THE GILLBILLY MOVIE SCREENPLAY

THE GILLBILLY MOVIE

INITIAL OUTLINE OF SCENERIOS

Play GillBilly Theme Song


Roll Titles and Credits

Open at sea on a glorious sunny day, fade into a shot of the transom of a huge sport fisher named the GillBilly with black smoke belching filth in the air from the exhaust pipes, scope out to the cockpit, Rockin’ Rod fishing with a GillBilly hat and shirt on, without a care in the world, surrounded by the best fishing gear in his cockpit, flat screen on in the salon showing a fishing show, cell phones everywhere, every style and kind, smoking a cigar and flicking it in Mother Ocean, drink in hand, playing Bobby Darin’s Beyond the Sea on the stereo, by himself, not getting a bite, no worries, Rod throws the cigar in the sea… the sun gets progressively darker with a smoggy haze, on the horizon a clutter of trash can be seen, and suddenly Rod realizes he is surrounded by the stuff, the boat starts to slowly spin on its center axis and a swirling vortex forms from the boat to the horizon, the yacht’s generator stops abruptly, the stereo starts playing slower and slower, Rod checks his battery meter, the battery voltage is in the red, the line he has in the water goes tight and his reel starts to whir and make that fish-on sound, Rod smiles with an air of superiority and reverses his hat, as above all this apparent adversity today, that’s his one gift in life, catching another fish, he grabs the rod and starts to reel in the line, it reaches the boat and the line starts to go in the swirling motion of the now totally foul cesspool that is surrounding his boat, he struggles with the current and pulls with a jerk on the rod and plop, the cigar he was smoking recoils out of the water and into his open mouth on his hook! Now an ugly black cinder cylinder, he spits it on his deck and the black goo from it seeps onto his deck and causes an ugly mess… the stereo stops and sputters and goes silent… he grabs every cell phone he has (big name paying recognition here as he names every phone he picks up, Blackberry Bold, etc.), they are all dead, as the sun goes down…

Rod gets thoroughly drunk in the dark, no moon, and falls asleep in a depressive mind-state and wonders out loud why he has been singled out for this unseemly situation. He wakes up and the sea is dark and brooding, no trash is apparent and the sea is placid and flat glassy, as if he was dreaming last night, he reaches for his stereo, still no battery juice, no music… he shakes his head and still drunk staggers and hits his head on the swim step as he falls in the water… the undersea life is suddenly colorful and alive with animated beauty. A wonder world of incredible and fantastic natural color and diverse creatures galore. Such a depart from the dark grey world he left behind when he fell into the water. Still dazed he struggles to get to the surface for a breath. Rod suddenly encounters Gnarly Charlie and realizes he can converse with the fish!!!! Gnarly Charlie teaches Rod how to breathe under water like fishes do saving him from drowning. Such a kind and friendly fish Rod is thinking, wondering why all his life he has been programmed to kill fish and fill his decks with fish blood. He thanks Gnarly Charlie and is confronted by a completely pissed off Drago the Dragon Fish, asking Gnarly why he saved this wrenched human that had invaded their space. Having been raised in a fish pen as a human experiment and having been put to sea by humans, Gnarly says he has a soft spot in his GillHeart for this man they now refer to as GillBilly after reading the name on his boat transom. Drago then goes into a long diatribe about his history of life as a prehistoric fish, the story is not pretty, and many flashback vignettes reveal why Drago is such a human hater… flashbacks to prehistoric times when Drago was a pup fish, and on thru the ages of human abuse of the sea he lives in daily, how many of his relatives and friends got caught by above the sea fisherman, growing pollution by trash, plastics and oil exploration, gillnetters and long liners, many shots here flipping between the animation world below the sea and the above the sea regular cinematography world covering centuries of pollution and Mother Ocean abuse by the humans. GillBilly is completely sympathetic to the new awareness he has been shown as an epiphany!!! He asks how he as a mere human (now feeling subservient to this beautiful group of new friends) can help to clear the air, the sea, and Mother Earth in its spiraling brown hazy and into the vortex state of existence. Drago spits out a pebble into GillBillys hand and asks him to grasp the pebble, and says he will teach GillBilly as best he can as a mere prehistoric fish to save the planet… so at this point they are acknowledging each other as equals and allies in the cause, both so small in the scope of the universe. Drago is the old salt in this world and well respected, all the sea creatures applaud this unification of effort. Fade with Eyes of the World by the Grateful Dead…

Fade into the scene at the docks at the Tip a Cap Marina, every guy walking on the docks has seemingly the same lame fishing shirt and hat on, the typical stuff, same boring genres and styles… groups of guys standing back and admiring their yachts, with all that fishing gear bling jewelry like Peewee Herman admiring his growing foil ball, GillBilly arrives and a bunch of guys help him tie up the boat, GillBilly recounts how a group of friendly fish ganged together after his fall into the sea and saved him and then guided him back to the port after the storm of pollution abated and allowed his yacht to function again. Oh brother they say, and they collectively now think GillBilly hit his head and whacked his brain. Rod is now labeled GillBilly by his peer group when he finds a change of mind toward his view of the sea and saving it for future generations. Before the term GillBilly was just a playful name of his yacht, now it is a stigmatizing slur toward his new found awareness of the plight of the sea. This sets up the pertinence of the line in the GB Theme Song as a hook, “come on and sing with me” as GillBilly is now the nucleus of a growing band of GREEN aware GillBilly partisans.

Down the dock strides a completely and totally rad fox of major proportions named Molly which just happens to be a marine biologist… she is lost and asks Rockin’ Rod where the yacht GillBilly is… since Rod’s boat is tied up stern out, she can’t see the name on his transom… she said she got an e-mail from an address, drago@dragonfish.com... stating that she should contact the GillBilly for his help in her new program now totally underfunded to save the sea. Rod introduces himself and aw-shucks about his nickname and this woman’s incredible natural and on point beauty, in his mind thanking Drago for the favor of her new found company. Flash back to Drago in his sea office with some kind of wireless connection to the internet allowing him to type on his water proof (Dell or whoever, name branding $ push) lapper the message… then for the first time GillBilly gets a mind telepathy message from Drago realizing he and Drago are now allowed to converse via GillBilly to DragoBilly wireless… now Rod’s mind is in a newly found state of spinning euphoric frydom, realizing he has probably met the love of his life interwoven with his ability to receive Drago’s telepathic messages… the newly bonding couple retire to the cozy Tip a Cap Marina Bumbling Banter Diner (which looks like a huge yellow submarine) featuring fish and chips… suddenly, Rod cannot eat fish, and Molly and him share a Caesars salad and fries… both sharing Mother Ocean is the source of all our future wellbeing. Fade with You Got Me Floatin’ by Jimi Hendrix…

Fade to the fishing tournament that Molly has been concerned about as to the rampant and non compliant fish capture regulations. Rod tags along with Molly to the tournament weigh-in area, as the boats arrive with their catch of the day… the first boat arrives with a dead and 3 month old big decaying black fish (the eyes are white and the fish is black and covered in flies. The cheating fisherman got so violent, it was necessary for the police to take him to jail!) that was kept on ice for the tournament… foul… the next boat arrives with a fish that because of the gear on the boat was not caught legally and was deemed to have been bought from a local fish pen… foul… meanwhile Drago arrives under sea and telepathically informs Rod of his arrival and says there is a surprise coming for these fishing contestants, just watch… the next boat arrives and has its fish furled in a burlap bag, as they open the bag, and pop the catch onto the weigh scale, out comes a completely outlandish and pirate cursing animated “fish” proclaiming himself to be Fish Eye Ty, horrified the scalers throw this half fish/half man apparition back into the water and all the sea creatures including the GillBilly get a big laugh, Molly has no clue but as Rod laughs she joins in… heartily… fade in the Seaside Town song with a video of Rod and Molly having good times, riding ATVs on the beach, bobbing for apples, trying on matching track suits, visiting the fair and being both ends of a horse costume and the GillBilly being the ass end, sharing a messy chocolate dipped cone, visiting the fish market and frowning at the dead fish and smiling at the live lobsters in the tank… buying them all and releasing them at the bay… and they then talk to each other on cell phones across the table at the Bumbling Banter Diner… sharing kisses and rubbing noses… getting bad cell disconnected, looking at their phones and throwing them aside into their beer mugs and hugging… fade out.

Baja Marimba Band / Samba de Orpheu played as we pan the coastline and telescope from an extremely far distant shot to Rod on the stern of his yacht. Enter the bad guy, Fibber McFish and his clan of merry fish marauders. They cruise into the Tip a Cap Marina with an all black yacht named the Tractor Beam from the port of Optical Tweezer. A strange name for a yacht thinks Rod, and that port name sure did not ring a bell, as he sits out on his stern having morning coffee as the boat chugs by to the fuel dock spewing black smoke. Rod tips his cap to the Tractor Beam crew, which is the marina custom, but they just stare at him with glassy eyes like half crazed dogs… reminds Rod of the looks on the faces of his Fishing Anonymous classmates, he once attended, which of course did not work in his attempt to stop his bad fishing habits, now suddenly cured by his meeting with his new undersea friends….

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