The Call To Adventure...

FADE IN

INT. MARGY’S BED/WRITING-ROOM. DAY

The purple curtains are half-drawn.

POV from window: Sunny sky, a spring-budded tree-top.

Margy’s on the bed laptop-typing. The bedroom’s untidy. A pile of clothes over a chair, an abandoned pair of flip-flops, books and scripts litter the floor, a mug on a cluttered bedside-table.

Margy pauses for a sip of coffee.

A sudden SWISH of the curtains. She drops the mug to the floor… coffee splashes on a discarded script… She looks up - alarmed.

MARGY

You again!

The magician stands by the curtain, he scans the messy room.

MAGICIAN

Didn’t take long did it?

She gets off the bed…

MARGY What?!

…and searches for something to mop the coffee… a pink sock… it’ll do. She dabs coffee. He gestures with a sparkly wand.

MAGICIAN

All this clutter… and when did you last dust?

He picks up a sheet of typed A4 from the end of the bed. She shakes the soggy script and stands up - irritated.

MARGY Dust? I’m trying to work here!

MAGICIAN

(scans sheet)

Session plan. Structure.

She snatches it back.

MAGICIAN

(indignant)

Charming!

MARGY

Look. I don’t care where you’re from,

or what you want…

MAGICIAN Call yourself a screenwriter?

MARGY What?

MAGICIAN

Structure?!

She’s baffled.

MAGICIAN (CONT’D)

You don’t even recognise an Inciting

Incident when you’re sent one.

He flourishes the wand. A four-foot WHITE RABBIT appears in dickie-bow and waistcoat.

Margy steps back in alarm.

MARGY

Christ-alive!

MAGICIAN (CONT’D)

Easter Monday. Very appropriate.

MARGY

What on earth…?

MAGICIAN

Well he’s not the Easter Bunny.

(flamboyant wand-gesture to rabbit)

I give you… The Meeting With The Mentor.

The rabbit offers a paw. Margy shakes her head. Disbelief.

MARGY Too much coffee. Definitely.

A stunned paw-shake. The rabbit speaks as he shakes - Southern Irish accent (we’ll get Colin Farrell for this)

WHITE RABBIT

(a little bow)

Hagan O’Hare. At your service.

She shakes her head.

MARGY

Terrible dialogue.

MAGICIAN Well you wrote it!

MARGY

I never! I…

The magician flourishes the wand…

MAGICIAN

And now…

MARGY

WHOA….!

Too late. A large black hole appears in the bedroom floor. Margy’s jaw drops.

MARGY

Too far!

MAGICIAN

…The Call To Adventure!

Margy’s momentarily a know-all.

MARGY Well strictly-speaking it’s just

the same as the Inciting Incident…

But we’ll cover all that in the sessions at FACT.

Starting Saturday May Fourth.

Book now via the website…

The magician rolls his eyes.

MAGICIAN

Feel free to crow-bar another advert.

The white rabbit gestures to the hole - chivalrous.

WHITE RABBIT

After you…

Margy shakes her head.

MARGY

No chance!

The magician folds his arms: bored.

MAGICIAN

Classic Refusal Of The Call To Adventure.

He pulls out a pocket-watch.

MAGICIAN

Good heavens!

A sudden PUFF OF SMOKE. He disappears.

The white rabbit remains. He crouches and gestures a paw towards the black hole.

Margy shakes her head - uncertain.

WHITE RABBIT

What are you scared of?

MARGY

Oh, the usual stuff. Heights. Flights.

Wasps. Confined spaces.

(gestures to the hole)

The dark.

The rabbit shrugs.

WHITE RABBIT

No risk, no reward!

He bends forward… a white bob-tail flashes as he disappears into the hole.

Margy crouches and peers into the hole…

FADE OUT

(TO BE CONTINUED…)