SCREENPLAY:
THE ABBEY
written by ROBERT BRUINEWOUD
GENRE: sci-fi/fantasy/horror
LOGLINE:
Inspired by Poe’s Masque of the Red Death: Fleeing a deadly pandemic, a security advisor infiltrates a luxurious floating city, hoping to find peace – but a friend’s needless execution forces them to take action.
INTRODUCING THE ABBEY:
The Abbey, a fantasy/sci-fi feature, is an opulently decadent retelling of Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death. However, instead of being set in the past within “a castellated abbey with strong, lofty walls and gates of iron”, the story is set in the near future aboard a luxurious city, floating in the Pacific Ocean.
Unlike Poe’s mood piece, The Abbey broadens its focus out from “Prospero and his court”, to include the lives of the indentured people who serve the billionaires. It does this by following Iris Iranatu, a new arrival at The Abbey, along with her new employer and his retinue.
Iris is a Security Executive working for Alonso, a boorish, arms dealer with feelings of inferiority. Her first task is to protect him and his retinue by preventing him from becoming entangled in the political struggles between The Abbey’s designer and CEO, Prospero, and the leader of a group of disgruntled investors, Hertog. She fails.
Soon after talking Alonso out of charging his bonded consort, Titania, with treason, when he has his personal chef arrested for the same crime. The chef is then executed before Iris can intervene.
Distraught by the senseless death, Iris begins planning the overthrow of The Abbey’s power structures. On her journey, audiences will be become immersed in the world of The Abbey, and meet an intriguing array of characters among the indentured workers, associates and their billionaire masters.
The world of The Abbey is divided in two.
On the one hand we have the ostentatious residences, and the lavish public and private spaces, where the wealthy and select members of their retinues, while away their days. These spaces are hugely extravagant in both design and in the materials used to decorate and embellish them.
On the other hand there are the spaces where the indentured workers live when they’re not working. Cramped, grimy and worn, they dwell in an almost constant twilight, only glimpsing the sun when it’s on the horizon and bathes the underside of the city in light.
Obviously, The Abbey is all about class and how the exceedingly wealthy use their power to maintain their position in society, while ignoring the needs of the very people responsible for creating the wealth they now hoard to themselves. This division between those who generate the wealth and those who claim it, is an issue with which today’s audiences are becoming increasingly aware. Particularly as many of them find themselves ensnared within their own “abbeys”.
The Abbey does not shy away from Poe’s bleak ending, however it does allow Iris to triumph over the billionaires. This short-lived victory gives audiences the win they desire, while also suggesting that, perhaps if the billionaires had been neutralised sooner, things may have been different. Possible parallels between the world of The Abbey and humanity’s current situation, will be left up to audiences to determine and discuss.
Screenplay and Pitch Deck for The Abbey are available to read at Script Revolution or you can request it directly from me via my contact form.