For the Second Season of Cinemax’s “Femme Fatales” gets a super-heroine, “Libra”, courtesy of Bob Layton.
Last year, I was approached at WonderCon by executive producers, Steve Kriozere and Mark A. Altman, to create a super-heroine episode for their new weekly Cinemax television program, “Femme Fatales.”
Steve and I have known each other for many years and, after a little convincing by the cast and crew at the Season One wrap party, I agreed to give it a shot.
“Femme Fatales” is being promoted as a female-centric film noir version of The Twilight Zone, drawing its influences from pulp fiction and graphic novels, but with lots of skin. Not my usual, comfortable venue…but I like a challenge. My sensibilities wouldn’t allow me to write a story where gratuitous sex was merely thrown in to satisfy some sort of network quota.
So, I set about to create a tale that would satisfy my creative perimeters and the network’s expectations at the same time.
In my story, entitled “Libra”, Lt. Max Bailey is a dedicated undercover cop who has spent ten months infiltrating the Carlotta mob. Once the recent mob war ended and Boss Ryan was killed, Don Anthony Carlotta became the new top dog of Cuesta Verde’s underworld. Operating their drug and prostitution ring out of a warehouse hideout in the seedy shipyard district, Carlotta indulges his thugs with hot women and lots of recreational drugs. But, someone inside of the police precinct is a stool pigeon on Carlotta’s payroll and Max has blown his cover.
Before they capture him, Max stealthily stashes his evidence under a loose floor board in the warehouse. Fighting for his life, Max shoots it out with Carlotta’s thugs and barely escapes into the night with his life. Wounded and without the ability to call for back-up, Max hides amongst the seedy surroundings of the shipyard docks. He can’t go home. The mob knows who he is now. He has to make it to the police station before Carlotta’s goons find him.
Just as a handful of mobsters catch-up to Max and have a bead on him, a sleek feminine figure, dress in black leather and toting an electronically-enhanced baton, leaps from a fire escape and engages the killers.
It’s a bloody conflagration that ends with the super-heroine … victorious.
The deadly “Woman in Black” helps Max to his feet and introduces herself as — LIBRA!
But, as Max will soon discover, Libra harbors a deadly secret that threatens his life as much as the Carlotta mob.
I will refrain from revealing anymore of the plot for two reasons: (1)- I don’t want to spoil it for those of you who subscribe to Cinemax and might regularly enjoy the show. And (2)- I have no idea how it ends myself!
Shortly after completing the screenplay and collecting my meager payment for the script, I was told by Kriozere that the network execs were so taken by the story that they increased the budget on the episode and added shoot days to the filming schedule. I was very flattered and anxiously awaited the day that filming would begin.
After a few months, I finally received the call sheet for the shoot via email but, on the document, there were calls for characters in the story that I never heard of… or created!
I discovered, once I reached the set, that Mark and Steve took it upon themselves to rewrite my script for accommodate the new, expanded budget. Unfortunately, the final version of “Libra” bears little resemblance to the story I originally wrote.
Not that I was angry. After all, it’s television and a small budgeted show, to boot. They probably didn’t have the budget to pay me for any extensive rewrites.
I know how things work in this town and it’s not a big deal in the great scale of things.
However, being an ethical guy, I asked to have my name removed from the credits as screenwriter.
I should be credited for the plot and for the comic art that crops up in the episode as part of the plot.
But, since I don’t subscribe to Cinemax, I’ll have to wait to hear back from you to find out how the aired episode of “Libra” concludes.
