This is the category for all the quasi-storyboards and other art associated with a screenplay written by Iago Faustus, called Auto-Icon. The arrangement of posts should show all the storyboards in sequence of publication, beginning with the most recent. The arrows at the bottom of the page are counter-intuitive as a consequence of theme organization. “Older Posts” advances the reader further in time, “Newer Posts” backwards.
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INT. A MEDICAL CONSULTING ROOM – DAY
There is a KNOCK at the consulting room door.
DR. MOORCOCK
Come in!
Harry enters. Toozie turns around and rises to meet him.
HARRY
I’m sorry to interrupt, Dr. Moorcock, but this is the first chance I’ve had to meet Ms. Chen.
Harry bows slightly to Toozie, who returns the bow.
HARRY
How do you do, Ms. Chen. I am Hari Lal.
TOOZIE
How do you do, Dr. Lal. I would just like to say…
(appears to collect thoughts for a moment)
…how grateful I am for this opportunity.
HARRY
You are grateful to us?
TOOZIE
Yes.
HARRY
Could you explain?
TOOZIE
If I do this thing and it works, it will be a great story, don’t you think?
HARRY
I don’t disagree, but…
TOOZIE
A hundred years from now people will remember who Toozie Chen was and they’ll tell my story.
HARRY
Interesting.
TOOZIE
Think of all the people who were my age a hundred years ago, Dr. Lal. Hundreds of millions of them, all of them now dead. How many of their stories are still told?
HARRY
Would you come on a walk with me, Ms. Chen?
TOOZIE
Sure.
Please do not reproduce this storyboard or its associated screenplay text without permission from Faustus, who may be contacted here.
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INT. THE CATWALK OVER THE WAREHOUSE SPACE – DAY
Harry and Toozie look down from the catwalk.
HARRY
I ask you these things because I want to be very sure.
TOOZIE
I understand.
HARRY
You realize that the story you’re writing might not have the ending you are planning on.
TOOZIE
Explain.
HARRY
We’ve only had two real…incidents with they Gynophage. There’s no guarantee that it won’t come back to us after your sacrifice with anything related to the Thanatos virus. For all we know, it might come back with an improved recipe for bean dip. Or with nothing at all.
TOOZIE
I have two responses for you.
HARRY
Sure.
TOOZIE
One is that at one life against hundreds of millions or even billions the odds would have to be very short before the risk is no longer one I am willing to take.
HARRY
And two?
TOOZIE
If we lose on this, then it wasn’t really a failure as I see it. It’s just that the story is a tragedy rather a heroic epic. But some of of the greatest stories people have ever told are tragedies.
Harry looks at Toozie for a moment with an expression that seems to alternate between admiration and disbelief. After a bit of this, he turns back and faces out over the warehouse space.
HARRY
All right then. But I would like for you to stand here for a moment and look down at that thing and think for a minute more what you’re putting yourself in for.
Toozie looks intently.
Please do not reproduce this storyboard or its associated screenplay text without permission from Faustus, who may be contacted here.
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EXT. THE WAREHOUSE – DAY
Outside the perimeter security fence, a group of noisy demonstrators have gathered. They are carrying signs with slogans like PRO-LIFE and STOP THE HUMAN SACRIFICE and PEOPLE AREN’T FOOD and SLAY THE MONSTER.
THE DEMONSTRATORS
(chanting)
No to death! No to death!
The chanting and yelling continues.
Harry’s expensive car, driven by a uniformed driver with Harry in the back seat, approaches the main gate. Protesters attempt to converge on it, held back — not entirely effectively — by police.
Please do not reproduce this storyboard or its associated screenplay text without permission from Faustus, who may be contacted here.
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EXT. THE WAREHOUSE – DAY
INSIDE HARRY’S CAR
The crowd pushes the police back toward the car. Some manage to push through the line and beat on the windows, yell, give Harry the finger, etc. Harry flinches as they do so.
BACK TO SCENE
The driver manages to accelerate the car past the demonstrators into the warehouse parking lot.
The demonstrators yell and shake their fists as the car speeds away. The police manage to close the entrance and keep any demonstrators from entering the lot.
Please do not reproduce this storyboard or its associated screenplay text without permission from Faustus, who may be contacted here.
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INT. WAREHOUSE CONFERENCE ROOM – DAY
Harry, Joe, Arthur and Toozie sit around the conference table. The three men are in business attire, Toozie is dressed informally.
There is a stack of newspapers next to Harry. He is reading one of them — a tabloid called the GLOBAL STAR — which has a giant headline DRUG CO. TO SACRIFICE COED TO HIDEOUS MONSTER,
Harry throws down the newspaper in disgust.
HARRY
What happened here?
ARTHUR
The government can leak like a sieve sometimes, Harry.
HARRY
Arthur, we’re facing reputational and financial ruin here if we don’t do something fast.
TOOZIE
If I might interject something…
Awkward silence, then Harry gestures with his hand indicating Toozie should proceed.
TOOZIE
What if I made myself available for an interview. Show the American people I’m not mad, drugged, or under duress.
JOE
I’m not sure that…
TOOZIE
And also tell them the right story.
ARTHUR
The right story?
TOOZIE
People will buy into all sorts of things if you tell them the right story.
HARRY
And you think you can do this?
TOOZIE
How many other options do we have?
Another moment of silence. Then Harry raises his eyebrow.
HARRY
I guess I can try calling public relations and set it up.
ARTHUR
I’ll put together an appropriate N-D-A waiver.
JOE
I’ll start drinking extra early.
Please do not reproduce this storyboard or its associated screenplay text without permission from Faustus, who may be contacted here.
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INT. TELEVISION NEWS PROGRAM – NIGHT
Generic television anchor WANDA WILSON sits behind an anchor desk in a standard cable TV news set-up. The logo for UNN NEWS appears in the corner of the screen.
Across the bottom of the screen a news crawl: THANATOS VIRUS “MOST DEADLY AND INFECTIOUS EVER” — EXPERTS DOUBT CONTAINMENT CAN HOLD — POSSIBLE WORST PANDEMIC SINCE BLACK DEATH — YOUNG PEOPLE AND CHILDREN ESPECIALLY VULNERABLE
WANDA
And in tonight’s top story a huge controversy has broken out over a plan by a pharmaceutical company to allow a young woman to sacrifice her life in hopes of defeating the Thanatos virus. Tonight in a U-N-N News exclusive we have that young lady with us this evening.
The screen wipes to a split between Wanda and Toozie. Toozie is neatly made up, wearing a sweater and skirt with a strand of pearls.
WANDA
Lucy Chen, welcome to U-N-N News.
TOOZIE
Thanks, Wanda, I’m glad to be here.
WANDA
Ms. Chen, there has been a great uproar about what you propose to do.
TOOZIE
(holding up her hands for people to see)
Well, as you can see, Wanda, I’m not wearing any shackles and there is no gun pointed at my head. What I’m proposing to do I’m doing of my own free will.
WANDA
Many people claim that what you are doing is immoral, even if you are doing it of your own free will.
TOOZIE
I understand their concerns, but I also have an understanding of what is at stake here. If we don’t find a vaccine or a cure for the Thanatos virus, hundreds of millions of people may die.
WANDA
But don’t you have your whole life in front of you?
TOOZIE
Putting to one side the fact that I could die of this virus, don’t the hundreds of millions of children and young people who might die from it also have their lives in front of them? I’m just one person.
WANDA
Many, especially people with religious values, have argued that you have no right to commit suicide.
TOOZIE
I won’t debate the ethics of suicide. I’d rather sidestep them. People who are suicidal want to die. I don’t wan’t to die. What I want to do is save lives. There’s a long tradition of that, one that has roots in religious values. In the Gospel of John, Chapter 15, verse 13, Jesus tells his disciples “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” Isn’t the fundamental command of all religions that we are to love one another?
WANDA
That is an interesting point, Ms. Chen.
TOOZIE
Here is another way to think of matters. We celebrate young men who go off to war as heroes, even though we know that they are taking a risk of being killed in battle. Sometimes they take more than a risk — consider a marine who leaps on a live grenade, shielding his fellow marines with his body even though he knows that it means the end of him. We don’t condemn him as an enemy of decency. We give him a posthumous medal of honor.
Please do not reproduce this storyboard or its associated screenplay text without permission from Faustus, who may be contacted here.
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INT. WAREHOUSE CONFERENCE ROOM – NIGHT
Harry, Arthur, Joe, Dr. Moorcock, and a bunch of other Oikos Galenou employees are standing or seated at the conference table, watching Toozie’s interview performance on a large-screen TV at one end of the room, which continues unintelligibly in the background.
ARTHUR
She’s good at this…she’s really good.
Harry nods in agreement.
Please do not reproduce this storyboard or its associated screenplay text without permission from Faustus, who may be contacted here.
