February 2003: Initial Callbacks for "Catwoman"
- Location
- the point is of no return and you have reached it!
You open February by putting out notice of Aronofsky's departure from the Batman: Year One project and putting out feelers for potential co-directors or supporters for Frank Miller's directorial debut. Frank has his own shortlist that he's contacted: From Dusk till Dawn's Robert Rodriguez, Pulp Fiction's Quentin Tarantino, RoboCop 2's Irvin Kershner, the Mask of the Phantasm pair of Eric Radomski and Bruce Timm and the amateur comics aficionado Zack Snyder. It'll be the middle of the month by the time discussions between agents have gotten to the point where you can reasonably make a push for any specific director, but you don't expect too huge of a delay to come forward so long as the eventual co-director is willing to deliver on the shared vision you've established so far.
The first wave of auditions and interviews with potential Catwoman candidates has concluded, bringing forth a crop of amateur actresses looking to find their big break with Warner Bros. along struggling actresses in search of a career resurgence. You've been prepared with short briefs on the stand-out auditions and the actresses responsible by your casting director, and while few names have the star power as the Big Four being considered before, you're sure you have something to work with here.
Eliza Dushku (22) is a journeymen actress most well known for her role as Faith on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and brings with a clear capability for action-focused acting. Young, talented and looking to sign on to a new franchise amid rumors of Buffy the Vampire Slayer coming to an end, she's become a bit of a studio darling for the role. Her character there hit many of the same notes the studio expects Catwoman to hit. Outside of her BtVS credit, Dushku has played roles in a number of 90s movies and early 00s movies that show her ability to play to an ensemble. Her most recent film project, Wrong Turn, is set to release in the next few months. With Sarah Michelle Geller uninterested in the project, a part of you wonders if they brought Eliza in as the "next best thing."
Janina Gavankar (22) is an amateur actress out of Chicago looking for her big break with her primary experience so far coming from short films and live theatre acting. The actress is an outspoken "nerd," highly interested in non-traditional acting roles and crossover appearances in potential video games or web-attached forms of storytelling. Janina performed above expectations in her auditions and interviews, but did not blow the casting team out of the water. Like Ms. Dushku, her youth and willingness to commit to a long-term project are clear benefits in the studio's eyes… though there are worries on whether or not she'll be capable of holding attention or selling tickets as a film's star.
Eva Green (22) is the clearly talented daughter of the French acting veteran Marlène Jobert, already set to make her screen debut in the adult-rated film The Dreamers later this year with an attachment to Ridley Scott's long-awaited Kingdom of Heaven sometime in the future. Already nominated for a Molière award for her acting on stage, there is little question of her talent and more concern about whether or not the budding actress will willingly sign on to a potential franchise role. Green calls the prospect of joining a film already late in development "exciting," a welcome change from the auteurs and talent who run away from the possibility of development hell.
Kareena Kapoor (22) is a Bollywood actress looking for inroads to film abroad and a starring, global role after her career's meteoric trajectory was brought back down to Earth by a series of failures last year and a serious worry of becoming typecast as a love interest or damsel-type character. Catwoman represents a way for her to reintroduce herself to global audiences and show her acting chops in a much more modern, risqué and action-oriented way. Her past performances have won her acclaim for excellent emotion, patience and control in difficult scenes or productions and complex character portrayals. There's a perhaps overly ambitious hope that Kareena will boost the film's international sales and make in-roads for DC's cultural conquest of the Indian comic book markets.
Élodie Yung (~22) is an amateur French actress with a high level of skill and knowledge in martial arts. While she has made some appearances in French soaps like La vie devant nous, it's largely her martial arts knowhow, early potential and her strong impression in the auditions that suggest she could be fit for the role. Though Yung's interests are more inclined towards pursuing law school and a career as a judge, the prospect of becoming the face of the first modern female superhero excites her. Yung wants to play a Catwoman that's more than a "badass ninja" or a "badass killer," she wants to bring a sense of personality and verisimilitude to the character.
Michelle Rodriguez (23) is an established actress off the merit of Girlfight alone, but she's become much closer to the dream of becoming a household name by her performance in The Fast and the Furious and her frequent bouts of legal drama. Nonetheless, she has clear skill as an action-lead and the grace necessary for Selina Kyle's more subtle character traits. Outspoken in the industry and allegedly willing to walk off set on The Fast and the Furious when decisions made in the film struck her as inconsistent or sexist, much of the media has labeled her as a diva and firebrand. Maybe that's something that fits the Catwoman.
Maggie Gyllenhaal (26) has long been under the impressive shadow of her more famous and younger brother, Jake Gyllenhaal, but has slowly developed a following of her own for her character work and devotion to her roles. Gyllenhaal has a long tradition of playing characters that are either morally ambiguous or morally compromised, and the character of Catwoman falls neatly into that typing without being so confining of a fit as to typecast her. The cynic in you wonders if trying to cast Maggie is someone in the casting team's idea of making in-roads with her brother.
Kate Beckinsale (29) is a mid-tier actress with a strong sense of action and motion in her performances and a proven capability to lead films as a protagonist. Beckinsale imagines the role of Catwoman as something more akin to a James Bond story than a traditional serial, adopting and telling great stories from the Catwoman mythos rather than trying to string a constant narrative across a long series of films. To her, the character is the story, and the story is the character; tying it down with long-term commitments and building narrative arcs goes against what makes the Catwoman work. She's absolutely on board with multiple installments, so long as that wish is respected.
Thandie Newton (30) has found success throughout the years in a number of acclaimed films, from Beloved and Besieged to Mission Impossible 2 and Interview with the Vampire, but has never seemed to break through into the public's consciousness as a star. She's hopeful that Catwoman would offer her the chance to do so. Newton is interested in making Catwoman into something of a 'statement film' if she receives the position, not just about the Catwoman of the comics but about the situations and abuses people in Selina Kyle's situation—evidently, she's heard some of Aronofsky's old plans for the character—and profession undergo. Exploring that space, reclaiming that space, revolutionizing that space are glimmers in Thandie's eye when she interviews for the role.
Rachel Weisz (32) is a star without a series, looking to attach herself to a new franchise after complications with The Mummy's future direction and developments. The casting team fawns over her, from her performance in the audition to her comments in the interviews, but there are concerns from your production team about her already deeply busy schedule cutting into goals for Catwoman and Batman: Year One cross-connectivity or long-term commitment to a serialized product. She's commented a few times about what a shame it is that Aronofsky is no longer attached to the project. Still—it's hard not to imagine what her star power could bring in terms of sales and hype for the project.
You're not in a position just yet where it's necessary to bring any of these candidates in for follow-up interviews or negotiations, but it would give you a head-start on future production and avoid further delays in production to establish a rapport with candidates you're interested in. Taking charge and showing a quick casting cycle would also be a strong statement against the development hell Catwoman has gone through, so long as it doesn't backfire and bring on accusations of a rushed casting later on. It isn't too far gone to try and contact any of the initial Big Four candidates for the role, but news of an open casting call will certainly color any discussions with them.
[] [CASTING-CALL] Select a name of an actress you'd like to reach out to. The top actress(es) chosen this way will be reached out to for future interviews.
[] [CASTING-CALL] Do not reach out to any of these actresses. Continue looking for other options.
The first results for your ongoing Script Bounty on Catwoman have been trickling in these past two weeks, with three major treatments coming in so far: Chuck Dixon and Jane Goldman's "The Catfile," Darwyn Cooke's "Selina's Big Score," and the Vijay Sahni's "King Tut" story. There's word that David Fincher is collaborating with Ed Brubacher on their own script for a Catwoman film, an adaptation of the acclaimed Anodyne/Relentless stories, though there's no telling how long such a script or treatment will take to complete.
Screenwriter Jane Goldman pairs with comic-writer Chuck Dixon for an adaptation of "The Catfile" storyline—Vol. 2, #15-#18—that tells a rather ridiculous international Catwoman story that when completed will play "on humor, non-linear storytelling and constantly escalating thrills." An attempted heist of a high tech, artisan knife from the Gotham City Museum goes bad when Catwoman is confronted by rival thieves and comes to realize the situation is a set-up; though she succeeds in fleeing with the dagger, a remote defense mechanism of the dagger is activated and leaves her poisoned and unconscious. She awakens to members of The Agency brooding and discussing over her, quickly learning that they set up the knife as a trap to lure out Gotham's greatest thieves and use them to their own purposes: the hunt for the Crown of the Swan King, a priceless and mythical artifact held in the possession of Prince William Kapreallian. As insurance for her compliance and in case of her failure, they've installed a kill-switch in Catwoman that can be remotely activated.
The Prince is an easy mark for Selina Kyle, falling apart like jelly in her hands once she arrives and sets off on her mission—but the rest of the mission falls apart around her. William Kapreallian appears a complete pompous idiot, obsessed with the idea of hunting safaris and old, "droll adventures" over anything real in life. His perfect honeymoon would be a night of exotic poaching and ivory collecting in South Africa. It's clear he spends far more than he can afford. The Corsican mafia invade the Kapreallian Estate for reclamation of past debts, targeting the Swan Crown themselves as the greatest symbol of the Kapreallian wealth. To prevent the Crown from being stolen by the mafiosi, Catwoman works together with the Prince on its defense in an escalating series of close calls and near losses. There's some level of romantic chemistry between the Prince and Selina, though how much of it is real on Selina's end and how much of it is a game she plays to make the Prince vulnerable to her manipulations is left unclear. Finally, Catwoman persuades the Prince to let her appear to 'steal' the Crown and escape, drawing the mafiosi away from the Kapreallian Estate and onto a hunt for her. They set up a rendezvous point for her to meet back up with the Prince and return the Crown once the immediate situation has passed, which Selina ignores in order to rendezvous with The Agency and attempt to trade it for her freedom. Unbeknownst to Selina, the Prince confides in his old mentor Henri Ducard he intends to propose to Selina when they meet again, finding her the only woman through the years to free him from his malaise and bring back his flight of fancy. Ducard tracks after Selina Kyle, following her subtly as she reneges on her reunion with the Prince.
Her attempt is no-good, and they pressgang her into a hunt for their next target, a local Boccatoria oil-painting whose frame conceals blackmail material on a number of French and Romanian public figures and politicians based on their collaboration with Nazis throughout the century. Her attempted theft of the Boccatoria goes awry from the start, as Henri Ducard has captured her inside man Shapleigh and taken on his role in the heist. When local mafiosi recognize her from the raid on the Kapreallian Estate and take the opportunity to gun her down, Ducard goads Kyle and taunts her with her failure while he promises to leave whatever's left of her giftwrapped for The Prince. Rather than escape from the art museum with the Boccatoria as planned, she seals herself into the Boccatoria Vault on a gamble that the Vault's security mechanisms will protect her from the remote activation of The Agency's kill-switch. The Boccatoria Vault is suspended and made of see-through materials, under the watch of countless surveillance cameras, and it becomes international news immediately. The Prince, aware he's been duped but mortified by Selina's situation, heads off for vengeance, while The Agency closes in and sends in their own operatives to take out Catwoman and destroy evidence of the operation. Within the suspended vault and the chaos of collapsing enemies, Selina faces a race against time: find a way to cut the kill-switch out of her body before she dies of suffocation or open the hatch for air and let the kill-switch do its work. She uses the cat-claws of her suit to dig beneath her skin and rip the kill-switch receiver out of herself, staining the glass walls of the Boccatoria vault in the process. Selina climbs out of her bloody trophy-case with The Agency's desired documents as gauss over her wounds as The Prince arrives in an outfit resembling The Mask of Zorro, equipped with a sword and all. Catwoman tries to weave an escape through the three-way shootout between the mafiosi, the Agency goons and Ducard, relying on The Prince's ridiculous antics to distract and give her time to make an escape in spite of her injuries. She succumbs to her injuries just as Ducard kicks the last of the Agency goons present through a priceless sculpture of the Sisyphean struggle.
When she awakens, she sees the Prince, Ducard and their maids discussing over her (mostly) naked form, with measurements spread across the wall. The Prince is pleased to see her wake up and cheerfully confides that his maids undressed her to prepare her for their wedding—the thought of which nearly gags Selina by itself—and that Ducard is standing by for insurance. Forced to play along at the start, Kyle is pushed forward towards an inevitable wedding ceremony, desperately looking for plans to escape or take the Prince as a hostage while Ducard looms over her. William's maids willingly return Selina's clothes to her, giving Selina the opportunity to re-activate her communicator with The Agency and pretend to "accidently" share her and the Prince's new location on a hidden, mountain-range castle. The Agency attacks, sending their leader Galiant in full this time to lead their attempt to take out Catwoman. In the action-packed conclusion, as the wedding ceremony approaches, Galiant and his helicopter shoot through the stained-glass of their wedding ceremony room and leave the crowd crippled and confused. Selina grabs the Prince and uses him as a human shield, pulling him aside while he mumbles into her hand. Ducard is town between killing Selina and killing Galiant, and struggles at his attempts to do both while Galiant offers Ducard a better deal and new offer to turn on The Prince and work with him instead. With Ducard distracted, Selina releases the Prince and goes to run, but is stopped when the Prince's mumblings are finally heard: he's talking about his safari gun. The two rush together to the safari-gear the Prince had prepared for his ideal, future honeymoon, and Selina grabs the heavy-duty hunting rifle within and knocks the Prince out with its butt-end. Selina sneaks out the safari-room's window and travels along the building's balcony, lining up a shot on the helicopter with the rifle and with two clean shots blowing it out of the sky and on a death-spiral towards the wedding room.
Dropping the rifle and descending down the balcony's side to escape the now burning chateau, Selina spots a sports-car driving down the mountain-side road in the distance and gives a holler out to the young men driving it. It slows and they turn to face her, with the camera panning over just how wild Catwoman looks in that moment and flashing back through each of the 'lives' she lost over the course of the film. FIN on the Catfile.
Darwyn Cooke presents "Selina's Big Score" largely unaltered from its comic origins. Selina flees from Morocco with a priceless stolen artifact, only to realize that she stole a fake and find herself destitute. She returns to Gotham City as a shade of her former self, but is reinvigorated by a meeting with her old associate Swifty and a meeting with amateur burglar Chantel, who reminds her of her younger self and her past adventures. Chantel and Selina work together to set up a major heist that will put Selina back on her feet and give Chantel a chance to leave the life of crime behind her, before the film's narrative flashes back to Selina's past and her first "big score" that would have let her retire. Selina decides to reconnect with her associate from a past score, Stark.
Selina, Stark, Swift and Chantel work together to set up the heist and end up involving a few other associates, incl. an engineer named Jeff, a weapon's dealer named Mom and more. They plan to steal a significant sum of money being used to purchase Montreal heroin and being transferred on freight cars. Chantel is spying on Falcone as a source of information for the planned heist, using her relationship with Frank Falcone to listen in. In the background, Selina learns that she's being hunted by private eye Slam Bradley on the orders of Gotham's Mayor Dickerson. Jeff develops a rocket-enhanced boarding car that Selina will pilot to break into the train and make their big score. Slowly, more and more of the details of Stark and Selina's past together are revealed, with Stark going as far as to share with Jeff that Selina betrayed them on a past job. Selina manages to evade Slam Bradley's pursuits by convincing him that the Catwoman has "died" and having him agree to end the investigations.
Slam Bradley follows his investigative instincts and stumbles in on the aftermath of Chantel being beaten raw by Falcone's men, leading Bradley to burst in, kill Falcone's men, hear Chantel's last wishes and unintentionally kills Frank Falcone while torturing him for information and attempting to understand what's going on in the Selina-Stark-Swift case. Falcone's men use the information they beat out of Chantel and shared to set up traps for the planned heist, sabotaging the planned escape boats Swifty had prepared. Specifically, they warn Falcone's man on the other side of the heist, LaPerier.
The film concludes with the heist itself, culminating in the death of all members of the Heist team except for Selina herself, and a rejoining of Selina and Slam for a final battle in the end. LaPerier takes out Jeff with a sniper's shot and would have succeeded in taking out Stark and Selina with another set of shots if it weren't for Slam's timely arrival and intervention, but LaPerier's own henchmen intervenes and evens the odds again. Selina uses herself as a decoy to give Stark time to take down LaPerier and his henchmen, but Stark's gun is out of bullets, and LaPerier is able to turn the situation on him and kill him. Before he dies to the gunshots, Stark grapples with LaPerier and turns his gun against him, forcing the two to die atop each other; in Stark's last words, he confesses his real name to Selina. Selina and Slam have their last confrontation, with Slam deciding that he'll have to take Selina in for this no matter how it started, and Selina shooting Slam and escaping so that she can go and take care of Chantel and Stark's families.
A much fuller synopsis of "Selina's Big Score" is available here.
Vijay Sahni, a relative unknown in the screenwriting game with some times to Bollywood superhero productions, has presented a Catwoman story involving King Tut and harkening back to the Adam West TV show and its depiction of Professor William Omaha McElroy. Making use fantastical artifacts including Tutankhamun's headdress, the pitch is the most mystical and high-fantasy Gotham approach of any in discussion right now.
It brings in side characters including The Eraser, The Magpie, The Calculator and King Croc alongside more traditional Catwoman support characters like Holly Robinson. Many of the characters experience their own turn of being empowered by the Egyptian Gods, though the gifts seem impermanent for all members except Catwoman herself. While certainly a fun script and a strong action romp, there's some concern that it's asking the audience to accept too much too quickly with little lasting impact—perhaps more in line for an animated special episode over a feature length film.
A synopsis of Sahni's treatment is available here. A few screenwriters have put out interest on the initial draft, suggesting that some revised versions or some scripts inspired by this version may appear as the script bounty continues into next month.
[] [SCRIPT BOUNTY] Emphasize scripts in line with "The Catfile."
[] [SCRIPT BOUNTY] Emphasize scripts in line with "Selina's Big Score."
[] [SCRIPT BOUNTY] Emphasize scripts in line with "Catwoman and King Tut."
[] [SCRIPT BOUNTY] Continue as is.
The first wave of auditions and interviews with potential Catwoman candidates has concluded, bringing forth a crop of amateur actresses looking to find their big break with Warner Bros. along struggling actresses in search of a career resurgence. You've been prepared with short briefs on the stand-out auditions and the actresses responsible by your casting director, and while few names have the star power as the Big Four being considered before, you're sure you have something to work with here.
Eliza Dushku (22) is a journeymen actress most well known for her role as Faith on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and brings with a clear capability for action-focused acting. Young, talented and looking to sign on to a new franchise amid rumors of Buffy the Vampire Slayer coming to an end, she's become a bit of a studio darling for the role. Her character there hit many of the same notes the studio expects Catwoman to hit. Outside of her BtVS credit, Dushku has played roles in a number of 90s movies and early 00s movies that show her ability to play to an ensemble. Her most recent film project, Wrong Turn, is set to release in the next few months. With Sarah Michelle Geller uninterested in the project, a part of you wonders if they brought Eliza in as the "next best thing."
Janina Gavankar (22) is an amateur actress out of Chicago looking for her big break with her primary experience so far coming from short films and live theatre acting. The actress is an outspoken "nerd," highly interested in non-traditional acting roles and crossover appearances in potential video games or web-attached forms of storytelling. Janina performed above expectations in her auditions and interviews, but did not blow the casting team out of the water. Like Ms. Dushku, her youth and willingness to commit to a long-term project are clear benefits in the studio's eyes… though there are worries on whether or not she'll be capable of holding attention or selling tickets as a film's star.
Eva Green (22) is the clearly talented daughter of the French acting veteran Marlène Jobert, already set to make her screen debut in the adult-rated film The Dreamers later this year with an attachment to Ridley Scott's long-awaited Kingdom of Heaven sometime in the future. Already nominated for a Molière award for her acting on stage, there is little question of her talent and more concern about whether or not the budding actress will willingly sign on to a potential franchise role. Green calls the prospect of joining a film already late in development "exciting," a welcome change from the auteurs and talent who run away from the possibility of development hell.
Kareena Kapoor (22) is a Bollywood actress looking for inroads to film abroad and a starring, global role after her career's meteoric trajectory was brought back down to Earth by a series of failures last year and a serious worry of becoming typecast as a love interest or damsel-type character. Catwoman represents a way for her to reintroduce herself to global audiences and show her acting chops in a much more modern, risqué and action-oriented way. Her past performances have won her acclaim for excellent emotion, patience and control in difficult scenes or productions and complex character portrayals. There's a perhaps overly ambitious hope that Kareena will boost the film's international sales and make in-roads for DC's cultural conquest of the Indian comic book markets.
Élodie Yung (~22) is an amateur French actress with a high level of skill and knowledge in martial arts. While she has made some appearances in French soaps like La vie devant nous, it's largely her martial arts knowhow, early potential and her strong impression in the auditions that suggest she could be fit for the role. Though Yung's interests are more inclined towards pursuing law school and a career as a judge, the prospect of becoming the face of the first modern female superhero excites her. Yung wants to play a Catwoman that's more than a "badass ninja" or a "badass killer," she wants to bring a sense of personality and verisimilitude to the character.
Michelle Rodriguez (23) is an established actress off the merit of Girlfight alone, but she's become much closer to the dream of becoming a household name by her performance in The Fast and the Furious and her frequent bouts of legal drama. Nonetheless, she has clear skill as an action-lead and the grace necessary for Selina Kyle's more subtle character traits. Outspoken in the industry and allegedly willing to walk off set on The Fast and the Furious when decisions made in the film struck her as inconsistent or sexist, much of the media has labeled her as a diva and firebrand. Maybe that's something that fits the Catwoman.
Maggie Gyllenhaal (26) has long been under the impressive shadow of her more famous and younger brother, Jake Gyllenhaal, but has slowly developed a following of her own for her character work and devotion to her roles. Gyllenhaal has a long tradition of playing characters that are either morally ambiguous or morally compromised, and the character of Catwoman falls neatly into that typing without being so confining of a fit as to typecast her. The cynic in you wonders if trying to cast Maggie is someone in the casting team's idea of making in-roads with her brother.
Kate Beckinsale (29) is a mid-tier actress with a strong sense of action and motion in her performances and a proven capability to lead films as a protagonist. Beckinsale imagines the role of Catwoman as something more akin to a James Bond story than a traditional serial, adopting and telling great stories from the Catwoman mythos rather than trying to string a constant narrative across a long series of films. To her, the character is the story, and the story is the character; tying it down with long-term commitments and building narrative arcs goes against what makes the Catwoman work. She's absolutely on board with multiple installments, so long as that wish is respected.
Thandie Newton (30) has found success throughout the years in a number of acclaimed films, from Beloved and Besieged to Mission Impossible 2 and Interview with the Vampire, but has never seemed to break through into the public's consciousness as a star. She's hopeful that Catwoman would offer her the chance to do so. Newton is interested in making Catwoman into something of a 'statement film' if she receives the position, not just about the Catwoman of the comics but about the situations and abuses people in Selina Kyle's situation—evidently, she's heard some of Aronofsky's old plans for the character—and profession undergo. Exploring that space, reclaiming that space, revolutionizing that space are glimmers in Thandie's eye when she interviews for the role.
Rachel Weisz (32) is a star without a series, looking to attach herself to a new franchise after complications with The Mummy's future direction and developments. The casting team fawns over her, from her performance in the audition to her comments in the interviews, but there are concerns from your production team about her already deeply busy schedule cutting into goals for Catwoman and Batman: Year One cross-connectivity or long-term commitment to a serialized product. She's commented a few times about what a shame it is that Aronofsky is no longer attached to the project. Still—it's hard not to imagine what her star power could bring in terms of sales and hype for the project.
You're not in a position just yet where it's necessary to bring any of these candidates in for follow-up interviews or negotiations, but it would give you a head-start on future production and avoid further delays in production to establish a rapport with candidates you're interested in. Taking charge and showing a quick casting cycle would also be a strong statement against the development hell Catwoman has gone through, so long as it doesn't backfire and bring on accusations of a rushed casting later on. It isn't too far gone to try and contact any of the initial Big Four candidates for the role, but news of an open casting call will certainly color any discussions with them.
[] [CASTING-CALL] Select a name of an actress you'd like to reach out to. The top actress(es) chosen this way will be reached out to for future interviews.
[] [CASTING-CALL] Do not reach out to any of these actresses. Continue looking for other options.
The first results for your ongoing Script Bounty on Catwoman have been trickling in these past two weeks, with three major treatments coming in so far: Chuck Dixon and Jane Goldman's "The Catfile," Darwyn Cooke's "Selina's Big Score," and the Vijay Sahni's "King Tut" story. There's word that David Fincher is collaborating with Ed Brubacher on their own script for a Catwoman film, an adaptation of the acclaimed Anodyne/Relentless stories, though there's no telling how long such a script or treatment will take to complete.
Screenwriter Jane Goldman pairs with comic-writer Chuck Dixon for an adaptation of "The Catfile" storyline—Vol. 2, #15-#18—that tells a rather ridiculous international Catwoman story that when completed will play "on humor, non-linear storytelling and constantly escalating thrills." An attempted heist of a high tech, artisan knife from the Gotham City Museum goes bad when Catwoman is confronted by rival thieves and comes to realize the situation is a set-up; though she succeeds in fleeing with the dagger, a remote defense mechanism of the dagger is activated and leaves her poisoned and unconscious. She awakens to members of The Agency brooding and discussing over her, quickly learning that they set up the knife as a trap to lure out Gotham's greatest thieves and use them to their own purposes: the hunt for the Crown of the Swan King, a priceless and mythical artifact held in the possession of Prince William Kapreallian. As insurance for her compliance and in case of her failure, they've installed a kill-switch in Catwoman that can be remotely activated.
The Prince is an easy mark for Selina Kyle, falling apart like jelly in her hands once she arrives and sets off on her mission—but the rest of the mission falls apart around her. William Kapreallian appears a complete pompous idiot, obsessed with the idea of hunting safaris and old, "droll adventures" over anything real in life. His perfect honeymoon would be a night of exotic poaching and ivory collecting in South Africa. It's clear he spends far more than he can afford. The Corsican mafia invade the Kapreallian Estate for reclamation of past debts, targeting the Swan Crown themselves as the greatest symbol of the Kapreallian wealth. To prevent the Crown from being stolen by the mafiosi, Catwoman works together with the Prince on its defense in an escalating series of close calls and near losses. There's some level of romantic chemistry between the Prince and Selina, though how much of it is real on Selina's end and how much of it is a game she plays to make the Prince vulnerable to her manipulations is left unclear. Finally, Catwoman persuades the Prince to let her appear to 'steal' the Crown and escape, drawing the mafiosi away from the Kapreallian Estate and onto a hunt for her. They set up a rendezvous point for her to meet back up with the Prince and return the Crown once the immediate situation has passed, which Selina ignores in order to rendezvous with The Agency and attempt to trade it for her freedom. Unbeknownst to Selina, the Prince confides in his old mentor Henri Ducard he intends to propose to Selina when they meet again, finding her the only woman through the years to free him from his malaise and bring back his flight of fancy. Ducard tracks after Selina Kyle, following her subtly as she reneges on her reunion with the Prince.
Her attempt is no-good, and they pressgang her into a hunt for their next target, a local Boccatoria oil-painting whose frame conceals blackmail material on a number of French and Romanian public figures and politicians based on their collaboration with Nazis throughout the century. Her attempted theft of the Boccatoria goes awry from the start, as Henri Ducard has captured her inside man Shapleigh and taken on his role in the heist. When local mafiosi recognize her from the raid on the Kapreallian Estate and take the opportunity to gun her down, Ducard goads Kyle and taunts her with her failure while he promises to leave whatever's left of her giftwrapped for The Prince. Rather than escape from the art museum with the Boccatoria as planned, she seals herself into the Boccatoria Vault on a gamble that the Vault's security mechanisms will protect her from the remote activation of The Agency's kill-switch. The Boccatoria Vault is suspended and made of see-through materials, under the watch of countless surveillance cameras, and it becomes international news immediately. The Prince, aware he's been duped but mortified by Selina's situation, heads off for vengeance, while The Agency closes in and sends in their own operatives to take out Catwoman and destroy evidence of the operation. Within the suspended vault and the chaos of collapsing enemies, Selina faces a race against time: find a way to cut the kill-switch out of her body before she dies of suffocation or open the hatch for air and let the kill-switch do its work. She uses the cat-claws of her suit to dig beneath her skin and rip the kill-switch receiver out of herself, staining the glass walls of the Boccatoria vault in the process. Selina climbs out of her bloody trophy-case with The Agency's desired documents as gauss over her wounds as The Prince arrives in an outfit resembling The Mask of Zorro, equipped with a sword and all. Catwoman tries to weave an escape through the three-way shootout between the mafiosi, the Agency goons and Ducard, relying on The Prince's ridiculous antics to distract and give her time to make an escape in spite of her injuries. She succumbs to her injuries just as Ducard kicks the last of the Agency goons present through a priceless sculpture of the Sisyphean struggle.
When she awakens, she sees the Prince, Ducard and their maids discussing over her (mostly) naked form, with measurements spread across the wall. The Prince is pleased to see her wake up and cheerfully confides that his maids undressed her to prepare her for their wedding—the thought of which nearly gags Selina by itself—and that Ducard is standing by for insurance. Forced to play along at the start, Kyle is pushed forward towards an inevitable wedding ceremony, desperately looking for plans to escape or take the Prince as a hostage while Ducard looms over her. William's maids willingly return Selina's clothes to her, giving Selina the opportunity to re-activate her communicator with The Agency and pretend to "accidently" share her and the Prince's new location on a hidden, mountain-range castle. The Agency attacks, sending their leader Galiant in full this time to lead their attempt to take out Catwoman. In the action-packed conclusion, as the wedding ceremony approaches, Galiant and his helicopter shoot through the stained-glass of their wedding ceremony room and leave the crowd crippled and confused. Selina grabs the Prince and uses him as a human shield, pulling him aside while he mumbles into her hand. Ducard is town between killing Selina and killing Galiant, and struggles at his attempts to do both while Galiant offers Ducard a better deal and new offer to turn on The Prince and work with him instead. With Ducard distracted, Selina releases the Prince and goes to run, but is stopped when the Prince's mumblings are finally heard: he's talking about his safari gun. The two rush together to the safari-gear the Prince had prepared for his ideal, future honeymoon, and Selina grabs the heavy-duty hunting rifle within and knocks the Prince out with its butt-end. Selina sneaks out the safari-room's window and travels along the building's balcony, lining up a shot on the helicopter with the rifle and with two clean shots blowing it out of the sky and on a death-spiral towards the wedding room.
Dropping the rifle and descending down the balcony's side to escape the now burning chateau, Selina spots a sports-car driving down the mountain-side road in the distance and gives a holler out to the young men driving it. It slows and they turn to face her, with the camera panning over just how wild Catwoman looks in that moment and flashing back through each of the 'lives' she lost over the course of the film. FIN on the Catfile.
Darwyn Cooke presents "Selina's Big Score" largely unaltered from its comic origins. Selina flees from Morocco with a priceless stolen artifact, only to realize that she stole a fake and find herself destitute. She returns to Gotham City as a shade of her former self, but is reinvigorated by a meeting with her old associate Swifty and a meeting with amateur burglar Chantel, who reminds her of her younger self and her past adventures. Chantel and Selina work together to set up a major heist that will put Selina back on her feet and give Chantel a chance to leave the life of crime behind her, before the film's narrative flashes back to Selina's past and her first "big score" that would have let her retire. Selina decides to reconnect with her associate from a past score, Stark.
Selina, Stark, Swift and Chantel work together to set up the heist and end up involving a few other associates, incl. an engineer named Jeff, a weapon's dealer named Mom and more. They plan to steal a significant sum of money being used to purchase Montreal heroin and being transferred on freight cars. Chantel is spying on Falcone as a source of information for the planned heist, using her relationship with Frank Falcone to listen in. In the background, Selina learns that she's being hunted by private eye Slam Bradley on the orders of Gotham's Mayor Dickerson. Jeff develops a rocket-enhanced boarding car that Selina will pilot to break into the train and make their big score. Slowly, more and more of the details of Stark and Selina's past together are revealed, with Stark going as far as to share with Jeff that Selina betrayed them on a past job. Selina manages to evade Slam Bradley's pursuits by convincing him that the Catwoman has "died" and having him agree to end the investigations.
Slam Bradley follows his investigative instincts and stumbles in on the aftermath of Chantel being beaten raw by Falcone's men, leading Bradley to burst in, kill Falcone's men, hear Chantel's last wishes and unintentionally kills Frank Falcone while torturing him for information and attempting to understand what's going on in the Selina-Stark-Swift case. Falcone's men use the information they beat out of Chantel and shared to set up traps for the planned heist, sabotaging the planned escape boats Swifty had prepared. Specifically, they warn Falcone's man on the other side of the heist, LaPerier.
The film concludes with the heist itself, culminating in the death of all members of the Heist team except for Selina herself, and a rejoining of Selina and Slam for a final battle in the end. LaPerier takes out Jeff with a sniper's shot and would have succeeded in taking out Stark and Selina with another set of shots if it weren't for Slam's timely arrival and intervention, but LaPerier's own henchmen intervenes and evens the odds again. Selina uses herself as a decoy to give Stark time to take down LaPerier and his henchmen, but Stark's gun is out of bullets, and LaPerier is able to turn the situation on him and kill him. Before he dies to the gunshots, Stark grapples with LaPerier and turns his gun against him, forcing the two to die atop each other; in Stark's last words, he confesses his real name to Selina. Selina and Slam have their last confrontation, with Slam deciding that he'll have to take Selina in for this no matter how it started, and Selina shooting Slam and escaping so that she can go and take care of Chantel and Stark's families.
A much fuller synopsis of "Selina's Big Score" is available here.
Vijay Sahni, a relative unknown in the screenwriting game with some times to Bollywood superhero productions, has presented a Catwoman story involving King Tut and harkening back to the Adam West TV show and its depiction of Professor William Omaha McElroy. Making use fantastical artifacts including Tutankhamun's headdress, the pitch is the most mystical and high-fantasy Gotham approach of any in discussion right now.
It brings in side characters including The Eraser, The Magpie, The Calculator and King Croc alongside more traditional Catwoman support characters like Holly Robinson. Many of the characters experience their own turn of being empowered by the Egyptian Gods, though the gifts seem impermanent for all members except Catwoman herself. While certainly a fun script and a strong action romp, there's some concern that it's asking the audience to accept too much too quickly with little lasting impact—perhaps more in line for an animated special episode over a feature length film.
A synopsis of Sahni's treatment is available here. A few screenwriters have put out interest on the initial draft, suggesting that some revised versions or some scripts inspired by this version may appear as the script bounty continues into next month.
[] [SCRIPT BOUNTY] Emphasize scripts in line with "The Catfile."
[] [SCRIPT BOUNTY] Emphasize scripts in line with "Selina's Big Score."
[] [SCRIPT BOUNTY] Emphasize scripts in line with "Catwoman and King Tut."
[] [SCRIPT BOUNTY] Continue as is.
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