Beowulf & Grendel Written by Andrew Rai Berzins Tenth draft - July 12/04FADE IN: EXT. OCEAN BEACH / NORTHERN EUROPE [500 A.D.] -~ DUSK 1 CAMERA swoops along a shimmering black sand beach, mountains rising in the further distance... FINDING: in the middle distance: EIGHT WARRIORS galloping on HORSEBACK, armed with spears, swords, shields, netting, torches. DOGS race along at their sides. At the head of the troop rides a grizzled mid-aged WARRIOR, grimly determined, his face obscured by his battle mask. The warriors race on, riding to beat the devil home. EXT. MEADOW -- DUSK 2 With the sun gone below a ridge of barren hills, the darkness is quickly retaking the ground, bleeding out from the crevices of rock, the moss, a stream twisting through the emerald meadow... :++in the middle distance of which GOATS and SHEEP amble about. Beyond them, rocky outcrops give way to a dark and shifting sea... and the low RUMBLE of surf... Into the foreground there slowly shifts: a huge, stooped FIGURE. Erect, he'd be nearly seven feet tall, and is twice the mass of an average man, covered in hair - much of it greying. Immense arms lead to massive hands, the tough nails tools for a brutal existence. His face - or what can be made of it in the falling light - has a leatherish quality. It also betrays age, as does a noticeable limp: this is a gigantic nocturnal primate - a troll who has seen better days. He scans the meadow, puzzled. He CLUCKS his tongue a couple of times... GRUNTS out a name of some sort FATHER crrruhnellll.... He twists his head to one side, raises his nose and sniffs the wind... wary for a moment... then the moment passes... (CONTINUED)Beowulf & Grendel - loth dr. - Berzins - July 12/04 - 2. CONTINUED: 2 He shuffles forward a few more steps, still searching, worry now edging in. He CLUCKS his tongue again -- -.-and he's slammed from behind by something -- ++.or, as it turns out, someone: his small child - GRENDEL - who promptly tumbles past his father, CACKLING at the prank. From the distance comes the sound of a DOG BARKING. The father snatches at Grendel. He misses, tries again, and it becomes a little chase. Finally the father scoops up Grendel and berates him in with several low guttural words - a primitive tongue with echoes of Old Norse. Grendel responds by grabbing his father's nose and twisting it, laughing. The father then laughs too. But once again the father grows wary. Holding Grendel close, he sniffs the air. More BARKING DOGS.... ++sthen the far-off SHOUTS of HUMAN! The father urgently swings Grendel up onto his shoulder, and - fear overcoming his infirmity - with great strides he crosses back out of the meadow toward the rock outcrops. EXT. BEACH -- CONTINUOUS 3 The troop of warriors race along. ++,till the lead warrior pulls up, eyeing the rocks to either side. He sniffs the breeze, considers... -..the others waiting on his judgement... -..then he abruptly jerke his horse toward a break in the rocks, leading up into a meadow. -..the other warriors following. EXT. WILDS -- CONTINUOUS 4 Grendel's father is moving as best he can... but one hip is giving him trouble, and his wind is quickly going on him... Grendel stares back over his shoulder, his face now betraying the same fear his father feels. (CONTINUED )