Remake of the 1954 film, THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON

Remake of the 1954 film, THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON

Edit 7: CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON – Starring Jeff Bridges (maybe)

INTRODUCTION:

If you are actually taking the time to read this, I thank you. I am purposely making this introduction as brief I possibly can.

I started writing this in 2008 and I have come back to it with many edits/additions since then.

I am a relatively, no….TOTALLY unknown writer, 75 years worth of mistakes, and triumphs, highs and lows, and a persistent soaking up of what we call, Common Sense.

I am a Futurist, concerned, and sometimes writing, about the evolution of our species. My film is not a remake of the 1954 classic, as it is a completely different story, as you are about to find out.

ABBREVIATED SYNOPSIS:

Modern day pleasure cruise on the eighty-foot explorer yacht, “Spix’s Macaw”, heading up the Amazon River.

Dr. Robert Kopiacek, a retired Anthropologist/Professor (Jeff Bridges) and his thirty something daughter, Dr. Susan “Suzie” Kopiacek also an Anthropologist (Scarlett Johansson), are on this cruise to bring his wife/her mother’s ashes to the area of the Amazonian jungle where they had worked and played thirty years earlier.

Trailing behind their yacht is a slightly smaller river cruise boat, the “Rosarita”, captained by an old friend of Dr. Kopiacek, Captain Alberto “Big Al” Diaz, (potentially played by comedian/actor Joey Diaz), with a crew of five, and seven tourist/wanna be explorers.

When they reach the general proximity of the Black Lagoon, a small launch of explorer/dive tourists sets out to explore the lagoon and surrounding jungle and never comes back.

One of the “tourist/explorers” is thinking he’s going to discover a new plant/alternative to Cannabis (Hahahahaha) in and around the lagoon and the dense jungle. What happens to them isn’t revealed to the audience right away, maintaining some suspense.

When the initial horror of the disappearance of four of the seven tourists and two of the crew members is discovered, the audience still is unaware of who or what tore them to pieces.

The first search & rescue party discovers pieces of the tourists and their skiff/boat’s two-man crew, LITERALLY torn up and strewn along the river bank and jungle, “Hey! Here’s another arm”.

Some think river pirates, but the violence met by these first wannabe explorers is so gruesome, the audience also thinks, “Ha-ha, there’s gotta be a monster some where in this film”.

There is. Not a monster per se, but a life-form that is only trying to protect itself and it’s habitat. The plot thickens as a first search & rescue boat is sent out. It doesn’t return either. The heroine in the story meets the creature and some danger, but is saved in the end? Stay tuned for updates.

CHARACTERS:

No actors have been officially signed, at this stage, so the mention of a particular actor’s name anywhere in this story is the writer’s desire/choice, and is purely speculative in nature.

In no specific order;

Young Dr. Kopiacek: The younger Dr. Kopiacek, used in the beginning flashbacks, pronounced, “Cop Ya Check”, is a young Jeff Bridges type of character, Suzie’s father, in the late 1950’s (pre-hippie era), flash-back part of the film, has a proper trimmed haircut, professor/explorer almost geeky look about him, with a pencil thin mustache.

The casting search has to come up with a spitting image of a young Jeff Bridges for this role, slightly geeky, at 6′ 2″ and 198 pounds, he’s handsome however, and fit.

In the beginning of the film, the audience at first, has the subconscious suggestion that he is the hero and main character of the story cause he’s a young “Jeff Bridges” looking dude. It’s only a minor roll however, using flashbacks as the beginning of the story unfolds, and the audience realizes that in the first act.

Older Dr. Kopiacek: The older Dr. Kopiacek, Suzie’s father, potentially played by Jeff Bridges, has long hippie hair, flowing but pulled back underneath a cool looking, but filthy Panama hat of some kind. He also has a full but semi-trimmed beard and mustache. It’s hot in the Amazon, so the characters are naturally sweaty most of the time.

The older Dr. Kopiacek, (Jeff Bridges) character smokes weed, and sometimes can be seen picking at his beard, just before he takes a hit on a joint or a drink, or why he’s taking a piss, or when he’s eating, or even in his sleep. Point is, that nervous tic, or search for the bug, that he never finds, becomes part of the comic relief in my film.

He finally finds the bug, but not until the end of the film. I think Jeff Bridges is perfect for this role. The “Dude”, as a highly educated Professor/Anthropologist that drinks “White Russians”, and is 420 friendly, has been a flirtatious dude all his life, and is a perfect role for him.

Younger Dr. Harriet Kopiacek: The younger version of Susie’s Anthropologist mother could almost be a dual role for Scarlett Johansson, playing both her mother and the daughter Suzie, with beautiful red hair, but slightly different looking. (a job for the makeup department).

The older Dr. Harriet Kopiacek: (Suzie’s Anthropologist mother) just before she dies of natural, but sudden causes, is a role for someone like Susan Sarandon. an almost look-alike version of Scarlett Johansson, but obviously older, with the same beautiful red hair.

The QUEEN OF THE YACHT, “SPIX’S MACAW”: William “Dairy-Dude Bill” Devan’s young, 30 something, 3rd wife, Heather, adds a little sexual tension here. Enough for Bill, and every other male on board his yacht. When he has a minute alone after first meeting the “new” Mrs. Devan, Dr. Kopiacek asks his old friend Bill, “Just where in the hell did you find this one”. Bill responds, “Wisconsin Dairy farm”.

LOCATION:
Manaós, Brazil is the largest city, a major port for ocean going vessels, located 1,500 kilometers inland from the Atlantic Ocean. This is the starting point for Suzie and her father, on their journey to spread her mother’s ashes. This was the same entry into the deep Amazonian jungle that they had explored when Suzie was a child, 30 years earlier.

The flight from Los Angeles is actually two flights. The first flight is from Los Angeles to Macapá Airport on the northern branch of the Amazon River, as it meets the Atlantic Ocean. The second flight is from Macapá to Manaós, 1,500 km inland from the Atlantic, the Amazon’s largest city and gateway to the vast Amazonian jungle.

THE LAGOON:
Before we go on, here’s some information on my version of the actual lagoon where all this action takes place.

The lagoon is in a wide part of this unnamed river, and at a width of about 1,500 feet. The lagoon was part a natural occurrence, and part accident. Part accident because the creature’s space craft had crash landed and dug a hole several hundred feet deep along the north side of where the lagoon branched off of the river. Altering the landscape and the shape and size of the lagoon, the spacecraft was 400 feet down in the water of the lagoon.

The crash took place…….a hundred years ago? Twenty years ago? Or maybe only a year ago? It has been there deep in the lagoon for so long, that it sort of naturally camouflaged itself with vegetation and the debris from the initial impact.

In addition to the vegetation and the debris, the creature’s spacecraft is also covered with years worth of River Mussels, Apple Snail, and other varieties of fresh water gastropods and pelecypods. It is well camouflaged.

CREATURE DESIGN:

The audience is thinking remake of “The Creature from the Black Lagoon” right up until the first time the creature morphs. “Holy crap! This isn’t some missing link half fish half human thing! This is something way beyond that”. In the original 1954 film from Universal, the Creature was designed to look half fish, half human, supposedly the missing link between fish and man?

My new creature would not be like a 1954 creature concept because the original creature design is still owned by Universal. My creature will look sorta amphibious, and sorta alien, and not all that scary, until it morphs.

After morphing, everything about this creature’s looks is a “RIP you to pieces” look.

Before morphing, the creature looks peaceful enough to shake hands with. It’s eyes, not overly large, but larger than human, of course this creature stands 7 feet tall prior to morphing, and the head is not quite twice the size of a human skull. No nose, some gills on it’s checks, fluttering open and shut constantly like a fish, when in the water, bubbles come rising up, as the mouth is opening and closing and opening constantly, in sync with the gills.

On land the creature is somehow able to breathe the same way, capturing oxygen out of the air with movement of the gills and mouth just like in the water, without the bubbles.

Note: The aforementioned breathing on land mode is filmed in a way that almost makes the audience FEEL like they can imagine seeing bubbles rise, except you’re dry, on land, in air, not under water. So back to the eyes, the creature has these soft blue, baby rabbit crossed with an ET, eyes, no iris. Peaceful looking eyes. Until its safety is threatened……….

Then a film snaps shut on each eye……a dark shade of red, but like the deer in the headlights look, GLOWING.

Try to imagine the eyes, in comparison to really scary body morphing, going from baby blanket blue, to a GLOWING DARK RED as the creature begins to morph, slowly changing, enough to scare the crap out of anyone.

The protective eyelids instantly close in the blink of the GLOWING DARK RED DEER IN THE HEADLIGHTS eyeballs fashion, and the body and facial changes take about 30 seconds longer to complete, with the creature’s scales changing from not really scary to scarier, and the rest of the overall physical changes from not too scary to……………Wait for it………..”I just shit myself” scary.

With changes that are unlike a transformer robot, into a flying monster robot. These changes are more futuristic space alien shape-shifting changes, into an enhanced militarized, defensive version of itself, like the original ET morphing into the ALIEN, except not that dramatic a change.

Envision these almost hypnotic, peaceful feeling, baby rabbit blue eyes, as the glowing dark red eyelids snap shut, changing that little wabbit look into the “I’m going to rip your head off” look.

That lizard or reptile kind of morphing goes on for another 30 agonizingly scary seconds, as it transitions into it’s defensive version.

If the creature is only so-so scary, almost likable until it morphs, than we can introduce the almost likable creature’s actual appearance early in the film and link that first impression the audience gets of the creature’s looks to the flashback scene late in the movie, that shows the 5 year old heroine’s Frankenstein-like encounter with the almost gentle looking creature from the lagoon. The first reptile-like morphing is so in contrast with the “normal” look of the creature that the audience will be “shit in their pants” shocked at the first total morphing.

Before we see the total morphing, there are instances where the creature begins to automatically morph, with the instantaneous closing of the eyelid and changes in the color of the eyes.

In other words, through the movie we see the creature in various states of physical change, both underwater, and out of the water.

Note: During warm, seemingly affectionate moments, while still in the “morphed to monster” stage, the creature’s eyes go from the glowing dark red to the soft baby blue, as the protective eyelids blink a few times, and slowly lift up.

This happens a few times in the film, when the creature recognizes that there is no real threat to it’s safety. Imagine the look on the face of the creature at those infrequent moments. A “Tear you a new asshole”, absolutely frightening look, suddenly looking at you with bunny rabbit soft blue eyes. The audience can sense a kind of humanity in the creature when the eyes are blinking, from rage red, to fully opened baby blues.

MERCHANDISE, (ACTION FIGURES, DOLLS, POSTERS:

Note: As far as Action Figures are concerned, I just created two. The scary one with the glowing, deep, dark-red eyes, and the companion pre-morph baby-blue-eyed cuddly one that kinda looks like what an alien’s version of an Oscar Statue would be. Both purchased from any Wal-Mart, Toys R Us, and other fine retailers near you. Two action figures for one movie, because of creating the two versions of the creature, pre-morph and morphed.

And in the film, you can almost, but not quite imagine that the nice creature looks like a slightly milky, light green jade Oscar, when it’s arms are almost, but not quite……..Wait for it……..At its side like an Oscar Statue. Thru the movie, the audience slowly begins to realize that they had seen that shape before. George says, “Look Maryanne, that shot right there, did you see that?”………You can’t be blinking your eyes when those 4 frames pass your screen view. That four seconds is the silhouette shot, just for a second, you could see the silhouette of the……….Wait for it……..Oscar Statue?

Even though the audience knows, that what they are seeing on the screen at that moment is the unmorphed creature, at dusk, with the dark green of the Amazon jungle framing the dark blue of the lagoon (which is one of the poster designs) with the color changing eyes.

Instead of one movie, one creature, one action figure, you have one movie, one creature, and two action figure versions of the same creature, just like in the film. Absolutely genius! For the younger than 9, you would have a relatively inexpensive doll depicting “Suzie the Anthropologist”, as well as a more substantial, more expensive “Figurine”, a highly collectible, serialized & dated version for teenaged girls (and a few boys). You would also have to have the main HERO action figure, plus captain of the cruise ship action figure? For sure an action figure of Suzie’s father, played by Jeff Bridges. How about that, an action figure/doll with Jeff Bridges face, how dope is that?

No sense in making these “dolls”, i.e., something a child under 10 would play with, like a cuddly stuffed bear. Make them true action figurines, with a collectible quality to them, not some cheap molded plastic thing.

The not so scary one possibly more appealing to girls, with boys and girls both having a scary creature action figure for the COLLECTIBILITY reasons, i.e., “buy one now when the film debuts for $29.95 and watch it’s value increase in the first year of release of the movie”.

Note about other merchandise: the movie poster (one image, three versions). The design/artwork, would be like a late forties early fifties art deco, painted style. One version, the serialized, numbered and signed limited edition Giclee series, which could sell for hundreds, as well as the inexpensive mass printed lithograph version for $19.95, with free shipping.

Another image I thought of tonight is almost like a still photo. In fact, its about four seconds of the film I mentioned earlier, “Did you see that Alice?” The image is dark, dusk like, you can barely make out the jungle in deep dark green foilage, transitioning to the dark blue waterline. Slightly above center, all you can see is these bunny rabbit light blue eyes, until you start moving to one side of the poster to the other, the color of the eyes starts to change to the DARK RED GLOWING eyes, back to baby blue, back to that sinister red. That could be the rarer, collectible poster, with some sort of hologramish thing for the color shifting eyes. On some teenaged dude’s bedroom wall, with some blacklight feature in the dark.

This poster basically replicates the image in the movie trailer which is all CGI, with slight motion in the jungle, water, and color changing eyes. Plus there could be another inexpensive lithograph version of this one for mass distribution. Imagine at school, a conversation between three 12 year old’s in the school cafeteria, “Ricky got the limited edition dark poster for his birthday last week, how dope is that dudes?” Yah, that’s so flexing, I only have the litho version. Rick’s parents know one of the producers I think”.

PRODUCT PLACEMENT:

The subtle, but clever product placement of Kahlúa®. Jeff Bridges character sitting on the patio deck, back end of the yacht in the early evening with Suzie and a few other people talking, and admiring the sunset in the background. There are a few people in the Jacuzzi, Jeff takes a hit off the bong and nonchalantly passes it to someone as they are walking by, saying, (camera zooms in a little), “I’m not always thirsty……..” while simultaneously someone else hands him his drink, he turns towards the camera to his left leaning slightly, now holding up his drink while he continues to say, “but when I am, I drink White Russians” (quickly mumbling, “five foot two, hunerd-three pounds”) , holding the bottle up, “Made with my favorite coffee liqueur, Kahlúa®” (cross/Redneck/Hippie chuckle here from Jeff here). If he can pull this off, acting-wise, Jeff makes it look so subtle and funny for that moment (comic relief), so the audience appropriately grins and chuckles out loud at Jeff’s smiling, subtle product placement, but doesn’t think about purposeful or blatant product placement until they are walking out of the theater, talking about the film. Then they really laugh. “That Kahlúa® ad in the middle of the story. Was it an ad, or not? Hahahahaha……Anyway, clever product placement on their part, I’d see the movie again just to watch THAT scene again”…….

MUSIC / MUSICAL SCORE:

Regarding music, and or score. I was inspired by the following song as I was writing tonight. Musically, the “Tone” of the movie sounds to me to be a mix between the Big Band sound, and Hippie era sound. “Who’s sorry now” by Harry James and his Orchestra, HAS to be somewhere in the movie. Dr. Kopiacek (Jeff Bridges) is from the early 60’s hippie era, but took a while to turn from short haired geek to long haired hippie. It took one trip, his first trip into the Amazon for him to let his hair grow out. His all-time favorite band? The Rolling Stones, so there has to be some Stones music in the film.

MORE SYNOPSIS RELATED STUFF:

This trip, which purpose is to spread her Mother’s ashes, is also part vacation, and part “get to know Dad ” again trip. Suzie and her father had been somewhat estranged from each other for a few years. When her mother was alive, her and Suzie talked at least once a week. Suzie hadn’t spoke to her father in two years. Part of the story-line is the re-acquainting and sometimes struggle, to get beyond their original gripe with each other.

One of the issues was Suzie’s boyfriend, also a scientist, who had died six months earlier in a motorcycle accident.

Suzie’s father (Jeff Bridges), had a few fatherly, parental issues with Suzie’s boyfriend, primarily because her boyfriend didn’t want any part in marriage, or fathering a grand child for Dr. Kopiacek.

And perhaps because Suzie’s boyfriend was African-American, though Dr. Kopiacek, who really wasn’t Redneck racial, (Jeff Bridges) was very loving and kind, and raised Suzie to be independent and strong like her mother, he still harbored a resentment towards his daughters choice of boyfriend and possible life partner because of non-commitment.

Therefore, the barriers were raised between them. Now they both were together again, alone, without Mom, and the audience feels the pain and the re-growth of their father/daughter relationship.

From estranged uncomfortable feeling at LAX as they were first leaving for Brazil, to the final cliff-hanger moments at the end of the film, to the final scene when they are standing there, watching the huge alien mother ship rise up and shoot off into space.

Of course, in between the beginning of the film, and the end, moviegoers around the world are somewhat relieved that Suzie and her father mended their relationship.

Note: She had been captured and held captive by the creature. The lead hero dude appears later in the film’s 3rd act as a retired Navy SEAL TEAM member, who just happens to be related to Suzie’s deceased boyfriend (his brother?) and flys in to rescue her. I Have to think about that for a while.

POSSIBLE ENDING SCENES:

A possible ending sequence of scenes sorta like the film “ET”. The creature has managed to modify a captured cell phone. Even though cell phone signal coverage is zero in the jungle, the creature has altered this cell phone to bounce a weird signal off a passing satellite, sort of ET like, to a mother ship. The creature has finally contacted it’s own kind, out there a few billion miles away from Earth. Close up shot of this debris and mollusk covered camouflage layer of the creature’s spacecraft cracking, underwater clouds of silt rising up as this huge mother ship of a spacecraft slowly hovers lower and lower over the lagoon, and with some sort of anti-gravity tractor beam lifting up this smaller alien space craft out of the depths of the lagoon. From an earlier scene, there is a shot of the creature’s spacecraft deep down in the lagoon.

From the audiences earlier perspective, you can’t really tell how huge the creatures spacecraft really is until the sequence of scenes where it starts rising out of the water. The creature’s craft is in fact, huge, maybe the size of a football field. For perspective, the audience sees this huge football stadium sized craft rising towards the much larger mother ship, which is so much larger, it has darkened the sky, dwarfing the creature’s rising craft. The shots switch back and forth from the underwater shots of the creature’s ship slowly breaking away from a millennium of imprisonment in the murky depths of the lagoon, to the various shots of the “Mother Ship” slowly lowering closer and closer to the surface of the water, with a CGI facsimile of the tractor beam, to a shot of the unmorphed creature sitting in the cockpit of it’s craft, with a look of satisfaction and relief on it’s face, with a closeup of the creature’s baby blue eyes, reflecting what it is looking at, the shot slowly moving into one of it’s eyes, showing an almost infinite view of space and time, as the mother ship slowly begins rising back up in the sky, a shot of the massive dark shadow slowly turning light again, to a shot from the explorer yacht as Suzie (Scarlett Johansson) and her father (Jeff Bridges), watch from 20 miles away, as the mother ship suddenly takes off for outer space in the blink of an eye. Final shot is of the creature, standing in a room of other creatures, and the camera zooms in on the simple silver necklace that it’s wearing, given to it by Suzie. Has to be a warm felt, good ending for the audience, after all, the creature was not a bad dude, even though it did slaughter a bunch of people during the film, as it says something in alien talk to the leader alien, while gently holding up the large blue sapphire at the end of the simple silver necklace, with an almost matching blue sapphire color of the aliens eyes. The translated words on the screen read, “There is hope”. End of story, run credits.