JUST BEFORE DAWN
Paramedic JACK LOWRY is the last man standing. One by one all of his guy friends have gotten married and settled down. His partner STUART was the last to go - married a few months ago to his long-time girlfriend CAROLINE. Jack wants to remain footloose and fiancé free.... even though his girlfriend DAWN, a night nurse at Metro Hospital, thinks they should move in together. Jack doesn't want to give up his rent controlled apartment and his single status. Why complicate the relationship?
Jack and Stuart's quiet night shift becomes hell on earth when a Mars probe disintegrates over Los Angeles, releasing parasites that have infected large parts of the population. If one of the maggot-like parasites makes it's way inside your mouth, they multiply and take over your body as a host. You die, then come back with a crazy sex drive and compulsion to spread the disease... by projectile vomiting squirmies at the object of your affection. Jack and Stuart nickname it "space herpies".
The good news is: It makes every woman want to have sex with you.
The bad news is: It kills them first.
Unfortunately, first responders like police and firemen and paramedics were the first to be infected, throwing the whole city into chaos. And in this world of disposable relationships and casual sex, the parasites are spreading like wildfire. When night clubs fill with the horny dead and the world goes *really* wild, Jack and Stuart realize they must make a cross-town quest to save Caroline and Dawn.
As 747s crash on Wilshire Blvd, Century City burns to the ground, and an army of National Guardsmen fight a larger army of zombies; Jack and Stuart must navigate streets filled with overturned cars and the horny dead to rescue the women they love. Along the way, Jack is faced with no end of temptation - hundreds of women who want to sleep with him - his relationship with Dawn tested again and again. Will he be able to resist? Will Jack and Stuart learn the Four Rules Of Zombies before one of them becomes infected and turns on the group? Will the two couples make it past the military check points to the remote cabin in Big Bear where they will be safe before the city is destroyed by maggot spewing zombies? Can Jack *commit* to Dawn for life?
JUST BEFORE DAWN is a zom-com with a touch of rom plus real scares, real suspense, real gore, and no end of real gross maggot projectile vomiting. A film that asks the question... is that a maggot on your tongue? (Or are you just happy to see me?)
"JUST BEFORE DAWN" a screenplay by William C. Martell
For a copy of this script... E-mail me! wcmartell@ScriptSecrets.Net
To read the script online... JUST BEFORE DAWN.
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MY BIO:
I've written 19 films that were carelessly slapped onto celluloid: 3 for HBO, 2 for Showtime, 2 for USA Net, and a whole bunch of CineMax Originals (which is what happens when an HBO movie goes really, really wrong). I've been on some film festival juries, including Raindance in London (twice - once with Mike Figgis and Saffron Burrows, once with Lennie James and Edgar Wright - back to "jury duty" in October of 2009). Roger Ebert discussed my work with Gene Siskel on his 1997 "If We Picked The Winners" Oscar show. I'm quoted a few times in Bordwell's great book "The Way Hollywood tells It". My USA Net flick HARD EVIDENCE was released on video the same day as the Julia Roberts' film Something To Talk About and out-rented it in the USA. In 2007 I had two films released on DVD on the same day and both made the top 10 rentals.
