Graeme Rodaughan's Blog: Writing The Metaframe War Series - Posts Tagged "fun"
Fun stuff: Elon Musk's Hyperloop
That's one scenario, I see some others,
[1] "Hyperloop"
It's 2026. On its maiden run from Los Angeles to New York, the Hyperloop 'Destiny' is filled with Hollywood stars, finance magnates and the president of the United States with her family and secret service detail.
It also includes a North Korean spy with a deadly agenda all his own.
After a horrific attack, secret service agent 'Mace Williams,' finds himself the last defender between the North Koreans and the ultimate devastation of New York.
Will Mace be able to avert disaster and the deaths of millions? - Read "Hyperloop" to find out.
[2] "Hyperloop"
It's 2026, Construction worker, 'Hank Johnson,' won the Tesla Corp lottery - a one way ticket on the maiden run of the Hyperloop 'Destiny' from Los Angeles to New York. He joins Hollywood stars, finance magnates and the president of the United States with her family and secret service detail.
Only minutes into its journey, the 'Destiny' encounters the unexpected ferocity of the San Andreas fault line. After a terrible crash claims the lives of the onboard tech-crew, Hank is the last person on the Destiny with the knowledge to save everyone.
But will Hank be able to save anyone, when the vice president sees an opportunity to advance his own ambitions for power, and the caldera at Yellowstone has suffered a catastrophic fracture? - Read "Hyperloop" to find out.
[3] "Hyperloop"
Its 2026, Elon Musk and his entourage are on the maiden run of the Hyperloop 'Destiny' from Los Angeles to New York. He joins Hollywood stars, finance magnates and the president of the United States with her family and secret service detail.
Minutes into the trip, Elon reveals his own secret agenda, the Hyperloop is a massive Cthulhian symbol - activating a device born of genius and madness, he opens a portal to another dimension and the Destiny passes through to a world of shadow and doom.
The president, 'Zoe Madiva,' her secret service detail decimated by Lovecraftian horrors must decide between certain and horrible death or risk the emergence of Cthulhu and his minions into an unprepared world - or will she find a third way? - Read "Hyperloop" to find out.
If Stoker's Dracula was being cast for a big budget movie?
A classy director has been chosen, someone ... such as ... I don't know - ahhh ... Joss Whedon.
Who amongst the many actors available today would you cast as.
Dracula
Lucy Westenra
Mina Murray
Jonathan Harker
Dr. Seward
Quincy P. Morris
Arthur Holmwood
R.M. Renfield
Dr. Van Helsing
Mrs. Westenra
Dead Sea Captain.
The three brides.
Here's my cast and rationale.
Dracula (Has to portray both an older and a younger man. Driven, powerful, ambitious, ruthless, seductive and resilient) - Benedict Cumberbatch, has proven his capabilities with a range of roles, and is the right age to portray an older or a younger (rejuvenated) man.
Lucy Westenra (Vivacious, fun, filled with life, the center of attention - who draws a fatal suitor). - Emma Watson - Hermione has graduated as a confident young woman.
Mina Murray (Brains, beauty, charisma, more serious than Lucy - Dracula's foil). - Emilia Clarke has demonstrated a commanding range of emotion, and she can do both horror and seduction, necessary for this role. Believable as an intelligent woman after her role in GoT
Jonathan Harker (Major character, has to be charismatic enough to carry the first quarter of the movie). - Kit Harington, remembering that J Harker is a lawyer, not a mountain man. Kit Harington can bring the right qualities to the role and is believable as a genuine love match for a sharp, capable woman.
Dr. Seward. (Get's a lot of page time and is a major character. Mature without being old). - Clive Owen, brings maturity to this important role.
Quincy P. Morris. (I like the idea of modernising this role with an african american actor). - Chiwetel Ejiofor, no longer '12 years a slave' he brings a genuine physical presence to the resident bad-ass in the Van Helsing vampire hunting club, and what young, wealthy English heiress wouldn't want the charismatic Chiwetel Ejiofor as a suitor.
Arthur Holmwood (betrothed to the doomed Lucy - need a good chemistry here as their final scenes are very emotional). - David Tennant - another capable british actor to carry this important role vis-a-vis the younger Lucy.
R.M. Renfield (Strangely enough, Renfield is one of the more dimensional characters, he requires a physical presence as he is quite strong, very emotional and driven to all manner of extremes - including at the end - self sacrifice). - Tom Hardy, fresh of playing Mad Max in 'Fury Road' he brings the necessary physicality and mental gravitas to this role.
Dr. Van Helsing (An older man, who is still vital, supposedly wise, but takes too long to reach the correct conclusions). - Hugh Jackman (in a strange co-incidence) can do this role standing on his head, and will carry it off with a commanding charisma, if slightly daft at times.
Mrs. Westenra (Lucy's mother who is infirm, relatively old (50+) with a weak heart). - Eva Green. A small, almost cameo role, do her up with enough makeup to carry it off.
Dead Sea Captain (recounts the events on the Demeter and dies on board - needs to be able to convey courage in the face of impending doom) - Geoffrey Rush. Fairly long in the tooth, but not as long as Vlad, he can tell a story of inevitable doom better than anyone else. Plus he has experience as a pirate captain - what could be better than that.
The three brides. (Seductive in the extreme. A showcase of the power to mesmerise with desire). - Sticking with my first picks.
The Blond Bride: Margot Robbie - Carries the main lines and shows the most initiative amongst the brides, leads the attempted seduction of Jonathan Harker.
Brunette Bride #1: Cara Delevingne - More ethereal than Margot, comes across as both sexy and ghostly.
Brunette Bride #2: Antje Traue - after a stint as a native of Krypton in the 'Man of Steel' makes an excellent brunette scene stealer.
A Doozy of a Night
It was a peaceful evening at home, I was staying up late working on The Day Guard, the 4th book in my series about the Metaframe War. In between writing the usual stuff about Chloe’s quest for her liberty, Anton’s search for justice, and the various machinations of Cornelius, the Red Ghost, and the Raven - my phone rang.
I glanced at it - ‘private number,’ it read. I hate when that happens, you can’t dial back if you ever want to and whoever was calling wasn’t in my contacts list. But still, it was late at night, the cold callers seeking to sell me a new electricity plan, or property investment or something else I had no interest in only called when I was sitting down to dinner - so it wasn’t them.
My curiosity was piqued and I answered the call, putting the phone on speaker because I’ve got that paranoid fear about mobile phone radiation…
A voice with a noticeable French accent and clearly distressed said, “Merde! What have you done?”
He started swearing at me in incomprehensible French, and I’m thinking, Who is this guy? Then he reverted back to English and said in low, precise tones, “Fix it. Don’t imagine I can’t reach you. You’ll be sorry if you don’t sort this out.”
Then he hung up.
Goosebumps rippled along both my arms, the hairs rising in an atavistic response to the threat. A shiver bloomed up my back, and strolled over my scalp like a corpse stalking a graveyard. I didn’t know how but the caller could only be one person - Francis Mirovar.
“What the hell is going on?” I said, staring at my phone, rational disbelief struggling (and losing) with the utter certainty of the voice I’d just heard.
There was a knock on my office door. Trepidation warred with curiosity and I said, “Come in.”
The door swung open; Anton Slayne, Peter Lamb, Li Wu and Chiara Romano, all wearing street casual wear, strolled into my home office. (Making it pretty damn crowded in there, Peter really is one huge, wide unit…) I shook my head, dumbfounded by this weird turn of events.
“What the -” I started to say.
Anton shook his finger at me. “Hold it right there,” he snapped. “Now shut up and listen.”
The air in the room seemed to plunge half a dozen degrees, although I felt clammy, and broke out into a sweat as they surrounded my chair. Li stood opposite Anton and gave me a hard look as Peter’s big hands gripped my shoulders from behind.
“Wha… what do you want?” I stammered.
“Action.” Li said, her eyes gleaming with pent up desire.
“Action! I give you guys heaps of action.”
“Nah, you don’t get it,” Anton snapped. “We mean ‘Action.’”
Peter spun my chair around so I was facing the four of them and growled. “We’re young.”
“We’re good looking,” Anton said, tapping his hard muscled chest.
“We’re hot,” Li said, leaning in - her perfume was electric.
“And very, very sexy,” added Chiara, with a suggestive look on her face that could tempt a monk.
“Hey, hey, hey,” I said, lifting my hands up and shaking my head. “I don’t do Paranormal Romance. No, no, definitely not!”
“Who said there had to be any romance?” Anton asked.
“Yeah,” Peter added. “We’d settle for, you know, ‘two warriors snatching a quick moment of bliss before the next battle.’”
Li tapped me on the chest and suggested, “You could fade to black if you really have too.”
“You’ve been wasting opportunities,” Chiara remarked, tossing her long dark hair from one side to the other.
Anton leaned forward. “So, will you do it?”
They all studied me expectantly, and four separate eyebrows raised quizzically. I turned back to my desk and wrote a quick note.
“So your making a note to add oodles of hot sex?” Peter asked hopefully.
“Nah, I’m making a note that I use a quizzically raised eyebrow far to often.”
“Damn!” Peter swore. “There’s no joy with this one.” And as one, they turned and left the room.
I took a deep breath and sighed, relieved to have got out of that unscathed. I turned back to my keyboard, hopefully there would be no further interruptions.
Someone scratched long fingernails down the outside of my window. The double glazing muffled their words and all I heard was, “Levf mef inphhhh.”
“Huh?” I grunted, nonplussed.
They raised their child-like voice and said clearly, “Let me in.”
Could this evening get any stranger? I got out of my chair and approached the window. Two figures emerged out of the gloom. The closer of the two was a girl dressed in black. Perhaps she was nine years old, or perhaps she was a thousand years old. Her eyes glittered in the moonlight like mirror shards. Behind her loomed a tall, cadaverous manlike creature, wrapped in a heavy dark cloak, his skin was chalk white. His eyes were black windows into hell, staring at me with barely restrained enmity.
The child smiled hungrily, “Let me in.”
“Hell no,” I said. “I’ll have no truck with the likes of you.”
“But you must,” she whispered. Her silent friend leered at me with an unsettling level of confidence.
Feeling the thin edges of compulsion I asked, “Why?”
“We are from the Guild.”
OMG, I thought, I’ve got a labor dispute on my hands.
“The Guild?”
“Yes,” she smirked. “The Guild of Vampire Characters.”
I sighed. “What do you really want?”
The tall one spoke, long fangs ringed his mouth, and the words sounded like they had been fished out of a deep, rank well. “Your vampires are shiny.” He grimaced with distaste, his words freighted with the most awful of insults.
“Your kidding. My vampires are all bad-ass.”
“Shiny,” the girl piped, her eyes hard and filled with dreadful certainty. “You must change them.”
I sighed again, and rubbed my forehead, I was beginning to get a headache.
“What if I don’t?”
She laughed, a tinkling sound of broken bells. “We will withdraw support for your use of vampires. All vampire characters will depart from your stories and never return.”
That’s harsh, I thought and said, “Okay, okay - I’ll sort it.”
“See that you do,” piped the girl. “Or, we will return.”
The tall one, drew a long taloned finger in front of his pale throat and then grinned broadly, displaying his fangs which gleamed in the moonlight. Mist rose around the pair, and they vanished into it.
I sank back into my chair, this night was a doozy. I decided I needed to restore my spirit with a good dose of spirits. I went to my pantry and poured myself a stiff drink. Returning to my desk, I sat down and lifted the tumbler to my lips, a thrill of delicious anticipation gracing my soul.
The night was broken open by a thunderous roar. A bright spotlight speared down from the sky onto my office window. An automatic cannon ripped into life, hellish fire tearing through the room, carving it apart in a cloud of splinters and plaster dust.
A sleek form, clad in a close-fitting black bodysuit fell through the gaping hole in my roof, landing in a fighting crouch next to me. A gleaming katana, a single ruby in the handle glittering in the harsh spotlight flashed in front of me, piercing my keyboard and pinning it to my desk.
Her pale hands gripped my shoulders and she leaned in. I whispered one word, “Chloe.”
She smiled knowingly. “Of course.” She tilted her head slightly and purred, “Did you think I wouldn’t come?”
A fell magnetism gripped me, I couldn’t look away. Her face was exquisite, her presence overwhelming. My tongue was leaden, my voice was robbed from me.
Her hands slipped upward from my shoulders and caressed my head. She leaned in further, her forehead touching mine, her vivid blue eyes staring into my soul.
Mesmerized; my mind folded into a quivering heap.
“What do you want?” I asked in a hoarse whisper.
“You already know,” she whispered. “Silly man - I’m just here to make sure you don’t forget.”
The fingers of her right hand stroked down the side of my face, and onto my chest.
I panted, my lungs suddenly too tight to breathe.
Her hand slid lower and all sorts of electricity went flying everywhere.
Then she was gone, vanished. The Nightfalcon roared overhead, its twin turbines screaming at full power. The spotlight swung away then extinguished with a final flash, silence returning with a sudden vengeance.
I crawled into a corner, turned and hugged my knees, my eyes darting everywhere - I vowed not to write another word until daylight.
That was for sure, sure, sure.
Crazy characters, always wanting something - there was no pleasing them. But it was too late, too late by far. Boundaries had been breached, there was no going back. They’d become too powerful to ignore.
Attaching a new keyboard to my laptop, I ignored my reckless vow and set to work.
It was a doozy of a night.
The Perfect Celebrity Endorsement
FADE IN, EXT, NIGHT: Outside a dreary Transylvanian castle, clouds scud over a lightening sky, the dawn is claiming the east. A tall figure scales the external walls and leaps through a window. He is clutching a paperback book. Thick curtains are immediately drawn against the approaching sunlight.
INT BEDROOM: The room is lit by candles, Count Dracula, flounces back into an ornate coffin, he holds an open book in front of his face, he is avidly reading ...
[ZOOM IN, CLOSE UP]: Reveal the cover of "A Subtle Agency," by Graeme Rodaughan.
INT BEDROOM [OPEN 4th WALL]: Count Dracula, annoyed at being rudely interrupted, sits up in his coffin, the book held visibly in his left hand, he wags his right finger at the camera.
"Vhat! You disturb my reading!" the Count stares harshly at the camera, then breaks into a toothy grin. "But who can blame you - everyone vants this book. This outrageous story about my ... kind."
Count Dracula taps a page within the book. "Look here. I tell you - vhat is the meaning of this? Vampires with katanas? Vampires with machine guns? Vampires with attack helicopters?"
Count Dracula looks shocked and then grins. "I can't live forever without these books."
[ZOOM IN, CLOSE UP]: The count says, "A Subtle Agency, I have a copy," (lifts book), stares into the camera 'mesmerisingly,' "and so should you my little blood crumpet."
Laughs - evil genius laugh.
FADE OUT.
Writing The Metaframe War Series
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