Corpse Bride

TIM BURTON'S CORPSE BRIDE

Screenplay by Caroline Thompson and Pamela Pettler and John August

February 18, 2004 © 2004

FADE IN:

INT. VICTOR'S ROOM - EXTREME CLOSEUP - DAY

We GLIDE OVER beautiful, shimmering lakes of color.

PULLING OUT, we find the colors make up the patterns on a butterfly's wing, drawn in miraculous detail on a large sketch pad.

VICTOR, a handsome 19-year-old with a gentle, slightly dreaming quality, adds tiny finishing touches to the sketch. His Victorian-style room is filled with drawings and paintings of all sizes, mostly of butterflies. There is one prominent painting of Victor with a friendly ­looking dog. The drawing done, Victor lifts a glass bell jar. A butterfly escapes, flits around the room and out of the open window.

CUT TO:

EXT. TOWN SQUARE - DAY

We FOLLOW the butterfly on its flight around the town.

The streets are cobblestone. The architecture is cold and severe. Hues are muted and grim: the butterfly is the only really colorful thing in view. Stiff-looking TOWNSPEOPLE walk along --nodding very formally, and without warmth, when they pass each other.

A church BELL CHIMES the first of four strokes. The TOWN CRIER strides into the square and rings his big HAND BELL.

TOWN CRIER:

Four o'clock and all's well!

MUSIC begins to grow -- a methodical MARCH. As the butterfly floats along a line of shops, we see:

The GREEN GROCER... arranging fastidious little piles of withered onions. The gentle RUSTLE adds a rhythm to the song.

The WATCHMAKER... checking and re-checking the large clock that hangs in front of his shop, resetting the second hand until it's just so. The clocks TICK like metronomes.

The BAKER... wearily adding another plain brown loaf to the pyramid that stands in his window. Each loaf as dry and flavorless as the next.

The BUTCHER... whose arm rises and falls mechanically, filling the air with a constant CHOPPING sound on the downbeat.

WIDOW MUNCH, the seamstress, sits among bolts of cloth, all shades of gray. Her SEWING MACHINE CHUGS along in rhythm to the MUSIC.

As the butterfly floats off, we STAY ON the entrance of a large stately house. We are back at the home of Victor's family, the Van Dorts.

The front door opens, and out steps WILLIAM VAN DORT. He's a slouch-shouldered gentleman who speaks from behind his drooping mustache.

WILLIAM:

Where is Victor? We might be late!

Victor leans out of an upstairs window. With zero enthusiasm...

VICTOR:

Coming, Father.

WILLIAM:

Right, right. Very good.

Victor's mother, NELL VAN DORT, is a plump, pushy Victorian matron. She gazes across the town at the Everglot Mansion with its two imposing gables.

She begins to sing, "According to Plan." Nell has the voice of an opera diva. William, who talk-sings most of his lines, is the gentle voice of reason.

NELL/WILLIAM

A beautiful day!

A very nice day.

For a wedding!

A wedding _rehearsal_.

A practice run ...

... of a sort ...

Of what's to come.

Assuming nothing goes wrong.

That is why everything,

Every last little overlooked thing,

Must... Go...

(chorus)

According to plan!

Our son will be married,

According to plan!

We will be carried

According to plan!

Into the halls Of high society!

Have tea with the Queen!

At parties to be seen,

Dressed in pale aubergine,

We'll forgot who we've beeeeen.

They look into each other's eyes, agreeing...

NELL/WILLIAM

This is a fortunate day,

For those of recent fortune.

Victor arrives beside them. With his gangly legs and stiff collars, he always seems miserably uncomfortable.

WILLIAM:

Where is Mayhew? We might be late!

On cue, the Van Dort carriage pulls up, announced by the HACKING COUGH of MAYHEW, the driver.

CUT TO:

INT. THE CARRIAGE - DAY

Victor sits across from his parents, who are squeezed together uncomfortably as the carriage CLATTERS across the cobblestones. MUSIC CONTINUES UNDER...

WILLIAM:

Victoria Everglot is quite a catch. Isn't she, Victor?

VICTOR:

I wouldn't know, Father. I've never had a word alone with the girl.

Nell and William share a look.

NELL/WILLIAM

Well, first you say...

How do you do?

Then comment on her beaury.

Saying such things --

Even if lies -­-

Are just a husband's duty.

Don't try to be funny,

Don't try to be quick,

You're not very clever;

You'll never be slick.

VICTOR:

So I should be myself?

NELL:

(annoyed)

You haven't been hearing at all!

WILLIAM:

Victor, this is our one chance to buy what money can't-- respectability!

NELL:

Remember, the Everglots are the oldest, noblest family around, descendants of the Grand Duke of Everglot...

CUT TO:

INT. EVERGLOT DRAWING ROOM - CLOSEUP OF AN IMPOSING PORTRAIT - DAY

of the DUKE OF EVERGLOT. We PULL OUT, REVEALING an enormous room furnished with high wing-backed chairs, an elaborate gray sofa, curlicue side tables and heavy drapes.

MAUDELINE EVERGLOT, an imperious Victorian matron with extremely high hair and an imposing bosom, stands by the window, watching the Van Dort carriage approach from across the square.

She sings to her round, importantly-frowning husband, FINIS EVERGLOT.

MAUDELINE/FINIS

A terrible day!

Now, dear...

A terrible family!

I won't hear it!

So common, so coarse,

Nouveau riche...

Oh, it couldn't be worse.

Yes it could.

(she sighs)

They could be bankrupt landed gentry.

Penniless like us.

FINIS:

Whoever thought putting fish into cans could be so profitable?

MAUDELINE:

This... is... why...

MAUDELINE/FINIS

According to plan!

Our daughter will wed,

According to plan!

And we will be led,

According to plan!

Out of the depths

Of deepest pov'rty!

Who would have guessed our daughter,

Ugly as an otter,

Would be the only valuable thing

We have to offer.

CUT TO:

INT. VICTORIA'S BEDROOM-DAY

VICTORIA EVERGLOT. Despite what her mother thinks, she's a pretty, sweet young girl. At the moment, she is being laced into tight corsets by her elderly maid, Hildegarde.

VICTORIA:

Oh, Hildegarde, do loosen it a tiny bit.

Hildegarde hesitates, then quickly loosens the corset. She helps Victoria put on a gray, high-collared dress.

VICTORIA:

(confiding)

Hilde, I'm nervous. What if Victor and I don't like each other?

There is a shocked, severe LAUGH from the doorway. Victoria and Hildegarde whirl to see the imposing figure of Maudeline. Finis is at her side.

MAUDELINE:

For heaven's sake, Victoria! 'Like' each other? As if that has anything to do with marriage? Do you suppose your father and I 'like' each other?

VICTORIA:

But surely you must, a little?

FINIS & MAUDELINE

(in unison)

Of course not!

VICTORIA:

But, you had me, didn't you?

FINIS:

You were conceived in a fit of... (what's the word?) responsibility!

The cathedral-like DOORBELL ECHOES through the mansion. Maudeline turns on her heel. Without looking back -­

MAUDELINE:

Get those corsets laced properly! I can hear you speak without gasping!

EXT. EVERGLOT MANSION - DAY

The Van Dorts stand before the massive front doors.

NELL:

(to Victor)

You really should be grateful,

For everything we've done.

Who else would sacrifice so much

For the good of their son?

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