Stalking Spielberg: a screen play
Disclaimer (All the characters in this film script are fictional. Nelson does not exist. Neither does Steven Spielberg. Any similarities to people or places living or dead is purelyl a figment of my imagination)
(This is more or less a monologue which contains some unrealistic elements such as at times an unguarded Steven Spielberg.. I’ve seen his security people up close. They are tough and efficient. But I needed a vehicle to show off the interiors and exteriors of Spielberg’s four estates. So put up with the poetic license)
SCENE 1: Malibu – Day – current time period
Est. Shots: Pacific coast highway, Malibu sign, Star Bucks exterior, then interior, a table where Spielberg is seated reading a book, while sipping coffee
Close up of a cellular phone on the table near his coffee cup
It rings.
A hang grabs it.
SPIELBERG:
Yes?
What do you mean he’s out?
Of course, I hear the case was being appealed.
No, don’t come here. I’ll come there.
Get my family out of town.
To NY. That should be far enough.
I’ll catch up with them later
(Spielberg pushed the end button, puts the phone down, stands up, finishes is coffee, makes his way out of the coffee shop – view from the table with the forgotten cellular phone in the foreground)
SCENE 2: outside the shop day
(A change in script here -- adding a series of flash backs as well as significant change in plot)
SPIELBERG:
Eddy? I need the car, Eddy. (Spielberg sees something between several parked cars and bends down to recover the car keyes from a bloodied corpse.
(Spielberg glances around, spies his SUV and makes his way towards it across the parking lot. We see him through several car windows asif he is being watched and followed. We see his face, and then a flash back to a TV newscasters with the Santa Monica court house behind him)
NEWSCASTER:
After moving testimony by Mr. Spielberg, the judge imposed the maximum sentence of life on Nelson, claiming he was a danger to society. This comes under the provision of the three-strike law. Nelson's attorney had promised to appeal
(image of Spielberg's face as he arrives at a silver SUV, pauses, looks around, sees someone moving through the cars. Spielberg climbs into the SUV)
SCENE 3: inside the SUV
(Spielberg starts the engine, glances up in the mirror. Someone darts behind the car. Spielberg shudders. Shifts the car into gear and drives out onto the highway. A Land Rover rolls out onto the highway behind Spielberg.
Nelson fires a pistol out the driver's side window. A bullet hole appears in the rear window of Spielberg's SUV. Another shot sounds, and this time, the visual of the gas gauge shows it on empty.
-- SUV stalls
-- Spielberg tries to restart it, turning the key.
-- Spielberg frowning, steers the car to the side of the road. He gets out, sees liquid pouring out from the are of the gas tank
-- The Land Rover roars down the highway
-- Spielberg glances up, sees it rushing towards him, and he dives out of the way, just as it passes.
Spielberg watches the landrover vanish down the highway in dust. A matching shot, however, shows it slowing and turning around. But Spielberg is no longer looking.
-- He pats his pockets, glances into the SUV. Then we see a close up on his face, facing into the shot of the table at the Star Bucks with the phone in foreground as he was leaving earlier. Then we see his face close up again as he looks around.
-- We see a public phone in the fore ground with Spielberg and the SUV in the background, then we see Spielberg making his way to the phone.
Spielberg pulls a collection of things out of his pocket – a business card, a picture of Tom Cruise, a few pennies.
Spielberg cringes, grabs up the photo, punches the zero, then speaks into the phone:
SPIELBERG:
I need to make a collect call.
SCENE 4: The Spielberg Estate, Day
Est: Black SUV with tinted windows pulls up to the gate, passes through. A long shot of the SVU riding down the long dirt road from the gate to the house where it stops out the back door. Figures climb out, then walk into the building.
Spielberg enters into one of the room talking to someone the camera can not see or only a shape of a figure in the foreground
Spielberg: (Walking through the room and up the stairs)
I know you won’t let anyone hurt me and that the police have promised to increase patrols.
But I just don’t feel safe here as long as I know he’s out there.
Dogs or not, security electronics or not, the man will keep trying to get at me and I don’t want to be here when he does.
SCENE 5: LA X airport- Day
EST: LA skyline. Airport sign, terminal, run way with plane, people boarding, Spielberg settling into seat. He looks out the window. Seen from outside, his expression looks concerned. Seen again inside, he leans back against the seat closes his eyes.
SPIELBERG (Talking to someone in the next seat that is out of the frame)
I’m sure everything will be all right.
But you know me, I worry about everything
(The camera rises to look down the long line of seats, and zooms slowly in someone whose face is hidden behind a life magazine. The magazine slowly lowers and we see the manic face or NELSON staring straight at Spielberg.
A shot of the plane taking off, and then in the air, fading into a map with a red line showing the route from LA to Chicago, and then from Chicago to New York.
SCENE 6 New York – Day time.
Est: New York Skyline, plane landing, Newark airport sign, Spielberg moves through terminal to waiting Black limo. Inside Limo, Spielberg talks to someone out of the frame)
Spielberg:
What do you mean the police can’t find him?
He couldn’t disappear could he?
He’s on parole. He’s supposed to report to somebody, doesn’t he?
Follow me? Here?
Is that possible?
(Limo passes into the Lincoln Tunnel. Shots of New York City street, traffic, and eventually Central Park West. We pass the Dakota. Spielberg stares out at it. Then the limo pulls up in front of the San Remo building where Spielberg and his security get out, and enter the building.
SCENE 7: Inside Spielberg’s San Remo apartment; Day.
Spielberg walks through rooms, peers out the windows at the Central Park landscape, and then out the dinning room window at the southerly view of the Empire State Building and lower Manhattan. The place is conspicuously absent.
SPIELBERG:
All right.
So you got my wife and kids to the Hamptons.
Why am I here?
If you didn’t throw him off the scene in California, what makes you think he’ll be fooled this time?
(Spielberg nods)
Telling people that the family went to the Naples Estate might work.
God, I remember the trouble we had constructing that place.
(Flash back to the Naples, image of the beach, and then the construction site, fence posted around the still unfinished construction.
The phone rings. A close up of Spielberg blinking.
He looks at the phone, then crosses the room to pick it up.)
SPIELBERG:
Yes?
(covers the mouthpiece with his hand and whispers to security officer out of frame)
It’s him.
(Then into the phone)
Why should I meet you in the park?
(Whispers to security guy)
He says he has my wife and kids.
(Vehemently) Okay, so you say that’s impossible. You want to check with my Hampton estate to make sure they’re there?
(Back into the phone)
I’m not stalling.
Of course I don’t want to see anything happen to my family.
(whispers to the security guy)
What do I do?
He insists on meeting me.
What do you mean the phones are out? My wife has a cell phone.
(into the phone)
All right, we’ll meet
Where?
(Spielberg swallows hard at the response, then after a delay)
All right, five minutes
(He hangs up and glares at the security guy)
Find out what happened to my family.
This son of a bitch wants to meet me at Strawberry Fields.
SCENE 8: Strawberry Fields, Central Park, Day
EST: Traffic going by the entrance of the park. The Dakota. An aging hippie singing “Give peace a chance.” Tourists snapping pictures of the Imagine circle. A few flowers and a burning candle.
Spielberg steps near to the circle, looking down at the candle, flowers and a note written to John Lennon. His hands tighten into fists as his side. Then he whispers into a tiny microphone at his lapel.
SPIELBERG:
This is crazy.
What if he has a gun?
You’re bullet proof vest won’t help me if he shoots me in the head.
I wish I felt as confident about your catching him before he can get that close
Have you reached my family yet?
What about the police?
(a close up of Spielberg’s face. His expression changes.)
I don’t think that son of bitch is coming.
Get me a helicopter. We’ve got to get to East Hampton fast.
SCENE 9: East Hampton, Day
Est: Overview of pond as helicopter approaches. Alternate views of Spielberg looking out at the landscape as the helicopter approaches the farm house
SPIELBERG:
I know I should listen to your advice and let the professionals handle this.
But I can’t sit somewhere in safety while my family is endanger.
I know the police are guarding them.
But someone fiddled with the power lines and phones.
That means he’s one the grounds somewhere, hunting for them, and waiting for me.
(Helicopter lands. Spielberg and the others rush into the house and pause at the door. A long shot of Spielberg and security)
All right, I’ll stay in the house until you catch them.
I just need to see my family
(Enters the house)
They’re not here.
Why can’t I go with you to get them?
All right, I’ll wait here.
I’m sure the two guards outside the door will be enough.
Just find my family.
(Spielberg stands in the middle of the room alone. He turns suddenly as NELSON eases into view holding a gun. The following conversation is done with a kind of circling of the camera shaping the scene into something of a prize fight with the two characters looking as if ready to spar)
NELSON:
Don’t move, Mr. Spielberg.
I don’t want to have to kill you.
SPIELBERG:
But you would do everything short of that?
NELSON:
You should have listened to me when I wanted help as an actor.
SPIELBERG:
I can make up for that now.
I’m sure we can find a role for you.
NELSON:
It’s too late for that now.
You put me in jail, and wanted to keep me there.
SPIELBERG:
You tried to hurt me and my family
NELSON:
Only because you wanted me to.
SPIELBERG:
I never said that.
NELSON:
Not in so many words.
SPIELBERG:
So you intend to hurt me now?
NELSON:
And your family.
SPIELBERG:
You know that police are here, and my security team.
NELSON:
They can’t save you now.
(Spielberg leaps through a doorway. NELSON gives chase and the two of them move from room to room, through narrow spaces, until Spielberg runs into a room, sees a hammer on the table, grabs it up, takes a post behind the door. NELSON appears a moment later, slowing down as if expecting something, advancing cautiously with gun ahead of him
NELSON:
You can’t hide from me, Mr. Spielberg.
(When NELSON gets through the door, Spielberg strikes him from behind with the hammer, hitting him several times until NELSON falls and the pistol clatters on the floor. Voices call Spielberg’s name from one of the other rooms.
SPIELBERG:
In here.
We’re in here!