BRAVE AND THE BOLD Script Excerpt

Rough pencils for a page from the GOT... What comics with female leads would y...

BRAVE AND THE BOLD Script Excerpt

When I wrote an episode of Brave and the Bold, my first draft was too long, particularly the teaser. And originally, I was asked to make it Queen Bee, not Poison Ivy, that trapped Batman.

I still think it’s a lot of fun. Here’s the teaser excerpt from the animated episode, first draft.

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TEASER

EXT. GOTHAM CENTRAL PARK – NIGHT

CRANE SHOT, young man with a Mohawk in typical punk outfit, including piercings and snake tattoo, RUNS panting and terrified through the walking path of the park, past a large concrete statue of Batman surrounded by a fountain. The Punk has a chain attached to his belt, that he uses as a weapon later.

PUNK

<scared, fatigued panting>

He looks behind him as he runs. We see a shadow following him, and the audience thinks he’s being chased by Batman for some petty thievery.

He SLAMS into the back of a cop, whose front we don’t see yet.

PUNK

Oof!

The Punk looks totally relieved, oddly. The cop doesn’t turn around immediately.

PUNK

Oh, man, am I glad to see you! Somethin’s…somethin’s

followin’ me!

He places his hand on the cop’s shoulder to turn him around.

PUNK

Hey, you hearin’ me, man? I

said somethin’ WEIRD is –

REACTION SHOT, the Punk’s face as he sees the cop turn around. The cop’s eyes are mindless, segmented, multi-eyes of a bee. He’s been hypnotized by the Queen Bee’s powers.

PUNK

What the…?

COP

(spooky monotone)

I am a drone. I service the

Queen.

Two more people appear, one is an older woman with a precious and pampered toy poodle on a leash, and the other is a businessman carrying a briefcase and holding a cell phone to his ear uselessly. All three, woman, man and dog, have the blank, segmented eyes.

DOG LADY AND BUSINESSMAN

(in unison, spooky monotone)

I am a worker. I collect the

pollen.

DOG

Bark bark bark bark. Bark bark

bark bark.

The Punk backs up against a tree, as all four proceed to come towards him. He GRABS at a chain from his belt, hoping to use it as a weapon.

PUNK

(terrified)

No. No! Stay back! Stay BACK!

DOG LADY AND BUSINESSMAN

(in unison, spooky monotone)

I am a worker. I collect the

pollen.

They approach closer, their creepy hands reaching towards him.

PUNK

Nooooooooo!

CLOSE-UP on the Punk’s terrified face, as they nearly touch him.

COP, DOG LADY AND BUSINESSMAN

(in unison, spooky monotone)

Collect the pollen, collect the

pollen, collect the pollen.

We hear the distinctive FWOOSH of Batman’s batarang pistol, as it SHOOTS line out to wrap around the older woman, knocking her gently to the ground.

DOG

Bark.

Batman LEAPS down from the tree above the Punk to land in front of the businessman. Batman is wearing an oxygen mask, perhaps with the distinctive red stripe of his regular tools and vehicles. The businessman swings his briefcase at Batman, and Batman DUCKS under the blow. From here, we do not see the Punk behind Batman.

BATMAN

(to Punk)

Run. Find a safe place to ride

out this epidemic.

PAN ACROSS the park, and we see that Batman and the Punk are now surrounded by a mass of typical Gotham citizens, every age, every shape, color and outfit. They all have the segmented eyes.

CROWD

(creepy monotone in unison)

We are the workers. We collect

the pollen.

Suddenly, many of the crowd STEP FORWARD, their yellow, segmented eyes turn deep orange, or red, the color of an alarm.

CROWD

(creepy,louder, in unison)

We are the warriors. We

protect the hive.

The ‘warrior’ citizens RUSH at Batman, who crouches into a fighting stance, knocks the two closest warriors out. Without turning to the Punk, he addresses him.

BATMAN

There’s too many. We’ll have

to try to fight our way—

Batman is suddenly SMASHED on the back of his head, knocked cold mid-sentence. We see the Punk behind him, his chain wrapped around the fist he just used to cold-cock Batman. His eyes are now blank, orange, and segmented. He’s been infected.

PUNK

(spooky monotone)

I am a warrior. I protect the

hive.

DISSOLVE TO:

INT. QUEEN BEE’S HIVE—NIGHT

Batman is being dragged through the hive, the Queen Bee’s new bio-organic base on Earth. He’s being dragged by two sexy female warriors from the Queen’s race, wearing slightly retro yellow and black striped costumes with white go-go boots and stinger pistols in holsters at their side. They drag him down a hallway, and we see several of the citizens from the previous scene, including the old woman and the punk. His hands are bound behind his back by a honeycomb –like blob.

OLD WOMAN

Collect the pollen, collect

the pollen.

The two females drop Batman at the foot of Queen Bee’s throne. PAN UP as he looks up to take her all in. Sexy and creepy at the same time. She might wear a crown of stingers, and she carries a lance with a wicked, ornate stinger on one end. Two more female bee guards stand behind her throne.

QUEEN BEE

(odd, electronic modulated voice)

By your actions it is clear

that you are the dominant male

on this sphere. You will be my

mate, and will be spared the

enslaving process for as long

as you continue to be…entertaining.

Batman gets to one knee, trying to rouse himself from his concussion.

BATMAN

Sorry, lady, but I prefer an

old-fashioned kind of gal.

The Queen Bee stands angrily, staring down at him, enraged.

QUEEN BEE

(odd, electronic modulated voice)

You dare defy me? I am mere

moments away from dominating your entire backwater planet, meat creature!

PAN UP from the exterior of the hive, set in the center of Gotham Central Park, upwards to the atmosphere, where we see three very menacing, vaguely insectoid starships, hovering over the Eastern seaboard. The ships have segmented tail sections with ‘stingers’ on the end, that will fire the beams at Earth’s major cities. The ‘stingers’ themselves are long, thick, metallic glowing rods, perhaps thirty feet in length.

QUEEN BEE

(v.o., odd, electronic modulated voice)

Even now, my ships prepare to fire

my enthralling beams at major

cities around the globe, to

bring the entire population under

my merciful care, to be used and

discarded at my whim!

BATMAN

No. We’ll stop you.

QUEEN BEE

Who will stop me, mammal?

Batman smiles.

BATMAN

Just me…

QUICK CUT TO surprised guard standing behind the Bee’s throne.

BATMAN (CONT, OS)

…and the Black Orchid.

The guard rips off her disguise, to reveal the Black Orchid underneath.

BLACK ORCHID

Rats. How did you know?

Batman stands, hands still bound behind him.

BATMAN

No time for that. Go after

those ships!

BLACK ORCHID

But…I can’t just leave you!

BATMAN

Go!

Black Orchid FLIES upward, BURSTING through the roof of the hive.

Batman is forced to FIGHT the several female guards without the use of his hands, which he does through a series of KICKS and SOMERSAULTS. The Queen Bee LEAPS into the fight, narrowly missing his face with the stinger of her lance, which electrifies anything it touches.

She SMASHES it towards him, he DUCKS, and she HITS THE WALL, zapping the wall and leaving a smoldering, blackened, twisted glob where the stinger made contact.

CUT TO:

EXT. STARFIELD ABOVE EARTH, NIGHT

The upper atmosphere, as the ship’s powerful stingers aim towards the planet below. The stingers start to glow yellow, then orange, then red, the mighty THRUM of their engines powering up to full capacity growing in volume with each color change.

The first shot BLASTS from one of the stingers.

And is intercepted by the Black Orchid, who takes the full force of the shot on her chest, painfully.

Back at the hive, Batman KICKS the lance, sending it spiraling out of the Queen Bee’s hands, far towards the roof of the hive. She GRABS him by the throat and lifts him off the ground, painfully.

QUEEN BEE

(odd, electronic modulated voice)

I offered you everything, meat

creature! Now you have nothing!

BATMAN

That’s not entirely true, Queen

Bee.

The lance comes back down from being kicked, spiraling directly into the Queen Bee, ZAPPING her mercilessly as Batman somersaults away.

BATMAN

I still have a pretty fair

sense of aim.

Queen Bee falls to the floor, blackened, smoldering, and moaning to show that she’s still alive.

QUEEN BEE

Back to the stars, as we see Black Orchid TYING A KNOT out of the stingers, fairly close-up. ZOOM OUT to see that she has tied all three of the starships’ stingers into a large bow-tie knot, connecting them together and nullifying their weapons.

Inside the hive, the Gotham citizens, including the PUNK and the BUSINESSMAN and the COP, start coming to their senses, no longer under the Queen’s hypnotic power.

Black Orchid GLIDES down through the previously made hole in the hive’s roof to land near Batman, now freed from the honeycomb handcuffs, and he’s putting cuffs on the Queen Bee as the COP leads away the female bee guards, now unarmed.

BATMAN

Thanks for the assist, mystery

girl.

BLACK ORCHID

And here I thought you were

assisting me.

BATMAN

You won’t be able to keep your

secrets from me forever, Orchid.

Not in my own city.

He turns around swiftly. She’s gone.

BATMAN