I told the story to my sister, and she said there were too many battle scenes in it, so I decided I would write a screenplay, with more conversation, exposition, and mood to make it more of a movie screenplay, rather than a story with pages of paragraphs describing the character's life beforehand, and explaining what the character might think about at any point in time.
When I started to write it I wondered who I would cast for the characters if it were a film. Before I thought of writing it I already had in mind that the main characters would be Brendan Fraser and Tom Cruise. The other characters I thought up during the writing process, with people such as Val Kilmer to play the "Lieutenant," who I kept mentioning more and more in the story that I finally decided to add him in as a promenent character. I cast Keira Knightley as the wife of Tom Cruise, and Antonio Banderas as the villain, but they were more of side characters rather than main parts of the cast.
I thought of what the title would be called, which turned out to be simple. I called my story, "The Wolf." The plot outline is extremely easy to understand. King Darus (Tom Cruise) is betrayed by his chief general (Antonio Banderas) and wife (Keira Knightley). He is turned into a wolf and banished from the castle, but after a short while, meets with Hestram (Brendan Fraser), a king and general of his kingdom, who was already in the process of conquering Darus' kingdom. Darus befriends him and Hestram's campaign then turns into an attempt for Darus to regain his kingdom and take revenge against his chief general. The Val Kilmer character is not part of the plot, but rather an add-on to the story to keep it going. He is constantly appearing in the story.
While writing, I tried to give Brendan Fraser's character a very big resemblance to Rick O'Connel from "The Mummy" (which is the soundtrack I used to think up the story). Everyone else's character is pretty original. I also tried adding as much comedy into it as I could, but at the same time, tried to keep the mood of the movie as a whole in a serious perspective (like in "The Mummy"). After all it is a military campaign movie, which is big reason why I'm posting the story here.
The only drawback to this written story is the spoofs. Every 5 minutes you're likely to read a line or action similar to another movie. I often went back to a few places and changed the line to hide the fact that it resembles something else. There are spoofs from "Braveheart," "The Three Musketeers," "The Mummy," "The Patriot," "Pirates of the Caribbean," "Sparticus," "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "The Chronicles of Narnia," and many other movies. Other than that, the story is original.
The lines for the characters are too corny at the beginning, but gets a bit better into the screenplay. The only remedy for these corny lines is that you imagine them being said if they were in a movie set in ancient times. I thought that and decided not to change the lines, since they're perfect for that era.
Later, while into the middle of writing, I thought about making a title page, like a movie box. It doesn't look very professional at all, but it's what I had in mind. You'll notice all the outfits of the characters, except Knightley's, are from the movie "The Last Samurai." This is extremely noticable with Tom Cruise, since his image came right off the box.
It was originally much much bigger but I had to size it down because of the limits this page takes. It might take up too much space if it were the actual size. You'll also notice the Val Kilmer character in my signature.
I'll start this topic by posting a little of the story at a time, and let comments be made in-between so I'll know someone's reading. I'll stop at exciting or interesting points. Originally, the screenplay had points where it says "Music starts" or "Music changes" where the soundtrack went with the story. I have removed these for posting the story here.
Here goes...
Screenplay for "The Wolf"
Location: Wherever
Time: Ancient
Characters:
Darus, and the wolf, voiced by and played by Tom Cruise; Tom cruise, when human, has a goatee and long hair; when a wolf, he is black, white, and has a few dark-brown patches
Hestram, played by Brendan Fraser; has a mustache, goatee, and long hair
Pytor, played by Antonio Banderas; has long hair
Eve, played by Keira Knightley; has very long hair
Lieutenant (a.k.a Lieutenant Ecglaf), played by Val Kilmer; has a goatee and long hair
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Shows a guard line in a hallway bowing to a man walking past them
Voiceover of Val Kilmer: The Castle of Fahalas, home of King Darus.
Cut to film Darus (Tom Cruise) is the one walking through the hallway looking straight ahead; beautiful hallway
Voiceover of Val Kilmer: Husband to his Queen, Eve.
Cut to Eve (Keira Knightley) coming out of a room with ancient-looking dress and soft blue robe over
Two guards nearby take glances at her; Eve smiles to herself at this
Voiceover of Val Kilmer: Eve was the most beautiful of all women in the kingdom. Darus loved her so.
Eve goes into room with stone bathing pool, benches, plants, etc. with roof overhead
Enter a man (Antonio Banderas)
Voiceover of Val Kilmer: But she betrayed her King...
Pytor walks closer to Eve
Voiceover of Val Kilmer: ...for the love of Darus' Chief General, Pytor.
Pytor and Eve kiss
...
Cut to Darus opening double-doors leading to short hallway which leads to room where Eve and Pytor are
Darus: Guards? What's going on; why are so many here?
Darus is coming toward an alternate door of the room Eve and Pytor are in; he notices the door at the end of the hallway is slightly open and walks slower with a confused expression...
Darus is about to push door open more; Pytor suddenly opens the door
Darus looks more confused
Darus: Pytor?
Instantly, Darus is punched again and again by Pytor until he hits ground
Darus, out of breath, calls the guards nearby
Darus: Guards! Guards! Come gu---
Darus stops calling and looks at guards, but they remain still
Darus: Guards! Guards, seize him! Did you look... take him!!!
Guards remain still and look menacingly at Darus
Darus: Gua...Guards...Why---
Pytor interrupts
Pytor: Because they heed me and only me! You are no longer the commander, old friend.... Take him below!
Darus glances and guards and tries to escape, but fails
Darus: Guards no! NO!!!
Darus is taken down the dripping hallway of the dungeon; soft screams are heard in the background; he is thrown into a dark cell with straw on a cold, stone ground
Darus screams angrily; he looks around, hardly scared but still worried
Darus gathers a pile a straw and lays on it, his eyes wide and wondering
Darus closes his eyes and sleeps
Camera cuts to show Darus opening his eyes suddenly, and looking up to the small barred window above, showing he'd slept the entire next day and it was now night
Darus is surprised with a kick in the side by a guard; he's taken to a large door he hasn't seen in his own castle before by three guards
Darus: What is this place?! Why haven't you told me of this?
Darus is knocked hard over the head by one of the guards
Guard #2: Silence!
Door is opened, revealing a large, dark, bluish-red room; he is thrown in; guards leave, locking the door
Darus looks around furiously and sees a dark figure about 6 feet away
Darus: Show yourself!
No answer
Darus: I command you to show yourself now!!
Dark figure moves into a lighter area and reveals herself to be Eve; she wears a black robe with a white crown
Darus: Eve! .... What crown is this you wear?! Speak!
Eve: I don't speak to the dirt.
Darus gets an insanely angry look
Darus: You forget I am the king? You owe me an explanation--
Eve: Ever since you married me I cared nothing for you at all. You're not my king, or my husband!
Eve pauses and walks a bit...
Eve: Therefore I've decided to find another: Pytor.
Darus: What have I done to deserve such hatred?!
Eve: You failed my love for you, Darus. It's not you, it's your kingship. You rule like a coward! Pytor commands like a lion. I've made something for you to drink, to rid myself of something as cowardly as you--
Eve reveals a cup of liquid she had behind her back; camera closes in on it and goes back to Darus
Darus: HOW DARE you defy me!!
Eve: You shall drink this or die on the spot! There are archers all around us and I have but to give the word.
Darus: You snake!
Eve: Drink it, I beg you! I don't want my memory lost completely of someone such as a whining pig like yourself.
Darus looks at the cup of the liquid and up at Eve with extreme anger, and then changing his expression to one with solemnity
Darus: I drink, only because you are my wife.
Darus drinks and camera slowly turns from him to the window showing the moon, with the sound of a wolf's howl and small growl
Scene turns to showing a wolf wandering through the wilderness of the night....
Scene turns to daytime at a village near the castle, and showing the wolf wandering just out of the view of the people
Voiceover of Val Kilmer: Yes, Darus was betrayed by Eve. She changed him into one of the most feared wolves of the land, knowing a feared wolf would be killed anywhere if seen.
Scene shows wolf sneaking on a ship; ship casts off and sails while Val Kilmer narrates
Voiceover of Val Kilmer: Darus wished to move as far away from his castle as possible, so that he may try to hide his memory of his cruel wife.
Scene cuts to Darus sneaking off the ship when it docks, unseen
Voiceover of Val Kilmer: Darus was lost to the world.
Scene shows Darus wandering into a desert
Voiceover of Val Kilmer: He wished to die.
Cut to him wandering into the desert, but noticing a tent in the distance
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Well, that was it. I also thought up a sequal which I'm planning on writing soon. I already have the title page for the sequal ready (which looks MUCH better, and includes the Lieutenant character again, which is the same image I use as my avatar.
I will update the story only when I get any positive comments which will indicate someone is reading and wants to get the rest.
--Truman
Read the fourth paragraph to get the plot outline. Everything else just explains how I came up with the story, which you don't have to read.
)
