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THE GREAT WORKS PROJECT

a puppet play in many parts

Season 04, Episode 12

By Thomas Typewriter

(c) 2022

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FADE IN TO BLACK

From the bottom center of the screen scrolls up the following text: “04-12”. It continues upward, pausing briefly in the center then exits off the top of the frame.

FADE OUT
FADE IN

INT. THE DEEPEST HALLWAY

LS OF THE DEEPEST HALLWAY FROM OUTSIDE B-MOUSE’S OFFICE DOOR

A long wood grain beige hallway, the Deepest level contains a series of frosted glass widows and doors to the various Alphabet Mice’s offices. The other side of the hallway is illuminated by wall sconces and also contains a water fountain and two vending machines. One of the vending machines is for Satelite Soda while the other is for various candies and bagged snacks such as Wowies, Tip Chips, Zappers, and Cheesy Weezys. B-Mouse’s office is in the center of the hallway across from the water fountain and vending machines. Both ends of the hallway have a set of double doors leading to stairwells connected to the other levels. The door opens and out steps B-MOUSE busily scribbling notes into a small notepad. He pauses writing to reach inside and turn off the office’s lights. He shuts the office door and finishes his note. Down the hall N-MOUSE exits his office. B-Mouse looks up from his notes and waves. M-MOUSE leaves his office at the end of the hallway while B-Mouse and N-Mouse are waving. He closes the door and leans against the wall. B-Mouse and N-Mouse walks towards M-Mouse.

PAN DOWN HALLWAY FOLLOWING B-MOUSE

N-Mouse and B-Mouse stand by M-Mouse.

M-MOUSE
“You guys ready for this meeting.”

N-MOUSE
“Yup.”

B-MOUSE
“Yup.”

CUT BETWEEN CS OF EACH SPEAKER AS EACH SPEAKS

M-MOUSE
“What do you think the meeting will be about.”

N-MOUSE
“Writer’s block if anything like before.”

M-MOUSE
“Remember those all-nighters we’d pull when Thomas was in high school.”

B-MOUSE
“I remember how we still didn’t finish a single essay.”

N-MOUSE
“What about that Mutant Cat story.”

M-MOUSE
“Stumpy the Mutant Cat?”

N-MOUSE
“Yeah. I thought that was the one essay we finished?

B-MOUSE
“Nope. Stumpy was in the middle of talking to the pickles in Pickle Heaven when the story stopped. Like mid-sentence. Thomas said screw it and turned it in anyway.”

M-MOUSE
“Did we every finish anything.”

N-MOUSE
“Those scripts that no studio wanted.”

B-MOUSE
“Can you blame them. The spy who had to gain weight so there was enough mass to duplicate him.”

N-MOUSE
“Yeesh. That one was bad.”

M-MOUSE
“Or how about Thomas Typewriter: World’s Worst Stuntman.”

N-MOUSE
“Yeah, he was pretty desperate and frustrated by the time he wrote that one.”

CUT BACK TO LS OF THE GROUP FROM DOWN THE HALLWAY.

C-MOUSE and K-MOUSE exit from C-Mouse’s office. V-MOUSE exits his office. The two sets of Alphabet Mice wave at each other. C-Mouse, K-Mouse and V-Mouse walk down the hallway joining N-Mouse, M-MOUSE, and B-Mouse.

B-MOUSE
“You guys ready for the meeting?”

C-MOUSE
“Is anybody?”

They chuckle.

C-MOUSE
“Seriously, if things have reached the point we are pulling an all-nighter, the problems are bigger than one cram session.”

K-MOUSE
“True.”

The others nod in agreement. They start walking through the doorway to the stairwell.

CUT TO

INT. CTRL-SHIFT-ENTER STAIRWELL, EVENING

THE CAMERA PANS FROM WALKING ALONGSIDE THE GROUP TO FOLLOWING BEHIND THEM AS THEY PASS THROUGH THE DOOR.

A tall stairwell with three walls of cement and one wall of striated stone, as if the stairwell was cut into the side of mountain or large rock and part of the rock was left bare. The rock wall sits opposite the doors stairwell doors. Round globe lights posted on every landing. The stairs run up the center, rails of metal, moving from dark red at the bottom through the spectrum to pale violet at the top. Moving from dark violet to pale red at the top. The stairwell uses a fairly standard stairs up to a landing halfway between the floors then snaking to the other side to walk up to the next floor. N-Mouse, M-Mouse, B-Mouse, V-Mouse K-Mouse and C-Mouse start to climb the stairs. The sound of DOORS OPENING AND CLOSING click out. X-MOUSE walks to the stairwell pulling on a rope tied to something trailing behind him.

X-MOUSE
“Hey guys, hold up.”

X-Mouse starts to climb up the stairs. What he is pulling comes into view. The other end of the rope is tied to a floating cloud. Z-MOUSE is asleep on the cloud.

C-MOUSE
“You got stuck hauling Zees?”

X-MOUSE
“Not like any of you were volunteering.”

N-MOUSE
“Sorry about that.”

M-MOUSE
“Yeah. We’ll get him next time.”

The group ascend the stairs moving from The Deepest or bottom floor to the Deeper or second floor. S-MOUSE, D-MOUSE, F-MOUSE, G-MOUSE, H-MOUSE, J-MOUSE, K-MOUSE, and L-MOUSE exit the Deeper’s stairwell to join the group. The larger group continues up the stairwell to the landing for the Deep or the third floor. Q-MOUSE, W-MOUSE, R-MOUSE, T-MOUSE, Y-MOUSE, U-MOUSE, I-MOUSE, O-MOUSE, and P-MOUSE exit the stairwell doors and join the group. The assembled mass continues up the stairs to a set of doors for the Numetarium or fourth floor. The stairwell opens to a landing larger than the previous landings. The stairwell going upward shrinks to a single person stairwell behind a metal screen. If one continued upward they would end up in the Y-Apartment. The door to the Numetarium is covered in numbers and formulas in a fun and whimsical way. The group opens the doors and walks through.

INT. THE NUMETARIUM

XLS OF THE GROUP AS THEY PASS THROUGH THE DOORS OF THE STAIRWELL ON THE STAGE-LEFT TO THE THE DOUBLE DOORS JUST OFF CENTER.

The Numetarium appears like a planetarium, with sloped rows of reclining chairs situated around a projector in the center. Across the domes ceiling various planets and their rotations are being projected, only the planets are circular centers with numbers from 0 to 9 in the center. Then each planet has a set of rings orbiting it. Each ring has a number os sides equal to the number in the planetoid center while their are a number of rings equal to the number in the center. Zero has no rings. One has a single circle. Two has two convex lenses spiraling around it. Three has three triangles spinning around it. Four has four squares…etc
In the controls of the projector sits #-MOUSE. He is writing figures in a book, when the crowd walks in. He notices them, watches them exit, dogears the page before closing the notebook, and stands to join them. #-Mouse leaves through the central exit doors.

CUT TO

INT. WRITER’S ROOM EVENING

A long meeting room decorated in light brown wood tones. An elongated hexagon of a table fills the center of the room. The entry doors for the Control-Shift-Enter Stairwell are a set of double doors opposite one of the tables short sides. The entry doors from the Control-Shift-Tab Stairwell are on the opposite side of the room. The longer sides of the room hold a series of cabinets and wooden paneling on one side and a series of large windows behind thick curtains on the other. When looking at the windows, the Control-Shift-Enter Stairwell doors are to the left and the Control-Shift-Tab Stairwell door is to the right. Each corner of the room holds a large potted plant and a trash can. The room is illuminated from three rows of pendant lamps. The light switches are next to the entrance doors.

LS OF ROOM FROM OPPOSITE THE DOORS, LOOKING AT SIDE OF THE ROOM WITH THE DOORS.

Y-MOUSE is already standing at the head of the table nearest the doors.

Y-MOUSE
“Come in. We’ll get get started once everyone is seated.”

Q-Mouse, W-Mouse, R-MOUSE, T-MOUSE, U, MOUSE, I MOUSE, O-MOUSE, and P-MOUSE are already sitting down at the table. S-MOUSE, D-MOUSE, F-MOUSE, G-MOUSE and H-MOUSE are near their respective chairs. J-MOUSE, K-MOUSE, L-MOUSE, C-MOUSE, and K-MOUSE walk over to their chairs. V-MOUSE, B-MOUSE, N-MOUSE, and M-MOUSE emerge through the double doors followed by X-MOUSE and #-MOUSE. The pair help direct Z-MOUSE on his floating cloud, asleep, through the door and over to his chair before sitting down in their chairs. Once everyone is sitting down, Y-Mouse addresses the group.

CUT TO MS OF Y-MOUSE

Y-MOUSE
“Thank you everyone for coming out at such a short notice. I know you prefer we schedule these cram sessions ahead of time, but I think circumstances warrant it. A-Mouse and E-Mouse were suppose to be back with food for everyone. They’re not and I am sorry for that. We’ll order some take-away later, but lets get started for now and get a little work done before taking a break.”

Y-MOUSE reaches down and flips a switch in a hidden compartment in his desk or he presses down and up pops one of those 60’s style control consoles. He presses a button.

CUT TO LS OF WALL ALONGSIDE LONG SIDE OF ROOM

A panel on the wall slides up revealing a large board for writing on. Y-Mouse walks over to the board and writes “Thomas?”. He then turns to the group.

CUT TO MS OF Y-MOUSE

Y-MOUSE
“When we last saw Thomas, he claimed he was fine. But was he really? Losing all his script options coupled with the stress of getting married has him rattled. He tends to cling onto bad experiences like awards in a trophy case.”

L-MOUSE
“I’ll say.”

Everyone laughs at that.

Y-MOUSE
“So he is most likely going to interpret these events as failures instead of parts of a process and let his creativity dry up.”

K-MOUSE
“Why does he blame himself. Its not his fault. Every writer has moments when the craft is good and moments when the craft is bad.”

Y-MOUSE
“Yes, but he does not know that yet. That part of his life is not written yet.”

L-MOUSE
“Okay, so how do we help then.”

Y-MOUSE
“Short term, we can try to get ahead of things on these plot holes we’ve noticed last meeting. Long term, those of you working on side projects, keep working on them. It is not important that we get finished projects right now. What is important is we keep that joy and excitement alive until Thomas is ready again. “

Everyone agrees.

CUT TO CS OF EACH ALPHABET MOUSE AS THEY SPEAK

Y-MOUSE
“Okay. So what were some of the plot holes or unanswered questions?”

D-MOUSE
“The lost astronaut from the commercial.”

Y-MOUSE
“Right”

Y-Mouse starts to write it down on the board when the writer room doors burst open. A-Mouse and E-Mouse are each wheeled in on medical stretchers. Each one has a pile of food bags on their chest. Also a SCRIPT DOCTOR is pushing them in.

E-MOUSE
“Did somebody order some food”

ALPHABET MICE
“Food!”

Y-MOUSE
“Are you two okay?”

E-MOUSE
“Had a little trouble that required medical intervention, but we made it.”

A-MOUSE
“We would of been here sooner but the ambulance rang over some glass in the road and got a flat tire.”

E-MOUSE
“Everyone come and get it.”

CUT TO LS OF THE WRITER’S ROOM

The Alphabet Mice get up and walk over to A-Mouse and E-Mouse. The food is moved to the cabinet tops by B-Mouse and X-Mouse. The Script Doctors wheel A-Mouse and E-Mouse over to their respective spots at the Writer’s Table.

PAN OUT

FADE TO BLACK