Jericho
Pitch
And on the seventh day, the walls of Jericho, they came tumbling down... Hebrew 11:30
Scanners meets Highlander in this explosively gritty superhero film. A group of psychics must band together to defeat one of their own, before he loses control and becomes more powerful than any of them can imagine.
Treatment
Gregory Nowak, a promising Ukranian pyschic escapes from a secret Russian test facility, he is potentially the most powerful psychic on the planet and he has only one destination on his mind….Jericho England - we meet Tristan Curtis, an American telepath who works in a casino as security, easily reading the minds of cheats and card counters. He’s approached by Miranda (his old flame - an empath) and Marcus (telekinetic) She and Marcus now use their skills to locate people for “specialist” clients. They are tracking down Novak, they need Tristan, but he is not interested.
They track the Ukrainian down to a small Irish town called Jericho. Here he displays his awesome might by creating a psychic storm around Jericho and ripping it, and all its occupants, from the space/time continuum. Miranda’s psychic scream resonates outwards... only heard by Tristan, he know he has to find her.
In a “Magnificent Seven”-style round up, Tristan reaches out to his companions of old - psychics he used to work with, but have gone their separate ways:
Eli Kingston (a strong telekinetic) who is now a successful architect. As Tristan visits her on a construction site, she uses her gifts to stop an accident from killing a workman.
James Fielding (precognition) who uses his skills to steer big businesses through stormy seas, and weed out corporate saboteurs. Fielding is now used to the rich life and is very difficult to convince.
Simone Steinberg - a young psychic, who has a range of powers, but is a master of none. She is still trying to get a handle on her own identity.
Eddie McNeal (pyrokinetic) the real wild-child member of the group. He has been earning money by volunteering for lab experiments and by using his pyro skills to demand protection money. He’s not bad at heart, just very misguided. He always liked Miranda and Marcus and is willing to help... even if he wasn’t asked.
The team sets off to Ireland to find the town of Jericho, but Novaks powers are keeping it hidden even from this powerful team of Pyschics. Eventually breaking through Novaks barrier, and crashing through the psychic wall he has created. Jericho is like no other place they have experienced... it’s like walking into the Village of the Dammed. There are signs of previous psychic who have entered Jericho and met a grizzly end. Tristan senses Miranda is still alive somewhere in the village; held hostage.
Their investigations are cut short when they are attacked by the villagers - who act almost like feral animals under the control of Novak. The team is surprised to discover their own powers are more potent in Jericho too... Marcus appears and fills the team in, Miranda has been kidnapped and Novak is controlling everything. The ante is upped when they run into Novak for the first time - and discover he is Astral Projecting (the method he uses to take over and “possess” mortal minds. It’s more difficult with a Psychic mind and he’s only able to do one at a time). He enters through the eyes - and Fielding is the first to get possessed, turning on McNeal! In a pyrotechnic fight, McNeal is forced to kill Fielding - but not Novak, who escapes from the body before Fielding dies. McNeal closes his eyes at the last moment. With the team’s precog down, they are running “blind”.
They form a plan, with Tristan as the bait. Novak falls for it, and Tristan narrowly avoids being possessed. A posse of possessed villagers almost ruins the plan - but Eli still manages to track Novak down to a ruined monastery just outside of town. Now they know where he is, they just have to kill him...
They approach the monastery through he woods - but Novak has that approach covered. The villain possesses McNeal, using him to kill Eli. Tristan and Marcus try to knock McNeal out... but he dies from their efforts. Once again, Novak’s astral form escapes. Tristan senses Miranda is close. He and Marcus raid the monastery. They find Novak - his body is weak and frail; veins throbbing grotesquely from his engorged temples. He laughs at the two standing psychics... his plan is almost complete.
Jericho is the pinnacle of psychic energy, channeled by Ley Lines. Novak pulled Jericho out of normal time and space, not to hide it, but to create a psychic-battery that absorbed all the energy and fed it into him. He kept Miranda alive as a beacon to lure other psychic to him. As each psychic died, their powers bled into Jericho - and he absorbed them.
Tristan and Marcus attack. It’s a violent battle, but they have the edge of experience over Novak’s panoply of powers. They destroy Novak’s misshapen body - Just as Novak leaps into Miranda’s body, possessing her! With Novak’s corporal form destroyed, Jericho slams back into real space/time. It’s like an earthquake under the village.
In the last battle, Tristan is forced to kill the only person her ever really loved trapping Novak inside. That’s the only way he can destroy the evil inside her. Novak misjudged what body to take over - Miranda is an empath. She experiences every nuance of people’s emotions - Novak is absorbing all the sorrow Tristan is feeling, and it weakens him. Tristan uses the advantage, and in a fit of despair, he if forced to decapitate his former lover to kill Novak. Tristan stumbles from the wreckage that is Jericho. His friends are dead, but so too is Novak’s psychic menace...
About
This dark, gritty superhero movie is different from any UK genre film of past last ten years. By attaching a high profile director we plan to create a film that can sit happily within the studio system, but with an independent edge. We believe James Isaac is an ideal choice as director and will bring his high octane horror style to this piece, the same style that made him a name as David Cronenberg’s protege.
“Jericho is an exiting project with amazing potential. It's not often you get a chance to make a script that is so character driven and yet is extremely cinematic. For me it's very important that the characters are dynamic and interesting and not one dimensional. When you create characters that have depth and are a little unpredictable - characters who act like real people, the audience becomes invested in the story. Then you land on them with kick- ass visuals and FX and you have something that people will want to see. Jericho has these characters as well as a very explosive and intense story. Visually it's gritty and real but very cinematic. It's a exiting ride with great characters and that's makes for great story telling.“ James Isaac (directing credits include: Jason X, Skinwalkers, Pig Hunt)
Status: Undergoing re-write, treatment available
Writer: Matthew Presley, Andy Briggs
Director: james Isaac
Genre: Psychic thriller
