Ancillary Narrative 3

Title: Judas Kiss

Corresponding Macro-Story Beat: This ancillary narrative would be told in act 3 towards the backend of the macro story as Terry is released from jail after Natalia and her group leave via boat.

Logline: An ex-convict is released from Jail, only to find out his sister is murdered a few days prior. As he searches for jobs to keep his mind from grieving, he lands a job as a Deacon at the nearby Church. He eventually finds out through an anonymous confessional that his sister was murdered through the church, that’s been running an underground prostitution business.

Short Story Synopsis:  

Act 1:

Terry an ex-raider gets out of jail to find out his sister has been murdered. The murder is under investigation but the detective informs him that they have zero leads. Terry feels the false high of recently being released from jail only to find out that his one and only family member has been murdered. As he heads back to her former home he regrets not being able to spend the last few years that they had, together. He then decides to search for a job rather than mourning her death, but to no avail. Along the way back to his now empty home, he runs into a crazy homeless man and the two have their first encounter but Terry can’t understand a word he’s saying as it’s all nonsense but he does notice a cross/rosary around his neck. The next day during his sister’s funeral service the priest offers him a job as a Deacon, his assistant. He’s reluctant at first but he eventually accepts the offer because the Priest, whose name is Father Angelo, sold him off the fact that his sister had great ties to the church. He realized that it’s what his sister would’ve wanted him to do, so he took up Father Angelo’s offer.

Act 2:

Fast forward 3 months later he’s a new man as a son of god. Terry who we know was once a troubled man, fresh out of jail has turned his life around. He’s done such great deeds for the church that the people refer to him as Deacon Terry. On one quite Tuesday afternoon Deacon Terry conducts his weekly blind confessionals. This time around, an anonymous man confesses that he has cheated on his wife with many hookers. The man goes as far to say that on one of his encounters he and the hooker had sex he didn’t have the money to pay her at the time. A few days later she randomly was murdered at her home. The man feels responsible, and it’s his way of venting. The ex-gangbanger, now deacon has the seed planted in his head that this man behind the curtain could be talking about his sister. He concludes the confessional in a regular manner and forgives the man for his sins. Deacon Terry then goes through an emotional rollercoaster as he doesn’t know what to do. By saying something, would mean going against his word and promise to god.

Act 3:

As the timeline continues as Terry submissively investigates through the church. He starts to see patterns and clues that led to his sisters death, but isn’t certain enough to make a big move. One day Father Angelo surprisingly sends Terry home early. Terry asks why but Angelo tells him not to worry about it and take the rest of the night off. Terry hesitantly complies and heads home only run into the same homeless man. This time he and the homeless man have a civilized conversation. He first learns that the homeless man’s name is Judas, which Terry finds very ironic. Judas and him have a heart to heart where Judas informs him that his craziness is due to the church paying him to act crazy as it attracts more attention form the nearby police. Judas then goes on to explain that the church does this with almost all the homeless people to shine less of a light on their underground business practices. One of which being prostitution. Terry is perplexed and runs back to the church. Once at the church Terry sees two young girls, dressed as ladies off the night, with one of them being highly intoxicated, walking out of Father Angelo’s office. Terry confronts Angelo but the conversation goes nowhere due to Father Angelo being very intoxicated. When Terry brings up the murder of his sister, Angelo begins to deny and raises his voice telling him to just leave. Father Angelo then tells him that he’s nothing without him and this church as he blacks out. Terry then searches his office and finds numerous drugs and a list of girls with his sister’s name Jessica being on it. Terry then fights voices in his heads as he wants to seek retribution on the spot. However he storms out of the office in efforts in finding Judas the homeless man. He confirms everything with Judas and reveals that he’s the deacon at the church. The two share a moment until Terry notices that the same young woman walking out Father Angelo’s office earlier is being raped at a nearby alley. This triggers Terry, he tells Judas that he must commit a sin. Deacon Terry runs back to the church, enters the confessional booth, and confesses to god that he must now commit the deadly sin of murder. He exits the booth and finds the sharp candle stand by the alter and takes the candle off, turning it into a makeshift blade. He heads back into Father Angelo’s office as only to find him in a pool of blood. On top of his dead body is a cross/rosary. The same one that Judas was wearing. He recites and our father and leaves the scene.

Genre: Drama/Suspense

Protagonist:

Deacon Terry - An ex raider, gets released for jail at the start of the story. He lands jobs at the church only to find out that the answers to his sister’s murder were right in front of him all along.

Antagonist: 

Father Angelo - He opens up as Terry’s mentor/father figure. By the end of the story he’s a corrupt priest that’s connected to being the head of the illegal business practices.

Main Supporting Characters With Descriptions:

Judas - The crazy homeless man that provides Terry with the last piece of the puzzle of his sister’s murder. Judas’s origin/background remains very vague here. However, we do find out that he kills Father Angelo before Terry can, which saves him from committing a deadly sin.

Primary Locations With Descriptions: 

Church (St. Divaris) Located on the outskirts of of Northern Russia. The neighborhood that surrounds the church itself is very troubling, but the church serves as the place where the community comes together. The church is very well built and regularly renovated. It’s the best sight of the town.

Additive Comprehension: In our Macro story we first encounter Terry as the veteran prisoner that the Natalia and her buddies quickly turn into as her mentor. In this story he goes out into the world with not a single soul by his side and must finds a new way of life and a mentor to help guide him. Terry opts not to leave with the kids when they decides to escape from the Capital Prison, so this would be the first encounter that people see of Terry outside prison walls.

Medium: Feature Film

Why It Works In This Medium: This is a film on a very touchy subject to say the least. We plan on the screenplay to take advantage of the very ironic high concept of a corrupt church to be very well written where it catches the eye of the older crowd. Older crowd being ones who write reviews and rating on films.

Platform: Lifetime preferably or FX. We would also consider releasing this on Netflix or Hulu as well.

Why It Works In This Platform: This would take us away from the Sci-Fi demographic opening up the gates to more exposure on out overall IP.