Movies are rated on
a Scale of 1 to 4 stars with 4 stars being best.
By El Mayimbe
RATING:
UPDATE:
Ok, folks El Mayimbe here to clear up some confusion. We have
the actual script to Splinter Cell, not the treatment. I read
the script written by Stuart Beattie and wrote my review as a
synopsis of Act 1 of the Splinter Cell script. Another thing is
that Daniel Pyne is not the writer anymore on Splinter Cell as
reported in the trades in August. You can't trust the trades.
Variety said that Terence Winter is writing The Warriors when
that is further from the truth. Stuart Beattie replaced Daniel
Pyne. Beattie's draft was the latest draft of the Splinter Cell
script which we reviewed here.
LOCATION:
LOS ANGELES, CA
LOCAL TIME: 21:30:00 HOURS PST
OBJECTIVE: RIP DEVELOPMENT AND CREATIVE EXECS A NEW ORIFICE!
El Mayimbe here with another script
review. I’m pissed. I am damn tired of reading great scripts
that turn into mediocre movies or okay movies at best because
of the meddling of Hollywood development executives or creative
executives or whatever these maricones
are called. If you ask me what is wrong with movies these days,
I’ll tell ya. To me, it’s these soulless and creatively
bankrupt people who have to justify their miserable jobs by harassing
writers with endless and meaningless notes and rewrites. Movies
are turning out so damn bad because a lot of the blame lies with
these “creative” people. The declining and dwindling
box office returns are proof enough and these execs are a major
part of the reason for the decline of the American movie.These
execs need TO BACK THE FUCK OFF and let the professional storytellers
do their damn job!
Here is an example. I saw the
50-cent movie this past weekend. A huge letdown for me. To me
the script was great. To me it was just like Goodfellas. The movie
that Paramount is putting out is not the script I read. The movie
I saw was mediocre. It’s aaiigghhtt. If you read my script
review of Get Rich or Die Tryin’ ALMOST NONE of what I put
in there made it to the final film. I hate when I see a script
with some great potential and it comes out half assed. Everything
from my script review and almost ninety percent of what I read
was left on the page. I was expecting the 50-cent movie to be
as hardcore as his story and as hardcore as the script I read.
The script had balls the movie has shrinkage. Do you honestly
think that Terry Winter needs to be told how to do his job by
some development exec at the studio? The guy is a writer on The
Sopranos and an Emmy winner for crying out loud. I think he knows
a thing or two about his craft. You can see the development exec’s
fingerprints all over the 50-cent movie. Corporate Hollywood is
losing a battle with the movie going public. These pendejos
don’t know how to make films. Development execs are the
people who made Dakota Fanning live at the end of Man on Fire.
In the script she dies and in act 3 there is hell to pay. Another
script whose balls were cut. It’s these same people who
probably convinced Spielberg to let Tom Cruise find his son at
the end of War of the Worlds. It doesn’t
matter what I say about the 50 cent movie because it will open
and do huge numbers for Paramount on opening weekend and make
a gazillion dollars but watch it have the huge 70 percent drop
the following weekend.
Anyway, enough of the rant. I am still a hopeful
individual and I am still a fan of great writing. As a disclaimer
now all I can say is that I hope that the scripts I review make
it intact to the screen. If the movie turns out whack, it is not
my fault. All I can go by is what I read on the page.
Today is November 1st and XBOX MONTH here at Latinoreview.
There has been a lot of talk of videogame movies the last couple
of weeks with the release of Doom and all the talk online of Dungeon
Siege and Postal and Uwe Boll and all that. Whatever! Since we
are talking about videogames we got a script review this week
(and a HUGE ONE next week too!) of one of the premiere titles
for the Xbox and pc. The Xbox was released in November 2001. The
Xbox 360 comes out this month.
Splinter Cell was released in
November 2002 and now we bring you a 1st look at the script for
the upcoming SPLINTER CELL film written by Stuart Beattie! Stuart
wrote a cool little flick you might have heard of called Collateral.
Yep! Nobody knows he wrote the latest draft (9/1/05) of Splinter
Cell and this script ROCKS! I like Stuart Beattie’s writing.
He has style and his work flows and progresses quite nicely on
the page. This dude can flow. Since Collateral,
Beattie has become one of the busiest and in demand writers in
town. He’s become the go to guy on a lot of projects and
the simple reason is because this guy can deliver.
Splinter Cell has a structure
that kicks a lot of ass. The movie read like one of the Splinter
Cell games. Kellvin finished all 3 games. I only played the 1st
one briefly because I moved to Los Angeles in November 2002. Now
I am getting back into gaming and all 3 Splinter Cells are at
the top of my list. But I do know enough about the game and seen
it in action to know that Beattie’s script is a very faithful
translation of the hit game.
Here it goes.
Splinter Cell opens with haunting images of the
World Trade Center Bombings, the London Bombings, the Madrid Train
Bombings, and the Bali Nightclub bombings. The nature of warfare
has changed. The open battlefield has been replaced by surgical
terrorist strikes on civilians. Three small lights switch on a
trident. To gather the intelligence necessary to prevent these
attacks, the National Security Agency formed Third Echelon. A
Human Face materializes behind the lights now aiming a silenced
pistol. Though it’s very existence is denied by the U.S.
government, Third Echelon deploys elite combat units known as
SPLINTER CELLS to seek out and prevent terrorist strikes by any
means necessary. The SPLINTER CELL OPERATIVE stops before us and
scans with his electric-green TRIDENT GLASSES then moves out of
frame.
In a warehouse, FOUR ARAB SURGEONS work on the
forearm of MASSUD HASSAN. His lieutenant YAKOUB stands nearby
with FOUR ARMED GUARDS. One of the surgeon’s assistants,
a nervous SADIQ AL-QUMAR leaves the room. Meanwhile, back in New
Jersey SARAH FISHER and her AUNT KATHY attend the funeral of REGAN
MARGARET FISHER. BLOVED WIFE OF SAM. MOTHER OF SARAH. Sarah is
pissed that her dad isn’t there. Back at a storeroom in
the warehouse in Dhaka, Sadiq hooks up with SAM FISHER who creeps
out of the shadows. Fisher is the paragon of the 21st century
warrior, calm, silent, and efficient. Sadiq is the mole in Hassan’s
operation and is nervous that Hassan knows something is up. Fisher
reassures Sadiq that the mission is still a go. Fisher disappears
into a pipe. His trident glasses lead the way. He crawls through
until he is above and opening to the operating room below. He
spots Hassan on the operating table. Fisher speaks out loud that
he is in place, has eyes on the target and that the mission is
a go. He has no mike, no headset. Who is he speaking to?
THIRD ECHELON MOBILE HEADQUARTERS
RAMSTEIN AIR FORCE BASE, GERMANY
In a secure underground room, THIRD ECHELON STAFFERS
wearing MICROPHONED EARBUDS type furiously at keyboards and stab
at touch sensitive screens. They’re tracking satellites
and scouring noise for signal, while pony-tailed, wizard hacker,
DERMOT BRUNTON, scans lines of data on his monitor. Other monitors
around him show satellite surveillance images of Dhaka. Sitting
near him at her own station is ANNA GRIMSDOTTIR, an attractive,
no-nonsense communications expert. She scans Fisher’s vitals.
Fisher instructs Anna to cut the power on his mark. Anna rogers
that. She says to arm the charge on the power grid now.
In an alleyway, a battered extraction van sits
in an empty alleyway near the warehouse. Field runner, VERNON
WILKES, primes a REMOTE DETONATOR in the back of the van. As a
field runner, Wilkes is responsible for coordinating equipment
and transportation for Splinter Cell. He’s a little bookish,
not a combat operative. He arms the charge and awaits a signal.
Fisher counts down. IRVING LAMBERT steps up behind Anna, sipping
a coffee as they listen to Fisher give the count. Lambert’s
the Operations Coordinator of Third Echelon. This is his mission.
At the end of Fisher’s count, Wilkes keys the switch on
the remote detonator and – POP! – The lights in the
building all go off. A grenade drops from the pipe. A blinding
flash of light accompanies a sonic boom. Everybody is stunned.
CLICK-CLICK! One of the guards drops dead. Fisher
systematically cuts the remaining guards down as they panic. One
of the scared surgeons opens a cell phone, illuminating the room
in an eerie BLUISH GLOW. All four guards lie dead where they were
standing just seconds ago but Hassan has vanished! Snatched them
from right under their noses!
I am not going to spoil the rest of the opening
sequence but we met all the major characters of the script in
the 1st blazing fast 8 pages. There is more to the sequence and
to Fisher’s escape with Hassan, which goes on, for another
7 blazingly fast pages full of nail biting action.
On page 16 it is now two months later after the
mission back in New Jersey. By the way what is it now with all
these movie heroes living in Jersey? Tom Cruise in War of the
Worlds lives in Jersey and now Sam Fisher lives in a modest two-story
house in a suburb of Jersey! Jersey drivers are the worse! lol
Anyway, CNN plays in the kitchen while Fisher
tries to takes a shot at domesticity and makes breakfast for his
bratty daughter Sarah who is not feeling her father for missing
the funeral of her mother. She doesn’t even stay for breakfast
and bounces for school. Meanwhile on CNN a news anchor reports
that Officials have just confirmed the high-profile capture of
Egyptian terrorist, Massud Hassan, a little over two months ago.
The Pentagon claims Hassan’s capture is a major victory
in the war on terrorism. He is currently being interrogated at
an undisclosed location. We cut to that interrogation room at
Third Echelon headquarters and SMACK! A MILITRAY INTERROGATOR
punches Hassan in the face. Apparently they’ve been beating
the shit out of Hassan now for 2 months and he isn’t giving
up anything as Lambert, Anna, Wilkes and Brunton watch through
a two-way mirror in an adjacent room. Hassan can take a licking.
It’s like he’s got ice water in his veins. Lambert
wants to know about Hassan’s “hammer.” Hassan
tells Lambert that he will tell him about the hammer when Lambert
lets Hassan face the man who murdered his son – Sam Fisher.
Back in Jersey Fisher is alien to the whole stay
at home dad thing. He is in a supermarket trying to buy groceries
and is at a complete loss. On the way back home he busts Sarah
and her friends cutting school and smoking weed. A pissed Sam
asks Sarah how long has she been toking up and Sarah responds
since he’s missed mom’s funeral. Sam decides he needs
to bond with his daughter so he takes her to the Florida Keys
for some bonding and a little vacation. While Sam feeds sharks
he apologizes to his daughter Sarah for missing mom’s funeral.
He wanted to be there. Type of work Sam does, he doesn’t
get to choose his hours. He goes in when they say he has to go.
Sarah is like, “You kill people don’t you?”
Sam responds, “Only when I have to.” He also responds
that he works for the government and can’t say much more
than that and that her mother knew and wanted her to know because
he loved her so much and now he wants Sarah to know.
On page 23 vacation time for Sam and Sarah is
over as a V-22 OSPREY military plane/helicopter hybrid swoops
in above the boat. Its dual propellers rotate allowing the plane
to hover like a massive helicopter. Sarah watches her dad climb
a rope ladder into the Osprey as Lambert waits in the hull for
Fisher to give him his call to adventure.
Apparently, Lambert is out of
options after beating Hassan senseless for two months. Hassan
still got dangerous boys out there. Lambert tells Fisher that
Hassan will tell Lambert about the hammer and a supposed “endgame”
once he faces Fisher. Massud Hassan is capable of and is motivated
to unleash some serious damage on the world. Fisher is going to
need 48 hours.
CHATEAUGAY BORDER STATION,
NEW YORK
ON THE CANADIAN/AMERICAN BORDER
On page 26, a freight truck smuggles Yakoub across
the border into New York. Back in Jersey, Fisher drops off Sarah
with his sister Aunt Kathy and thanks her for looking over Sarah.
We next see an Air Force C-130 Hercules land in Germany. Fisher
arrives in Germany, goes to the interrogation room where Hassan
is holed up and both men go at is verbally. Hassan shall visit
Fisher’s child with the same viciousness that Fisher showed
Hassan’s son back in Zurich! At that moment back in Jersey,
Yakoub takes out Aunt Kathy and kidnaps Sarah! End of Act 1. Apparently,
Sarah is part of Hassan’s terrorist plot. An “endgame.”
Stopping it is Fisher’s best chance of saving Sarah.
And that is the setup of what Splinter Cell is
about. It’s a really well written cool globe trotting spy
stealth adventure movie which will have Sam going on various missions
to locations like Monte Carlo, Monaco – the slums of San
Paolo Brazil – and Guilin China. The structure is solid
and all the fans of the game won’t be disappointed. The
script plays out just like the game with Fisher going on one mission
to the next making key discoveries along the way. We get to see
Fisher’s keen sense of stealth, agility and strength. He
does that famous Jean Claude Van Damme leg split move from the
game. All his gadgets and weapons are here like the subdermals
(which play an important part to the plot), his silenced pistol,
his silenced SC-20k to name a few. A very entertaining read which
I banged out in under an hour. Beattie is a master storyteller.
We also got his WITHOUT REMORSE, which we will be taking a look
at in a later script review. Without Remorse is the Tom Clancy
story about operative John Clark, a spin-off from the Jack Ryan
universe. Willem Dafoe played Clark in Clear and Present Danger
and Liev Schrieber in the Sum of All Fears. It is also a matter
of time before we get Beattie’s Spy Hunter.
Since it is video game month here at Latinoreview,
on November 9th, two weeks before the launch of Xbox 360, we have
another script review of its flagship title! Yes we got the script
folks. Can you guess what it is? It is (or was until we got it)
one of the most guarded scripts in Hollywood of one of the biggest
video game properties out there. I’ll give you a big hint.
Year 2552.
A coalition of alien species are waging a genocidal
holy war against mankind.
