Terry Gilliam's The Defective Detective. Where oh where is it now? What a coooool script!!! This was to be Nick Cage's film after Superman, but now he's planning to make another project after Snake Eyes and before Superman. Sigh. This Sucks. I wanna see Defective Detective. Here's the low down on it for ya.
Nick plays a down and out detective character. You know, the wife has left, he's been demoted, his life sucks. He's in charge of missing persons, an aggravating post where most of the time the missing turn up dead, and then the case becomes Homicide and taken out of his hands. He lives in a very grey world, where nothing of import ever takes place.
Then he ends up searching for a little girl, who disappeared in her bedroom in Harlem. The place is a madhouse as Child Welfare believes the father killed her, other police believe the same, the media is trying to get in, and all in all, it's not conducive to an investigation.
Nick's character goes into the little girl's room and is blown away by the technicolor glory of it, a stark contrast to the world beyond her door. Storybook cutouts cover the walls and ceiling. He ends up laying on the bed and dozing off.
This is when the film goes insane. Our character ends up in a 2 dimensional storybook world. Imagine a pop up book land. We end up discoverying that there is an epic battle between good and evil, that good ALWAYS wins with cliche after cliche. This drives evil crazy. A fantastic world of Knights, Damsels and Dragons. White Horses, magic wands, swords that are sticks and tons more. The story gets very complicated here.
I love this script. I couldn't read it silent. Instead I performed it for myself. I know all the voices of the characters, I can see them, their mannerisms, the detail of the world around them. I love those old cartoons where the magazines come to life, or the toys come to life, or where the kids dream of going to DessertLand. This script has MAGIC in it. It's perfect for Terry Gilliam and Nick Cage. Me wanna see!!! If anyone hears anything about this project's progression let me know immediately!!!
