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thenullhypothesis.bsky.social
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#StuntScript

Anyone ever read "Foucault's Pendulum" by Umberto Eco and think, The Name of the Rose was a great movie! Why isn't Foucault's Pendulum a movie?

Well, because the book is too damn long to be a movie.

So I adapted it into a four-episode mini-series.
The Kabbalah tree of life. OVER BLACK: QUOTE Only for you, children of doctrine and learning, have we written this work. Examine this book, ponder the meaning we have dispersed in various places and gathered again; what we have concealed in one place we have disclosed in another, that it may be understood by your wisdom. -Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim, De occulta philosophia, 3, 65 OVER BLACK: QUOTE O.K., do you want to play this game? You are my friend, and we go. Otherwise, too bad for me or for you. -Umberto Eco, US News & World Report, November 11, 1989 IMAGE: THE TEN SEFIROT An image of the ten Sefirot of the Cabbalah "Tree of Life" We zoom into the hidden Sefirot, DA'AT and see: SERIES OF SHOTS: TEN SCENES, 1/2 SECOND EACH --Fouccoult's Pendulum swings in the Grand Hall of the Museè des Arts et Metiers, Paris. --A TRS-80 computer prints out the names of god. --Casaubon, Jacopo, and Diotavelli drink and laugh in Pilede's bar. --Amparo dances wildly at the Voudon ceremony. --The front cover of the book "THE WORLD OF METALS". --Lorenza plays pinball, bumps the table with her pelvis. --Diotavelli lies dying in a hospital bed. --Casaubon runs madly through the streets of Paris. --Jacopo as a young child blows a trumpet in a cemetery. --The beautiful, rolling hills of [BEEP] at sunset. BLACK OVER BLACK: QUOTE Superstition brings bad luck. -Raymond Smullyan, 5000 B.C., 1.3.8 IMAGE: THE TEN SEPHAROT We zoom out of DA'AT and into the top Sefirot, KETER to enter into: INT. GRAND HALL MUSEE DES ARTS ET METIERS, PARIS - EVENING CHYRON: "1984" It is closing time at the museum. A bored GUARD politely ushers guests out past a huge steel ball, suspended by a hook fifty meters above the floor in the grand arched ceiling of the Conservatoire. The heavy pendulum sweeps with deadly WHOOSH, perpetually bisecting a numbered circle inlayed on the floor. A BOYFRIEND and GIRLFRIEND walk past. Girlfriend pauses. GIRLFRIEND It's Foucault's Pendulum! BOYFRIEND What does it do? GIRLFRIEND It proves that…
November 14, 2025 at 1:40 PM
thenullhypothesis.bsky.social
#firstpagefriday #firstfourpagesfriday #scriptsky #stuntscript

Okay okay, I know, but #1 its alliterative and #2 this one needs four pages to get going properly.

It's "Foucault's Pendulum", a stunt script based on the novel by Umberto Eco.

Three friends create the greatest conspiracy theory ever
OVER BLACK: QUOTE Only for you, children of doctrine and learning, have we written this work. Examine this book, ponder the meaning we have dispersed in various places and gathered again; what we have concealed in one place we have disclosed in another, that it may be understood by your wisdom. -Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim, De occulta philosophia, 3, 65 OVER BLACK: QUOTE O.K., do you want to play this game? You are my friend, and we go. Otherwise, too bad for me or for you. -Umberto Eco, US News & World Report, November 11, 1989 IMAGE: THE TEN SEFIROT An image of the ten Sefirot of the Cabbalah "Tree of Life" We zoom into the hidden Sefirot, DA'AT and see: SERIES OF SHOTS: TEN SCENES, 1/2 SECOND EACH --Fouccoult's Pendulum swings in the Grand Hall of the Museè des Arts et Metiers, Paris. --A TRS-80 computer prints out the names of god. --Casaubon, Jacopo, and Diotavelli drink and laugh in Pilede's bar. --Amparo dances wildly at the Voudon ceremony. --The front cover of the book "THE WORLD OF METALS". --Lorenza plays pinball, bumps the table with her pelvis. --Diotavelli lies dying in a hospital bed. --Casaubon runs madly through the streets of Paris. --Jacopo as a young child blows a trumpet in a cemetery. --The beautiful, rolling hills of [BEEP] at sunset. BLACK OVER BLACK: QUOTE Superstition brings bad luck. -Raymond Smullyan, 5000 B.C., 1.3.8 IMAGE: THE TEN SEPHAROT We zoom out of DA'AT and into the top Sefirot, KETER to enter into: INT. GRAND HALL MUSEE DES ARTS ET METIERS, PARIS - EVENING CHYRON: "1984" It is closing time at the museum. A bored GUARD politely ushers guests out past a huge steel ball, suspended by a hook fifty meters above the floor in the grand arched ceiling of the Conservatoire. The heavy pendulum sweeps with deadly WHOOSH, perpetually bisecting a numbered circle inlayed on the floor. A BOYFRIEND and GIRLFRIEND walk past. Girlfriend pauses. GIRLFRIEND It's Foucault's Pendulum! BOYFRIEND What does it do? GIRLFRIEND It proves that the Earth rotates. Since the point of suspension doesn't move- BOYFRIEND What do you mean doesn't move? It's swinging back and forth! Girlfriend points up to where the wire is attached to the roof. GIRLFRIEND The point from which it hangs doesn't move. BOYFRIEND But...the Earth turns, and goes through space, I mean, everything moves, right? GIRLFRIEND Well, the point where it hangs...I mean...the central point, you know, the one in the middle of all the points you see, but you can't see it because it has no dimension, it can't move, so it doesn't rotate with the Earth. It can't even rotate around itself because there is no "itself". You get it? Boyfriend does not get it. He shrugs. BOYFRIEND I guess it's the pendulum's business. The guard waves them out, past a line of vehicles from the past to the present: bicycles, steam cars, airplanes. Past a sunken-eyed, diabolical-looking man. It's CASUBAUM (37). Scholar, editor and conspiracy theorist, paranoid and suspicious-looking. The couple and Guard walk past an old steam locomotive. As the guard looks around Casaubon darts behind a pillar. The guard pauses and examines the room again. Casaubon looks left, right. Scurries behind an exhibit of Phoenician glass. The guard continues their sweep, heading directly towards the glass. Casaubon spies a shed-looking box and ducks inside. INT. INSIDE THE PERISCOPE - SAME Casaubon is greeted with a screen on the floor showing a view of the city of Paris projected from the periscope on the roof. He sags down to the floor, listening to the guard's FOOTSTEPS get closer-- --then fade away. He is haggard, worn-out. His sunken, red-rimmed eyes stare at us. A very frightened, determined pair of eyes. BLACK OVER BLACK: QUOTE Begin by combining this name, YHWH, at the beginning alone, and examine all its combinations and move it and turn it about like a wheel until there shall come to your hand a word of wisdom. -Abulafia, Hayye ha-Nefes, MS Munchen 408, fols. 65a-65b IMAGE: THE TEN SEFIROT A line of fire burns from KETER to HOKMAH. We zoom into "HOKMAH" and enter: INT. CASSAUBON'S BEDROOM - EARLY MORNING CHYRON: "TWO DAYS EARLIER" Family photos of a clean and fresh Casaubon with LIA (f, 28) looking happy and holding their baby. Casaubon sleeps in the bed alone, his face serene and peaceful. The phone RINGS, startling him awake. He grabs the receiver. CASAUBON Urgh...uh- JACOBO (O.S.) Casaubon! It's Belbo! CASAUBON Where the hell are you? Lost in the jungle? JACOBO (O.S.) This is serious. I'm in Paris. The Plan is real! I know, I know. Don't say it. They are after me!
December 5, 2025 at 11:00 PM