by J. R. Rain
DARK QUESTS
Three Screenplays
JUDAS SILVER
LOST EDEN
MERLIN’S TOMB
by
J.R. Rain
Acclaim for the novels of J.R. Rain:
“Be prepared to lose sleep!”
—James Rollins, international bestselling author of The Eye of God
“I love this!”
—Piers Anthony, bestselling author of Xanth
“Dark Horse is the best book I’ve read in a long time!”
—Gemma Halliday, award-winning author of Spying in High Heels
Other Books by J.R. Rain
STANDALONE NOVELS
The Lost Ark
Elvis Has Not Left the Building
The Grail Quest
The Body Departed
Silent Echo
Winter Wind
VAMPIRE FOR HIRE
Moon Dance
Vampire Moon
American Vampire
Moon Child
Christmas Moon (novella)
Vampire Dawn
Vampire Games
Moon Island
Moon River
Vampire Sun
Moon Dragon
Moon Shadow
SAMANTHA MOON
SHORT STORIES
Teeth
Vampire Nights
Vampires Blues
Vampire Dreams
Halloween Moon
Vampire Gold
Blue Moon
Dark Side of the Moon
JIM KNIGHTHORSE
Dark Horse
The Mummy Case
Hail Mary
Clean Slate
Easy Rider (short story)
Night Run
THE WITCHES SERIES
The Witch and the Gentleman
The Witch and the Englishman
The Witch and the Huntsman
The Witch and the Wolfman
THE SPINOZA TRILOGY
The Vampire With the Dragon Tattoo
The Vampire Who Played Dead
The Vampire in the Iron Mask
THE VAMPIRE DIARIES
Bound By Blood
SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS
The Bleeder and Other Stories
Vampire Rain and Other Stories
The Santa Call and Other Stories
Black Rain: 15 Dark Tales
Blood Rain: 15 Dark Tales
SHORT STORY SINGLES
The Bleeder
Co-Authored Books
COLLABORATIONS
Cursed (with Scott Nicholson)
Ghost College (with Scott Nicholson)
The Vampire Club (with Scott Nicholson)
Dragon Assassin (with Piers Anthony)
Dolfin Tayle (with Piers Anthony)
Jack and the Giants (with Piers Anthony)
Judas Silver (with Elizabeth Basque)
Lost Eden (with Elizabeth Basque)
Glimmer (with Eve Paludan)
The Black Fang Betrayal (with Multiple Authors)
The Indestructibles (with Rod Kierkegaard)
THE OPEN HEART SERIES
with Rod Kierkegaard
The Dead Detective
Ghosts of Christmas Present (short story)
NICK CAINE ADVENTURES
with Aiden James
Temple of the Jaguar
Treasure of the Deep
Pyramid of the Gods
THE ALADDIN TRILOGY
with Piers Anthony
Aladdin Relighted
Aladdin Sins Bad
Aladdin and the Flying Dutchman
THE WALKING PLAGUE TRILOGY
with Elizabeth Basque
Zombie Patrol
Zombie Rage
Zombie Mountain
THE SPIDER TRILOGY
with Scott Nicholson and H.T. Night
Bad Blood
Spider Web
Spider Bite
THE PSI TRILOGY
with A.K. Alexander
Hear No Evil
See No Evil
Speak No Evil
Dark Quests: Three Screenplays
Published by J.R. Rain
Copyright © 2010 by J.R. Rain
Ebook Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Dedication
To Lili...a sweet friend.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Author’s Note
Reading Screenplays
Judas Silver
Lost Eden
Merlin’s Tomb
Reading Sample
About the Author
Author’s Note:
J.R. Rain here. Although I’m primarily known for my mystery novels and contemporary fantasy novels, I’ve done other writing, too. In particular, screenwriting. Yes indeed, before I ever conceived of Jim Knighthorse or Samantha Moon, I was writing movies for Hollywood.
Or trying to.
Yes, I worked hard with various agents, managers and studios, but nothing really came of it, other than many life lessons learned. Hard lessons. Tough lessons. Frustrating lessons. Sigh.
Anyway, what did come of it were these three screenplays. So, not all was lost, and I can at least look back to the late 90s/early 2000s with some fondness. After all, Judas Silver and Lost Eden were nearly made into movies.
Nearly.
Now, they are ebooks.
Life is interesting.
Enjoy!
Reading Screenplays
Reading a screenplay can take some getting used to. For instance, dialogue in a screenplay is found directly beneath a character’s capitalized name, and all changes of scenery are clearly delineated for the director and actors. Anyway, I’m confident that after a few pages, you’ll comfortably get into the flow of reading a script. I do hope you enjoy the ride.
A screenplay abbreviation primer:
INT = Interior
EXT = Exterior
V.O. = Voice Over
O.S. = Off Screen
POV = A Character’s Point of View
A BEAT = A slight pause in the dialogue or action
TIGHT SHOT/WIDE SHOT or any kind of shot = Camera shot suggestions
JUDAS SILVER
Copyright © 2010 by J.R. Rain
All rights reserved.
Acknowledgment
A special thank you once again to Sandy!
Judas Silver
FADE IN:
TITLE SEQUENCE
A Roman silver coin rotates slowly in mid-air...now the single coin explodes into thirty identical coins. They flash across the screen, darting in and out, swirling like thirty silver butterflies on crack. Now the coins finally converge together and spin in a silver vortex of energy. This vortex pulsates with a malevolent force, as if somehow sentient, alive.
END TITLE SEQUENCE
Superimposed across the dark screen are the words: “JERUSALEM - AD.”
EXT. GETHSEMANE – NIGHT
Judas Iscariot steps from the shadows and approaches a man dressed in white robes. The man is Jesus Christ. Judas moves quickly and embraces Him. The embrace is “The Signal”. Immediately, armed Centurions step out of the shadows and seize the Son of God.
EXT. HILLSIDE – DAY
Two crosses have already been erected. We watch as Christ is gruesomely hammered onto a third. The cross is then lifted into place, as Christ cries out, suspended by the nails. The three crosses now dominate the crowded hillside, as a crazed, frenetic crowd watches the macabre scene. Roman soldiers stand guard. From far away, hidden from the crowd, peering around the trunk of a twisted tree,
is a grief-stricken and tormented Judas Iscariot. Judas, wracked with guilt, pulls at his hair and stumbles away.
INT. JEWISH TEMPLE – DAY
The gilded doors are thrown wide open. Judas appears in the door, wild-eyed. He rips a leather pouch from his hip—and throws the contents across the marbled floor. Thirty silver coins roll in every direction...
EXT. ROCKY SLOPES OVERLOOKING THE DEAD SEA – NIGHT
Judas fastens a rope around the branch of a tree. The branch itself hangs out over a rocky cliff, which drops straight down into the churning black sea, alive with glowing whitecaps. Judas tightens the noose around his neck. He pauses, looks down to the sea below. Finally, he leaps off the cliff, and out into space...
The rope snaps taught. Judas’s eyes bulge. He kicks once, twice, then swings silently. The water far below him crashes into the rocky cliff.
INT. HOTEL – NIGHT
Superimposed across the screen are the words: “LIMERICK, IRELAND”
Our hero is working his way through the Hotel Shea’s darkened corridors. Dashing and handsome, hair jauntily disheveled. This is Trey Jordan, art thief and relic hunter, wanted in many countries and high on the FBI’s Top Ten list.
The Hotel Shea looks nothing like a hotel. In fact, it looks closer to Dracula’s castle than anything. And if there was a maid service, they should be fired. The place is dirty and dusty and creepy as hell. Especially at night.
Trey holds a flashlight out before him. Light and shadows crawl along the ancient wood floors and along the decrepit stone walls. Cobwebs hang everywhere. Rats and mice scurry from the encroaching light. Trey brushes a clinging spiderweb from his face. A fat, black spider scrambles over the web and disappears in a dark nook. Trey shudders.
A gorgeous blond steps from the shadows behind him, dressed in khakis. As she slides past, she plants a big, wet kiss on his lips, which irritates Trey since he’s in ‘business mode’. Her name is Karen Brown, fellow thief. She speaks in a crisp British accent.
KAREN
I’ve always had a fascination with black widows.
First they seduce their mate, and then they devour
them. Poetic justice, wouldn’t you say?
She grins and pats Trey’s smooth-shaven face, and continues forward. Trey stares after her.
TREY
(to himself)
Whatever you say, you crazy bitch.
He follows her down a narrow hallway that’s lined in thick carpet. Floorboards creak beneath them. Loud snoring comes through some of the heavy closed doors. Just two thieves creeping around in the dead of night.
Miraculously, the ancient building has been updated with an elevator, which dings to life at the end of the hallway. As it opens, drunken laughter erupts from within. Trey and Karen click off their flashlights simultaneously and slink back into the shadowy recess of a doorway. As they do so, a giggling couple, fawning all over each other, stumble by.
The couple continues down the hallway, hang a left down a side corridor and disappear, their laughter trailing behind them. When the coast is clear, Trey motions for Karen to follow him. A short while later, he leads the way down a spiraling flight of stone stairs.
INT. BASEMENT – NIGHT
Trey stops before a door that says: “Kitchen.”
TREY
This is it.
He tries the handle. Locked.
KAREN
I don’t suppose you have a key?
TREY
Always.
He lifts his foot and drives the heal of his boot hard into the lock. Something cracks. He does it again, and again, and soon the damaged door swings open.
KAREN
Smooth. I thought world-class thieves picked locks.
TREY
Only in the movies. This is how we really do it.
INT. HOTEL KITCHEN – NIGHT
Trey leads the way into the darkened kitchen, scanning the room with his flashlight. It’s a big hotel kitchen. Massive stove, pots and pans hanging from the ceiling. And rats. Everywhere. Trey absently shoos them away. One such rat is holding a half-eaten muffin. It stops, devours the muffin defiantly in front of them, then dashes off with the others into a tiny hole in the wall. Karen looks sickened, pale.
KAREN
Remind me to make an anonymous call to
the county health inspector.
Trey grins, unfazed, and carefully removes a tattered, ancient map from his shirt pocket, shines his flashlight down on it.
CAMERA TIGHT on the map, which, in fact, appears to be an ancient blueprint of the hotel they’re in. Trey looks from the map to a massive, industrial-sized refrigerator sitting in the far corner.
TREY
Behind there.
KAREN
Of course. Why wouldn’t it be behind the
biggest refrigerator?
TREY
Quit your bitching and help me.
Together they eventually manage to push aside the fridge. Once done, Trey shines his light on the decrepit brick wall behind. Trey studies it, shrugs, then lifts his foot and kicks the wall in. The bricks promptly crumble in a hail of dust. Together, the two thieves remove some excess bricks, and soon a dark archway starts to take form in the wall. Without hesitation, Trey is the first through the entrance. Reluctantly, Karen follows behind.
INT. DARK CHAMBER – NIGHT
They enter what appears to be a sort of storeroom, lined with heavy stone shelves and strange, rectangular boxes. Trey moves over to one of the long boxes, and uses his hand to wipe away centuries-old dust...revealing a brass nameplate.
CAMERA TIGHT on the nameplate. It reads: “Martin O’Connell – May He Rest In Peace”
The long boxes are, in fact, caskets. Ancient caskets. Trey frowns and steps deeper into the room, holding his torch out before him. More caskets materialize out of the darkness. In fact, they’re everywhere. Some stacked on others, some on shelves, some even broken open. Grinning skeletons dressed in tattered clothing stare back at us. Some caskets have simply turned to dust, and whole skeletons lay in bony heaps. Rats scuttle before the light, dashing through dark eye sockets and empty rib cages.
Trey’s stony face, illuminated by the flickering torch, reveals nothing. He boldly walks deeper into what we now realize is a sort of forgotten mausoleum. Karen stays close behind him, clearly unnerved by the human remains.
INT. ANOTHER ROOM
The next room, another long hallway, appears more promising. The caskets are lined up neater, and most are made of stone. Sarcophagi. Trey moves over to the first one, examines it, brushing away the dust at the name plate. He continues doing this, moving down the row, as Karen works the opposite side of the narrow room. Trey comes across one sarcophagus in particular. It’s made of pure white alabaster that seems to radiate white light. He quickly brushes the brass nameplate clean, which reads: “HERE LIES ST. PATRICK, WHO BROUGHT THE WORD OF GOD TO THE UNBELIEVERS”
Trey motions Karen over. She reads the name plate in the light of the flickering torch and looks up at Trey, clearly pleased.
KAREN
Is this it?
TREY
Only one way to know for sure.
Together they remove the heavy lid and lean it on the floor. Trey holds his torch over the now-open burial box. Inside is a skeleton wreathed in leathery skin. Lying across its chest, held in place by bony fingers, is a gnarled wooden staff.
TREY
The Staff of St. Patrick.
KAREN
It’s just a stupid stick.
TREY
A very valuable stick.
KAREN
Ten million bucks for a stupid tree branch.
TREY
You know what they say:
a fool and his money...
KAREN
So who’s the fool this time?
TREY
An Italian multi-nationalist billionaire and
collector of arcane artifacts. Too wealthy to
know what
to do with his money.
Karen reaches into the sarcophagus to grab hold of the Staff, but Trey suddenly grabs her wrist, stopping her.
TREY
Careful. According to legend, only those
pious and humble can touch it.
KAREN
Well, someone has to take it.
TREY
Unfortunately I’m too good of a thief
to be humble.
KAREN
And I’m about as pious as Howard Stern.
Trey has another idea. He reaches inside his jacket and removes a pair of rubber latex gloves, tools of the trade for a thief. He holds them up, pleased with himself.
KAREN
We’ll see if you’re still smiling in a
few minutes.
TREY
Thanks for the vote of confidence.
The master thief pulls on the gloves, snapping them in place. He takes a deep breath and reaches down for the Staff...