LOGLINE
In a supernatural High Noon, a semi-immortal gunfighter has to duel with the Devil -- not just for his soul, but also for the life of the only woman he’s been able to love in 300 years.
SUMMARY
JOHN LORE, former gunfighter turned local hero, sold his soul to the Devil in 1500s Germany, but fled before the Devil could collect. Fast forward three hundred years to the American Wild West in the 1800s, Mr Geist -- the Devil himself -- has ridden into town to take the soul he is owed.
Meanwhile, wicked land baron TODD ARCHVEQUE plans to murder John. This doesn't fit into Geist's plan, as he needs to collect the soul that John has hidden. The two enemies become unlikely partners and join forces while delaying their meeting with destiny.
Together, Satan and the man without a soul must face down an entire army of Wild West marauders.
CINEMATIC STYLE & REFERENCE
SIX-GUN is a high-octane action film with heart. Violence and gunplay are endemic, but love, justice and redemption are the central themes.
There are hints of the tongue-in-cheek tone of FROM DUSK TILL DAWN and DJANGO UNCHAINED, meshed with the gleeful anarchic irreverence of THE BOYS.
Some scenes reflect the grittiness of UNFORGIVEN, while others have the gallows humor of ZOMBIELAND.
This is a movie where...
Lucifer himself is nowhere near as evil as some of the humans.
The two neighboring towns of Firestone Gulch and Elysian are proxies for Heaven and Hell, respectively.
Mythology of the Faustian pact and the horrors of the medieval imagination are reconfigured for the Wild West.
It’s also a movie where the bad guys get the deeply unpleasant deaths they so richly deserve.
CHARACTER BREAKDOWN
JOHN LORE
In Germany in the 1500s, a brilliant and vainglorious young man called Johannes Faust sold his soul – and promptly fled when the Devil came for his due. He’s spent the last 300 years on the run, always looking over his shoulder. In that time, he’s tried to find redemption, and is now living under the name John Lore, a popular, caring doctor in a small Wild West town. But with his soul in limbo, he can’t father children or make anything grow, and although he has had numerous wives, he is unable to truly love -- at least so far. Physically strong and cool in a crisis, he is supernaturally fast with a gun, courtesy of his deal with Lucifer.
MR GEIST
Satan, come to finally claim John’s soul. While he is devious and ruthless, he’s not evil as such: indeed, he’s honorable, protects the weak and helpless, and has a special bond with animals. Mr Geist is bored – bored with mutilating people, bored with taking souls, and above all, bored with pathetic, dull, small-minded humanity and our sordid appetite for causing pain and suffering. He wants nothing more than to retire. Decked out in upscale gentleman's attire, his eloquence and manners fool some people into underestimating him – but like John, he’s truly deadly with a gun.
TODD ARCHVEQUE
If you’re looking for a truly evil character, Todd is it. Landowner, mob boss, murderer, slaver, kidnapper, sexual abuser… While his nouveau riche pretensions are risible, his mind is razor-sharp: he’s the last man you’d want to cross. He plots to get hold of Amy’s mine, by whatever means necessary.
VIRGIL ARCHVEQUE
Todd’s enforcer, as well as his younger, slow-witted brother. A creature of appetite, Virgil’s horizons are bounded by lust, greed and sadism.
AMY MADDERSON
The owner of the sulfur mine at Firestone Gulch, Amy is a firm but fair employer and the miners adore her. She has a will of steel, and the skill with weaponry to back that up. She is protective of her younger brother Georgie, and is madly in love with John Lore, even if his brooding and secrets drive her to distraction.
THE CATFISH KID
A teenage wannabe gunfighter, driven by testosterone overload and a misplaced desire for glory. The Kid is fast with a gun, but too reckless and hot-headed to live long. Resurrected after his death, he becomes an unwitting pawn in Mr Geist’s Machiavellian plans.
THE FOUR COWBOYS OF THE APOCALYPSE:
DIRECTORS LIST
STORY BREAKDOWN
ACT 1
MR GEIST burns a man to death. With his last breath, the man spits out a glowing ball of mist: his soul. Mr Geist snaps it up and ticks off an entry in his register. Now, only one name is left: JOHN LORE.
1800s: In the mining settlement of Firestone Gulch, Dr. John Lore calmly assists a young woman giving birth while bullets fly around them. Once the baby is born, John humiliates THE CATFISH KID, a hothead looking to make his name as a fast gun. When the Kid’s younger brother, DAVIE, tries to shoot John in the back, John disarms him with supernatural speed.
In the neighboring town of Elysian, a grim place run by land-baron TODD, Todd’s vicious brother VIRGIL torments Amy’s handicapped brother GEORGIE, only to get stomped on by John. Attracted by the commotion, Mr Geist sees John and says, “At last!”
In turn, John runs.
Todd gives Amy an ultimatum: marry him or he’ll take the mine by force.
Mr Geist casually shoots a cowboy trying to rape a saloon girl and takes the rapist’s place in Todd’s gang.
Amy asks John to marry her. That night, John leaves her a letter and sneaks out of the house. The GHOSTS of his previous wives call out but he ignores them. “Running again, coward?” says one.
John’s escape out through the sulfur mine is cut off by THE FOUR COWBOYS OF THE APOCALYPSE – WAR, FAMINE, PESTILENCE and a surpisingly sultry female DEATH. He has to return and face the destiny he has run from for so long.
ACT 2
While ostensibly working for Todd, whom he despises, Mr Geist takes John’s life apart. He drives a wedge between John and Amy, and kills both Virgil and the Catfish Kid while putting the blame on John. A war breaks out between Firestone Gulch and Elysian.
Davie, the Kid’s brother, pretends to join John and Amy’s resistance, but blows up the Firestone Gulch barricade instead, killing himself. Firestone Gulch is taken.
Mr Geist, making plans, resurrects the Catfish Kid – but with his head rotated back to front.
Todd tells Amy if she doesn’t marry him, he’ll kill her workers. However, once Todd owns her assets, he’s going to murder the miners and replace them with his Chinese slaves anyway.
John has hidden his soul where Mr Geist can’t find it, so the Devil offers a deal: temporary co-operation against a common enemy. They attack the sham wedding in a spectacular gunfight. By now, Todd has an army, and the unlikely duo are outnumbered and outgunned. They’re going to lose.
ACT 3
Mr Geist summons the Four Cowboys. Hell comes to Elysian with fire, plague and Gatling gun. His army destroyed, Todd flees – only to be captured and boiled alive by his Chinese slaves.
Mr Geist tells John he can keep his soul if he agrees to take on the job of soulcatcher. John refuses. As Elysian burns and impaled cowboys line the high street, it’s time for the final showdown between John and Mr Geist.
At stake: one soul.
John is the faster gun, but sacrifices his life to save Amy. Dying, he tells Amy he loves her. Mr Geist takes John's soul, which is hidden within his glass eye, and then gives it back. His pursuit of John has been the most meaningful part of his life for centuries. Realizing that the thrill was in the chase, he no longer wishes to claim John's soul.
Mr Geist rides out of town with the Four Cowboys of the Apocalypse, flirting with Death.
Five years later...
Firestone Gulch is booming. Amy and John are happily-married parents. The Chinese laborers now run Elysian. Yet, there’s a strange gunfighter in town. It’s the Catfish Kid, with his still backwards-turned head. And this time, will he be faster than John?