Hey folks, Harry here with a great look by legendary rebel and writer T.E. Lawerence, who was not killed in a motorcycle accident, but rather... with the help of some time-traveling nanobots, now finds himself fighting the infiltrating fight for film knowledge and geekdom here at AICN!!! Yippee! And he's managed to lay hands on REIGN OF FIRE to be directed by Rob Bowman and starring Christian Bale, Matthew McConaughey, Gerald Butler and Izabella Scorupco for DISNEY... The script has had a few hands on it, but well... here's a look at the draft that's escaped the clutches of the mouse....
Harry,
OK here the scoop on those projects. Reign of Fire opens in modern day London, with city workers digging out a new tunnel for a subway. They open a big hole that has a reflective surface from what they can see. The person in charge of this tunnel is a women, who today has her 6 year old son with her. She goes down into the site with her foreman to see this hole. They enter, and it appears this hole is a giant cave that all the dirt and sand have been crystallized like glass. Enter the dragon pardon the pun) fire burst out all around them, killing them and then we are back above ground and the little kid still waiting uptop. The earth shakes, and from under the ground a huge dragon burst out and into the sky...
Flash forward to the not so distant future. The little kid is now grown up and the leader of a small band of people holding out in a castle in the English countryside. People are farming etc., but the land is scorched and really nasty looking. Anyway, a siren goes off and people run toward the castle as two small dragons mount an attack, these people managed to barley escape and the dragons finally go away. I forget some of what happens next, but soon a group of Americans show up, a few tanks, and two helicopters, about 2 dozen soldiers. They are the guys who slay dragons and have been working their way across the world doing so. 2 dragons return, the yanks go to work and slay em using the choppers with nets and some tricky moves. The leader of the Brits in the castle falls for the American girl who's part of this merc dragon slayer group etc.
Theres a cool scene where a dragon burrows into the ground to hide, and then reappears killing a few people its wake. We get the whole backstory about what happened etc.
Again, forgive me for the holes, it's been awhile, but for the end, the gotta go get the kick ass queen who's made a home of what used to be London. Death and mayhem ensue, but the guy who we met as a six year old and the yank managed to slay the dragon, and one of em dies if I remember right. Not the best tale weaving, but I read it almost 2 years ago. I do know it read well, and I thought it would make a great film based on the script.
As far as Guns of the South goes.Hershal Weingrod wrote it based on the novel by Turtledove. It was a great read. And I mean that, cause I read lots of garbage. I covered the book, and the script was pretty good at staying true to it, with some small changes. All the things that make an epic tic are here. In a nutshell. These South African mercs travel back in time (the time machine is never seen, and the film never leaves the civil war) during the last part of winter in 1865, just as the South is feeling defeat on the horizon. The have occupied a small obscure town in North Carolina called rivington. Anyway, the film opens as General lee is writing a letter to Jefferson Davis, these mercs are here to see lee and show him a new weapon. It's an AK47. They tell lee that they can supply the entire confederacy with them, and this will turn the tide of the war. As you can expect, the South starts kicking ass on the North. The Hero's of the script are a school teacher, Nate, and escaped Slave, Israel, and General Lee. Long story short, the South wins, and the union accepts the succession with little choice. I won't go into great detail about the middle, but trust me its great story and action , love etc. The story turns when Lee is asked to succeed Jefferson Davis, and he decides he will. he also decides to free the slaves. Israel, the escaped slave has raised a small army of slaves and has been conducting gorilla warfare on the South as Bedford Forrest chases him down.Then lee finds out through a source the true nature of these mercs. And gets handed to him a book from 1998 about the civil war. He is devastated by it. Lee is determined to right some wrongs and The mercs are pissed and try to change his mind, and get Bedford Forrest to run against lee. Soon the South is in turmoil, and Lee goes to war against the mercs who are well dug in. Huge battle, lots of great action and the story has some clever twist and turns.An great ending I won't give away. It's not play by play, but in a nutshell there it is. I have talked to other people about the script and it seems a lot of people are interested in it, so perhaps it will get made, cause it would be a kick ass summer flick. Anyway, thats all i know. Hope it's cool news!
TE LAWRENCE
