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    Merchant of Venice, CA Screenplay
    Merchant of Venice, CA Screenplay
    Merchant of Venice, CA Screenplay
    Ebook124 pages1 hour

    Merchant of Venice, CA Screenplay

    By Richard Martini

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    A screenplay based on the play "The Merchant of Venice" by William Shakespeare. Some years ago, the late great actor Ron Silver had agreed to play this character; a film producer named Shylock. I pitched the film to Tom Bernard at Sony Classic pictures and pointed out the "No one has made a screen adaptation of Shakespeare's play!" He didn't know that. A few months later, they announced the film adaptation of this play, directed by Michael Radford, starring Al Pacino. So much for inspiring great ideas. I've toyed with the idea of making this Dogme style, and may one day do so - but it's a fun idea for a play about a difficult subject - prejudice. 400 years after the play was first produced, it still hits home when it comes to people's preconceived ideas about heritage, religion and the lengths we go to protect our sense of our selves. The genesis was when I was at a film festival in Shanghai - some French producers were furious about a film poster that looked to be glorifying modern day Nazis - I interceded to help the filmmaker explain to these filmmakers that his poster was against the people on the poster, and against the idea of prejudice. It made me realize how the issue is always lurking just under the surface. Here's my humble version of William Shakespeare's play, set in modern day Venice, California, involving some filmmakers who are trying to raise money for their film, and go to a film producer for the funds.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRichard Martini
    Release dateAug 22, 2013
    ISBN9781301465187
    Merchant of Venice, CA Screenplay
    Author

    Richard Martini

    Writer/Director/Author Richard is an award winning filmmaker, who has written and/or directed 8 theatrical features, and a number of documentaries. His first book, "Flipside: A Tourist's Guide on How to Navigate the Afterlife" went to #1 twice  in all its genres. The documentary (Flipside: A Journey Into the Afterlife) is available online and at Gaia. His books "It's a Wonderful Afterlife" expand the research into the afterlife, "Hacking the Afterlife" he interviews mediums and explores "interviewing people no longer on the planet." "Architecture of the Afterlife" interviews people without hynpsis who say the same things about the afterlife. Jennifer Shaffer is a world renowned medium intiuitive who works with law enforecemnt agencies on missing person cases. Luana Anders is our "guide on the flipside" who acted in over 300 movies and tv shows. Over five years, Richard conducted filmed interviews with Jennifer (Luana assisting) as he interviewed friends and strangers no longer on the planet. As Gary Schwartz PhD put it after reading "Flipside" "Inspiring, well written and entertaining. The kind of book where once you have read it, you will no longer be able to see the world in the same way again."

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      Book preview

      Merchant of Venice, CA Screenplay - Richard Martini

      The Merchant of Venice, CA Screenplay

      By Richard Martini

      Based on the Play The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare

      SMASHWORDS EDITION

      ISBN: 9781301465187

      Cover Photo: Venice Boardwalk (by R Martini)

      Copyright 2013 Richard Martini All Rights Reserved

      Homina Publishing.com

      PO Box 248

      Santa Monica, CA 90406

      THE MERCHANT OF VENICE,

      CALIFORNIA

      BASED ON THE PLAY THE MERCHANT OF VENICE BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

      Adaptation by Richard Martini

      SCREENWRITER'S NOTE

      Some years ago, I caught a version of The Merchant of Venice at the outdoor theater in Topanga Canyon at the Theatricum Botanicum of Will Geer. Will was a character actor best known for his work on The Waltons. Most don't know that Will also was part of the Hollywood Blacklist, and suffered for his political views, at one time belonging to the American Communist Party. He poured his heart and soul into the Theatricum, planting every plant mentioned in a Shakespeare play. I would venture that the prejudice explored in Merchant closely mirrored the journey he also took.

      I had never seen The Merchant of Venice and after the production looked up the history of the play to see that no one had bothered to make it into a feature film. After making my Dogme 95 film Camera - the 15th do it yourself film in the Dogme 95 category, I thought about doing a Dogme style The Merchant of Venice but set in Venice, California, and revolving around the story of some filmmakers trying to raise funds from Shylock Productions, a film company.

      The late great actor Ron Silver agreed to play the part of Shylock, and I pitched the idea to Tom Bernard one night on a street in New York City after a DGA event. He was surprised when I told him No one has ever adapted this play as a film. I was equally surprised when Sony Classics, Tom's company, announced a few months later they were making a film version of The Merchant of Venice directed by Michael Radford and starring Al Pacino.

      A thank you, and a bottle of champagne would have been nice, but instead, I labored on other projects, and recently was inspired to see Joss Whedon had made his own DIY version of Much Ado About Nothing in his home in Santa Monica. A great idea.

      But I still think my version is a novel idea - and while I continue working on projects that pay the rent, one day I will be able to pick up this paint brush and see if I can tell this story in a way that people can relate to. Cause after all, we don't always pick up a paint brush to pay the rent.

      As I mention on the cover, I was at the Shanghai Film Festival one year, and watched these infuriated French producers attack these filmmakers over their poster - which seemed to glorify Neo-Nazis. In my best faux French, I mediated the argument, which was about to come to blows - pointing out that each side was seeing something different in the same poster.

      Prejudice simmers under the surface of many folks; judging others for where they worship, what they wear, where they live, what kind of car they drive, or who they vote for. This was Shakespeare's great flaw in my mind - someone who could see so clearly into the hearts and souls of so many and yet, when it came to putting himself into the shoes of Shylock, he seems to allow the prejudice of the day dictate how the story ends.

      The history of prejudice against Jews didn't begin nor end in this play. In my research for my feature film project on the Medici of Florence, I discovered an edict that dictated all Jews and money lenders had to wear a yellow star identifying who they were. Money lenders would live and work in one part of the city, kept there and identified in public as such. It wasn't just that someone would go to see a money lender to finance their dreams, they also had to vilify that person who lent them money because they charged them interest.

      Shylock's request for a pound of flesh in return for his investment is an interesting story point as well. Some suggest its an allegory for private parts - Shylock repeats that he'll take whatever body part he wants in payment of debt. The term has become synonymous with asking for a payment for a debt that can't be repaid - the terms of the deal, as Portia argues, require him to cut out no more and no less than exactly a pound, and not to spill a drop of Christian blood. Why would Shakespeare make a point of Shylock taking this particular pound of flesh?

      In the end, money triumphs - poor Shylock loses in court and is sent away with nothing for his troubles. The rest of the characters get to gloat over their victory. Some argue that showing this kind of prejudice condemns those who commit it, and others argue - well, it's a moot argument. History is written by the winners - and a good student of history merely has to look at the Gnostic gospels and the rewritten ones, done by the Roman victors, to see that it became more convenient to blame Jews for the death of Jesus than those who actually committed the crime and who were now claiming it as their national religion. My two cents.

      We are condemned to repeat history if we don't pay attention to it. And that is why, without further ado, I humbly offer my take on Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice. RM

      FOR RON

      FADE IN:

      EXT. VENICE BOARDWALK - DAY

      HARRY PERRY

      The singing Sufi, dressed in Indian whites, a huge turban of white covering his floor length dread locks, wearing shin guards and carrying a circa 1970 beat up multi colored electric guitar powered by a portable amp, roller blades up into CAMERA and begins to sing one of his out - of-this-world space beach tunes that sound like a combination of Jimmy Hendrix and an Indian raga.

      HARRY PERRY

      (sings)

      Invaders from another planet.. if I was a man from Mars, what would I think of all of the fancy cars...

      He sings to some freckle faced children who stare in awe of him as the CREDITS run.

      TOURISTS ABOUND,

      as well as the usual riff raff that makes up this peculiar piece of real estate alongside the Pacific Ocean. Junkies, punks, new agers, Korean shopkeepers selling tennis shoes and tee shirts.

      Three tough looking gangsters, ANTONIO, SALARINO, and SALANIO head down the beach boardwalk in Venice, California. Salanio stops from time to time to high five his friends or give them arm embraces.

      EXT. VENICE BOARDWALK

      They stop outside a Jamaican headshop to check out the latest reggae music. Antonio is a handsome long haired black man in his 20's, Salarino is a skinny white kid with tattoos and earrings, and Salanio is a tough young Latino. They speak in a hip hop style, as if they were rapping to each other - punctuating their dialogue with hand gestures and waves.

      ANTONIO

      In sooth, I know not why I am so sad: It wearies me; you say it wearies you; but how I caught it, found it, or came by it, what stuff 'tis made of, whereof it is born, I am to learn; And such a want-wit sadness makes of me, that I have much ado to know myself.

      Salarino shakes his head as he pulls out a joint.

      SALARINO

      Your mind is tossing on the ocean; there, where your argosies with portly sail, like signors and rich burghers on the flood, or, as it were, the pageants of the sea, do over peer the petty traffickers, that curtsy to them, do them reverence, as they fly by them with their woven wings.

      He gestures to the parking lot full of BMW's and Mercedes alongside black porsches.

      A PORSCHE

      cruises through the parking lot to a stop.

      SALANIO

      Believe me, sir, had I such venture forth, the better part of my affections would be with my hopes abroad. I should be still plucking the grass, to know where sits the wind, (he takes the joint and lights it) peering in maps for

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