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IAN EMES - IN THE WORKS
Ian has completed his first novel for children ‘GRANGSTERS’
To give you a taste of things to come, here is a sample:
Chapter 15 - The Purple Hand
Water seeped down the bare light bulb. A droplet trembled and detached itself from the sphere, falling, exploding on concrete, spreading in circles. Danny wasn’t sure how long he’d been sitting in the white-tiled room. His feet were frozen and his nose was wet and the metal bench had chilled him to his bones.
‘Number One,’ the electronic voice said.
A door clicked open. Danny hadn’t seen it before because it was painted white.
‘Number One.’
‘That’s you,’ Solid-Gone said, looking at Danny with shocked intensity. Danny stood up, stumbled forward and stepped through the door. The room was dark and the air was warm and it was impossible to guess its dimensions because the walls were not visible. Before him, in a dim pool of light, was a hand, about three metres in height. It looked like a rubber glove that had been inflated, and it was the deepest purple that Danny had ever seen.
‘Sit down Danny,’ Mrs Thrumpton said softly. Danny couldn’t see her but her voice, strangely, was comforting and he moved forward obediently. As he eased himself onto the palm of the giant hand, it enveloped Danny and he realised that it was made of plastic, the intense purple radiating from a luminous vapour inside.
‘Would you like some music? Of course you would,’ said Mrs Thrumpton without waiting for an answer. The fingers tightened on Danny, holding him firm as electronic music pulsed through the gloom. He felt a cool breeze coming from somewhere, an air-conditioner perhaps. Something glowed in the ceiling, if there was a ceiling. A ball of light elongated into a strip, liquefying at the edges, and a flat-screen dropped out of it. The screen scrambled and the faces of children appeared in a mosaic, each child with a number, scrolling, flickering past. One million and one, one million and two, one million and three…
A T-Max Orbiter disco-light snapped on and Mrs Thrumpton stepped into its lurid beam. She was wearing a doctor’s coat that was crisp and white and which bizarrely, Danny found reassuring. A ribbon of wafer-thin computers materialised out of the ether and encircled her. It was a multi-touch interactive hologram, a Qwirl, like the one Danny had seen at the Copper Kettle. She stroked the keyboards and the Whamogram slipped out of the darkness, unfolding in a puzzle of chrome and shuddering hydraulics. There was a troosh sound followed by a burst of steam and the helmet snapped onto Danny’s head. He tried to move but the purple hand gripped him in a knuckle, quivering as air was sucked out of the pipes, sealing the helmet to his skull. Danny experienced a weird sensation, as if needles were painlessly penetrating his brain.
There was a crack and Danny felt as if the top of his head had been removed and sparks exploded behind his eyes and there was a rush of cold metallic air which seemed to pass through his body and he threw out his arms and he was looking into a terrifying emptiness…
‘Renounce your loved ones Danny,’ Mrs Thrumpton’s voice said, except that she sounded like a machine now, ‘they have consumed you. They are your worst enemies.’
The words didn’t feel right. Danny felt warm and safe and joyfulness permeated his bones; but the words didn’t feel right.
‘Give them up,’ the voice insisted, ‘give up all memory of your mother and father and Nan and Pop and all the things you hold dear. Set yourself free Danny, don’t fight it,’ the machine continued. It wasn’t a voice exactly. It was more like a thought in Danny’s mind, his own thought. ‘Abandon them Danny, they no longer exist.’
But in the purple mist there was a shadow.
‘It’s not your fault Danny,’ a voice said softly, and Danny recognised it. It was the voice of his father. Danny’s dad stepped forward, shimmering as if he were made of stardust. ‘You didn’t kill me. It was fate, and no one can control that…’ A wave of emotion gushed from Danny’s heart. The apparition was real and yet intangible and despite this elusiveness Danny realised that his dad had always been close to him and always would be. ‘Yes, I am with you, but your mother is flesh and blood, your blood. She loves you in this life and you must look after her. She is the most precious person on earth…’ And his father stepped back into the mist, and he was gone.
And a bright, loud, pain returned. The Whamogram was sucking out his soul, like a winter wind, emptying him of all feeling. But there was something inside Danny that was stronger.
Love.
IAN EMES - WRITING CREDITS - AUGUST 2007
Feature Film Scripts
‘Dark Sky’
One day Vincent Crow will fly.
Genre Fantasy. Original script – 2005
‘God is My Broker’
God advises a monk on stock investments.
Genre comedy. Adapted from the book by Christopher Buckley
For Michael De Luca - New Line Cinema - 1994
‘Johnny Riff’
Ageing rock star mutates into a baby.
Genre Comedy. Original script for Focus Films - 1992
‘The Big G’
Military satellite believes it is God.
Genre Comedy. Adaptation of script for Handmade Films - 1989
‘Splat Alley’
Mad Max on ice, with a dash of Fellini.
Genre Sci Fi comedy. Original script for Dag Alveburg – 1989
‘Rumba Romantica’
Punk Rock hits the world of ballroom dancing.
Genre Romantic comedy. Original script for Film and General – 1988
‘Knights and Emeralds’
Inter-racial romance in the world of marching brass bands.
Genre Romantic comedy. Original script for Warner Brothers - 1986
Adapted into a book - Fontana Lions *
‘Hyde’
Robert Louis Stevenson's ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ seen from Mr. Hyde’s
point of view. Genre Horror Adaptation for Boyds Co - 1979
Television Scripts
‘Ogwozzle’ (‘Sir Gadabout’)
Mischievous sprite wreaks havoc in Camelot. Story outline.
Genre Comedy. ITV - 2002
‘The King and Irene’ (‘Sir Gadabout’)
King Arthur minds the baby.
Genre Comedy. Co-author of story outline for ITV - 2002
* British Academy Award Nomination
‘Private Eyes’ (‘Kersplat’)
Detective enters strip comic underworld.
Genre Comedy. Adaptation of script for C4 – 1990
‘How to be Cool’
Fashion fascism in the near future.
Genre Comedy. Adaptation of the book by Phillip Pullman for Granada TV - 1989
‘Clever Clogs’
Stuart Moles learns to ballroom dance.
Genre Comedy. Original series for BBC - 1988
Short Film scripts
‘Achilles Heel’
Mysterious cobbler controls fate of gangster.
Genre Thriller. Original script – 2005
‘Kabbage’
Vegetable becomes successful commercials director.
Genre Comedy. Original script – 2004
‘The Chain’
Chain gang meet their destiny on the run.
Genre Comedy Thriller. Original script – 1998
‘Goodie-Two-Shoes’
ASBO schoolboy becomes ballroom champion.
Genre Romantic comedy. Original script for Jeff Katzenberg - Paramount Pictures - 1983
* British Academy Award * Oscar Nomination
‘The Tent’
A traveller meets his fate when he encounters a tinker and his two wives.
Genre Thriller. Adaptation of Liam O’Flaherty short story - 1981
‘The Magic Shop’
A father loses his son in the Magic Shop.
Genre Thriller. Adaptation of H.G. Wells short story - 1980
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