And Even Yet Another New Slideshow

[Mysterious Benefactor]

The script indicates that Kelly shoots Willie a withering look before delivering today's quote -

Page 17 - Kelly: 'Dante. It's the inscription on the entrance to hell.'

- and it's certainly a look he deserves after his foolish Aerosmith remark! 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Before we even get into anything about today's quote it needs to be explained that as Willie and Kelly make their way through the cemetery, Willie makes all sorts of unscripted scary moans that frighten Kelly, which only makes Willie laugh.

As they come upon the mausoleum, the script indicates that:

Willie's flashlight beam flickers across a cobwebbed MAUSOLEUM, three carved female figures on the pediment. They're locked in embrace, their eyes lifted toward Heaven.

And it's at that point that today's quote -

Page 18 - Willie: 'Wait a second. Didn't I see that in one of your letters?'

- is delivered in the script. However, in the actual pilot it doesn't come up until a later scene - and not in connection to the three graces that we're all familiar with from hoDS and the '91 DS. But just where it shows up will be explained in tomorrow's post...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I posted last night off the top of my head without referring to my notes and got several things wrong. That will teach me not to check my notes before posting.    But things have been corrected now, so you may want to look over the previous post again. 

But as for dealing with today's quote, even though the script goes on with -

Kelly pulls one of the Collins letters from her jacket and shines her light on it, revealing the same design.

- and at that point today's quote -

Page 18 - Kelly: '"Three graces spin high above..."'

- appears in the script, it's completely dropped in the pilot and there is no reference at all in the pilot to the three graces. So, Kelly does not refer to the letter at this point as that also comes up in a later scene. And the script's explanation that -

Excited, Willie throws his shoulder against the mausoleum's iron door. With a SCREEEE of rusted metal, it swings back.

- also does not take place. In the pilot Willie and Kelly simply find the mausoleum and enter. End of scene.

Now, the pilot sets up the next scene as -

INT. MAUSOLEUM - COLLINWOOD - NIGHT

Willie enters, Kelly with him, flashlights revealing elegant stone carvings. Ahead, STONE STAIRS lead down to a crypt. Flashlights flickering, Willie and Kelly descend into...

 - and that's it. However, in the pilot Willie carries on even more with his unscripted scary moans as they descend the stairs. It's during their descent that Kelly angrily delivers an unscripted "Stop it. You're annoying me." And even though Willie apologizes by saying "I'm sorry. I'm scared." - also unscripted - nothing could be further from the truth because he continues his antics, even going so far as to offer an unscripted knock-knock joke:
Willie: 'Knock knock.'
Kelly: (reluctantly) 'Who's there?'
Willie: 'Hopefully no one.'
And that finally begins to get through to Kelly to lighten the mood. So, despite the fact that she then says the unscripted "Will you stop it. Seriously." she says it with a laugh to her voice and then they both laugh.

Now, that all leads to the next scene, which the script describes with:

INT. INNER CRYPT - MAUSOLEUM - NIGHT

The room is four walls of rock, hand-hewn and rough. Willie shines his light around the room, spotting a decorative

CARVED STONE LION'S HEAD

on one wall.

And it's soon after that point that we get to the new placement of yesterday's quote - though Willie only says "Didn't I see that in one of your letters?" referring to the lion's head and obviously not the three graces on the outside of the mausoleum.

[Gothick]

Very cool stuff, MB.  Thanks for all of this.

Willie is really quite the dork, isn't he?  The knock knock joke was IN the completed pilot?  Sheesh.

G.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Considering none of it is in the script or even hinted at in the script, it really seems like all that stuff from Willie, including the knock-knock joke, was improvised, either by the actors themselves or along with the director. Perhaps they came up with it during a rehearsal and then decided to add it to the pilot. And the point would definitely seem to be to make Willie look like as big a dork as possible so that[spoiler]his transformation down the line looks like an even more dramatic change in him.[/spoiler]If so, they succeeded.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Picking up from reply #242, the description of the scene continues with:

Directly across from it, on the opposite wall, there's a STONE DOVE. Excited, Kelly checks her notes.

And it's there that today's quote -

Page 18 - Kelly: 'The lion's head watches the dove.'

- comes up - though Kelly delivers it as "The lion watches...the dove" because in the pilot she actually goes from the lion's head to searching for the dove and then to spotting it.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Why does Kelly suddenly deliver today's quote:

Page 18 - Kelly (CONT'D): 'Dammit!'

Well, before that occurs, the script describes:

She shoves the notes, into her pocket and reaches for a metal ring hanging from the stone lion's mouth. Bracing herself, she begins to pull, when the metal ring SNAPS, cutting a deep gash in Kelly's hand. She falls back, grimacing, blood dripping from the cut.

Uh oh!! 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

What Willie actually says in the pilot rather than today's quote -

Page 18 - Willie: 'Let me try.'

- is "Move over." And the script goes on to describe:

As she wraps her hand with a handkerchief, Willie jams a crowbar behind the lion's head and PRIES IT OUT. Suddenly a

HUGE STONE DOOR

slides out from the wall, grinding rock on rock, revealing a...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

The script sets up the final scene in this sequence as:

INT. SECRET ROOM - MAUSOLEUM - NIGHT

Smaller, claustrophobic. As the stone door opens, a gust of FETID AIR bursts out, like something's rotted. Willie and Kelly GAG from the stench.

And it's then that Willie is scripted to ask today's quote:

Page 19 - Willie: 'God, what is that?'

However, everything involving the gust of fetid air was dropped. In the pilot the scene begins with what I'll be posting about tomorrow...

[Gothick]

Those are such cool details.  Thanks, MB.

G.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

The description for the scene goes on to say:

Kelly shines her light through the open doorway, revealing a

STONE SARCOPHAGUS

inside, Maltese crosses etched into the cover. It's resting on a stone dais and crisscrossed with heavy CHAINS.

And no doubt because of the chains, that's why Kelly is scripted to say today's quote -

Page 19 - Kelly: 'Seems like somebody doesn't want us to look inside.'

- however, what Kelly actually says in the pilot, and with a great deal of excitement I might add, is "This is it! I know this is it!" - and they both laugh with excitement.

[Gerard]

There seems to be so much action!  But in air-time, how much time has elapsed from the beginning of the pilot until this point?  Seems like so much has already happened for an hour episode.

Gerard

[Mysterious Benefactor]

It's hard to judge based on the script because the scene between Willie and Sophia was skipped in the pilot and the scene between Carolyn and Joe has yet to come up in the pilot. Plus lines in the script have been dropped in the pilot - though other lines were often added to take their place.

Roughly speaking, I'd say what's been covered in the script would have run about 17 minutes at this point, whereas the pilot itself has probably run about 12 minutes. There's much more to come than what we've already covered - and we haven't even come to the end of Act One.

[Gerard]

Wow!  It's hard imagining that everything, from Vicki's arrival to Willie and his girlfriend breaking into the crypt, with everything inbetween, was all covered (whether filmed, included, edited out, scripted) in, rounded-off, 15 minutes.  That's a lotta territory to cover in a quarter-of-an-hour-or-so.  How did the pilot end after an hour?  With Barnabas and Quentin fighting off the Leviathans?

Gerard

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Well, believe it or not, in the NBC version of the pilot movie for the '91 series, after Vicki has arrived and become ensconsed at Collinwood, Willie finds the secret room at the 14 minute point. That's not much different than the '04 WB pilot.