Klondike Page #9

Synopsis: The lives of two childhood best friends, Bill and Epstein, in the late 1890s as they flock to the gold rush capital in the untamed Yukon Territory. This man-versus-nature tale places our heroes in a land full of undiscovered wealth, but ravaged by harsh conditions, unpredictable weather and desperate, dangerous characters including greedy businessmen, seductive courtesans and native tribes witnessing the destruction of their people and land by opportunistic entrepreneurs.
  Nominated for 1 Primetime Emmy. Another 3 wins & 4 nominations.
 
IMDB:
7.5
Year:
2014
274 min
593 Views


EPSTEIN (CONT’D)

I’ll be in the saloon.

He exits. Bill looks back to the Clerk. No love lost there.

His eyes say:
Jew-lover. But his hand begrudgingly slips Bill

a set of keys.

INT. DAWSON CITY HOTEL ROOM - LATER

ON BILL--standing unmoving in his room. Simultaneously miffed

by the Clerk and in a state of disbelief over the amenities

he stands amidst.

A TLINGIT WOMAN, slave-like, finishes filling the bath with

buckets of heated water. Departs.

Bill slowly unpeels the wet clothes he’s worn for 6 straight

days. Slips into the water. To say it’s exquisite is an

understatement. It’s tremulous, skin-prickling as his flesh

hits the water...

40.

EXT. DAWSON CITY STREETS - DAY

Epstein moves through the streets. Still fuming. He considers

his wallet. In his anger, he’s probably plopped down a little

more money than he should have. His wallet’s looking very

light...

Across the street: a loan shop. Off Epstein--CUT TO-INT.

LOAN SHOP - MOMENTS LATER

Epstein enters.

EPSTEIN:

What’s it take for a loan?

The PROPRIETOR eyes him. Coolly, simply:

PROPRIETOR:

Collateral.

Off Epstein--CUT TO-EXT.

DAWSON CITY STREETS - MOMENTS LATER

--Bill, emerging out in the streets, cleaned up, rejuvenated.

EPSTEIN (O.S.)

Hey. Hey!

He turns to see Epstein motioning him excitedly from the

saloon. Get your ass in here!

INT. SALOON - MOMENTS LATER

A veritable zoo in here. Gambling. Drinking. Whores.

Burlesque show. Epstein pulls Bill through the crowd.

EPSTEIN:

I have never been to Paris, but

this has gotta out-Paris Paris...

BILL:

Hey, about that guy back there-EPSTEIN

What? You think I’m gonna let some

anti-Semite piss on this parade--?

He stops, finding the guy he was looking for--an excitable,

impressionable 19-year-old--JACK LONDON-EPSTEIN

(CONT’D)

Hey Bill, I want you to meet my new

buddy-(

forgetting)

W...what was your name again?

JACK LONDON:

Jack London.

41.

Bill & Epstein share a look. Kid’s apparently dead serious

about ‘branding’ himself.

EPSTEIN:

By the looks of you, I wouldn’t peg

you as the formal type. How ‘bout

tossing in your middle name while

you’re at it?

JACK LONDON:

Jack, you won’t remember. London,

on the other hand, that’s

indelible.

(drinks)

Fair number of men’ll come out of

here rich, but only a handful will

be remembered.

A good-natured chuckle from Epstein.

EPSTEIN:

Right on, you nut.

JACK LONDON:

Give it a chuckle if you want, but

you are looking at a walking,

talking novel here.

(re environs)

A shelf full of novels. Penwright

there:
dumber’n a crate of turnips.

Goes on a drunken bender upriver at

40 Mile, sobers up a week later and

he’s stakeholder to the hottest

claim on El Dorado Creek. No clue

how he got it. But he’s sitting on

a half million in nuggets and it

hasn’t even been a month yet.

BILL:

El Dorado Creek. That’s the place

then.

JACK LONDON:

Sure. Only if you don’t wanna get

rich. El Dorado’s already panned

out.

BILL:

Already panned out-

JACK LONDON:

Staked anyhow. So unless you’re

gonna jump someone, I wouldn’t put

any mud on your boots heading up

that way.

London:
fully immersed in all that he says. He’s a junkie for

the hardscrabble Yukon life. A prodigious drinker, too,

though at 19, it’s yet to show a downside. Instead only fuels

his excitement. Epstein, meanwhile, can only be interested so

long, and gets distracted by a courtesan across the way.

42.

EPSTEIN (RE COURTESAN)

She’s giving me the love-eye. I’m

telling you. That right there is

the love-eye.

London nods in another direction--to an elegant-looking 40year-

old GERMAN man with a retinue around him.

JACK LONDON:

Take the Count over there: German

nobility. Got all the equipment,

the men...and they’ve been pulling

nothing but mud for almost 6

months. Not a spot of color. Just

goes to show...Yukon’s the only

place in the world where a dumbshit

can be a king and a king can be a

dumbshit.

He decides he likes that last line. Scribble it on the back

of a scrip of paper.

BILL:

So if it’s not El Dorado Creek,

where is it?

JACK LONDON:

Bonanza.

BILL:

Where’s that?

JACK LONDON:

Oh, Bonanza’s easy: just go looking

for the cloud of smoke...

He pauses as a FRIEND comes over, whispers something to him.

JACK LONDON (CONT’D)

No...

Friend gives him an enthusiastic, silent nod. Yes...

London stands. To Bill & Epstein-

JACK LONDON (CONT’D)

C’mon.

(off their looks)

Swiftwater Bill is here.

EPSTEIN:

Swiftwater who?

JACK LONDON:

Swiftwater Bill. Richest prospector

in all of north America. Maybe the

world. Spends it faster than he

makes it. And they’re telling me

he’s got a girl upstairs.

EPSTEIN:

There’s girls down here.

43.

London swallows the rest of his drink. Grin.

JACK LONDON:

Not in a tub of champagne there’s

not.

INT. SALOON / UPSTAIRS - MOMENTS LATER

FOLLOWING LONDON, BILL, EPSTEIN as they crest the steps-

EPSTEIN:

And what do you mean a ‘girl’, by

the way?

JACK LONDON:

A courtesan. A whore. A hooker. One

that hooks-

Ahead:
men clamor, trying to get into a room, get a view of

the spectacle.

London pushes past with Bill & Epstein in tow.

Buoyant music cranks from a phonograph. People are dancing,

drinking, laughing. Very much the penthouse crowd, Dawson-

style. SWIFTWATER BILL, 50s, holds court. He’s a rugged, low

IQ, high-enthusiasm, high-net worth Zorba of the North. He’s

passing around champagne:

SWIFTWATER BILL:

Drink up. Drink up before the

bubbles escape!

He pours for everyone--even Bill, who accepts it with ready

enthusiasm-

Bill pauses, seeing Swiftwater’s next stop. The girl in the

bathtub who becomes visible as the crowd shifts.

Swiftwater Bill pours her a drink. Bill beholds, for a moment

caught up in the strange burlesque elegance of it.

Seen from behind, she’s a dorsalist’s dream, the way the

champagne and water hang on her bare back. A courtesan

evidently, she seems perfectly comfortable nude amidst the

drunken masculinity around her. Her carriage: confident...

Then she turns. And meets eyes with Bill.

Bill dies a bit.

It’s Sabine.

INT. SALOON - NIGHT

Bill, crestfallen, descends the stairs with Epstein in tow.

Epstein, though, doesn’t have intentions of hanging around.

His eyes fall across his earlier COURTESAN. She of the love-

eye. He claps Bill on the shoulder.

44.

EPSTEIN:

Think I’m gonna go do some

prospecting.

He peels off. Bill returns to the bar. Orders a drink from

the bartender (later, JOE MEEKOR). Beside him:

BELINDA MULRONEY (O.S.)

Dawson City. Where naivete comes to

die.

Bill looks up to see Belinda there. Imposing despite her

stature. It’s the confidence. The gun strapped to her leg.

She swallows a mouthful of booze, eyes the place.

BELINDA MULRONEY (CONT’D)

Everybody comes a saint, and leaves

as something less than that.

(off Bill’s silence)

Give him another, Joe. Man’s

tongue’s still too tight.

Meekor serves up Bill a drink. Bill nods politely.

Rate this script:5.0 / 1 vote

Paul T. Scheuring

Paul T. Scheuring (born November 20, 1968) is an American screenwriter and director of films and television shows. His work includes the 2003 film A Man Apart and the creation of the television drama Prison Break, for which he was also credited as an executive producer and head writer. more…

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