Back To The Final Destination Of The Groundhog

Hulu, Stephen King and Bad Robot have joined forces, to bring King’s novel ‘11.22.63’ to life. It’s a time travel tale about a guy named Jake Epping, who’s got nothing much going for him in the present. Ergo: the perfect candidate to go back to 1960 and stay there.

Brutal Murder
The pilot episode, called ‘The Rabbit Hole’, starts with a brutal murder. Why? Because it’s Stephen King, that’s why. We see brief images of the short story Harry Dunning (Leon Rippy, Under the Dome, Alcatraz, Deadwood) wrote, in Jake Epping’s (James Franco) class. It appears to be autobiographical. His father killed everybody in the house, but Harry. This must’ve happened somewhere in the 1960s. Storywise, no coincidence.

Time Portal
Diner owner Al Templeton (Chris Cooper, The Bourne Identity, American Beauty, Adaptation) has got some kind of time portal in the back. Take a few steps in the dark, and you literately fall into good old 1960. It’s just as easy to come back to 2016. There are, however, rules. Apparently, no one from 1960 is able to use the portal to travel to the future. Al can change anything he wants, but once he returns to his own time, everything he did gets erased. To have a lasting effect, he’d need to stay there.

Make Things Right
That lasting effect is what Al’s been trying to achieve. Prevent the Kennedy assassination. Prevent Lee Harvey Oswald from doing what he (allegedly) did. If he can stop whoever fired the gun, JFK would live and the Vietnam War would possibly end much sooner. There’s a chance here to make things right. Unfortunately, Al has come up short. Has been living three years in the past, until November 11, 1963, but couldn’t crack the case. It’s time to recruit somebody else. Preferably a guy who just got divorced: regular customer Jake.

Danger Danger
You’d think: why just Jake? Why not more people? Would that work? I’d want to know. Why not Jake and Al together? Well, King has thought of everything, because Al’s got cancer and the night before Jake leaves, the diner owner dies. Jake’s on his own. Apart from figuring out who will kill Kennedy – and it looks like there’s a big conspiracy behind it -, danger follows him around wherever he goes: Time itself. One of the other rules is: Time doesn’t like to be messed with, the same way Death didn’t in the Final Destination movies. It’s not just people who come up to Jake, saying he doesn’t ‘belong here’, it’s also cars, fire and chandeliers that are out to get him.

Bloated
It’s one of those typical stuffed King concepts. A lot of different elements brought together, all having a set of rules attached to it. 11.22.63 feels a bit bloated because of that, but it does work. Probably due to the fact that ‘The Rabbit Hole’ has the length of a feature film (as well as an unusually wide for television frame size). It takes its time. The pace is nice. The sixties look great. Cooper’s great. Even Franco’s a likeable guy. He just shouldn’t smile. His smile makes him extremely creepy.

The First Level
11.22.63 is Back to the Future, Final Destination, Edge of Tomorrow and Groundhog Day rolled into one. Jake’s the time traveling fish out of water, but he always has a way out/back. All he needs to do is go to the place where the (invisible) portal is, and he’s back in 2016. However long he’s been away doesn’t matter. If he returns, only 2 minutes will have passed. Thank you for playing. Game over. Start at the beginning again. I think that’s what the series is going to do. Play the first level a number of times, Groundhog style, until Jake’s met so many people – and fallen in love with a girl – that he doesn’t want to leave. But does he have a chance to live happily ever after, with Time constantly trying to take him out? And what happens if it succeeds? Al failed to mention that little clause in the contract. Anyway, so far so good.

This Is How The Axelrods Roll

In Billions episode 5, ‘The Good Life’, Bobby Axelrod has taken James Hetfield’s advice to ‘just play, man’. That means some x-rated action in the swimming pool, watching Inglourious Basterds, and go on a boat trip to the Galápagos Islands whenever you feel like it.

Freedom
Everybody’s convinced it’s a midlife crisis of sorts. Bobby Axelrod (Damian Lewis) lost it. He’s out of the game. Left Wall Street behind. Wants to travel the world, wherever his self designed yacht may take him. Clearly signs the man isn’t thinking clearly. Bobby thinks, knows, it’s got nothing to do with any form of mental breakdown. At the Metallica concert, he tasted freedom. Why work for something you won’t be able to enjoy because you’re working all the time? The 21st century dilemma.

Sell Sell Sell
The woman who flirted with him, before and after the Metallica show, told him you can’t go through life not having seen Citizen Kane. First thing he should do when he gets home, is watch it on the big screen. And so he does. In pieces, because he’s constantly interrupted. Wags (David Costabile) tries to get a read on him, while managing everybody back at the office. He’s told them to sell everything. Slowly, not to scare the market. Now they’ve done that, they’re getting bored. And when competitive people get bored, it won’t be long until Wags has got a full blown rebellion on his hands.

Feeling Good
Bobby’s not saying anything. Doesn’t explain, just tells his right hand man that ‘he’s out’. In a last attempt to keep him from making a mistake, Wendy Rhoades (Maggie Siff) comes over. As his psychologist, he can say anything to her, right? There’s nothing much to say. Bobby’s feeling good. It’s as simple as that. Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti) gets wind of it, through ambitious reporter Michael Dimonda (Sam Gilroy). Bobby’s jumping ship? Then Chuck’s got to act fast.

Meet the Team
Chuck and his team are working around the clock to find dirt on ‘Dollar’ Bill Stearn (Kelly AuCoin), one of the Axe Capital employees. It’s not easy to find something. That gives us time to see who these people actually are. We know Bryan Connerty (Toby Leonard Moore) has found a friend with benefits in Terri McCue (Susan Misner), and Kate Sacher (Condola Rashad) is trying to work her way up the food chain, but that’s about it. The latter’s actually got quite a career in mind. Last stop: White House. She’s got money, too. Her own money. Because she offers Bryan to help him out, as a credit guarantee so he’s able to buy a new house, their relationship deepens a bit. Their scenes together don’t really go anywhere, but it’s nice to see a friendship unfold at the bar. O, and Dale Christo (Frank Harts) used to word ‘dude’. In Chuck’s face. That might come back to haunt him.

Plunge
Then, out of nowhere, executives of Mundia-Tel are being indicted. Stocks immediately start to plunge. Axe Capital just sold all of its assets in the company. It seems like the whole ‘midlife crisis boat trip’ was another one of Bobby’s smoke screens. Somehow, he’d obtained insider information. Made everybody believe he was going all Galápagos on them. No way. As much as he loved the sense of freedom, he loves the game even more. He arrives back at work like a hero. The cheering doesn’t last long, though. The FBI barges in and takes ‘Dollar’ Bill Stearn in custody. Another win for Chuck. Another sheep taken out of Bobby’s herd.

The Call
Chuck isn’t just into S&M, he’s got a bit of a problem with it. Watching an S&M club from his car, trying to keep himself from going in. He can’t resist the call; that’s what an obsession or addiction’s usually made of. Luckily, he’s got a wife who understands. However, if anyone were to find out, he’s in big trouble. I’ve got a funny feeling that’s exactly what’s going to happen.

24: Legacy Pilot Episode Script

24 appears to have nine lives. There’s just no stopping the 24 hour intensity format. After 8 original seasons/days, 1 tweaked continuation called 24: Live Another Day, the show will be resurrected a third time under the name 24: Legacy.

Season 1(0)
Attached to the project, are Corey Hawkins (Straight Outta Compton) and Miranda Otto (Homeland, The Lord of the Rings). Presumably, Otto will be running CTU, while Hawkins plays a military hero, assisting her to stop a terrorist attack. The first season, or should say tenth, will probably – just like 24: LAD – consist of 12 episodes. That’s still 6 times longer than a movie, but for all you binge watchers out there, it might be a disappointment. There’s nothing like a 24 hour day, full of action, surprise twists and that famous CTU ringtone.

That’s Nice And All, But You’ve Got The Script?
It’s still a year away, assuming 24: Legacy will premiere in January 2017. The script is probably not even finished yet. So in order to ease the anticipation, I wrote it myself. Yes, the title might be a bit misleading, but there is a script. It is completely 24. And I believe it would, if I say so myself, be a perfect way to start off the new season. There’s a threat, things blow up, people keep secrets, there’s a bad guy, an even badder guy, bad guys turning on each other, there’s a hilarious character with a dog, CTU is a mess, planes are going down, i.e. the whole Bauer Shebang, just without any of the Bauers involved.

The Script
As being a fan of the show myself, I think other fans will love it. Check out the script below:

24legacypilotscript

The day starts, just like the very first season, at midnight. Maureen Kingsley makes a cameo, and there are a few other references to the Bauer Era. But the story stands on its own. To make the who’s who easier, I’ve named Hawkins and Otto’s characters Corey and Miranda. Enjoy.

Update

I’m sorry to inform you that the legal team of FOX got wind of my script and I had to take it down. Even though I clearly stated that it was a spec script, a script written by a fan of the show with no ties to the official producers and not affiliated with FOX in any way, lawyers be lawyers, I suppose.

Spec scripts are fairly common in Hollywood. It’s one way for showrunners and the like to find writing talent. Obviously, these ‘speculation scripts’ use characters and story arcs already established. No, the lawyers knocking on my door said, you can’t use any copyrighted property. So there you go.