INT. TALBOT HOUSE, BEDROOM (VICTORIAN PERIOD) -- NIGHT THUNDER RUMBLES and LIGHTNING FLASHES. YOUNG LAWRENCE, 2 raven-haired youth, 10 years old, sits up in his bed, looking fearfully to the darkness. INT. TALBOT HOUSE, HALLWAY -- NIGHT With the STORM HEARD raging outside, Young Lawrence peers out into the HALLWAY. A man's ANGUISHED CRY is HEARD, but it's lost in the SOUND of THUNDER. Was it imagined? Young Lawrence, in a night-shirt, starts tentatively down the long, dark hall of this opulent, Victorian MANOR HOUSE LIGHTNING illuminates many big game, ANIMAL HEAD TROPHIES mounted one-after-another: TIGER... ELEPHANT... LION. Young Lawrence walks, trying to ignore the freakish tableau. DOWN THE HALL Young Lawrence slows, looking ahead to... a DOOR ajar. LIQUID pools out from beneath, like black molasses. Young Lawrence moves to push the DOOR OPEN IN THIS MASTER BEDROOM A MAN is slumped o £ a WOMAN. He le: his knees, weeping, cradling the FIGURE out another CRY of anguish! i Father ‘The man, SIR JOHN TALBOT, 40, looks to see Young Lawrence. r John is in agony, tears streaming down his face. : The cradled WOMAN'S ARM falls free, dangling limply, the wrist slit; gashed wide with BLOOD’ FLOWING to the floor. Young Lawrence stumbles back in horror... Falling against his older brother, BENJAMIN, 12, arriving in the doorway. Benjamin, likewise terrified, raises a bright OIL LANTERN to the room just as BOOMING THUNDER is HEARD! NIGHT EXT. TALBOT HOUSE -- CONTINUOUS -. The stately MANSION and surrounding countryside are glimpsed in brilliant LIGHTNING. THUNDER ECHOES as we... SOAK UP into the TEMPEST! CAMERA 200MS: through and beyond roiling STORY CLOUDS... to find a FULL MOON shining down. MATCH DISSOLVE To:INT. THEATER -- NIGHT CLOSE ON: a stage-craft FULL MOON backlit by flickering Gaslight within a painted BACKDROP of crooked trees and grim sky. INTO FRAME steps handsome LAWRENCE TALBOT, mid—30's. LAWRENCE, (as Hamlet) To be or not to be. That is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer, The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Other ACTORS are SILHOUETTED in nearby SHADOWS. COSTUMED Lawrence walks to centerstage, passionate eyes gleaming. ‘LAWRENCE Or take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them. To die: to sleep. No more; and by a sleep to say we end... IN THE AUDIEN: ENDERS watch, enthralled. wealthy WEST. LAWRENCE The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks, That flesh is heir to: 'tis a consummation, Devoutly to be wish'd. To die... cur to: EXT. LONDON THEATER DISTRICT -- NIGHT TOLLING hauntingly, BIG BEN is faintly seen in the gloom of this bleak Victorian horizon of endless BUILDINGS, skeletal industrial CRANES and soot-spewing SMOKESTACKS. INSERT TITLE: "London, 1888" While on the near STREETS, THEATER-GOERS pour noisily o from the THEATER into filthy, loud, ~crowded Londontown. THEATER, DRESSING ROOMS -- NIGHT rous PARTY is HEARD from the other room. Lawren sits at his DRESSING TABLE, in costume, pouring two stiff DRINKS. He hands one to a tawdry COCKNEY LADY beside him. ‘LAWRENCE Over the lips and through the gums. They drink. Cockney Lady laughs, already drunk. Lawrence pours again while Cockney Lady paws at him amorously. A fatherly, ELDER ACTOR, American, enters from 2 curtained CHANGING BOOTH, pulling on his jacket, watching them. CONTINUEDLDER ACTOR A few cocktails, Lawrence? LAWRENCE, A few. ELDER ACTOR Too many? LAWRENCE, Et tu, Brute? ELDER ACTOR No. Indulge, by all means. Just do not forget yourself. Lawrence toasts his own REFLECTION in his MIRROR. LAWRENCE I make no promises. ELDER ACTOR The occasion is in the other room. Bring your new... friend. Elder Actor exits. Lawrence extricates himself from Cockney Lady's grasp, kissing her hand as he stands. LAWRENCE Excuse me, dear, while I dress. COCKNEY LADY Dress. Undress. Whichever you like. She smokes. Lawrence begins changing from his COSTUME. Behind, the DOOR opens as a lovely woman, GWEN CONLIFFE, 30, looks in, nervous. She KNOCKS, clears hér throat. GwEN Begging your pardon, sir... I Lawrence is taking off his SHIRT as he looks over. Gwen is stunningly beautiful, in a nice, though plain, DRESS. She tries to avert her eyes from his shirtlessness. GWEN I'm... terribly sorry, but... you are one Mr. Talbot? LAWRENCE, Correct. GHEN Mr. Lawrence Talbot, actor? Lawrence pulls on @ SHIRT, buttoning. CONTINUED