Researching Materials for your Script

Background Material

-Published Scripts:
BBC Spy Drama Hunted (Spotnitz, 2012)  - 'Hunted'  is a BBC Spy drama which originally aired in 2012. The series follows a female agent who is trying to find out who tried to kill her. She suspects it is someone in the company she works for. BBC decided not to pick up a second series due to ratings declines but Spotnitz has said that he still wants to make a second series but with a different network.

Skyfall (Mendes, 2012) -  'Skyfall' is the 23rd offical James Bond movie. It was released in November 2012. It is now the highest grossing movie in UK box office. Just like all Bond movies the story focuses on James Bond, an MI6 agent, on an assignment to investigate an attack on MI6.
SCREENPLAY FOR TOMORROW NEVER DIES -  http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Tomorrow-Never-Dies.html

Tinker Tailor Solider Spy (Alfredson,2011) - 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' is a 2011 movie based on the novel of the same name by John le Carre. The film is set in London in the early 1970s and follows the hunt for a Soviet double agent at the top of the British secret service. The film was the highest-grossing film at the British box office for three consecutive weeks. The film received a total of three Academy Awards including, best adapted screenplay, best original score and best actor for Gary Oldman.

SCREENPLAY -  http://focusawards2011.com/workspace/ttss-screenplay.pdf/E98E2385-E7DC-4076-BAB1-8F854ED5CC43-

-Factual Information
 Alexander Litvinenko - Alexander Litvinenko was a KGB agent that was killed in London in 2006. On 1 November 2006, Litvinenko was sent to hospital. 'He died three weeks later, becoming the first confirmed victim of lethal polonium-210-induced acute radiation syndrome.' Later investigations found out that the poison was in his cup of tea.

 
















 Spy Apprenticeship - Foreign Secretary William Hague announced that the government has launched an apprenticeship scheme to find up to 100 new recruits. The recruits are mainly being searched to work for the communications intelligence agency GCHQ but they could also find their way into MI6 or MI5.

-Opinion
My proposed script is a realistic spy drama. There are no over-the-top gadgets and the agent doesn't take on hundreds of people by him self. The reason I chose this is because the realistic James Bond films are much more popular than the campy over the top films. The James Bond series was recently rebooted with Casino Royale (Campbell, 2006) which gave the audience a 'gritty' new Bond. The audience responded well to this and the film was a big success making $594,239,066 worldwide. The next two follow up films have also been a great box office success with Quantum of Solace (Forster, 2008) received a worldwide gross of $586,090,727 and Skyfall (Mendes, 2012) received a record breaking $980,805,000.
This shows that the audience are more likely to want to see a realistic spy drama as Die Another Die (Tamahori, 2002) which was full of unrealistic elements and over-the-top gadgets only made made $431,971,116 .

-Speculation
I research the information on the death of Alexander Litvineko from SRAS website. There are many speculations about how the Russian spy, Alexander Litvineko was killed. The immediate suspicion was that he was killed by a Russian Secret Service but there was little evidence of this. Another theory was that it was the work of Boris Berezovsky. Berezovsky was a government official and after Litvinenko's death, traces of polonium-210 (the poison that killed Litvineko) were found in an office of Berezovsky. In 1998, Litvinenko himself alleged there was a plot to kill Berezovsky.
There is also speculation that the MI6 had a connection to the murder. Litvineko was working for the MI6 to spy on Russia.

-Existing Material
I took inspiration to make a spy drama from the James Bond movies mainly From Russia with Love (Young, 1963)  and Skyfall (Mendes, 2012). I wanted to write a script that would be more realistic and dark similar to the novel Carte Blanche by Jeffery Deaver. Another inspiration that hold the similar realism of spying is Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Alfredson, 2011).

Sources

Information on Hunted - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00vndpl
Picture of Hunted- http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/tv-radio/article3550369.ece
Information on Skyfall- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyfall
Picture of Skyfall-  http://www.thecodeiszeek.com/2012/11/skyfall-is-great-celebration-of-bonds.html 
Information on Tinker Tailor Solider Spy - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1340800/
Picture of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy -  http://5plitreel.wordpress.com/2011/09/23/tinker-tailor-soldier-spy-2011/
Information on Alexander Litvinenko - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19647226
Picture of Alexander Litvineko - http://www.camdennewjournal.com/news/2012/may/mp-frank-dobson-calls-government-save-camden-taxpayers-%C2%A31m-bill-litvinenko-inquest
Information and picture of Spy Apprenticeship - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19987761

Script Proposal: Pitch

Script Proposal - Pitch by

Script Synopsis

The story starts with Professor Malcolm Carter being interrogated by the villain of the story, George Haydon. The Professor was researching nuclear warheads and when he was kidnapped the terrorists stole his USB drive that is holding his research. George Haydon is interrogating the Professor to find the code that will decrypt the research so his organisation can use it for nuclear war. Finally the Professor cracks and tells George the code only to be shot and killed afterwards.

   Agent Jack Mason is given the assignment by the head of the secret service to find the professor and find the research before the terrorists access it. Jack follows a signal that was traced from the Professor’s phone. The signal leads him to an abandoned hospital. He sneaks in and finds the Professor dead.

   The next morning, Jack is called into the office. His boss shows him a message that they received from the terrorists threatening nuclear war if all members of the secret services are not killed. The office is attacked by members of the public after the video is leaked by global news.

   Jack and other members of the secret service are kidnapped and taken to the terrorists. Jack escapes and stops the terrorists before they use the nuclear warheads. The remaining members of the secret service are freed. 

The Script Proposal

Script proposals are used so that the company that you are pitching your script to can get a feel for what the story is without having to read a long script. Script proposals can be used for movies, one-off TV episodes or the basis of a complete series. There is more information about the product in a script proposal such as the characters, when the story is set and who the target audience is.

I intend to present finished my script proposal with both a written report and an oral presentation to my class and teacher. Once I have presented my script proposal my classmates will tell me if they think it is suitable and what the like or don't like about it.

The title of my proposed script is The Killing Moon. The genre of the script is a spy drama as the story centers around a secret agent on an assignment to save a kidnapped Professor. Before the Professor was kidnapped he was researching nuclear warheads. His research was on a USB drive which the kidnappers now have. The agent has to save the Professor and find the USB drive before the terrorists access the research. The unique selling point of my proposed script is the tension that build up as the agent has little time to stop the terrorist from using the research on nuclear warheads. I think the show will draw a lot of interest to it due to the recent Bond movie, Skyfall (Mendes, 2012). Skyfall is now the highest grossing film in UK box office history which shows that a large range of demographics are interested in spy stories. The suggested primary audience is middle-aged males of a lower middle-class social status. This is because a male audience can relate more to the agent and spy dramas usually appeal to middle-aged males. The psychographic profile for the primary audience is aspirers as they want to live the luxury life style of the agent. The secondary audience is teenagers as they will enjoy the action scenes of the episode and a lot of teenagers are fans of the James Bond films.

The story begins with the Professor being tortured into giving the terrorists. The agent is given the assignment to find the Professor. He finds the Professor dead and has to hunt for the research and stop the terrorists.

The opening scene sets the tone for the rest of the production and starts the events that slowly unfold during the two episodes. I think it is important to starts it with an action scene as it will catch the audiences attention. If it started with a drama scene they may get bored and switch over to another channel.

The product will be proposed as a two-feature-length-part for a running length of around three hours. The reason for this is to give the agent a more realistic timescale in which to complete his mission. If it was a one-off episode it might feel like too much of an action production rather than a drama which the brief asks for. The intention of my product is to entertain the general public and I am hoping to make spy dramas more popular as it is a genre I am passionate about.  I think my proposed script is high concept as it is easy to pitch. With spy-dramas you normally know what it's going to be about and include. The whole idea of the proposed script can almost entirely be explained in one sentence.  The language used in the script is a mixture of Queens English (spoken by the staff at the Secret Service especially the Head of Office), and slang/lower-class English spoken by the terrorists. The reason for this links to the target audience as they will understand the language and any 'slang' they are speaking. There isn't an intended message within the script.

The main character of the proposed script is Jack Mason. Jack is an agent working for the Secret Service. He is in his mid-thirties with dark black hair. He dresses in smart suits and over-coats. Jack is given the assignment to find the missing Professor. In the end of the script he stops the terrorists and saves the kidnapped service agents. When writing the character I was inspired by Cary Grant and Sean Connery.
   George Haydon is the main villain of story. He is in his early-fifties and has brown hair. He dresses in a tan colored suit with no tie. He is in charge of the team of terrorists that kidnap the Professor. In the script he is responsible for the threat of nuclear war and he is the driving force of the story. The audience finds out towards the end of the script that the reason he wants the kill the secret service agents is because they were responsible the death of his wife. The character is inspired by Gary Oldman's character in Leon (Besson, 1994)
   Head of Office is Jack Mason's boss. He is in his late-sixties with grey hair. He dresses in the finest and most expensive suits. He gives Jack his mission and he helps him from his office. In the final act of the script he is one of the service agents that is kidnapped and taken to the terrorists.
   The Man in Black is a mysterious man who is following Jack. We find out later in the script that he works for the CIA. He helps Jack to stop the terrorists but gets killed by George Haydon in the final act of the script. He is in his mid-thirties with black hair. He dresses in an all black suit.