Mank

An Original Screenplay

Jack Fincher

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781350244863
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medios de comunicación y artes escénicas
• Subtopic: Guiones de cine

David Fincher's Mank recreates 1930s Hollywood through the eyes of scathing wit and alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz as he races to finish Citizen Kane. Starring Gary Oldman as Mankiewicz, Amanda Seyfried as Marion Davies, Charles Dance as William Randolph Hearst and Tom Burke as Orson Welles.

PROLOGUE:

In 1940, at the tender age of 24, Orson Welles was lured to Hollywood by a struggling RKO Pictures with a contract befitting his formidable storytelling talents. He was given absolute creative autonomy, would suffer no oversight, and could make any movie, about any subject, with any collaborator he wished...

FADE IN:

1EXT. MOJAVE DESERT - DAY

1

From a lanyard, hangs a rustic sign reading NORTH VERDE RANCH. The only sound is a distant WHINE, the only movement a boil of dust on the horizon. As the WHINE rises to a ROAR, the boil of dust grows until it becomes a car that flashes past the sign and sets the lanyard swinging. No sooner does it settle back down than a second car, following the first, slams by and starts it waggling again.

2EXT. VICTORVILLE BUNGALOW - DAY

2

The cars stop in front of a small sun-bleached house.

SUPERIMPOSE THE LEGEND:

EXT. VICTORVILLE - GUEST RANCH - DAY - 1940

The occupants of both cars get out. The driver of the first is JOHN HOUSEMAN, a swart, officious young man already verging on middle age. His passenger is RITA ALEXANDER, a crisp young woman with an air of quiet competence. She falls in step behind him as they walk to the bungalow. The driver of the second car, a CHAUFFEUR, joins a NURSE in carefully removing from its back seat a FIGURE whose bottom half is encased in a huge plaster cast. Taking his arms on either side they slowly help him to the waiting bungalow. The cast figure reassuring them and himself...

FIGURE IN CAST

It’s all right. I- I've got this.

I'm - I'm good.

He doesn't. He isn't.

2.

3INT. VICTORVILLE BUNGALOW - DAY

3

Efficient, HOUSEMAN fusses, feeling for dust. RITA opens windows and turns on a fan. The door slams open, the NURSE and CHAUFFEUR staggering through the frame with the FIGURE IN THE CAST, putting him to bed.

ANGLE FAVORING HOUSEMAN

Approaching the FIGURE in bed. The NURSE plumps his pillow.

HOUSEMAN

Here.

(wiping dust off hands)

Well, I've had them set you up out
here, so you wouldn't feel quite
so confined. The ladies will
scandalize the neighborhood by
occupying both bedrooms.

There is no response. He's adjusting to his new environs.

HOUSEMAN (CONT'D)

I will be staying in town at a
bucolic spa called, if you can
believe it, The Shoulder Arms. I
will do my editing there.

Still nothing from the Figure in the Cast.

HOUSEMAN (CONT'D)

Now as you know, Fraulein Freda is
not only a nurse and physical
therapist, she studied nutrition
back in the old country. Ja,
liebes fraulein?

FRAULEIN FREDA

(speaking German)

Jawohl, Herr Houseman.

HOUSEMAN

It's a dry house, the owner of the
ranch doesn't permit alcohol. But
you're from Pennsylvania, you're
no doubt used to it...

3.

The figure in the cast struggles to get out of bed. The ladies scramble to stop him; it's futile. The CHAUFFEUR enters, lugging a small, heavy cabinet.

HOUSEMAN (CONT'D)

Saved by the proverbial bell.

(to Chauffeur)

Set it here, please? Careful,
careful...

The CHAUFFEUR does, putting the heavy cabinet down...

HOUSEMAN (CONT'D)

Thank you.

He sets it, then leaves. Houseman crosses to it...

HOUSEMAN (CONT'D)

Observe...

HOUSEMAN presses a button, and a hidden door springs open, revealing a dazzling array of miniature liquor bottles aligned in a row.

HOUSEMAN (CONT'D)

Well, naturally you'll do your
damndest to get at it. By the time
you finish the first draft, which
is to say ninety days, you should
be a world-class sprinter.

Houseman snaps shut the cabinet.

HOUSEMAN (CONT'D)

Rita? Come in here, will you?

RITA approaches the bed, her manner professional.

HOUSEMAN (CONT'D)

This is Mrs. Alexander. She types
a hundred perfect words a minute
and takes dictation like a
clairvoyant. Rita Alexander -
Herman Mankiewicz.

RITA

(clipped British accent)

How...