NEWTOPIA.

PILOT - Paradise Awaits. Beware!

An animated series for television.

Written by Corey Young


EXT. OCEAN - DAY
The sun is out and beaming warm rays over the entire scene. A motorized boat drifts along the sea.

EXT. BOAT - DAY
Standing at the wheel of the boat with a concentrated look on his face is OWEN DANIELS, a Melbourne born 20 year old male with shortish, scruffy brown hair. He wears a green T-shirt, jeans and blue sneakers. Behind him, at the side of the boat and taking in her vast surroundings is LESLIE, a Melbourne born 22 year old female with neck-length black hair, a short pony-tail tied at the bottom. She wears a sleeveless black top and grey pants. A warm smile on her face, she turns to Owen and approaches him from behind. Leslie wraps her arms around his waist and rests her head on his shoulders, closing her eyes as she hugs him. Owen noticeably grimaces.

LESLIE
This is beautiful. Thank you so much
for taking me out here.

Owen doesn’t reply.

LESLIE
So, are we going anywhere in particular or
are we going to go on until we’ve circled the world?

Leslie picks her head up off Owen’s shoulder and looks at him. His face remains concentrated, almost seething.

OWEN
What do you mean?

LESLIE
Well, we’ve been drifting for ages now.

Leslie loosens her grip and turns her head to look back.

LESLIE (CONT’D)
I can’t even see the shore anymore.

ZOOM in on Owen until his head takes up the entire frame. Continue zooming through his head and into his brain.

INT. MEMORY HALL - DAY
A yellow wall. Three blue doors are evenly spaced on it. Centred and in bold writing on the wall is a sign reading: MEMORIES. On each door is a small sign with a number on it. From left to right, the doors are marked “MEMORY 7459241”, “MEMORY 7459242” and “MEMORY 7459243”. The middle door opens, a blinding white light emanating from it. ZOOM in to the light until it has engulfed the screen.

INT. PAT’S LOUNGE ROOM - DAY
A student’s lounge room. A couch is the centre-piece of the room. Behind it is a stereo system and a large rack of CD’s. Random posters adorn the walls promoting the bands MILKMAID, FIREWITCH, THE UNION and DOCTOR INVISIABLO. There are also decorated patterns, painted murals around. Sitting on the couch is PAT, a 20 year old white male with long red hair. He sits back comfortably, wearing old jeans and a blue T-shirt. He is holding a lit joint, smoke softly drifting from it. Ahead of him, Owen paces back and forth tensely.

OWEN
I’ve got to leave her, man. I can’t take it.
She calls me every day and asks me to go
places with her. She buys me presents for
no reason whatsoever. And last week she
found some stray cat on the street, and now
IT’S become obsessed with me too! She’s like... like...

PAT
A girlfriend?

Owen stops and looks at Pat in agreement.

OWEN
Yeah!

Owen resumes pacing.

OWEN
It’s annoying, because I really like the girl.
I’ve been seeing her for like, six months now,
but I don’t want a girlfriend.

Pat tokes the joint and blows out smoke rings.

PAT
But you always seem so happy with her.

OWEN
I am, most of the time. It’s just lately, I dunno.
It’s the same way I started feeling about underpants
before I ditched them for boxers.

Pat’s face contorts with confusion.

PAT
She gives you a rash?

Owen stops, annoyed. He looks at his friend.

OWEN
No! She makes me feel restricted. I’m happy with
her, but what if some other girl comes about?
I don’t want to be committed to a relationship.

Pat tokes again.

PAT
So you want another girl?

Owen shakes his head.

OWEN
No. I just don’t want to feel like an adult
wearing children’s underwear.

Pat shoots Owen a confused look.

PAT
Man, I dunno. If you’re going to dump her, be
careful about it. Your history with breakups is awful.

INT. BAR - NIGHT (FLASHBACK)
Generic dance music plays in the background as we get an MCU of Owen on a pay phone. One hand holds the phone to his right ear, the other is in his left ear, trying to mute the music.

OWEN
(speaking over the music)
Hi, baby. Yeah, it’s me. Look, I’m just ringing
to say that I don’t think things are working out.
No, I just think it’s best we see other people.
Don’t cry, no, what are you doing?

Hysterical screaming is heard from the phone. After a while a gun shot is heard (slightly drowned out by the loud music) and then the thud of the receiver on the other line hitting the ground. A few moments silence pass before Owen shrugs and hangs up the phone. The shot expands to reveal a HOT BLONDE standing next to Owen. He turns to her and smiles.

OWEN
So, we gunna make time?

The blonde nods, grinning.

INT. LOUNGE ROOM - DAY (BACK TO PRESENT)
Pat now has a white board with a giant graph next to him on the couch. He points to the line on the graph, which rises steadily along its course. Owen watches.

PAT
If you’ll look here, you can see that depression
among females aged 15 to 25 has risen steadily
from the time you started dating. It’s a trend
that only you can reverse.

Owen looks outraged.

OWEN
What? Shut up! I told you last week that
I didn’t like you making graphs about my life.

PAT
Yes, and...

Pat throws the white board behind the couch and retrieves a new one which replaces it.

PAT (CONT’D)
As this graph shows, my graph-making
decreased substantially from that point.

Owen grabs the graph violently and throws it out of the scene. We hear a glass breaking, then a car skidding and crashing. A woman screams painfully.

MAN (O.S.)
Dear God, honey, you’re bleeding!

OWEN
Forget the graphs! Don’t you have any advice for me?

Pat tokes once again.

PAT
I already said. If you have to break it off with her,
do it nicely. She’s a good chick. Don’t mess with
her brain. I have to live with the girl and you know
I hate living with depressos.

Owen nods in recognition.

OWEN
Yeah, ever since that goth and his friends
committed ritual suicide in your bathroom.

PAT
They could have flushed! But anyway, that’s
not the point. Be good to her, man.

OWEN
I know. I have to be sensitive. I don’t
want her to hate me.

ZOOM out of the room until the white light engulfs the screen again.

EXT. BOAT - DAY
ZOOM out from Owen’s head until we reach a MS of him and Leslie. Owen stops the boat and shrugs.

OWEN
I guess this is as good a place as any.

Owen suddenly looks down to his foot, annoyed by something down there. Camera withdraws a little to reveal CHOOK, a shaggy brown cat nestling against his leg. He pushes it away with his leg and it looks up at him upset. He turns to Leslie.

OWEN
Why do you bring that stupid thing every where?

Leslie kneels down and picks it up, petting it as she rises with the cat in her arms.

LESLIE
How can you call him stupid?
Look at him.

CU of CHOOK looking stupid in Leslie’s arms.

ANGLE - PREVIOUS

Owen shakes his head.

OWEN
Forget about it.

Leslie grins.

LESLIE
So?

Owen eyes her strangely.

LESLIE
We’re on a boat, in the middle of the
ocean, all by ourselves. Is there any
special reason for this?

Owen looks downward.

OWEN
Uh, yeah, there is, actually.

Leslie’s grin widens as we ZOOM in on her until her head takes up the entire frame. We continue zooming through her head and into her brain.

INT. MEMORY HALL 2 - DAY
The wall of Leslie’s memory room is pink with various paintings of flowers and little murals about. Three doors are evenly spaced across the wall. Above them, centred is a sign reading: MEMORIES. On each door is a small label listing the number of the memory. From left to right, the three doors read: “MEMORY 9482530”, “MEMORY 9482531” and “MEMORY 9482532”. The left door opens and emanates a blinding white light. ZOOM in on it until the light has engulfed the entire frame.

INT. FRIEND’S LOUNGE - DAY
A student’s lounge. Leslie stands by a desk that has several papers and a phone on it. She is midway through hanging up the phone when the scene begins. After hanging up, she turns to her FRIEND who sits on a couch looking at Leslie.

FRIEND
So what did he want?

Leslie beams excitedly.

LESLIE
We’re going on a boat trip tomorrow!

FRIEND
A boat trip? What for?

LESLIE
He said he has something important
to talk about. I wonder what it is...

Friend jumps up off the couch.

FRIEND
Wait! Isn’t tomorrow Valentine’s Day?

LESLIE
Yes.

Friend jumps in the air with excitement.

FRIEND
He’s taking you out on a boat cruise on
Valentine’s Day and says it’s about something
important? Oh my God! He’s going to propose!

Leslie’s mouth widens with shock, then forms into a smile as she contemplates the suspicion. ZOOM out of the room until the blinding light engulfs the screen again.

EXT. OCEAN - DAY
Shot of wave increasing in size, becoming giant. It approaches the boat which is in the distance.

EXT. BOAT - DAY
Leslie waits expectantly as Owen tries to find the right words.

OWEN
I don’t know how to say this exactly.

A small wave rocks the boat. Leslie almost loses her balance, but keeps her feet. Owen falls to one knee. In the background we see the giant wave approaching rapidly, but the two characters are so involved in the moment that they do not notice. Leslie’s grin widens. Owen moves to get up.

OWEN
I...

The giant wave smashes into the boat, toppling it. Owen and Leslie both scream as they are thrown overboard.

EXT. OCEAN - DAY
Shot of Leslie hitting the water hard, her head crashing into the ocean. Then a shot of Owen landing face first, blood trickling from his nose with the impact.

WS of the ocean, the boat capsized. The giant wave continues on its path, decreasing gradually in size.

EXT. NEWTOPIA BEACH - DAY
The water calmly rolls up to the beach, then eases away. We watch this process repeat three times before both Leslie and Owen are washed in. They are apparently unconscious. After a few moments, Leslie starts coughing up water. MCU on her as she pushes herself up on to her hands and knees and coughs up water. She vomits a little as she gasps for breath. When finished, she collapses, rolling over onto her back. Taking in all the fresh air she can handle, it is a few moments before her head turns and she notices Owen only metres away. Her eyes narrow. Painfully, she forces herself up onto her hands and knees again. She crawls over to Owen and clutches his wrist. She feels his pulse and then drops his arm. She rests both hands on his chest and pushes down 5 times, obviously exhausted. Once the 5 count is over, she leans in to Owen, opens his mouth and gives mouth to mouth. She repeats this process four times before Owen finally coughs. She rolls him over slightly and water dribbles out from his mouth. A few coughs pass before his eyes open. Tired, he turns and sees Leslie. His eyes widen and then take in their surroundings.

WS of the beach. Owen’s P.O.V shot of the ocean. MS of Leslie and Owen, lying beside each other.

FADE TO BLACK.


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