Emails #33: Bucky: Kid Sidekick

CAPTAIN AMERICA: DECLARATION OF WAR
A screenplay by Rick Arthur & Ben Alpi
rough version 01: begun 1/14/10

RICK: This is a wiggler. I start in the middle then jump as needed to fill in the details until I am back in the present day before finishing with a straight narrative.

What are some of the more dynamic scenarios we have discussed? Rough listing to follow...

• Red Skull with hands around Cap's throat spouting superman theory.
• Cap passing out in the snow and dreaming about finding a concentration camp.
• Cap jumping from a plane, totally out of it from drugs.
• Red Skull and Cap fighting on the wing of a biplane.
• Cap reading letters from regular folks from WWII.
• Cap in a graveyard.
• Cap at Viet Nam War memorial.
• Red Skull shoots a mobster at a dinner party.
• Cap's intro/first mission in WWII
• Bucky's Death?*
  
• Cap goes home. (The general gives him the keys to his childhood home, preserved as was. He visits to discover what happened to his parents.)

The Bucky Question

If we use Bucky, the Red Skull should kill him after the war is over.

BEN: Should it be like in the books and Bucky is killed in front of Cap and Cap carries that guilt into present day? Oddly, in a Hollywood making heroes younger, my vision of Bucky is older than a boy. I was thinking he'd be about the same age as Cap, a contemporary. Perhaps even Cap's handler in the field-- although, I see Cap being alone more than hanging with Bucky. Then again, if Bucky isn't there a lot, his death wouldn't be devastating to Cap. They may need a past.

Cap and Bucky. The kid sidekick. I want the film to be about Cap. I know Bucky is part of the mythos. Maybe it is enough to meet Bucky then have Cap stand at his grave later in the film. The history will be internal and imagined. All of WWII won't be shown. Enough to give us the strength of Cap's character and to introduce Red Skull. Or maybe we find out that Bucky is the general who has been helping Cap behind the scenes.

"Don't talk, Bucky."

"Looks like I took a bullet for you Cap..."

"I will hunt the Red Skull to the ends of the Earth. I swear."

Cap kneels over the bodies. A giant shadow from a bat flying overhead falls on his face. He swears unholy vengeance against all criminals...

"Uncle Ben, NOOOOOOO!!" Then Cap cries and says,"With great power comes great responsibility..." He swears unholy vengeance against all criminals...

Are you saying this all sounds eerily familiar? :)

A screenplay is like a noun- about a person, or persons, in a place, or places, doing his or her "thing". All screenplays have subject and the subject of a screenplay is defined by action, what happens, and the character to whom it happens.
-Syd Field's definition of a screenplay

Screenwriting is like writing in the sand with the wind blowing.
-Frances Marion