EXT. GNARLED FOREST -- NIGHT

An UGLY MAN charges through on a horse, holding a lantern

forward on a long pole. He looks back, terrified.

INSERT TITLE:
1799 Sleepy Hollow, New York

THUNDEROUS HOOFBEATS are HEARD behind.

The ugly man glances back again. His lantern swings wild...

SHATTERS against a tree. The jammed-up pole SLAMS the ugly

man off his horse...

He hits the ground. He runs, trips, falls and scrambles up.

DEEP IN THE FOREST, we glimpse the source of the HOOFBEATS: a

HUGE FORM on a HUGE BLACK HORSE, already gone.

The ugly man pushes through thorny bushes. Jagged branches

slit his hands and cheeks.

He bursts from the briar patch and tumbles to a trail. He

lifts his bloodied face. He runs.

IN THE FOREST BEHIND: the hooves of the black horse rip

underbrush. HOOFBEATS DEAFENING. A spur digs into the

snorting steed's already bleeding flank.

The pursuer's gloved hand draws a SWORD, blade RINGING.

ON THE TRAIL, the ugly man runs on. The shrill WHISTLE of a

SWORD SWING is HEARD as the pursuer blurs past.

The ugly man is still running when his head lolls back, at an

impossible angle... tumbles off his shoulders... His headless

body hits the dirt.

EXT. CITY STREETS -- NIGHT

Empty cobblestone streets. Crooked buildings. A RAPIDLY

CLANGING BELL breaks the silence from afar.

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New York City

TWO CONSTABLES clamor round a corner, lanterns held high,

listening. They rush into an alleyway.

ELSEWHERE, piers border the Hudson River. The BELL is

LOUDER. The two constables arrive, searching. No one around.

Constable One hefts his pistol, scared.

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