Bates Motel Page #3

She really sees it. Has a vision for this place. Then --

NORMA LOUISE (CONT’D)

C’mon, I’ll show you the

upstairs...

She trots upstairs. STAY ON NORMAN a beat, not seeing her

vision. Just seeing some butt ugly furniture.

EXT. UPSTAIRS HALLWAY - MOMENTS LATER

Norman is looking in the doorway of a bedroom with a peaked

roof and a garret window.

NORMAN:

I like this room.

7.

Norma appears behind him.

NORMA LOUISE:

Oh. Yeah, it’s a cool room but I

put you down here closer to me...

She takes his hand and pulls him along the hallway.

She shows him his room. The bed is up against the wall that

connects to her room.

NORMA LOUISE (CONT’D)

This is your room...

STAY WITH THEM as she pulls him into the room next to it...

NORMA LOUISE (CONT’D)

And this is my room!

We may or may not notice the beds are about as close as they

could be without actually being in the same room. Norman

does not look thrilled, by any of this. She leans toward him

and puts her hands on his shoulders.

NORMA LOUISE (CONT’D)

Norman, we’ve been through a lot.

This is a chance to start over -

NORMAN:

Maybe some people don’t get to

start over. Maybe they just bring

themselves to a new place.

She looks him right in the eye. She knows he’s anxious. She

wants to assure him.

NORMA LOUISE:

They do get to start over. But

they have to try. And they have to

believe...

He looks at her with exhausted affection. “You’re an idiot.”

NORMAN:

Are you going to ask me to clap if

I believe in fairies?

NORMA LOUISE:

(smiles; f*** you)

Yes.

(then)

Norman. For me. It’s all going to

be good. You’ll see.

8.

EXT. BATES HOUSE - LATER

Night is falling. Norman is outside, getting some of the

boxes out of the U-Haul. He stops for a moment, hears a

coyote howling. Looks around.

NORMAN’S POV - THE LANDSCAPE

It’s dark and isolated. Thick woods and mountains. A few

scattered, rural properties up the road.

RESUME NORMAN:

He picks up the last box and heads toward the house,

seeing...

HIS MOM’S SILHOUETTE

Against the shades in her bedroom. There’s something about

it that looks and feels both haunting and sexual. (NOTE: It

should be reminiscent of the iconic silhouette from the

original movie.)

RESUME NORMAN:

Focusing on it for a long moment, like he’s almost getting

mentally lost -- going somewhere else. Then he comes out of

it. Starts lugging the heavy box up to the house.

NORMAN:

(sarcastic affection)

“It’s all going to be good,

Norman...”.

SMASH TO MAIN TITLES.

END TEASER:

9.

ACT ONE:

EXT. BUS STOP - DAY

The next morning. We are CLOSE ON NORMAN who waits at a

SCHOOL BUS STOP about five hundred yards from the motel,

listening to music on his phone, earbuds in. He is staring

at the landscape, lost in his own head, pensive and stoic and

agitated all at once. WE HEAR the MUSIC (OVER) - it’s the

cacophonous and angry “EROICA” by Beethoven.

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