A place for those who "Trust the Fungus"

The figure is dressed in a red-leather overcoat and a cheap eighties-suit underneath, his hair is white, in dreadlocks, and he has sunglasses masking his eyes. He's not paying attention to the Mario Bros, though. He's pressing a button on his sunglasses that, when we see from his point of view, shows outlines around all the women walking on the street, giving computer-readouts in tiny lettering, almost all of them buzz and turn red, save for two that turn yellow. The man, Iggy, gets out a walkie-talkie and turns the frequency channel, he speaks into it. “This is Iggy to Koopling Four, Iggy to Koopling Four, come in.” Then we cut to the base of the Twin Towers at the old World Trade Center, a sign reads “DINOSAURS IN NEW YORK! NYU ARCHAEOLOGICAL DIG!” A man dressed in a Hawaiian shirt takes out his own walkie-talkie. “This is K-4, K-4 here.” He says, checking his watch. “K-4 we have two unconfirmed, possible matches in the upper Brooklyn area, I repeat, two UC-PM in the upper Brooklyn area, I'm uploading their info to you now.” Back to Koopling Four, “Copy that, Iggy. We have one strong-signal UC-PM in Lower Manhattan, ourselves.” Back to Iggy, “And her status?” Iggy says, back to K-4, “Seems to be a student of some sort, can't get in though, the area's under heavy security.” Back to Iggy. “Copy that, K-4, you know what do.” Back to K-4, “Copy, K-4 over and out.”

Then we cut to the inside of one of the sub-basements of the North Tower of the World Trade Center. The camera pans across a parking garage, slowly revealing a huge archaeological dig taking place in a massive hole, caused by an explosion. A voice can be heard talking, saying: “It's a blessing and a tragedy that the February terrorist attack had to happen-- six people lost their lives.” Then we see a man, overweight, bearded, a benevolent, jolly fellow dressed in archaeologist garb. He continues: “But they did not lose their lives in vain. Not only did the explosion create a more secure morale in the USA-- but it also opened a hole to one of the greatest scientific discoveries in modern history.” The camera pans back to reveal he's talking to a group of students, taking notes, in front of him. Behind him are archeology students, digging and scouting the deep hole, the bones of strange-looking, humanoid dinosaurs are being dug up. Fielding passes the torch to a young woman, red-headed, green-eyed and beautiful as they come, named Daisy. “Thanks, Mister Fielding. Uh, hi everybody, I'm Daisy.” The crowd murmurs a friendly greeting. “How many of you are archeology students?” seven out of ten people in the group raise their hands. “Okay, seven of you,” she continues. “What we've discovered here, as Mister Fielding already mentioned, is nothing short of a significant find...” She walks over to a display where the bones of a creature are being put together by other archeology students. “These are all strange new species with what appear to be opposable thumbs. Like monsters trying to be human-beings.” She chuckles as do the students in the group, who are either taking notes or just standing there, listening, looking in fascination. Daisy continues on with her presentation. “The explosion opened this hole off to my right,” she gestures to her right, at the dig, which is sectioned off by police-lines and a few guards. “The extent of the explosion is roughly six stories below the foundation of the tower.” The students glance around nervously, at the support beams holding up the parking garage. Fielding briefly chimes in: “Don't worry, everybody. They reinforced the towers with a new, concrete and titanium skeleton in April-- it would take one mighty explosion to bring them down.” A wave of relief falls over the students. Fielding looks at Daisy, briefly, “I apologize, I just wanted to put their minds at ease, please continue, Daisy.” She smiles cheerfully and nods. “Oh, it's alright, Mister Fielding, I can understand the reservations anyone might have about standing in the tower after the terrorists tried to shake their foundations.” Everyone murmurs in agreement, Daisy continues on: “But, as you can see, the dig extends into a cave of some sort...” She looks down the hole, gesturing for everyone in the group to come do the same. They peek over, looking down. “I haven't been down in the cave, myself yet, but from what I understand it's just a long tunnel-like hole leading to a wall of flat, solid rock, really kind of bizarre.” The group murmurs, thoughtfully. “Daisy!” A student down in the dig calls up. “James, I'm doing the tour, what is it?” Everyone in the group chuckles, even Daisy and Fielding. “Sorry, I know, but I think we found something new!” Daisy and Fielding exchange glances. “Alright everyone, I'm afraid that's all the time we have for now, then-- we'll arrange for a bus to take any of you who need rides back to the University.” Fielding says, leading the group away, as he walks away he turns back to Daisy. “Daisy, go check that out, please, I'll be back in a half-hour.” She nods and turns around and steps over the line and walks down some makeshift-stairs and then down a ladder into the hole where James, the nerdy guy, is. “James, what is it, what did you find?” She steps down, onto the level tear where James is looking at something with a flashlight, Daisy walks over to him and stares at it, too. “Amazing, isn't it? Sapphire.” James says, shining his flashlight on a wall of solid, blue crystal. “Sapphire? That's impossible, this is Manhattan, not the Midwest.” James glances back at Daisy. “Then what are we looking at? It's a blue crystal, I'm betting you any money it's sapphire.” Daisy pauses, feels down the neck of her shirt and pulls out a small crystal hanging from a necklace around her neck. “It looks kind of like the sapphire I...” James isn't listening or looking though, he's too lost in thought in examining this find. He gets out a notebook and jots something down. Daisy hides the necklace back under her shirt. “Sorry, did you say something?” James asks, hastily. “No.” Daisy says, nonchalantly. “Whatever, we have to radio this in, this is big, this is possibly more significant than the bones...”

Prime Evil wrote:The only problem with it is you're working on it almost 20 years too late. If you were able to do this back in 1990/91, then Bob, John, and Dennis would today have nothing but fond memories of their roles, and Super Mario Bros. would have won an Oscar for Best Screenplay.

Phlibbit wrote:I think he's giving you a complement. You know, I'm getting a real "Watchmen" vibe from what you have so far. Or at least that's how the film is looking in my head, how it would be stylized and shot, etc.

Then we slam cut to a street coming down a hill somewhere in Brooklyn, the scene is very briefly quiet, then we see the Marios' truck come flying over that hill, suspending itself in the air briefly, landing safely back at the street... The song 'Paradise City' by Guns N' Roses plays at full blast from the truck's radio. Inside the truck, we see Luigi is at the wheel. Mario, hanging on to the seat for dear life, slowly and carefully reaches for the radio knob and changes to a station playing Patsy Cline. He turns it down a little and sighs, contently. Luigi glances at Mario, trying to keep his eyes on the road, he turns the channel back to Guns N' Roses. “Take me down to the Paradise City, where girls are fat and they got big titties!” Mario slaps Luigi upside the head. “Those aren't the words!” He says, objectionably. “I know,” Luigi starts, “I just thought they fit the song better, you know like how when they make a book or something into a movie, I just thought...” Mario interjects: “Well, don't.” As he puts Patsy Cline back on and turns it back down. “At least we got that job done without total interference from those Pascal Goons.” Mario says, relieved. “Yeah, and a paycheck for once.” Luigi adds. Mario nods, absently. They pull up to a run down line of tenements, with shops at the base-floors. The one they're parked in front of has a sign that reads: “MISTER VIDEO III.” The Bros get out of the truck. Mario grabs his tools. “Well, I'm gonna eat that leftover sandwich in the fridge,” he says, “You going to see Daisy?” He asks Luigi, who nods, slightly distracted by a shady figure in an alley, dressed in a muscle shirt, with wild, unkempt, white-hair. “Yeah,” he starts. “You need the truck or should I take a cab downtown?” Mario slaps the hood of the truck. “Sorry, bro, I'll need the truck, I gotta few more solo-jobs left and then I gotta pickup Pauline for tonight.” Luigi shrugs, “Alright, cool, well I'll catch up with ya later.” Mario begins chuckling. “Hey, if you can't be safe, name it after me.” Luigi rolls his eyes at Mario, chuckling at the notion, hails a cab, and gets in. Now we're back at the exterior of the base of the Twin Towers, where K-4 is waiting patiently on a bench. He feels his stomach, and then notices a hot-dog stand nearby. K-4 gets up, walks over to the stand and looks at the vendor's food. “What's that one?” He asks, pointing to a hot-dog. The vendor gives K-4 a funny look as he says, “It's a hot-dog, sir.” K-4's eyes light up. “Ooh, a dog, I'll have that!” He says, excitedly, pulling out his wallet. “Eighty cents,” the vendor says. K-4 hands him what looks like a dollar bill, “Keep the change, dude.” K-4 adds, walking away with his hot-dog. As he does, the vendor looks at the bill, it has the number 'one' on it, but a picture of a president he's never seen. “Stupid new dollar bills.” The vendor mutters, putting the bill in his register. K-4 sits back down on the bench and takes the meat out of the bun, tosses the bun away and hungrily chomps down on the hot-dog. That's when Iggy walks up to him, K-4 looks up at Iggy, gesturing for him to sit down. “How'd you figure out how to get here.” K-4 asks. “Well, it's said here that a creature called a 'sea-turtle,' can navigate thousands of miles on instinct.” K-4 chuckles at this. “Not in New York Traffic they don't, seriously, how'd you get here?” Iggy rolls his eyes. “Taxi cab.” He says, mildly ashamed. “Did the girl come out, yet?” He asks, but K-4 shakes his head. “No, negative, she's still in there, it's amazing how their security is so tight in the day, yet we can go back and forth through there as much as we want at night. You'd think it'd be the other way around.” Iggy nods, watching the people as they walk by. “This is a big discovery for the humans, thinking they've found a race they've long believed extinct. When the truth is, we've been around for the better part of the last sixty-five million years, and we're not about to go anywhere.” K-4 finished his hot-dog. “Where's K-6 and Spike?” He asks. “Brooklyn area, scouting out any other possible matches. But from what you've reported, she's right here, all we gotta do is wait.” Iggy responds, K-4 asks, “Where are the others?” Iggy answers, “K-3 and 5 are in Queens, K-7 is in the Bronx.” K-4 nods. “We're closing in, little by little.” He says, Iggy nods, but then he stands up. “I smell her.” He says, abruptly. “What?” K-4 asks, but Iggy's walking over to the base of the tower with the sign on it. “Come on, I sense her, I definitely know it's her.” They start walking over to the base of the tower, when Luigi walks into frame, digging through his wallet, he finds a pass-key/access ID that will allow him on the premises of the World Trader Center dig, he walks towards the tower...

Prime Evil wrote:The "sea turtles" exchange definitely fits with Spike (Larry?) and Iggy more than Mario and Luigi. And I like the establishment of the Koop-Ons as a parallel-world dollar bill.

Prime Evil wrote:Ah, yes, I'd forgotten about Spike's condition. It's just that I happen to visualize the Spike/Iggy double-act from the film proper when I read the dialogue. Sort of like how Bat-fans can only imagine Kevin Conroy's voice when they're reading a Batman graphic novel.

ultimateemail5000 wrote:I have only scanned through the outline, I'd rather read an actual script format of your vision. I like your vision though, It's cool your not like, YA I'M MAKING A MOVIE FROM MY SCRIPT. You're just writing it out of being a fan, least I think. Hope to read it soon, unless you posted it already and I missed it somehow, show me the link. But yeah, I can't wait to read the actual script format.

MerrittTheFerret wrote:

ultimateemail5000 wrote:I have only scanned through the outline, I'd rather read an actual script format of your vision. I like your vision though, It's cool your not like, YA I'M MAKING A MOVIE FROM MY SCRIPT. You're just writing it out of being a fan, least I think. Hope to read it soon, unless you posted it already and I missed it somehow, show me the link. But yeah, I can't wait to read the actual script format.

I don't intend on making it into a movie, it's just out of being a fan of the 93' film as well as a writing exercise.

ultimateemail5000 wrote:

MerrittTheFerret wrote:

ultimateemail5000 wrote:I have only scanned through the outline, I'd rather read an actual script format of your vision. I like your vision though, It's cool your not like, YA I'M MAKING A MOVIE FROM MY SCRIPT. You're just writing it out of being a fan, least I think. Hope to read it soon, unless you posted it already and I missed it somehow, show me the link. But yeah, I can't wait to read the actual script format.

I don't intend on making it into a movie, it's just out of being a fan of the 93' film as well as a writing exercise.

I know, that is what I said, good work on the outline, can't wait to read the real thing.

MerrittTheFerret wrote:Spike and Iggy have same 'condition,' albinism, which, in Sarasaland, the alternate universe, is considered one of the highest blessings.

Prime Evil wrote:

MerrittTheFerret wrote:Spike and Iggy have same 'condition,' albinism, which, in Sarasaland, the alternate universe, is considered one of the highest blessings.

I meant the throat cancer thing.

1upmushroom wrote:Can you write more? Are you gonna?

1upmushroom wrote: "Brave person. Stupid heart. Now CHOOSE!" '

Well what do you think? You have to put it in there, its just an idea.

Phlibbit wrote:Thank god. I think what you were writing all along is exactly where you need to stay. It has a lot more artistic merit, IMO.

Now we cut to inside the lobby of the North Tower, Luigi is walking towards a big exhibit that has the same sign from outside: “DINOSAURS IN NEW YORK!” Hanging over a series of tables lined up with fossils laid out on them. Luigi walks over to one of the tables and admires the strange looking fossils. Daisy walks up behind him. “See anything interesting?” Luigi spins around and puts his hands on Daisy's shoulders affectionately. “Heck, I think everything here is interesting.” He says.
Another cut, this time to Mario, outside the Brothers' apartment door, he grabs the mail in a lock-box and thumbs through it, all bills. He rolls his eyes and sighs heavily, entering the apartment. An answering machine sits on the coffee table, it's blinking. Mario presses the 'play' button. “Hey, Mario, it's Pauline, gimme a call, just wanted to make sure you were still on for tonight at the Bistro. Love ya, bye.” The machine beeps, Mario starts to walk for the kitchen, when the machine plays another message: “Mario, it's Tony, gimme a call.” Mario pauses, “Scapelli, wonder what he wants.” He mutters under his breath, reaching for a soda in the fridge. He eyes the bills he's put on the kitchen table, desperately. Cut back to the base of the Twin Towers, where Luigi and Daisy are walking out of the lobby of the one tower. Iggy and K-4 are following them, at a heavy distance, of course, but they're visible in the background. “So you find anything new and interesting, today?” Luigi asks, Daisy responds: “Yeah, there was this weird crystal in the pit that looked a lot like the rock I keep around my neck.” She says, pulling the rock-necklace out from her shirt. We then see Iggy visibly twitch, we cut over to him and K-4, “That's her! That's gotta be her! She has the rock!” He whispers loudly to K-4. Back to Luigi and Daisy, Luigi says: “Wow, that's cool, maybe it's the same kind of rock.” Daisy shakes her head, “I doubt it, I've been to every Jeweler in New York and none of them can figure out what kind of stone this is.” She says, tucking the rock back in her shirt. “Wow, weird.” Says Luigi. Cut back to K-4 and Iggy, Iggy presses a tiny button on his sunglasses, when he does, we cut to his point of view; a computer readout from his vision, from the sunglasses highlights Daisy, a series of small readouts display, just like with Spike's glasses from earlier when he was examining Pauline. But this time they blink blue and ding. A sign pops up that says '94% MATCH!' Iggy puts a finger to his ear and pulls out the walkie-talkie, yelling into it. “I HAVE VISUAL! I HAVE VISUAL!” The ear-piece in K-4's ear goes off and he grabs his ear in comedic pain. But something goes wrong: Iggy's yelling seems to short out K-4's ear-piece. We cut to Spike, who's walking through Brooklyn, he hears static and taps his ear. Then pulls out his walkie, presses a button it, but only gets static in return. Another shot in Brooklyn showing K-6 walking, getting the same problem, then Queens, where K-3 and K-5 get it too, and the Bronx, where Wendy-O, K-7, gets the same thing. Cut back to the World Trade Center, Iggy throws his walkie-talkie on the ground and yanks the ear-piece from his head angrily. “God, damn-it! These things always break in high temperatures. Piece of shit!” K-4 tries reaching for Iggy's shoulder in an attempt to calm him down, but Iggy pushes him away. People are staring now, Iggy looks up and sees Luigi and Daisy hopping in a cab and driving off. He screams with frustration, “We were THIS close, Morton! THIS FREAKING CLOSE!” A police officer walks up to them and says. “Is there a problem here, guys?” Iggy sighs. “No, sir.” He starts. “No problem at all, just a little heat-stroked.” The officer eyes them, suspiciously. “Alright. I'll be on my way, then.” The cop says and walks off. Iggy starts pacing. “How are we gonna find her, now, Mort? It's not like we can just stroll on into the tower and ask...” Then they exchange glances and look at the sign out front, 'DINOSAURS IN NEW YORK!' Cut to inside the North Tower, where all the displays are, Mister Fielding is sitting at one, reading the book 'The Relic.' Iggy and K-4 walk up to him. He looks up. “Hey guys, isn't this amazing? Real dinosaurs!” Fielding says. Iggy rolls his eyes, muttering: “Yeah, I don't see them everyday.” Fielding says “Pardon?” Iggy shakes his head. “Listen, about fifteen minutes ago a girl walked out of here, medium height, red hair...” Fielding lights up. “Yeah, that's Daisy, my star pupil.” Iggy snaps his finger. “Daisy, right, right. Listen, I'm a case officer who has important information about her parents, but I can't seem to get a hold of her, do you have a phone number I might be able to reach her at?” Iggy says, Fielding nods and says: “Yeah, I got it right here...”

ultimateemail5000 wrote:You are keeping the twin towers in, you truly are an artist. Good stuff. Most people would be like, "Nope they're gone now, there's no way I can put those in there."

Phlibbit wrote:I totally agree. I kind of wish they would have gone that route in the original film, since the WTC was heavily featured/mirrored anyways. And I keep getting this picture in my head of a very nicely done re-creation of 1993, in terms of clothing and style and stuff. Very similar to how Watchmen portrayed the 1980s. Like, when Mario gets the his soda out of the fridge, I'd make it a Crystal Pepsi

1upmushroom wrote:So, you're not doing 2 versions, just one? Totaly Confused.

MerrittTheFerret wrote:

1upmushroom wrote:So, you're not doing 2 versions, just one? Totaly Confused.

I made it very clear that I'm doing one version, and have decided not to do a 'fantasy-based' version at all.

Prime Evil wrote:As for your "no fantasy" decision, Merritt, I think a few very limited fantasy-based elements--implemented/explained as you would science-fiction--might improve the story just a bit. For example, I've always maintained that the De-evolution process might be better explained as one of Koopa's more successful magic "experiments"...but then, my version of Koopa has Bowser as the default form and Dennis Hopper as a more publically-presentable morphic illusion. "Scratch the surface, and the true Koopa form lies underneath." (Would Anthony Stewart Head fare better as Koopa?)

MerrittTheFerret wrote:As for the bombing of the World Trade Center, remember, this isn't ever going to be made into a movie anyway, so I'm dropping it into this world, where 9/11 wouldn't happen, like you said, it's a good plot device, I think it makes a lot more sense than the whole Scapelli wanting 'his land back' thing, or whatever it was they were trying to say with Scapelli in the original film.

MerrittTheFerret wrote:I'm just trying to take the universe of the original film and heavily expand upon it.

Now we cut back to Mario, at the brothers' apartment, where he's putting on a nice leisure suit, he's got a toothbrush dangling out of the corner of his mouth. He walks to the bathroom and spits the toothpaste out, when there's a knock at the door. “It's open!” Mario yells. The front door to the apartment opens and a man dressed in a fine suit walks in, he's a grease-ball, slicked back hair and a fake tan. This is Anthony Scapelli. “Mario, you home?” He says, two goons following him into the cramped apartment. “Tony! Yeah, I'm home, gimme a sec, I'll be right out.” Mario says, almost cheerfully. He walks out, adjusting his coat collar. “What's up, Scapelli?” Mario asks, as he puts a small gold crucifix around his neck. “Mario, something's up... it's, it's Pauline.” Mario looks confused. “What, is she sick?” He asks, concerned. Scapelli responds: “No, nobody's seen her since ten this morning, we tried her cellular, but it's gone dead or something. Nobody can find her.” The two goons, Mike and Walter, nod, equally concerned. Mario glances at the answering machine. “She called me around nine this morning, left a message asking if we were still on for dinner tonight. I was just getting ready...” Scapelli sighs and shakes his head. “I don't know what to do, Mario. You gotta help me find her.” Mario nods, willfully and compliantly. “Alright, let's go.” He says, determinedly. Cut to outside the apartment, where Mario, Scapelli and Scapelli's two goons walk out and hop in a black Cadillac driven by a chauffeur. They drive off as Luigi and Daisy walk up to the apartment. Luigi looks at Daisy. “I gotta go in and change, do you wanna come in real quick?” Daisy eyeballs an Arab at a magazine stand, there's a newspaper with the headline “MISSING MISSES STILL A MYSTERY,” on the front page of the Brooklyn Chronicle. “No, you go head, I'll wait out here, I wanna check out the newspaper.” Luigi nods. “Alright, I'll be back in a few.” He disappears into the apartment lobby, Daisy walks over to the Arab vendor. “Can I have a copy of the Brooklyn Chronicle?” She asks, the Arab replies “Fifty cent.” She digs in her pocket and pulls out a quarter, two dimes and a nickel, and hands it to the vendor. “Here you, ma'am.” He hands her a copy of the newspaper, she walks over to a bench, sits down and starts to read the article. Then we cut to Luigi, walking into the apartment. “Mario, you home?” He calls. No answer. He goes ahead and changes into a pair of baggy jeans and a loose black t-shirt with the 'Carnival of Carnage' album logo from Insane Clown Posse on it and black and neon-green sneakers. He grabs his wallet out of his overall pockets, which are laying on his bed, then he starts to walk out, when he stops, walks back in and grabs a small, long box. He opens it, inside is a gold chain, with a note that says 'A nicer necklace for your rock! Love, Luigi.' on it. He puts the box in his baggy pockets and walks out of the apartment. Another cut, back to Daisy, who's still thumbing through the paper. Luigi walks out from the apartment lobby and comes over and sits down next to her. “What're you reading?” He asks. She shakes her head and sighs. “Another article about the missing girls.” He raises and drops his eyebrows, in bemusement. “Sucks.” He says. “Yeah...well, let's get over to my Aunt's place, I gotta get changed.” Luigi nods and stands up, she does also, Daisy dumps the newspaper in the garbage and they walk off. Yet another cut, this time to Mario and Scapelli, sandwiched in between the two goons in the backseat of the Cadillac. Scapelli's making a call on his massive 90s cellphone. “Uh-huh. Right, the...wait, why was she there?” He asks the person on the phone, pause for a beat, then he nods. “I guess it's not important why she was there, right. Alright, we're on our way.” He hangs the cell up and sighs, relieved. Mario looks at him, curiously. “Good news?” He asks. “Yeah, actually.” Scapelli says, continuing with: “Stanley saw her at the World Trade Center, about an hour ago. I guess she wanted to go see the dinosaurs, he said she was there with two guys.” Mario's face gets solemn, Scapelli notices. “Don't worry, it was probably two of my bodyguards, she probably asked for them to tag along, or something.” He says, reassuring Mario. Scapelli leans forward and talks to the driver. “Larry, World Trade Center.” The driver, Larry, nods and they get on the highway. “Damn this traffic!” Scapelli moans, “It'll take us an hour to get there.” We see the outside of the car, they're entering heavy traffic. There's a very long pause, everyone in the car remains silent. The car is barely moving through the five-o'clock traffic on the backed-up highway in Manhattan. Mario chuckles slightly. “Rush hour in Manhattan, you gotta love it.” He says, cynically.