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Oz ch.1 screenplay v8: no narration, opens on the park

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</head>
<body><div class="wrap">
<h1>The Wonderful Wizard of Oz — Chapter One: The Tornado</h1><p class="by">from the 1900 novel by L. Frank Baum, re-set in 2026<br>adaptation by Scooter Willis (this chapter simulated by the assistant at the adapter's request, 2026-09-21/22)</p>
<div class="note">The adapter's rule: no narrator while a character is on screen. The narrator speaks only over the empty farm, prairie, cellar doors, kitchen and barn before anyone appears, and over the house seen from outside as the tornado lifts it - every narrated sentence is the adapted text of Chapter One in its written order. The chapter's own dialogue (Aunt Em, Dorothy, Uncle Henry) plays on camera. Seven short lines are written for the film and are not in the book: 'One more, Toto.' / 'The county alert went off an hour ago. I turned it off.' / 'Sky says the same.' / 'Toto! Here!' / 'It's all right. We wait.' / 'Toto—!'. Nothing is taken from the 1939 film.<br><br><b>Checked mechanically:</b> </div>
<h3 class="slug">EXT. THE FARM FROM THE COUNTY ROAD - DAWN</h3>
<p class="act">Kansas, 2026 - a modern working farm like the Kent farm in Superman: a white two-story three-bedroom farmhouse at the end of a gravel drive, a red barn, a green John Deere tractor, solar panels on the roof, a Starlink dish at the eave, an old Ford F-150, a Tesla, and a red 1968 Mustang convertible, a hundred acres of corn burnt gray by drought; an outside storm cellar beside the house with two steel doors set at 45 degrees. The family is struggling. DOROTHY is sixteen going on seventeen: tall, slim and athletic - the build of a runner or a volleyball player - with an angelic, classically beautiful face, long dark brown hair in one braid; confident, fearless, a tomboy who hates how remote the farm is and does not care how she looks; in this chapter she wears a loose number 22 basketball jersey, loose shorts and high-top basketball shoes. TOTO is a big white American bulldog (played by the real dog Astro), broad-chested, short white coat, dark eyes. Nobody in sight. The white house at the end of the gravel drive, the red barn, the tractor in the yard, the solar panels catching the first light, the Starlink dish, the F-150 and the Tesla by the barn, a red convertible under a tarp, and the gray corn around it all.</p>
<div class="dlg"><p class="cue">NARRATOR (V.O.)</p>
<p class="say">Dorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies, with Uncle Henry, who was a farmer, and Aunt Em, who was the farmer’s wife.</p>
</div>
<div class="dlg"><p class="cue">NARRATOR (V.O.)</p>
<p class="say">Their house was a white two-story farmhouse with three bedrooms, at the end of a gravel drive,</p>
</div>
<div class="dlg"><p class="cue">NARRATOR (V.O.)</p>
<p class="say">with a red barn behind it, a green tractor in the yard, solar panels on the south side of the roof, a Starlink dish at the eave, an old F-150 and a Tesla at the barn,</p>
</div>
<div class="dlg"><p class="cue">NARRATOR (V.O.)</p>
<p class="say">and beside them, under a tarp, a red 1968 Mustang convertible that had been her father’s, and a hundred acres of corn planted around it all;</p>
</div>
<div class="dlg"><p class="cue">NARRATOR (V.O.)</p>
<p class="say">and the bank owned most of it.</p>
</div>
<h3 class="slug">EXT. THE PRAIRIE - DAWN</h3>
<p class="act">The flat gray country to the edge of the sky. No tree, no other house, no one. The plowed land baked into a gray mass with cracks running through it; the corn burnt gray at the tops.</p>
<div class="dlg"><p class="cue">NARRATOR (V.O.)</p>
<p class="say">Not a tree nor another house broke the broad sweep of flat country that reached to the edge of the sky in all directions.</p>
</div>
<div class="dlg"><p class="cue">NARRATOR (V.O.)</p>
<p class="say">The sun had baked the plowed land into a gray mass, with little cracks running through it.</p>
</div>
<div class="dlg"><p class="cue">NARRATOR (V.O.)</p>
<p class="say">Even the corn was not green, for the sun had burned the tops of the long blades until they were the same gray color to be seen everywhere.</p>
</div>
<div class="dlg"><p class="cue">NARRATOR (V.O.)</p>
<p class="say">Once the house had been painted, but the sun blistered the paint and the rains washed it away, and now the house was as dull and gray as everything else.</p>
</div>
<h3 class="slug">EXT. THE STORM CELLAR - DAWN</h3>
<p class="act">Beside the house, two steel doors set in the earth at a slant, shut. Nobody about.</p>
<div class="dlg"><p class="cue">NARRATOR (V.O.)</p>
<p class="say">It was reached by two steel doors set in the earth at a slant, which opened outward, from which a flight of steps led down into the small, dark hole.</p>
</div>
<h3 class="slug">INT. THE FARMHOUSE KITCHEN - EARLY MORNING</h3>
<p class="act">Empty. A stove, a cupboard of dishes, a table and chairs, a rack of boots by the door. On the counter a phone, face up. On the wall a framed photograph: a small home-built plane on a grass strip, a man and a woman beside it, a girl of eleven between them.</p>
<div class="dlg"><p class="cue">NARRATOR (V.O.)</p>
<p class="say">When Aunt Em came there to live she was a young, pretty wife. The sun and wind had changed her, too.</p>
</div>
<div class="dlg"><p class="cue">NARRATOR (V.O.)</p>
<p class="say">They had taken the sparkle from her eyes and left them a sober gray; they had taken the red from her cheeks and lips, and they were gray also.</p>
</div>
<div class="dlg"><p class="cue">NARRATOR (V.O.)</p>
<p class="say">She was thin and gaunt, and never smiled now.</p>
</div>
<div class="dlg"><p class="cue">NARRATOR (V.O.)</p>
<p class="say">When Dorothy, who was an orphan—</p>
</div>
<div class="dlg"><p class="cue">NARRATOR (V.O.)</p>
<p class="say">her mother and father had died five years before, when the small plane her father had built with his own hands was caught in a tornado—</p>
</div>
<div class="dlg"><p class="cue">NARRATOR (V.O.)</p>
<p class="say">first came to her, Aunt Em had been so startled by the girl’s laughter that she would scream and press her hand upon her heart whenever Dorothy’s merry voice reached her ears;</p>
</div>
<div class="dlg"><p class="cue">NARRATOR (V.O.)</p>
<p class="say">and she still looked at the girl with wonder that she could find anything to laugh at.</p>
</div>
<h3 class="slug">EXT. THE BARN - EARLY MORNING</h3>
<p class="act">Tools laid out on the tractor's fender in order. Rough boots by the barn door. No one.</p>
<div class="dlg"><p class="cue">NARRATOR (V.O.)</p>
<p class="say">Uncle Henry never laughed. He worked hard from morning till night and did not know what joy was.</p>
</div>
<div class="dlg"><p class="cue">NARRATOR (V.O.)</p>
<p class="say">He was gray also, from his long beard to his rough boots, and he looked stern and solemn, and rarely spoke.</p>
</div>
<div class="note">The adapter's rule: no narration - the characters are the story and the surroundings are implied; narration is for documentaries. The film opens on the park. The chapter's own dialogue (Aunt Em, Dorothy, Uncle Henry) plays on camera; six short lines are written for the film and are not in the book: 'All net, and we go home.' / 'The county alert went off an hour ago. I turned it off.' / 'Sky says the same.' / 'Toto! Here!' / 'It's all right. We wait.' / 'Toto-!'. Dorothy honks and waves at Uncle Henry as she passes - she is stuck, not rude. Nothing is taken from the 1939 film.<br><br><b>Checked mechanically:</b> </div>
<h3 class="slug">EXT. THE PARK, TOWN - LATE AFTERNOON</h3>
<p class="act">An empty outdoor court on the edge of a small Kansas town. Dorothy, alone, in the 22 jersey and high-tops, dribbles once and puts up a long three from well behind the arc. Nothing but net. Toto sits under the hoop and watches the ball drop through. She gets it, walks back out, shoots again. Nothing but net.</p>
<p class="act">Another three. Net. Toto's head follows the ball up and down. Dorothy does not smile; this is work.</p>
<div class="dlg"><p class="cue">DOROTHY</p>
<p class="say">One more, Toto.</p>
<p class="say">All net, and we go home.</p>
</div>
<p class="act">She shoots. Net. Toto barks once. She scoops the ball and walks for the gate; Toto trots after her.</p>
<p class="act">She shoots. Nothing but net. Toto barks once and gets up. She scoops the ball, tucks it under one arm and walks for the gate without a glance back; Toto trots after her.</p>
<h3 class="slug">EXT. COUNTY ROAD - LATE AFTERNOON</h3>
<p class="act">The red Mustang, top down, fast, radio loud, Toto upright in the passenger seat barking at the wind, Dorothy's braid whipping. A chain-link fence, soldiers at a gate, low gray buildings, a sign: QUANTUM LEAP - gone in a second, dust standing in the air behind the car. Then miles of corn, gray and failing, to the horizon.</p>
<h3 class="slug">EXT. THE FARM - LATE AFTERNOON</h3>
<p class="act">The Mustang comes up the drive too fast and stops in a cloud of dust that rolls over Uncle Henry, bent over the tractor's engine. He straightens, gray from beard to boots, and says nothing; he looks at the sky instead, which is grayer than usual. Dorothy is out of the car and running for the house, Toto after her.</p>
<p class="act">The Mustang comes up the gravel drive too fast and a cloud of dust rolls over Uncle Henry, bent over the tractor's engine. As she passes, Dorothy honks twice and waves; Toto, upright in the passenger seat, barks at him. Henry straightens in the settling dust, gray from beard to boots, looks after the car, lifts one hand a little - the nearest he comes to a wave - and then looks up at the sky, which is grayer than usual. The Mustang stops by the house; Dorothy swings out over the door, ball under one arm, and walks for the kitchen door, Toto at her heel.</p>
<h3 class="slug">INT. THE FARMHOUSE KITCHEN - LATE AFTERNOON</h3>
<p class="act">Aunt Em at the sink with her back to the door, thin and gaunt. Dorothy in the doorway in the jersey and high-tops, Toto pushing in past her legs. The radio still faintly from the yard.</p>
<div class="dlg"><p class="cue">AUNT EM</p>
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</div>
<p class="act">Dorothy goes after him. Aunt Em runs out to the storm cellar beside the house, throws back the two slanting steel doors and goes down the steps into the dark. Dorothy gets hold of Toto; halfway across the kitchen the wind shrieks, the house shakes, and she sits down hard on the floor.</p>
<h3 class="slug">EXT. THE FARM - THE TORNADO</h3>
<p class="act">From outside, from a distance: the white house whirls around two or three times and rises slowly into the air, the cellar doors shut in the ground below it. No one visible.</p>
<div class="dlg"><p class="cue">NARRATOR (V.O.)</p>
<p class="say">The house whirled around two or three times and rose slowly through the air.</p>
</div>
<div class="dlg"><p class="cue">NARRATOR (V.O.)</p>
<p class="say">The north and south winds met where the house stood, and made it the exact center of the tornado.</p>
</div>
<div class="dlg"><p class="cue">NARRATOR (V.O.)</p>
<p class="say">In the middle of a tornado the air is generally still,</p>
</div>
<div class="dlg"><p class="cue">NARRATOR (V.O.)</p>
<p class="say">but the great pressure of the wind on every side of the house raised it up higher and higher,</p>
</div>
<div class="dlg"><p class="cue">NARRATOR (V.O.)</p>
<p class="say">until it was at the very top of the tornado;</p>
</div>
<div class="dlg"><p class="cue">NARRATOR (V.O.)</p>
<p class="say">and there it remained and was carried miles and miles away as easily as you could carry a feather.</p>
</div>
<p class="act">From outside, from a distance: the white house whirls around two or three times and rises slowly into the air, the cellar doors shut in the ground below it. No one visible. Wind only.</p>
<h3 class="slug">INT. THE FARMHOUSE, IN THE AIR</h3>
<p class="act">Dark. Wind. Dorothy on the kitchen floor, Toto beside her, the room tilting slowly; the house tips badly once, then rocks gently, like a cradle. She holds the table leg and rides it.</p>
<p class="act">Toto runs about the kitchen barking, now here, now there. Dorothy sits quite still on the floor and waits.</p>