BvS Write-A-Scene for the Superman/Batman movie

It's a SHH tradition...

INT- LEXCORP TOWER- DAY
LEX LUTHOR sits at his desk, his back to the large STAS-esque windows the give him a view of the rebuilding Metropolis. He is viewing a news report about how mercenary John Corben, who tried to assassinate him a few days before during a ribbon-cutting, is still in extremely critical condition at Byrne Street General Hospital after a car accident he suffered while being pursued by Superman. Suddenly, a beep is heard. He reaches over and presses a button on his speaker, and the voice of his assistant, MERCY GRAVES echoes from it.

MERCY
Sir, Mr. Wayne is here for the One-Thirty...

LEX
Send him in, Mercy.

A beat, and then BRUCE WAYNE enters the room, wearing a suit and looking a bit tired.

LEX (standing up to go and shake Bruce's hand)
Bruce! Glad to see you...

Bruce begrudgingly extends his hand and gives Lex a firm handshake, engaging in small-talk:

BRUCE
Lex, I'm impressed, I must say that you are being quite the humanitarian rebuilding downtown, despite that... critic... a few days ago.

Lex smiles and then replies...

LEX (lifting his finger up high in the air for emphasis, like he's saying he's number one)
What aliens destroy, man will rebuild, Mr. Wayne! I'm sure you would do the same if Gotham's pests ever went above the level of rodents, clowns and.. what was it, a clay-person? Ridiculous.

Lex then turns and walks back towards his desk, allowing Wayne to smirk a bit. He would do the same for Gotham... but he knows full well that Gotham's clowns are no joke.

Lex sits down and gets to business.

LEX
Now, what brings the head of the Wayne empire to Metropolis? If you wanted to give me a get-well-soon card in person, I'm sorry to disappoint, but I'm perfectly fine. Corben missed completely.

BRUCE
Actually, it's about something else...

BRUCE reaches into his coat and produces a copy of the Daily Planet. He puts it on the desk of Luthor. LUTHOR THREATENS TO SHUT DOWN PLANET, blares the headline.

BRUCE
I want to buy the Daily Planet from you.

LEX
Oh, now, Bruce, you know that print is dying, why would you want to waste your money?

Bruce picks up the paper and reads a bit from it:

BRUCE
"According to sources inside the LexCorp conglomerate's news and information division, CEO Lex Luthor has become personally displeased with the Planet's coverage on Superman- believing it to be too positive- and is enraged by the recent reports by Lois Lane and Clark Kent that allege that LexCorp used illegal means in order to gain the contracts for the rebuilding of downtown Metropolis..."

He drops it on Luthor's desk again. A beat.

BRUCE
Wayne Enterprises was also bidding for that contract, Lex.

Lex rolls his eyes, then gets up and turns to look over Metropolis.

LEX
Bruce, before those aliens came, we were important. We could DO things! But now, our fates are being decided by some man from space who flies around in underwear deciding what is right and wrong like he thinks he's some messiah. And yet we all seem to forget that it was because of HIM that Zod came, because of HIM that so many people died that day in this city.

(As Lex is monologuing, Bruce "accidentally" drops a thumb drive by Lex's desk.)

LEX (cont.)
And yet, because only this city was destroyed instead of the entire world, the sheep below have decided that he is the world's greatest hero... forgetting that he was willing to kill one of his own kind. If he's willing to do that, who knows what he'd be willing to do to us mere mortals? Why, even John Corben... why didn't Superman save him?

Lex turns back towards Bruce.

LEX
I've read your biography, Mr. Wayne, I know what happened to your parents. That was just one ordinary desperate man with a gun... who knows what a desperate SUPERman would...

BRUCE interrupts Lex.

BRUCE
I'm not here for your pontificating, Lex. I came here for the Planet.

LEX
Oh, please, Wayne... are you so sore over losing the contract to Metropolis that you'd protect that rag just so that my victory has to also bring endless aggravation to me?

BRUCE (glibly)
No, but I am a big fan of an independent and uncensored press... (cracks a smile) even if it does like sending paparazzi after me.

LEX reaches down and grabs the newspaper and throws it to BRUCE.

LEX
How much?

BRUCE
$100 million.

LEX
You're an idiot, your board of directors would have your head if you had any other last name. Come to our second attempt at a ribbon-cutting tomorrow and we're announce it there.

BRUCE
Thank you, Lex... I'm sure that the people of Metropolis will thank you as well.

BRUCE begins to leave and opens the door, but LEX then shouts something else:

LEX
Oh, Bruce, I was just curious... would Wayne Enterprises be interested in collaborating with LexCorp on a safeguard in case Superman turns against us? The government has let us take a look at some of the Kryptonian technology, I'm sure...

BRUCE
I don't like guns.

The door slams. Lex is again alone. He sees the dropped Wayne Enterprises thumb-drive and, seeing a possibility of getting some of a competitor's secrets, quickly grabs ahold of it and puts it in his computer.

CUT TO: LEXCORP ELEVATOR
Bruce now is browsing the contents of Lex's computer- the thumb-drive had a trojan horse on it- and on Lex's computer he finds a communication between him and John Corben...

BRUCE (quietly to himself, in a voice that sounds more Batman than Bruce Wayne)
False flag...

 

Yeah, that's kind of where I got the idea, too. I have another idea for a scene- which sort of sets up the REAL reason why Bruce is in Metropolis (oh, he does want to buy the Daily Planet, but...).

 

I'll probably put it up later.

 

Yeah, I actually read somewhere that some companies and governments are worried about stuff like that, since curiosity gets the best of everyone. When I read that I immediately thought: "That is so something Batman would do."

 

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Okay, here's that other scene I was thinking of. It takes place after Corben's assassination attempt on Lex and his car accident when he tries to avoid Superman but before any sort of opening credits.

EXT- GOTHAM CITY DOCKS AND SHIPYARD- NIGHT
It's raining in Gotham, the pavement's becoming puddles, the dirt becoming mud, and the sky as dark as the the souls of the criminals that inhabit it. It is one of these muddy patches that we see a yellowed and wet copy of the Gotham Globe, a Daily News-style tabloid, showing the Superman logo and the headline- MAN OF STEEL! It is then that a foot steps down onto it, a police boot. The newspaper becomes stuck to the police officer's boot, but he doesn't care, and as he approaches a warehouse with a megaphone in hand, SWAT teams alongside him, we see it is not the Commissioner Gordon everyone was expecting, but instead DETECTIVE HARVEY BULLOCK, fat but fit, with an unkempt face. We hear some idle chat between some of the other cops, about how Clayface is on the loose, how somebody tried to shoot Lex Luthor in Metropolis, about how the Commissioner is at some magic show with his daughter... but they all stop with a few glares from Bullock. He raises the megaphone and speaks. One of the SWAT team members behind him stares down and sees the paper stuck to Bullock's foot, but doesn't do anything but roll his eyes.

BULLOCK (into megaphone)
Attention, this is Harvey Bullock of the GCPD, drop your weapons and come out with your hands up!


A beat. Nothing. Then gunfire, screams.


BULLOCK
C'mon!


The police rush towards the warehouse, with but then, upon reaching the door, notice that the sounds have ended, replaced only by some pained groaning. Bullock turns to a cop.


BULLOCK
I'm going in.


A female police officer- screw it, let's call her Renee Montoya- not too far away is incredulous, shocked at the idea he'll go in alone.


MONTOYA
But, Detective Bullock...


BULLOCK
Don't 'Detective Bullock' me, if it works for our new commish, it works for me....


CUT TO:
INT- WAREHOUSE – NIGHT
The warehouse has haphazard lighting, with some of it of it having been destroyed in the battle. But there is enough lighting for us to see a few mooks knocked out, some storage boxes and other containers, and for us to see the door that BULLOCK busts in through.


He steps forward a few steps and sees an imposing man in kevlar body armor that has been cut up, a stylized balaclava (like the usual mask of KGBeast) sits not too far away from him. The camera follows BULLOCK as he walks up to the man, he kneels by him and notices a BATARANG laying nearby. He grabs it, lifts it up, and pokes the man with it, producing a half-awake groan. Then a voice comes from the shadow that causes Bullock to drop the Batarang, the voice of the Batarang's original owner... the voice of THE BATMAN!


BATMAN
His name is Anatoli Knyazev. He's a mercenary, ex-Russian Military. He and his thugs were here to protect shipments.


BULLOCK
Shipments of what?


BULLOCK finally realizes the newspaper stuck to his boot and picks up and uses the discarded Batarang to get it off as Batman speaks.


BATMAN
Something from the India. It's gone now, Knyazev and his thugs were just cleaning up, getting rid of the evidence. Obviously our informant didn't tell us in time.


BULLOCK
What would these mooks want to protect from India? Curry?


A beat, just long enough for you to imagine Batman thinking about how much he wished Jim Gordon was there instead of Harvey Bullock.


BATMAN
I don't know. It wasn't drugs or guns, though. It was something else. And I'm going to go find it.


Cut to Batman in a corner of the warehouse, not truly visible in anything but as a silhouette. He is looking at something- a delivery slip? A manifest? A letter? We can't see it...


BATMAN (cont.)
Tell Jim that I'll be out of town for a few days.


Back to Bullock...


BULLOCK
But what if Clayface shows himself?


BATMAN
...Then I'll come back. But something was happening here that's bigger than Gotham.


Bullock gets back up fully on his feet, dropping the batarang to the ground as he goes to check out the shipping containers and crates.


BULLOCK
Yeah, well, let me take a look.


He turns on his flashlight and moves close to one open and empty crate. A label is on the side of it.


Close in the label: SHIP TO LEXCORP LAB FACILITY, METROPOLIS.


BULLOCK
Luthor? What the hell does he want with stuff coming through Gotham?


Silence.


Bullock is seen from above, turning and looking around.

BULLOCK
Batman? (beat) Batman?


The Batman, of course, has left the building. And the camera pans back to that batarang... now sitting next to that old newspaper. We see them next to each other: The Batarang and the Newspaper. The floor of the warehouse fades away, and now only the paper and the Batarang remain. Soon, the rest of the paper fades, and we see just two things, two icons, soaring on the movie screen: the SUPERMAN S and the BATMAN LOGO. And then, they move towards each other, COLLIDING TO FORM THE LOGO OF THE FILM. ROLL OPENING CREDITS!