Essay Assignment: Fairy Tale Adaptation Treatment- The Singing Bone.

This is an essay I did within my Introduction To Story classes, I had to pick a fairy tale, myth or legend of my choice and then adapt it into my own film idea and write a treatment for it, in the Universities recommended style.

Fairy Tale Adaptation Treatment:

The Singing Bone

The Singing Bone is originally a fairy tale written by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm; The Singing Bone is tale 28 in one of the most famous books by the brothers titled: Children’s and Household Tales[1].

The Singing Bone:

Toledo, Ohio has two sides; its general civilisation and passing through gap year students, then its dark side fuelled by two enemy mob gangs. The Boar (Hit man in mob gang who call themselves The Hands) is covering the state in blood, making the leader of the Kingdom mob gang, Jeffery King, unhappy. Two brothers, Tim and Andy (who themselves have never seen The Boar, just been told details about him), volunteer to kill The Boar kicking off the war of loyalty between brothers and setting of Tim’s mad roll into greed and murder, crossing the line to save himself. Tim also, as is not majorly bothered about anything including his mob, is a car horn salesman. Will The Boar be the death of them? Will the mob be the death of them? Or will Tim be the death of everything, including himself.

A man drunk, staggering on a dark street, shirt half open and tie nowhere to be seen, in an incomplete state, in an incomplete suit. This man turns a corner and a bullet wound appears in his head as a silencer attached to a gun cries a chilling bang.

King is in his office, surrounded by a few of his men clouded by cigar smoke. “Someone needs to kill this boar! I’d give someone my daughter to get that stupid boar’s head thrown into a river!” The men continue to smoke and drink expensive whiskey, as the brothers Tim and Andy enter towards King’s desk. Tim volunteers himself whilst extremely intoxicated, while Andy also volunteers, straight headed yet young. Tim is given the right to kill The Boar, this leaves Andy angry but accepts Kings choice, this being the way Andy feels King takes pity and tells him that Tim is just a drunk and to go see his weapons man; The Fairy and get a gun in which he can shoot The Boar from a distance. However, this is a lie as he has sent Andy to kill someone else thinking he’d be killing The Boar, with Tim being bigger and older, he seems better for the job.

Andy is in his old fashioned car, waiting, smoking a cigarette and looking at his watch constantly. The Fairy gets into his passenger seat and they drive into the nearest alley. The Fairy shows him three options of long range firing guns, Andy picks his favourite, pays The Fairy and kicks him out the car before hiding the gun in the back seat and driving out of the alley way.

Tim is talking to King in his office, slightly drunk as he gets orders about where The Boar will be and when. King passes Tim a wade of money, “You will get the rest when the job is done, I picked you because for some reason my instincts say you’re the dirt bag for the job, don’t let me down and make sure you do it tonight”.

Andy has found himself a space by rubbish and his car, hidden enough to have his gun set up and ready in his hands, more than difficult to see in the night light and dirt of evening drunkards. Andy lights up a cigarette and watches a graffiti covered metal door on the corner of a street, a street for the sinners. A large and muscular man comes out in a smart suit, with a seductively open shirt to show his chest and expensive jewellery. This man stops to light his cigarette and looks around, now Andy may be hidden well but only to the untrained eye, this sophisticated gangster double takes and spots Andy and begins to run towards him full speed reaching into his pocket for his own pistol. The man runs, grunting, getting closer to Andy quickly, Andy seems to wait for the right moment and as the man begins to pull his own trigger Andy beats him by seconds and puts bullets into the man’s torso, one going straight through his heart.

Andy quickly puts the body into the trunk of his car and drives quickly, halfway deciding to stop into a bar that his brother is a usual at so he can tell him of his achievement.

Andy walks into the bar and like he guessed, his brother Tim was sitting on a bar stool at the bar taking down another double shot of whiskey amongst the pool players and cigarette smokers. Andy walks over to his brother and puts his hand up for a whiskey shot. “Long day selling horns brother?” Andy says, “Do not joke of my business brother, one day I will be richer than King, take my card” Tim says as he puts one of his business cards into Andy’s coat pocket. Tim notices small blood spots on his shirt from where Andy put the bloody criminal into his trunk. “Who have you been hunting?” Tim says, “I did it, I killed The Boar” replies Andy. Tim not knowing of the plan that King arranged believes his brother and in his drunken state becomes jealous, angry. Tim does not show this, “Come in and stay with me dear little brother, and rest a while, and get up your strength by a cup of wine” 2 Tim says calmly, “Whiskey will do big brother” Andy replies as he shoots down his glass.

Andy offers Tim to come and see the corpse in his trunk, Tim staggers and stumbles as he follows his brother out of the bar. They get into the car outside and drive to a more secluded area to look at the body, whilst in the car Tim’s angry state makes him realise that King paid him to kill The Boar, paid him money he has been spending in the bar, if he doesn’t turn up with a dead boar tonight, King would kill him for lacking and theft. “Do you think King was joking when he said he’d give up his daughter?” Tim jokes, watching his brother, trying to think of a plan to get himself out of trouble, as well as settle his jealousy, “She is a pretty one” he continues, “I’m sure she dreams of me, little brother, she gives me that look”. Andy pulls into an empty street filled with abandoned houses, and opens the trunk for Tim to marvel, to see his bloody trophy and the sight of this makes Tim snap, makes his anger, jealousy and fear turn into one ball of chaos and strikes Andy in the head with the handle of his gun that he keeps in his coat pocket. Tim then shots Andy in the face and buries him within years old rubbish bags at the side of one the broken houses.

Tim takes Andy’s car for himself with the body inside and throws the body to the floor in front of King and with Andy missing, King imagined that his hit went wrong and spreads the word to look for the man he didn’t know he had already dumped in a river. This makes Tim a rich man and King’s newest regular hit man, cleaning the streets of the rivalry mob and any others that run what King calls his Kingdom, Tim even becomes married to King’s daughter.

A couple years later and the real Boar comes back for blood, as when the brothers were ordered to kill him The Boar had gone to New York to do The Hands’ work from there, building their organisation. When The Boar found out that Tim had boasted about killing him, The Boar wanted him dead. During one his hits, a man he tortures mentions he that he knew Tim killed Andy, then takes The Boar to the rotting body to gain leverage to survive. Looking at the body, The Boar finds Tim’s card on Andy’s corpse.

The Boar busts into Kings office and a mass shoot out happens, Tim shoots The Boar in his kneecaps sending him to the ground, “You gonna kill me? You gonna kill me like you did Andy, brother?”, King watching this, questions his allegations, The Boar talks of the dead man who King thought was Andy’s murderer and pulls out Tim’s business card. Tim tries to put up an argument, but is so intoxicated he just downs a shot of whiskey and admits that he killed Andy. King, who is a big believer in loyalty, shoots The Boar in the head, talks to Tim as if he will not act to distract Tim from the man behind him who knocks him out. They tie Tim in a sack and throw him into a river to drown.

References:

[1]-Grimm, Jacob & Wilhelm, 1812. Children’s and Household Tales. Germany: Various.

2-Grimm, Jacob & Wilhelm, 1812. Tale 28: The Singing Bone, Line 49. Children’s and Household Tales. Germany: Various.

VF