#

Day One

Plane lands. Airport no bigger than a post office. Walk around a little, but nowhere really to walk to. Get the bus into Ljubi…Ljubla…fuck it, into Loobylana. Mountains in the distance look like they have snow on top, but could just be white rock.

Mountains don’t go away. Lean in close to the window and really think about what that stuff is. Nothing to confirm it, but come up with theory: dirty snow sometimes looks like white rock.

Get bored and look at seats around me. All empty. Think of Anna. ‘Europe’s creepy. You should go to Seattle instead.’

Try not to think of Anna.

Mountains leave and Loobylana appears. Lots of buildings, none of them more than four storeys. This is the capital?

The hostel is bleak. Looks like a military barracks. No cushions or beanbags…only so many hard-edge surfaces I can take.

Check phone – still no word from Anderson about the script. Beginning to think he prefers to write his own.

Go for a walk by the river and see lots of French people. Lots of Germans too. Had always thought this, but now I know – all Germans look like Billy Fichtner.

Take a path up to the castle on the hill at 11pm. No lights, no people. Feel a little scared, but keep going, hoping the environment will provoke ideas.

The castle walls are covered in red light. Makes me think of Ninth Gate, Polanski, Depp. Walk over a wooden plank bridge and expect something to pull me under. Nothing does. It’s creepy quiet up here.

Idea – Tenth Gate? Unrelated character from original goes up to Loobylana castle at night and crosses into different dimension. Use red light a lot. Put something scary under the plank. Beggars maybe.

 

Day Two

Sleep late. Go to Bled, see another castle. Very pretty, but a little too obvious to do anything cinematic with.

Walk around the lake. Think I see Lincoln, but it’s just a big rock with someone’s jacket on it.

Idea – The Fall of the House of Usher. Film it in Slovenia, change the second half of the story. Include more Ushers, make them fall, use more blood. Robert Knepper can play lead Usher, Sucre can take gardener role.

Get back to hostel and am recognised by a group of drunks. Try to put my hat on, but it’s too late. One guy gets a marker and tries to take my shirt off. He says he wants to draw a map of Fox River on my tits. I throw the marker across the room and go to bed.

Think about drunks and marker pen. Don’t really understand, PB was years ago. Don’t these fuckers know I’m a writer now?

Wake up with one of the hostel staff on top of me. She says I have the body of a javelin thrower and wants to see my javelin. I pull down my pants and leave her to it.

Idea – A Slovenian woman is impregnated by the devil. People accept the devil part, but won’t help her. Eventually she has the baby and throws herself off a cliff. Anna to play main woman?

 

Day Three

Hostel woman is still next to me. I wake her up so we can have sex.

After sex, I tell her about the script I sent to Anderson. She knows ‘There Will Be Blood’ but not his other films. She knows ‘Prison Break’. You’re way better than he is, she says.

Idea – direct script myself?

Walk around city centre. It’s the same place as where the river is – this city is super small. Some Slovenian women catch my attention. They have huge tits, but faces like war veterans. The one in the hostel is better.

Walk a bit further and reflect on my constant use of the word ‘tits’. Shouldn’t I use breasts instead? Didn’t I tell Anna I was a feminist once? I pass a pretty Slovenian and look at her face. I wonder what thoughts are spinning up in that Slovenian brain and then imagine one of those thoughts coming out of her mouth and telling me that it’s okay for a man to use the word ‘tits’. It’s okay to think about sex. It’s okay to lead with your dick. Sometimes. Yeah, that sounds about right, I think. I’m still a feminist.

Stop for lunch by the river and ask the waitress the Slovenian for ‘thank you.’ She tells me. I smile and look at the top of her head.

Read a book I find in a small bookshop in a side alley. It’s about a guy who comes to Loobylana and stays with a witch. She sucks out his soul, he tries to rape her. What is this?

It gets dark, but people count stays the same. Think about book I read earlier. Wonder who wrote it and if the witch is real. Probably not.

Dinner = Slovenian something. Could be sausage. Try to talk to couple at table next to me, but they’re French. Stare at the river instead and think again about that book.

Idea – San Diego Witch. Young man stays with a witch in San Diego. She tries to suck out his soul, he thinks about seducing her.

Too much compromise?

The flight is in the morning, early. Don’t care. It’s 11:30pm and I decide to follow the book guy out of the city and into the castle of the witch.

Walk ten minutes down the main road out of the city and feel cold. It’s late, my jacket isn’t thick enough, fuck it, I go back.

The hostel woman comes into my bed again, smelling of smoke. Tells me she just wants to cuddle. I tell her that’s not enough. We fuck. She asks if I’ve heard anything from Anderson yet. No, I say. He’s probably writing his own thing.

 

Day Four

Go back to the castle on top of the hill before my flight. It’s not the same without the red light. Tenth gate is a stupid idea.

Check out of hostel. The woman asks for my number, I give her the address for one of my fan sites. I think she knows what this means.

Back to the airport. There’s forest all around and not many houses. Am I the kind of guy who can walk off the highway and into those trees and not be contactable by anyone ever again, even Anderson?

…

Get on the plane and head to LA. That’s where the action is. That’s where the actions of Anderson are.

Think of Anna. ‘You only ever think of yourself.’

Sleep.

Slovenia disappears [probably].