Get on Up Page #9

JAMES BROWN:

(Deadpan)

Just keepin’ it warm for ya.

He walks past.

LITTLE RICHARD:

Hey. What’s your name?

JAMES:

The Famous Flames.

James looks back levelly.

LITTLE RICHARD:

No. What’s your name?

They look at each other. Neither blinks.

64 EXT. MALT SHOP. NIGHT. 64

2AM. James sits alone at a table off to the side of the order

window.

Little Richard dressed as a chef comes out of the kitchen and

drops two burgers in front of them. James and Richard,

cigarette in a long holder, holds forth.

LITTLE RICHARD:

I play a show in Lafayette last

week twenty thirty girls pass clean

out. Need oxygen. I’m killing ‘em

James. They should lock me away. I

cut loose it’s like a spaceship

land. Did I say I got a record out?

They drop it five times a day on

WIBB. Five times a day.

(He looks at James)

And I’m flippin’ burgers. You know

why?

(MORE)

LITTLE RICHARD (CONT'D)

Cause WIBB antenna reach 60 mile.

60 mile. This country is 5000 milestop to toe and 7000 coast to coast.

You catch the wind, get a hit, areal hit, every inch of that is

yours.

JAMES BROWN:

So how we catch the wind?

Richard smiles. Stops the waitress. All charm.

LITTLE RICHARD:

Sugar, may I borrow your pencil?

He takes a napkin. Starts writing on it. All business.

LITTLE RICHARD (CONT’D)

You got a hundred bucks?

JAMES BROWN:

No.

LITTLE RICHARD:

Rob a liquor store. You take a

hundred bucks to WIBB in Macon. Ask

for Big Sauk. Say Richard sent you.

You make an acetate. Ten copies.

You send them to these people.

He writes them down. James watches.

JAMES BROWN:

It’s that easy why don' you do it?

LITTLE RICHARD:

I already did. Baby, this is the

last time you’re gone see my

beautiful ass 'cep on TV. Six

months the whole world gone know

me. I gone be bigger than

Cleopatra. It’s written in the

stars James. Yes Sir. I’m gone have

the world on a string.

(Then)

And that’s when the trouble start.

JAMES BROWN:

And why that.

He fixes James. The air turns cold.

50

LITTLE RICHARD:

That when the Devil come. And he

ain’t gonna be red with no fiery

tail. He gone be white. In a fancy

suit. And he gone look you in the

eye and he gonna ask what you want.

And you best not shake, nor

tremble. You best not blink one

eye.

Swats a fly on the table. James doesn’t blink.

LITTLE RICHARD (CONT’D)

You gone be ready for him James?

You got it inside?

JAMES BROWN:

You tell me Richard. You tell me

what you see.

James stares at Richard, who stares the same stare back.

LITTLE RICHARD:

What happen to you?

He looks real hard.

LITTLE RICHARD (CONT’D)

I know what happened to me. What

happen to you?

James looks away.

65 OMITTED 65

66 OMITTED 66

67 INT. UPSTAIRS AT TWIGG STREET. DAWN. 1942 JAMES 9 YRS 67

James lies awake in a bed with four or five other sleepingbodies. He looks out of the window. Dawn is breaking througha cracked pane.

Way off in the distance he hears music and singing. He getsout of bed.

He passes a room, TWO SOLDIERS wait their turn with one of

Aunt Honey’s PROSTITUTES.

James reaches the front of the house. He looks to Honey, outcold in a chair. A needle protrudes from her harm.

51

He walks out of the house passing several people asleep inthe yard.

68 EXT. CHURCH/ DIRT ROAD. DAY 68

Early morning. James continue his walk towards the music.

69 INT. UNITED HOUSE OF PRAYER FOR ALL PEOPLE. DAY 69

A evangelical congregation lit up by the spirit.

SWEET DADDY GRACE: a suavely coiffed but ferocious southernfirebrand preacher wearing a suit made of dollar billsscreams and berates the congregation into a frenzy.

DADDY GRACE:

Do you love him?!

People are having fits on the floor, beating themselves.

Shrieking and weeping hallelujah.

DADDY GRACE (CONT’D)

(even higher pitched)

Say you love him!

Daddy raises his voice even louder ending in a shrillingfalsetto.

DADDY GRACE (CONT’D)

Say it louder for Jesus! Say it

louder!

Daddy Grace falls to the floor and is attended by alter boyswho drape a cape around his shoulders which he flings aside.

James looks around the room at the people. Then at thepreacher.

70 EXT. TWIGG STREET BUS STOP. NIGHT. 1942 70

James stands silhouetted against the high beams of theapproaching troop Bus. James begins to dance to the theme inhis head. He’s dancing differently now. Mimicking the movesof Sweet Daddy Grace. James does a spilt in the beams oflight.

52

71 OMITTED 71

71A INT. BYRD HOUSE. 71A

Mr. and Mrs. Byrd listen to Please Please Please on the

radio. They aren’t pleased.

71B INT. AUNT HONEY’S BEDROOM. NIGHT 71B

Aunt Honey has just injected herself with Morphine. Sheopens a drawer and places a needle and vial inside.

She crosses to her bed and lays down. Please Please Please

plays on a radio. Aunt Honey sings along and closes her

eyes.

71C INT. CAR - NIGHT 71C

RALPH BASS drives and hears Please Please Please. A smile

crosses his face.

71D EXT. BOARDING HOUSE - LATER THAT NIGHT. 1954 71D

Establishing of exterior boarding house with the crappystation wagon parked out front.

72-73 OMITTED 72-73

74 INT. BOARDING HOUSE - LATER THAT NIGHT. 74

All the flames asleep laying across as single bed in onemotel room.

CUT TO:

75 INT. BOARDING HOUSE. NIGHT. 75

James and Bobby sleep next to each other. James whispers toBobby:

JAMES:

Bobby. I can’t make practice

Thursday. I gotta get married.

BOBBY:

(Whispers)

What are you talkin’ about? Who youmarryin’?

JAMES:

That chick I met after the Stone

Mountain Show. Velma.

A silence falls.

BOBBY:

What about my sister?

James flashes a devilish smile.

JAMES:

Oh, I’ll still harmonize with Sarahfrom time to time.

BOBBY:

I ain’t playin’, James. How yougone do all this?

JAMES:

Do all what?

BOBBY:

Practice. The road. Makin’ records.

Startin’ a family.

JAMES:

I ain’t startin’ nothin’, Bobby.

Except what we doin’.

James reaches under the bed and pulls out the acetate theyjust recorded.

JAMES (CONT’D)

That us. We in there Bobby.

James holds the record close and studies it with Bobby.

BOBBY:

That’s all the money we got.

And some we don’t.

JAMES:

But, it is beautiful. All those

little grooves. That’s us. It’s

been written.

(MORE)

54

JAMES (CONT'D)

Now, men gone lay with women.

That’s nature. But a woman ain’t

never gone stop a real man from

what he’s supposed to do. That’s

God. Husband? Daddy? That gives a

man purpose. Man gotta have

purpose. But purpose don’t stop me

neither, Bobby. Ain’t nothin’ gone

stop us. Nothin’. And that’s God

too.

CUT TO:

76 INT. KITCHENETTE. 1955. DAY. JAMES 22 YRS 76

James Brown stares back at his infant son with the same warylook.

JAMES:

You gone smile for me, Teddy Brown?

He bounces him on his knee once.

JAMES (CONT’D)

Come on, boy.

Twice. The kid smiles. James suddenly becomes moved. Heleans over and kisses his son.

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