Hail, Caesar! Page #2

HAIL, C.SAR!

A Tale Of The Christ

The same voice that started the movie now intones:

VOICE-OVER

Ancient Rome! Twelve years into the

rule of Tiberius, Rome’s legions

are masters of the world, the stomp

of its sandals heard from the

Iberian peninsula in the west

through the halls of the great

library of Alexandria in the east!

(MORE)

6.

VOICE-OVER (CONT'D)

As oppressed people everywhere

writhe under the Roman lash...

The regularly formed legions in the van now give way to the

slaves being whipped along in the rear:

... master and slave, freeman and

vassal, are united in one

compulsory worship: the emperor,

C.sar, is Godhead——lord of every

man’s body and spirit! For those

who will not submit, the galleys,

the arenas, even crucifixion await!

But there is a new wind, blowing

from the east, from the dusty

streets of Bethlehem, that will

soon challenge the vast house of

C.sar——that edifice wrought of

brick and blood which now seems so

secure!

A chariot rolls into the foreground. Its driver is a muscular

campaign-hardened man with Roman bangs. Beneath his copper

breastplate he glistens with manly sweat. He wears a helmet

topped by a bright red mohawk bristle, something like an

upside-down floorwaxer. He is Autolochus Antoninus. He gazes

off and smiles.

Another man gallops up on horseback and reins in next to him.

This is Gracchus Gregorius, and he too wears the floorwaxing

headwear of the Roman tribune.

AUTOLOCHUS:

There she is, Gracchus. And ah,

what a beauty!

GRACCHUS:

Aye, Autolochus! Rome! Suckled by a

she-wolf and nurturing us her sons

in turn.

AUTOLOCHUS:

Tonight I bathe in Caracalla, and

wash away the dust of three hundred

miles of Frankish road! To Rome! To

Rome!

As he whips the chariot horses into motion we pan off to

reveal the hilltop view of Rome before which the weary

tribunes had halted.

7.

VOICE-OVER

Yes, to Rome! Glorious center of

C.sar’s rule!

EXT. PALESTINE - NIGHT

A rutted rural road. A man in sandals and simple peasant garb

and using a gnarled walking staff walks through rain, thunder

and lightning.

VOICE-OVER

But far away, in Palestine...

INT. SCREENING ROOM - DAY

We are panning off the image to reveal that we have been

looking at a screen in a small screening room.

VOICE-OVER

... another man is coming home.

Saul, humble merchant of Tarsus, is

about to be struck down by a

vision.

The continued pan brings us onto the screening room’s one

occupant, Eddie Mannix. After a quick furtive look

around——meaningless since he is alone——he takes a cigarette

from the ashtray next to him and sneaks a puff.

SAUL (off)

(quavering)

What thing is this?

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