Dinosaurs vs The Holy Roman Empire - Charlemagne&Raptors

[Gabriel Ritter]

http://studios.amazon.com/projects/54424

Charlemagne’s elite squad The Scara have protected the Holy Roman Empire for years, but can they defeat an army of dinosaurs, lead by the richest woman in the mediaeval world – who even pulls some of the Scara to her side?

In his younger days, Charlemagne, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, lead his elite squad The Scara himself. Now, in 800, he has become too old for this.
When the Scara return from a mission, they learn of Charlemagne's death. His heir, drunk from power, orders them to find a map, which shall lead him to even more power. Too late they realize, he was just a pawn for the richest woman of the era - they helped her find and free a group of Dinosaur-breeding Raptor-Riders who are hellbent to conquer Europa.

While the Dinosaur horde quickly captures castles and cities, even some of the Scara join their side, lured by promises by their charismatic leaders.

With only a ragtag group of villagers and Vandals as allies, the Scara's leader has only her wits going for her. Can they stand a chance against a scaly army the world has never seen?

Dreizeiler:
Charlemagne’s elite squad The Scara have protected the Holy Roman Empire for years, but can they defeat an army of dinosaurs, lead by the richest woman in the medieaval world – who even pulls some of the Scara to her side?


As always: If you have a amazon-account, I'd find it nice if you'd follow the link, click around, post your opinion or something like it.

[Gabriel Ritter]

The author about Dinosaurs vs The Holy Roman Empire - Charlemagne against Raptors

The basic idea: Believe it or not, the first idea was something I remembered from a dream I had (which must have been in 2011). It had the merchantress trying to take over the world, dinosaurs and former allies fighting. As I did not dream about history, I first thought, if I could make it work in the here and now, but with drones, miniguns and artillery, I did not see much advantage in riding a raptor. So my second thought was Ancient Rome. But at this time one of the most successful and promising scripts on Amazon Studios was "Gladiators vs Zombies", so I chose the early middle ages. Since Eternal Darkness I was interested in Charlemagne, so why not have the father of Europe save it from the Dinosaur Army?

The chronology: The script does not tell the story in order. This was a choice on my side, so I'd have dinosaurs not only at the end, but also earlier in the script.

The historical accuracy: Besides the Raptorian Army conquering Europe, the concept is comparably historically correct: The movie would take place between 811 and 814 (Death of all other heirs besides Louis - Death of Charlemagne), eg Charlemagne learning to read and write late in his life and having lots of concubines and children, Louis being very religious, Leo III pope, quarrel with Saracens.
The following are artisitic licence nevertheless:
- Vandals not settling down
- The Scara was all male and more elite soldiers than specialized commandos
- The Holy Roman Empire was not called such at this time

Self-criticism & reflection: I have to admit, the whole script is more a Proof of conept than a finished script. It demonstrates, that you can make a working movie out of the basic idea. But there are too many different plot elements, and many stay very basic.
I spent some time thinking how to improve it, but besides telling the stroy non-chronological (see above), nothing really pleased me:
Of course you could make a two-parter: The first one about the Scara, finding the map, introducing Tessa, Charlemagne and Louis and ending with a cliff hanger somewhere on Raptorian Island. But the scripts main selling point are cleary the Raptors.
On the other hand, if I leave out all the map finding and so on, the internal conflict is completely lost and the movie becomes someting like the later Transformer movies: Dinosaurs fighting all the time, without much plot. I guess that would sell much better, but I prefer it that way.
Many good ideas are only indicated, and some I just did not want to press into the script, eg a menage a trois between the leaders of the Scara, the Villagers and the Vandals.

Preview: So, depending whether I get any (meaningful) feedback, I might completely break down the story and rebuilt it from scratch. I like most characters, so I'll keep those. But I could make it take place ~20 years earlier, with Charlemagne eldest son Pépin le Bossu (who revolting against him 792 with the aid of various nobles) joining up with the merchantress and the Raptorians. This would make it easier to give Charlemagne a more active role (which was the reason, why the title does not have him in it anymore), and after saving Europe Charlemagne could be crowned Emperor (actually it was in 800 - but after him fighting Dinosaurs nobody will mind that).

[Gabriel Ritter]

Now available! As an eBook.

I am positive, I will sell a script this time. Because they are available as eBooks.
#Charlemagne against #Dinosaurs

Two fantasy action scripts with remarks from the author

A Fairy’s Tail
In a fantasy world an item shop owner sets out to find a childhood friend. After hiring a mercenary, meeting up with an orcish poet and a dwarven archer, the unusual party finds themselves forced to take on a necromancer (with no inferiority complex) and his undead army.

Charlemagne vs Dinosaurs aka Raptors against the Holy Roman Empire
Charlemagne’s elite squad The Scara have protected the Holy Roman Empire for years, but can they defeat an army of dinosaurs, lead by the richest woman in the mediaeval world – who even pulls some of the Scara to her side?

After reading my scripts, there is even a poll whether I shall write a sequel.

Once more links to the Ebook:
US-Version UK-Version Version für Österreich und Deutschland