Show Notes
- The Arctic.
Two men who despise each other. One missing expedition.
And a discovery that will destroy everything they thought they knew. Prisoners of Air is a historical horror set against one of the most haunting real events in exploration history, the lost Franklin expedition.
At its center is an unlikely partnership: Robert Goodsir, a pompous Navy doctor searching for his missing brother, and John Rae, a disgraced explorer the British establishment hates because he dared to believe Inuit testimony about what really happened to Franklin's men. What unfolds is a story about class, loyalty, survival, and the terrible cost of the truth.
"I just felt like I was watching a scene from Game of Thrones."
"Great writing, you don't have to work as hard — the script carries you."
"Jack Nicholson said he needed five great scenes in a movie. This screenplay has five great scenes."
The language is rich and the world is unforgiving — but if you push through it, this is one of the most rewarding scripts you'll read this year.
Kinolime is an indie production studio where the community decides what gets made. You read the scripts, you vote, and the winner gets produced into a real film with up to a $15M production budget, a real director and a real release.
THE WAIF (2024) is shooting this year with BAFTA-nominated director Stephen Fingleton. MOB MENTALITY (2025) just attached director William Groebe.
The winner of this vote is next.
Full Transcript
[00:00]
Hello and welcome to the KinoLime script to screen competition table read.
[00:16]
I am Julia Yorkes here with.
[00:18]
John Tra.
[00:20]
And we've got two actors today who are going to be reading one of our top three entries.
[00:26]
Introduce yourself.
[00:27]
Hello everyone.
[00:28]
My name is William Owen and I'm origin from the UK but very pleased to be here today.
[00:30]
I couldn't tell.
[00:31]
I'll give it away.
[00:33]
And?
[00:34]
Hi, I'm Michael Gardner.
[00:35]
I'm reading John Ray.
[00:36]
I'm not from the UK.
[00:37]
So the script that we're going to be talking about today is called Prisoners of Air and
[00:42]
our log line is it's 1850.
[00:45]
Two explorers form an unlikely friendship as they search the Arctic for a missing expedition
[00:51]
but can their new bond survive the discovery of its terrible fate?
[00:56]
How many does that the scene?
[00:58]
This is the first time that our two protagonists actually meet.
[01:02]
Goods are the one who has lost his brother and he truly cannot stand the idea of John
[01:08]
Ray and unfortunately he needs to ask for John Ray's help in order to help find his missing
[01:13]
brother.
[01:14]
So it's a real complex adventurous.
[01:15]
All right, let's do it.
[01:18]
Interior, Hudson Bay Company drinking hall night.
[01:21]
A great crowd of fur traders and their native wives dance wildly to a fiddle tune.
[01:26]
The Red River jig.
[01:27]
Goods are picks his way past men hardier even than sailors.
[01:31]
He's keenly aware of his class.
[01:33]
As are they.
[01:35]
Excuse me, is there a John Ray amongst you?
[01:38]
They shake their heads, ignore him, one even spits.
[01:42]
Then Goods' eyes are drawn to a figure slumped in the corner.
[01:45]
He squat and muscular but a thick white beard betrays his age.
[01:50]
The notorious John Ray 60s.
[01:53]
After takes a breath and makes for him the music changes to the traders' real.
[01:58]
He holds out his hand.
[01:59]
Mr. Ray, I presume I'm wrong.
[02:02]
I'm strutth I good sir.
[02:03]
And I be John fine chat.
[02:10]
Raise your mark, boy.
[02:14]
Black is burnt up.
[02:15]
These piggy shall be.
[02:17]
Mr. Ray, I request to you address me as sir.
[02:20]
The wrestle for the right.
[02:24]
He slaps Goods' hand flat to the surface just in arm wrestle, thankfully.
[02:28]
Best of three.
[02:30]
Mr. Ray, you are drunk.
[02:32]
Best of five then.
[02:34]
I'm sure it would please the franklin men to know that we play like children whilst they
[02:37]
shiver.
[02:38]
Ray Grins holding up his hands, both are bereft of their little fingers.
[02:44]
Now there's a mark.
[02:48]
When lunging forward, he plants his hands on the table and lifts himself into a handstand.
[02:53]
The bulk of him wobbles perilously on the wood.
[02:56]
The music stops.
[02:58]
Traders watch laughing, goading until with a mighty crash Ray falls to the floor.
[03:03]
His fellow drinkers mob him, howl with laughter, ruffle his hair.
[03:09]
Interior Goods' quarters later.
[03:11]
Swish.
[03:12]
Goods' turn's a page of Ray's report.
[03:15]
And Hescomo did relate how the franklin men were howling as they marched,
[03:19]
streaking that some caused the Eskimo could not discern.
[03:22]
Cooking pots were found with human feet inside, soared at the ankle.
[03:26]
Some it seems been bored with their boots.
[03:28]
Goods'ers slams the report shut.
[03:31]
He takes a puff off his pipe.
[03:33]
The Eskimo skull stares at its new owner.
[03:36]
Seems you people like a tall tail.
[03:39]
Interior Goods'ers' quarters morning.
[03:41]
A door creaks open.
[03:43]
Goods are wakes with a start.
[03:44]
A native servant girl, Petunia, stands over him, his chamber pop between her hands.
[03:49]
She bows and backs away.
[03:51]
Goods'ers rises and stares through the window.
[03:54]
At the far end of the courtyard, a figure lies sleeping in the bare air.
[03:58]
Exterior courtyard, moments later.
[04:01]
Goods'ers feet crunch as he approaches.
[04:06]
Storey.
[04:11]
Rise and shine, Mr. Ray.
[04:15]
Happy the head this morning.
[04:17]
Egg behind the eyes, I trust.
[04:19]
And drink to hydrates us, ironically,
[04:22]
aldehyde, mankind's dearest poison.
[04:25]
Ray stares at this pompous twat, wishing he'd never a woken.
[04:29]
Who the fuck are you, boy?
[04:32]
It's good, sir.
[04:33]
I see you wrinkled, recollection.
[04:36]
I'm willing to forgive your conduct from the previous night, Mr. Ray.
[04:39]
I am not enough acquainted with the hardships of active life to judge.
[04:43]
Ray eats a mouthful of snow.
[04:46]
What's your mileage?
[04:49]
Come again.
[04:50]
How far do your legs carry you and at what rate?
[04:53]
I once managed 25 per day.
[04:55]
It was a shooting trip, I took with some medic friends.
[04:57]
Upon one ground.
[05:00]
If you must know, it was the children's.
[05:03]
The children's?
[05:04]
No.
[05:04]
A mile is a mile, Mr. Ray, and we covered a score and five.
[05:08]
There are English miles, and there are Arctic miles.
[05:11]
Mr. Goods, sir.
[05:13]
An Arctic mile is akin to walking ground, which may snap beneath you.
[05:18]
An Arctic mile will freeze the swepty of drawings as you march.
[05:23]
It is nowhere near enough.
[05:25]
Let us make here our first rule.
[05:27]
Come winter, the only body I'll be dragging back with me will be my own.
[05:32]
He strides briskly away.
[05:34]
Goods are has to break into a jog to catch him,
[05:36]
following him towards interior washroom continuous.
[05:40]
The door creaks open.
[05:41]
Goods are enters and sees a topless ray
[05:44]
crouched over a wooden basin.
[05:45]
Enter, enter.
[05:47]
If you want my services far more than nipples, you shall see.
[05:51]
He lives the basin and pours it over himself.
[05:55]
You seek the Franklin man?
[05:58]
I seek Franklin himself.
[05:59]
You seek his man, Franklin is dead.
[06:04]
And scene.
[06:08]
Okay, that was awesome.
[06:09]
I'm so happy.
[06:09]
Thank you.
[06:10]
Scripts like this sometimes when you hear it,
[06:14]
it brings it to life in such an insane way.
[06:17]
I mean, these lines leapt off the page, and I think sometimes can be intimidating to read
[06:23]
some old English.
[06:24]
And hearing you guys, oh my gosh, that was phenomenal.
[06:29]
I mean, first of all, like, you know, your accent's incredible.
[06:33]
Like, I felt like it's not a kin, but it kind of is like, I just felt like I was watching a
[06:38]
scene from Game of Thrones.
[06:40]
Yeah, I don't know.
[06:40]
It just was so awesome.
[06:42]
You guys did amazing work.
[06:43]
Yeah, really awesome.
[06:44]
It didn't like to your point.
[06:45]
It really, you need the performance to take it off the page.
[06:49]
We hear this a lot.
[06:49]
It's like, you know, it's all execution dependent.
[06:51]
Like, yeah, we know, but like, this really is.
[06:53]
Like, this takes the words and just like,
[06:55]
Well, what I think is so cool to, you know, we were talking earlier about
[06:59]
finding attachments to scripts.
[07:01]
And as a professional writer, that is truly one of the hardest things to do is to attach
[07:07]
actors. And that is also what gets a script greenlit is having these really great parts
[07:13]
for actors who have the the way to to play them and to get your movie made.
[07:18]
And these roles, particularly a two-hander, which is so important.
[07:25]
I think it just really kind of elevates that.
[07:27]
There's two great roles for, for two huge pieces of talent.
[07:31]
And these scenes that pop out, I think I heard that Jack Nicholson, he said,
[07:35]
before he decided on a film, he needed five great scenes in a movie.
[07:39]
And like, this screenplay has five great scenes.
[07:42]
I'm not sure.
[07:43]
Now, I just thought it was so great.
[07:45]
And I want to kind of toss it to you guys.
[07:47]
What was your experience of being in these roles?
[07:50]
And was there things in the script that you particularly loved or resonated with you?
[07:55]
I don't know how many.
[07:56]
It's very still to language at this point in the script, which is sort of,
[07:59]
we are very early on in the story here.
[08:01]
And so good sense coming in with, I guess, quite a lot of preconceptions about
[08:05]
his view on the world and his place in it.
[08:07]
And I think, I mean, I don't know how much I want to give away here,
[08:10]
but I think those are going to get broken down very, very quickly as they venture
[08:13]
forth into the Arctic.
[08:14]
I think so too.
[08:16]
I love that.
[08:16]
Yeah.
[08:17]
Well, as an actor, I just love being able to play like kind of an unleashed character.
[08:22]
And John Ray absolutely is.
[08:24]
I mean, he can kind of do anything, you know?
[08:26]
And I think that's what, I mean, great actors, any actors, they create great writing.
[08:30]
You know, in a way, when there's great writing, you don't have to work as hard.
[08:34]
It seems counterintuitive.
[08:35]
But the script kind of carries you.
[08:37]
And if you trust in the script, you can get a great performance out of something.
[08:41]
And that's what's so great about this.
[08:42]
For John Ray in particular, it just seems like you have the freedom to have so much fun.
[08:46]
Yes.
[08:47]
Because it's such a well-written character.
[08:50]
Mm-hmm.
[08:50]
Yeah, no, it's, it was great.
[08:51]
I feel like you were John Ray.
[08:52]
I feel like you live like John Ray's life.
[08:54]
Yeah, wake up on a Saturday.
[08:55]
Put him in the snow.
[08:56]
No shuron, face it on the head.
[08:58]
I get it, too.
[09:00]
No, it was really great.
[09:02]
And again, it just really brought the scene to life.
[09:05]
And imagine if this entire script were brought to life.
[09:08]
And it could be.
[09:09]
This is it.
[09:10]
This is your chance.
[09:11]
Great segue.
[09:12]
Thank you for this was like a layup.
[09:13]
And, you know, for the next, next and four, you know, just slamming it.
[09:16]
I love it.
[09:17]
But this is where you the audience can come in and make a difference.
[09:20]
If you love prisoners of air, go to keenalime.com, go read the screenplay.
[09:24]
We have the audio version.
[09:25]
We have the treatment.
[09:26]
You've heard the table read.
[09:27]
Delvin to it.
[09:28]
If you this is something you want to see on the big screen, come vote for it.
[09:31]
Voting ends June 15th.
[09:33]
You got some time, but not really.
[09:34]
So get in there now.
[09:36]
If you have an account log into the competition page and vote.
[09:40]
This is an amazing screenplay.
[09:41]
It's for anyone studying, writing at home, please just read it.
[09:46]
It's, it's the language can be a bit dense.
[09:49]
I understand that.
[09:50]
But if you could push through it, it just such a rewarding story.
[09:53]
Just imagine these guys voices doing the entire screen.
[09:56]
Yes, great.
[09:56]
You go.
[09:57]
And also, I just think in general, as a screenwriter,
[10:00]
you need to be reading scripts from all over the place,
[10:04]
from and scripts that are making marks and getting voted as top scripts and competitions.
[10:09]
I mean, this is honestly, it's so cool just to be able to read these scripts.
[10:13]
So go do it.
[10:14]
So do it.
[10:15]
keenalime.com, sign up, log in, whatever it is, go and vote.
[10:19]
This movie can be made into what I can't say enough.
[10:21]
It can be made into a film.
[10:23]
Amazing.
[10:23]
I just, this is part of the job where it's just like,
[10:25]
a high-loved reading could screenplay.
[10:27]
It's so great.
[10:27]
This is really truly one of them.
[10:28]
Amazing.
[10:29]
Love it.
[10:30]
Well, thank you guys so much for being here today.
[10:31]
This was awesome.
[10:32]
Thanks for having us.
[10:33]
Yeah.
[10:34]
Re-scripts made it through.
[10:36]
One gets produced soon to a real film and you decide which one.
[10:39]
The way for shooting this year with Fathom Dominated Director Steven Fingleton,
[10:43]
Mobventalities in Development,
[10:45]
the winner of this vote is next.
[10:47]
Enjoy the community, read the script,
[10:49]
or listen to the audio version,
[10:51]
and vote.
[10:52]
Help the side with ends up on screen.
[10:54]
The winning script gets up to $15 million production budget.
[10:57]
It's a real film.
[10:58]
It's going to be with the real director with a real release.
[11:00]
The industry has always decided what gets made,
[11:03]
but we're changing that.
[11:04]
Vote closes June 14th, winner it out, June 15th.
[11:07]
Go to keenalime.com, sign up, read, vote,
[11:11]
be part of the movement.
