BBC SCREENPLAY FORMAT
by
(Name of First Writer)
(Based on, If Any)
There should be one contact address only in the bottom left hand corner.
Always include a phone number and an e-mail address if you have one.
Black.
GEORGE (V.O.) There’s a werewolf in the bible.
CUT TO:
Archive footage - something Cecil B DeMille, The Ten Commandments maybe. A Pharaoh shouts and postures. Banishes someone. Waves a staff.
GEORGE (V.O.) (cont’d) (CONT’D) King Nebuchadnezzar was the king
of Babylon. And one day he decides to put up a statue of himself for everyone to worship.
Flames slowly eat across the frame.
GEORGE (V.O.) (cont’d) (CONT’D) But three Jews - Hananiah,
Mishael and Azariah - refuse to take part. So the King hurls them into a furnace. As you do.
CUT TO:
Fresco of The Three Hebrews in the Fiery Furnace, from the catacombs of Priscilla, Rome.
GEORGE (V.O.) (cont’d) (CONT’D) It's fine, because God saves
them.
CUT TO:
Library footage. Clouds gather. Black, heavy and angry.
GEORGE (V.O.) (cont’d) (CONT’D) But this is the old testament
God, the one who gets really pissed off about stuff, and He wants to punish Nebuchadnezzar. And how.
CUT TO:
Library footage. Lightning tears down from the heavens.
GEORGE (V.O.) (cont’d) (CONT’D) So He turns him into a werewolf.
CUT TO:
The painting Nebukadnezar, by William Blake
2.
GEORGE (V.O.) (cont’d) (CONT’D) And the King lives like a beast
in the wilderness for 7 years.
CUT TO : Black.
GEORGE (V.O.) (cont’d) Fast forward. Or is it back? I’m not sure. Anyway. The Greeks.
CUT TO:
Pictures. George Michael. Peter Andre
GEORGE (V.O.) (cont’d) No, not them. The Ancient Greeks.
CUT TO:
A detail from a Greek vase. Greeks running, jumping etc.
GEORGE (V.O.) (cont’d) King Lycaon, in particular, the first king of Arcadia. One day, he has Zeus over for dinner.
CUT TO:
Blood is splashed across a stone floor.
GEORGE (V.O.) (cont’d) And just for a laugh, he serves up a dish of human flesh.
CUT TO:
Library footage. Any cookery show. The presenter / chef takes a baking dish from an oven - tastes it - mmmmm.
GEORGE (V.O.) (cont’d) One of his sons, actually. Nice.
CUT TO:
The same footage as earlier. The clouds gather and glower, black and menacing.
GEORGE (V.O.) (cont’d) But Zeus was obviously something of a fussy eater. He gets really cross and turns Lycaon into a wolf.
CUT TO:
The engraving by Hendik Goltzius, of Zeus turning Lycaon into a wolf.
3.
GEORGE (V.O.) (cont’d) History's first, and arguably worst, ever restaurant review.
CUT TO:
A wood cut. A man is attacked by a loup-garou, or werewolf.
GEORGE (V.O.) (cont’d) But it catches on. Between 1520 and 1630, in France alone, 30,000 people were charged with werewolfism.
Another wood cut. A werewolf attacking a man at the entrance to a house.
CUT TO:
A rural, country road. The camera travels slowly down it. Stately but irresistible. There is something slightly menacing about it. A predator.
GEORGE (V.O.) (cont’d) The most notorious of which was Gilles Garnier who, during his 4 month rampage, killed 4 children.
CUT TO:
Library footage. A pack of wolves. Prowling and hunting. Beautiful. Deadly.
GEORGE (V.O.) (cont’d) Witnesses swear the murders were committed by a creature that was half man half animal. And when he was finally captured, Garnier confessed that he was in fact a werewolf.
Again, flames eat up the frame.
GEORGE (V.O.) (cont’d) He was sentenced to be burnt alive.
Black.
GEORGE (V.O.) (cont’d) And God didn’t save him.
CUT TO:
Pictures. The sublimely ridiculous Oliver Reed strangling a busty virgin in The Curse of the Werewolf.
4.
GEORGE (V.O.) (cont’d) But this is all just myths and madmen and bad films, isn't it.
Lon Chaney Jnr in full make up for The Wolf Man.
GEORGE (V.O.) (cont’d) It’s gone from the mythical to the depraved to the camp.
Michael J Fox as Teen Wolf.
We forget its roots.
CUT TO:
The clouds. The ominous heavens.
GEORGE (V.O.) (cont’d) We forget Nebuchadnezzar and Lycaon, who even gave his name to it.
CUT TO:
George, in the grip of the transformation, from wolf to man. It’s a brutal, torturous process. Every bone in his body snaps, stretches and reforms.
GEORGE (V.O.) (cont’d) Lycanthropy: The power to transform into a wolf and back again.
The creature howls in agony as its body is torn apart and twisted back together again.
GEORGE (V.O.) (cont’d) A, literally, biblical curse. A sentence the Gods save for their most reviled and hated of children.
CUT TO:
Quickly, the Blake painting and the Goltzius engraving, close up on the tortured mutated faces.
GEORGE (V.O.) (cont’d) Like them.
CUT TO:
The transformation completes. George slumps to the ground. Naked, exhausted, battered and blood stained. Unconscious.
5.
GEORGE (V.O.) (cont’d) Like me.
CUT TO:
Black. Then... Birdsong.
FADE TO:
EXT. EARLY MORNING. COUNTRYSIDE.
George slowly wakes. Streaked with dirt and tears. Every muscle and bone aching, he heaves himself up onto his elbows.
TULLY (O.S.) How the hell do you get home? You’ve got no clothes, no transport.
George’s head snaps up. There's a man, maybe 10 yards away. He's in his 30s, handsome, bearded, with piercing eyes and straggly hair. He’s dressed strangely. A bare tattooed chest under a charity shop suit jacket. But there’s something impressive about him. Wild, dark and sexual.
TULLY (cont’d) I’m guessing you ring someone.
Though God only knows where you keep the change for the phone.
George scrambles to his feet and bolts into the woods.
TULLY (cont’d) (CONT’D) Where are you - ? George, come back!
But George has already fled maybe 20 yards into the trees.
TULLY (cont’d) (CONT’D) George! I know what you are!
That brings George to a stumbling halt.
GEORGE What?
TULLY I know what you are.
GEORGE And what’s that?
TULLY A werewolf.
George stares at him. He tries an unconvincing laugh.
6.
GEORGE That’s... Why would you say something like that?
The man smiles, sly and dark.
TULLY Because I’m one too.
CUT TO:
TITLES.
The script could be found here (however it isn't available anymore): http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/beinghuman/bh1titles.pdf