Click to load or right-click to download full-size image.
INT. AN EXAMINATION ROOM – DAY
DR. ROSEN, a kindly, motherly-looking woman is interviewing Toozie, who sits wearing a medical examination gown on a table. Dr. Rosen is entering information on a laptop as she does the interview.
DR. ROSEN
Okay, Toozie, we’re going to do a bit an evaluation here. I would like you to think back over the last two weeks and tell me whether you experienced any of the following conditions on none of the days, several of the days, more than half of the days, or all of the days. Can you do that for me?
TOOZIE
Sure, Dr. Rosen.
DR. ROSEN
You experienced little interest or pleasure in doing things.
TOOZIE
None of the days.
DR. ROSEN
You feel down, depressed, or hopeless.
TOOZIE
None of the days.
DR. ROSEN
You have trouble staying or falling asleep, or you’re sleeping too much.
TOOZIE
None of the days.
Please do not reproduce this storyboard or its associated screenplay text without permission from Faustus, who may be contacted here.
Panel 1: Enzo in a suit, standing at the front door of an Italian cinema, proudly gesturing with his cane at a promotional placard which reads “Venite a vedere una bellissima ragazza dei tropici venir mangiata viva in un orribile rituale pagano!”
CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (1): The Scelleratini brothers had hoped, on their return to Italy, to make a small fortune exhibiting their remarkable footage to the public.
Translation (1): La fratoj Scelleratini esperis, je la reveno al Italio, fariĝi riĉaj per montrado de sia elstara registraĵo al la publiko.
Panel 2: KING VICTOR EMMANUEL III sitting at an ornate desk in his royal study, signing a piece of paper.
CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (2): Unfortunately for them, their film was banned by an edict signed by King Victor Emmanuel III himself. The Lord Chancellor in England and the Chief Prefect of Police in France took similar actions.
Translation (2): Malfeliĉe por ili, ilia filmo estis malpermesata de dekreto subskribita de la Reĝo Viktoro Emanuelo la 3-a mem. La Grandkanceliero en Britio kaj la Ĉefpolicestro en Francio same faris.
CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (3): Both Scelleratini brothers would die in poverty.
Translation (3): Ambaŭ fratoj Scelleratini mortis malriĉaj.
Panel 3: BENITO MUSSOLINI, sitting in his private cinema, watching something. Mussolini’s face is illuminated by reflected light from the screen. He looks disgusted and outraged.
CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (4): In 1927, Italy’s Fascist Grand Council would declare the film a menace to public morality and order all copies of it destroyed.
Translation (4): En 1927, la Itala Faŝisma Granda Konsilio deklaris la filmon minaco al la publika moralo kaj ordonis, ke ĉiuj kopioj estu detruitaj.
CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (5): What the Scelleratini brothers documented would pass out of memory…
Translation (5): Tio, kion la fratoj Scelleratini dokumentis estis forgesita…
Panel 4: Exterior view of the Cineteca di Bologna (drawn or incorporated as a “comicked up” photograph).
CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (6): But at least one print of the film escaped the destruction order, and in 1977, a researcher found that print in the archives of the Cineteca di Bologna, where it had been misfiled, possibly on purpose.
Translation (6); Sed almenaŭ unu kopio saviĝis de la detruordono kaj en 1977 esploristo trovis tion en la arĥivoj de la Cineteca di Bologna, kie ĝi estis misdeponita, eble intence.
Click to load or right-click to download full-size image.
INT. HARRY’S NEW OFFICE – DAY
Harry, Arthur, and Joe are sitting in Harry’s new office, which is quite spacious and richly appointed even by the standards of his last office. They sit around a teak conference table.
ARTHUR
Tell it to us again, Joe, and slowly this time.
JOE
This girl…she has figured out the creature likes to eat women and apparently in exchange, gives us things.
(looks around apprehensively)
And then she volunteered to be its next meal, suggesting that perhaps the next thing it gives us would be the answer to the Thanatos virus.
ARTHUR
Well, that’s about the most insane thing I’ve ever heard.
(puts a reassuring hand on Joe’s shoulder)
I’ll talk to company security about measures to make sure that this girl doesn’t make more of a nuisance of herself.
HARRY
(holding up a hand)
Wait.
ARTHUR
Wait?
HARRY
You might not be aware of this, Arthur, but our relationship with the national security community has been good and growing better ever since we did them a favor by letting them take credit for the Mediatrix. They’ve been kind enough to keep our research side appraised of intelligence reports on the Thanatos virus.
ARTHUR
And?
HARRY
It’s bad, Arthur. It’s really bad. How bad is classified, but…the science is baffling, and it’s about one mutation away from from being an extinction-level event.
ARTHUR
I agree that is bad.
HARRY
Right now, I’m not saying that we get into the human sacrifice business. What I am saying is that it would be irresponsible of us not to consider all possible options.
JOE
What are you saying, Harry?
HARRY
Before we jump to conclusions about who is sane and who is no,t can we at least reach out to this young woman and offer a proper psychiatric evaluation?
ARTHUR
I don’t know Harry, it just seems…
HARRY
We’re scientists here, right? So why don’t we try to make our decisions based on as much scientific information as we can gather.
Please do not reproduce this storyboard or its associated screenplay text without permission from Faustus, who may be contacted here.
Click to load or right-click to download full-size image.
INT. OSVALDO’S – NIGHT
BACK TO SCENE
TOOZIE
This Thanatos virus sounds like really bad news. And a lot of the news media I am reading are suggesting that it is more a matter of when, rather than if it escapes…
Joe downs his second shot.
JOE
Well, yes, but…
TOOZIE
Don’t play dumb, Joe. We need a miracle to get out from under this one. And as it happens, you work for a drug company that has a record of, and apparently a means for getting, miracles. And that’s where I step in.
JOE
I still don’t get it.
Toozie leans in even closer. Joe downs his third shot.
TOOZIE
All right then. Let me spell it out for your explicitly…
Please do not reproduce this storyboard or its associated screenplay text without permission from Faustus, who may be contacted here.
Panel 1: A long Polynesian outrigger canoe, being rowed through the surf by muscular young men. Standing implausibly in the middle of the canoe is Enzo, his movie camera rigged on a tripod somehow, cranking away and filming some scene he can see from the canoe.
CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (1): The Scelleratini brothers were even invited along to film the “wedding.”
Translation (1): La fratoj Scelleratini estis eĉ invititaj filmi la “geedziĝon.”
Panel 2: View of another outrigger canoe, also rowed by strong young men. The Bride sits in the bow of the canoe, gazing out to sea.
CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (2): The people rowed out to a spot of ocean known to be over a deep oceanic trench.
Translation (2): La homoj remis ĝis punkto de la oceano, kiu supozeble estas super profunda oceana fosego.
Panel 3: The Bride now stands in the bow of the canoe. She has removed her muumuu and is naked, holding her muumuu over her head so that it trails behind her in the wind. She is wearing a beatific expression.
CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (3): Those involved seemed to regard the entire proceeding as a blessed occasion.
Translation (3): Ĉiuj partoprenantoj ŝajnis konsideri la tutan proceduron kiel sanktan okazaĵon.
Panel 4: The Bride in mid-dive off the bow of the canoe into the ocean.
CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (4): The “bride” seemed to be acting of her own free will.
Translation (4): La “fianĉino” ŝajnis agi propravole.
Click to load or right-click to download full-size image.
INT. OSVALDO’S – NIGHT
ON THE SCREEN
People in Hazmat suits are carrying and stacking bodies in an African village.
NEWS ANNOUNCER (V.O.)
(on television)
…meanwhile in Central Africa fatalities continue to mount from the mysterious Thanatos virus.
A bodies being burned on an enormous pyre.
NEWS ANNOUNCER (V.O.)
(on television)
World health authorities are concerned that if the virus spreads to the wider world it may have effects significantly more devastating than the Covid-nineteen virus of the early 2020s…
Please do not reproduce this storyboard or its associated screenplay text without permission from Faustus, who may be contacted here.
(Note: The panels on this page should be sepia-toned, a visual indicator of the age of the photographic and cinematic material they are meant to represent.)
Panel 1: Two Italian men, ENZO SCELLERATINI (“Enzo”) and GUIDO SCELLERATINI (“Guido”) absurdly overdressed for their environment stand in coats, bow-ties, and bowler hats, posed on a beach with an old-fashioned, crank-operated movie camera. (Note: Both men have somewhat silly handlebar mustaches.)
CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (1): In 1905, Italian brothers Enzo and Guido Scelleratini, following up on sailors’ rumors of a strange native cult on the South Seas island of Motofupo, went there with a movie camera in hopes of finding something unusual.
Translation (1): En 1905, la italaj fratoj Enzo kaj Guido Scelleratini, laŭ maristaj onidiroj pri stranga indiĝena kulto de sudmara insulo Motofupo, tien iris kun kamerao esperante trovi ion eksterordinaran.
Panel 2: A group of attractive young Polynesian-looking women dressed in muumuuu-like garments reaching into a sack together to draw something out.
CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (2): In spite of the fact that their rituals were rumored to include human sacrifice, the indigenous people proved friendly and allowed the Scelleratini brothers to film them and one of those very rituals.
Translation (2): Malgraŭ la fakto, ke iliaj ritoj onidire inkluzivis homan oferon, la indiĝenoj montris sin amikecaj kaj ebligis al la fratoj Scelleratini filmi ilin kaj unu el tiuj ritoj mem.
Panel 3: Close up of two hands of different young women in the panel. One holds a white stone, another a black stone.
CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (3): The first part of the ritual was a selection process to pick specific young women to be given to a “God of the Deeps” in marriage.
Translation (3): La unua parto de la rito estis elektado de specifaj junaj virinoj oferotaj kiel edzinoj al iu “Dio de la Profundaĵoj”.
Panel 4: One young woman of the Motofupo people (“the Bride”), cradling a stone, a beatific expression.
CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (4): According to observers and apparent on the film was that the young women so selected did not seem distressed. They instead seemed pleased and honored.
Translation (4): Laŭ observantoj kaj videble en la filmo, la junaj virinoj ne ŝajnis aparte streĉitaj. Anstataŭe, ili ŝajnis kontentaj kaj honorigitaj.
Panel 1: ELIZA FANSHAW (“Eliza”) sits in a big wicker chair in a kind of hippie-ish apartment. She’s a bubbly-sexy blond girl. She wears thin cotton tie-dyed shirt that stretches a bit over her breasts (she’s obviously braless) and a floral skirt and sandals. Her posture indicates she’s being interviewed.
Eliza (1): People ask me, “What on earth do you think you’re doing, Eliza?” and “Don’t you know you have your whole life ahead of you?”
Translation (1): Oni demandas al mi “Kion damne vi kredas fari, Eliza?” kaj “Ĉu vi konscias, ke vi havas vian tutan vivon antaŭ vi?”
Eliza (2): And I see their point but, the thing is, about me…
Translation (2): Kaj mi komprenas ilian vidpunkton, sed temas pri mi…
SUBTITLE (3): Eliza Fanshaw, prospective subject.
Translation (3): Eliza Fanshaw, kandidatino.
Panel 2: Close-up on Eliza’s smiling face, which should emphasize that she has a cute little snub nose.
Eliza (4): …is that I think that the most amazing thing about being alive…
Translation (4): …nu mi kredas, ke la plej mirinda afero en la vivo…
Elize (5): … is sex!
Translation (5): …estas seksumado!
Panel 3: View of Eliza (in very soft focus, to the point that we can scarcely identify her as Eliza) naked, seen from behind on top of a guy).
CAPTION – ELIZA NARRATING (6): I’m not supposed to say things like this, but ever since I was fifteen, I have been seeking out sexual adventure.
Translation (6): Mi ne devus diri ion tian, sed depost mia 15-jaraĝo mi daŭre serĉas seksaventurojn.
CAPTION – ELIZA NARRATING (7): I’ve even acted in some experimental adult films, just to see what it would be like.
Translation (7): Mi eĉ rolis en kelkaj eksperimentaj pornaj filmoj, nur por kontroli la sperton.
Panel 4: Eliza, back in the same pose as in Panel 1.
Unseen interviewer (out-of-panel balloon) (8): And what was it like?
Translation (8): Kaj kiel ĝi estis?
Eliza (9): It was awesome!
Translation (9): Nekredeble!
Eliza (10): But I don’t think anything could compare with those movies I saw in Anthro.
Translation (10): Sed mi ne kredas, ke tio estas komparebla al tiuj filmoj, kiujn mi spektis en antropologia kurso.
