body hacked to pieces.

Final Scene: Robert receives the news. There is no grand eulogy. The silence in his council chamber is deafening. He looks not like a king who has lost a troublesome general, but like a brother who has lost his other half—the brutal, monstrous, but undeniably loyal part of himself that he first unleashed and then failed to control. He won his kingdom, but the cost is etched permanently on his face. The final shot is of Robert alone on a cliff, staring out at the sea towards Ireland, the weight of his crown, and his grief, finally and utterly crushing.

KEY THEMES

  • The Duality of Freedom: Is freedom won through statesmanship or savagery? The film argues it requires both, and that the latter inevitably corrupts the former.
  • Fraternal Bond vs. National Duty: The intense love and rivalry between brothers, and the tragedy when one’s duty to a nation requires the sacrifice of his brother’s soul and life.
  • The Cost of Kingship: Robert’s arc is about the terrible loneliness of leadership and the morally compromising decisions required to build something lasting.

VISUAL STYLE

  • Gritty and Naturalistic: No polished armour. Mud, blood, rain, and the harsh beauty of the Scottish and Irish landscapes.
  • Intimate Battle Choreography: Focus on the chaotic, personal, and terrifying nature of medieval combat. The camera stays close to Robert and Edward, contrasting Robert’s tactical awareness with Edward’s brutal, efficient killing.
  • Contrasting Palettes: Scotland is all muted greens, greys, and browns. The Irish campaign is shot with a bleaker, more desaturated palette, reflecting the doomed nature of the enterprise.
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Star Whackers First Draft

🎬 “Star Wackers” – A True Hollywood Nightmare

The set of Silver City Shadows was buzzing under the white-hot desert sun. Extras shuffled into position, grips adjusted cables, and the director barked last-minute orders. The male lead, Carter Vale, stood in costume—long coat, revolver on his hip—ready for the scene where he would face down the outlaw gang.

The assistant prop master hurried up with the weapon.
“Here’s your piece,” he said, almost too casually.

Dean Fitzpatrick, a seasoned stunt coordinator with a reputation for smelling trouble before it happened, caught something off in the man’s eyes. As Carter spun the revolver in his hand, Dean’s gut screamed.

“Hold it!” Dean barked, striding forward. He snatched the revolver, flipped the chamber open—real bullets. Not blanks.

A frozen silence fell over the crew.

Before anyone could process, a battered RV rumbled into the lot. Out stepped Randy Quaid, wearing sunglasses, a beat-up leather jacket, and an expression like he’d just walked out of a conspiracy thriller.

“You see?” Randy said, jabbing a finger at Dean. “They’re here. The Star Wackers. Illuminati Satanic network. They’ve been taking out actors who know too much about the dark rituals running this town. Robin Williams, Heath Ledger… now they’re after Carter.”

Dean wasn’t the type to believe in wild Hollywood legends, but the loaded gun in his hand was proof enough that something was rotten.

That night, Dean called the only two people he trusted for this kind of work—Joe Jukic and his brother Bruno.

Joe was ex-special forces with a mind for strategy, Bruno a quiet giant with a bone-breaking grip. They’d handled cartel protection jobs, Balkan mob disputes, even one messy incident in Macau involving a corrupt casino boss.

Now, they were stepping into the weirdest mission yet—protecting movie stars from an occult network that thrived in the shadows of the entertainment industry.

The next morning, Joe and Bruno arrived on set. Joe scanned the crew with a soldier’s precision. Bruno checked every prop weapon, wardrobe piece, and lighting rig.

They weren’t just guarding the cast—they were hunting.

What they found was worse than Dean imagined: coded messages hidden in the script revisions, pentagram etchings in the soundstage walls, and one producer whose office was lined with photos of dead celebrities and handwritten dates in red ink.

It was a hit list.

Randy Quaid paced the lot like a prophet, whispering warnings about “blood moon contracts” and “ritual sacrifices under the Dolby Theatre.” Dean listened, realizing that maybe Randy wasn’t crazy—just the only one talking.

The plan was simple: keep Carter alive until wrap, smoke out the Star Wackers, and burn the network from the inside.

On the final day of shooting, the enemy made their move. A camera crane “malfunctioned,” swinging down toward Carter’s head. Joe tackled him out of the way while Bruno vaulted onto the crane operator, disarming him of a switchblade.

Dean caught sight of a figure slipping through the shadows—a woman in a black hooded cloak. He chased her into the back lot, where the night air stank of gasoline. She dropped a match toward a stack of film reels, but Dean lunged, knocking her flat.

When they pulled the hood back, it was the assistant prop master.

She hissed something in Latin before Bruno gagged her.

Randy just shook his head. “Told you. The Star Wackers never stop. But tonight… you stopped them.”

As the sun came up over the Hollywood Hills, Dean, Joe, Bruno, and Randy stood together in the quiet aftermath. They knew the network wasn’t gone—only wounded. But for now, the stars were safe.

And somewhere deep in the city, the Satanic occult force took note of the new names on their list.

Joe Jukic. Bruno Jukic. Dean Fitzpatrick.

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The Princess of Calabria

TITLE: The Princess of Calabria

GENRE: Crime Drama / Political Thriller

LOGLINE:
In the shadow of Italy’s most feared crime syndicate, a reformed Calabrian fixer teaches the dyslexic daughter of a mafia boss to read — only for her to become a legal secretary whose quiet brilliance helps bring down Italy’s most untouchable political and criminal figures, culminating in the arrest of Silvio Berlusconi.

ACT ONE — Blood and Letters

Opening Scene:
Coastal Calabria, early 2000s. Giuseppe “Juco” Rossi (nicknamed Juco for short), a wiry, weathered man in his 40s, watches from a cliff as smugglers unload crates in the moonlight. He knows the operation inside out — he used to run it. But prison changed him. Now he works at a tiny public library, keeping his head down.

One day, a black Maserati pulls up. Out steps Rosanna Tyler, 19, half-Calabrian, half-English, the daughter of Antonio Tyler — a feared ’Ndrangheta capo. Rosanna has been pulled from school countless times due to “learning problems” and family scandals. Her father orders Juco to teach her to read, thinking literacy might help her with “legitimate” bookkeeping for the family.

Juco quickly realizes she has severe dyslexia. Instead of shaming her like others did, he uses colored overlays, gentle patience, and streetwise metaphors from mafia life to make the words click. Their lessons form a delicate friendship, one that balances on the edge of danger.

ACT TWO — Reading Between the Lies

Rosanna blossoms under Juco’s mentorship. She starts reading novels, legal codes, and eventually, court transcripts. Her father sees her as a sharper tool for the family; Juco sees her as a way to atone for his past.

During one lesson, Juco slips her a book banned by her father: an investigative journalist’s exposé on the ’Ndrangheta, detailing secret deals between mafia bosses, business tycoons, and Rome’s political elite. Rosanna is horrified to see her family’s name in its pages.

When her father is arrested in a minor sweep, Rosanna takes a job as a low-level clerk in a Naples law office. She discovers she can spot patterns others miss — hidden clauses, falsified contracts, laundering schemes — simply because she’s learned to look at documents differently from years of struggling with words.

Quietly, she begins passing information to a small anti-mafia task force led by prosecutor Maria Lupo, who’s been chasing a larger target: the Propaganda Due network, Italy’s most secret and dishonorable lodge of power brokers, which includes political kingmakers and even the sitting Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi.

ACT THREE — The Fall of the House

The danger escalates. Juco is nearly killed in a staged “road accident” meant as a warning. Rosanna’s own cousin betrays her identity to the family. But the prosecutor protects her under a witness-assistance program, moving her to Rome under a new name.

There, Rosanna decodes a labyrinth of offshore accounts linking ’Ndrangheta drug profits to construction kickbacks, TV media empires, and political bribery. Every breadcrumb points to the same man at the top.

Final Sequence:
In a tense press conference, Maria Lupo announces arrest warrants. Police swarm a lavish villa in Sardinia. Cameras capture a defiant yet shaken Silvio Berlusconi being led away in handcuffs, denying everything.

Back in Calabria, Juco watches the footage on a dusty old TV in his library. Rosanna, now free from witness protection, visits him. She hands him a book — The Count of Monte Cristo — with a colored overlay still tucked inside.

Rosanna: “You taught me to read, Juco. Now I’m teaching Italy to see.”

They sit in silence as the waves crash below, knowing the war against corruption is far from over — but today, a giant has fallen.

TONE & STYLE:
Think Gomorrah meets Spotlight — gritty realism mixed with political intrigue. Scenes alternate between rural Calabria’s olive groves and Rome’s marble corridors of power. The colored overlays become a visual motif — flashes of green, blue, yellow washing over documents and faces during key revelations.

THEMES:

  • Literacy as liberation and rebellion
  • The invisible power of women in dismantling organized crime
  • The tension between blood loyalty and moral courage
  • The slow grind of justice against entrenched corruption

ENDING FEEL:
Bittersweet victory — justice is real, but it costs blood, exile, and the destruction of family ties.