Penned by John O'Brien and Anton Casta, this adaptation of Michael O'Brien's hugely popular apocalyptic novel brings to screen the gripping tale of Father Elijah Schäfer, a Carmelite priest, on a secret mission for the Vatican which embroils him in a series of crises and subterfuges affecting the ultimate destiny of the Church and the world.

Mission2Films is in the process of attracting top-tier film actors, DOP's, directors, and co-producers to appeal to financiers and secure distribution before production begins. For more information, to join the team, to help produce or endorse this noble project, please contact Anton Casta

We are grateful to Michael O'Brien for his endorsement of this adaptation and for his unswerving support for the last many years of its development and promotion.

 

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DAVID
Where are you?

A group of pigeons sits on a window sill stories above. A white pigeon taps at the glass to a fruit basket within. In the line-up below, rough hands separate the shoulders. The mother cries as she is struck in the face by a hand. Sudden rapid GUNFIRE erupts in the street, echoed by harsh, indistinct staccato SHOUTS. David continues his run and turns a corner. The pigeons scatter from their sill and blood spatters on the window glass. A single white feather floats downward. It bumps the side of the building and lands in a puddle of red. It floats for a moment assaulted by large drops of rain, refusing to sink. David, terror stricken and out of breath, presses his back against a small cellar door and it suddenly gives way. The arms of a middle-age man, PAWEL, catch the boy and slam the door shut.

FADE TO BLACK.

PAWEL
In this little cave of paper you and I will be hidden and afloat in a time when no one is spared suffering.

 

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EXT. ROMAN STREET -- AFTERNOON
Billy and Elijah sit in a black Jaguar, maneuvering nimbly through the city streets.

BILLY
Why does a Catholic priest drive a car that costs what this thing costs?

ELIJAH
I don't know. Why does he?

BILLY
Because his dear doting mother likes cats.
Billy strokes the dash. Elijah smiles wryly.

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Elijah wanders into a large banqueting hall, its walls hung with Renaissance tapestries, and its long, damask-covered dining table set for forty guests. Footmen bustle around making last-minute arrangements. Elijah crosses over to an adjoining library where eight people are standing, some sipping from their drinks. The vivacious mood of the guests does not release Elijah from his tension. No one makes an attempt to welcome him into the circle nor do they exclude him. Elijah's gaze falls upon an elegant woman in her late forties, ANNA, speaking with a younger man, a VIOLINIST.

VIOLINIST
Hello there, why don't you join us. You're the archeologist, right?

ELIJAH
I am.

VIOLINIST (TO THE WOMAN)
A fellow Israeli.

ANNA
How do you do.

VIOLINIST
Look, Schafer, we need an intervention here. You've got to rescue me from this woman. She's a brilliant legal mind, and like yourself a scholar of ruins. It's completely unfair of her. After all, Anna, I am an artist, dominated by the right brain. You are a creature of the left brain! And did I say creature? Ha! I should say a monster of logic.

The woman smiles and turns to Elijah. She puts out her right hand.

ANNA
I am Anna Benedetti. You are...

ELIJAH
Elijah Schafer.

ANNA
An archeologist, Uri informs us.

VIOLINIST
Well, he's a bit more than that! Aren't you, Father?
He takes a long sip from his drink.

ELIJAH
I am a Catholic monk.

The woman looks at him curiously, but there is no hint of hostility.

ANNA
An interesting combination.

Violinist wanders off abruptly.

ANNA (CONT'D)
You mustn't mind Uri. He is young and very famous. A genius, but a little boy inside. He likes to make himself look wicked.

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WOMAN SHOPKEEPER
It's you again!

ELIJAH
Yes and I have...

WOMAN SHOPKEEPER
I know, I know. The old snake called this morning. Well... come this way.

TV is still blaring. She leads them behind a curtain and down a hall to a staircase. Strewn garbage is lying across the steps.

WOMAN SHOPKEEPER (CONT'D)
If there is treasure up there I get my share.

ELIJAH
Thank you for your help, Pani. There will be no treasure there but memories.

WOMAN SHOPKEEPER
(walking towards her back room she trips slightly)
You can't eat memories. Memories are garbage. You live your life and then you take out the trash.

 

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ELIJAH
Didn't you just demand that God put an end to evil? You can't have it both ways.
Smokrev is silent, then sits himself up.

SMOKREV
I've saved the best for last, priest. You will not like this part.

ELIJAH
You can not shake me.

SMOKREV
Oh? That icon, I purchased it from Pawel Tarnowski during the war.

ELIJAH
(startled)
You...?

SMOKREV
Yes, yes. I knew him very well.
Elijah is silent.

SMOKREV (CONT'D)
Illusions, smoke, mirrors, part of the act. I foresaw the debate, priest.

ELIJAH
What happened to Pawel?

SMOKREV
Not so fast. Why is he so important to you?

ELIJAH
He was my friend.

SMOKREV
Like a companion, an older brother?
Smokrev chortles.

SMOKREV (CONT'D)
How perfectly delicious. That sly Tarnow always did have a knack for seducing the prettiest boys.

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INT. WARSAW MARRIOTT -- NIGHT

Elijah stands in his room before a video messaging console on the wall. We see his face.

ELIJAH
Dear Mr. President. A man's life is a small thing but he holds it in his hand and gives it to another as the greatest thing in the world.
Elijah continues to speak.

INT. PRESIDENTIAL SUITE -- CONTINUOUS

The view pulls back through the video terminal digitizing Elijah's face, and seamlessly continues on a plasma screen with a silhouette of the president slowly coming into foreground view. He is watching the message.

ELIJAH
I do not know your plans for the future. I do not know for certain if your vision will prove right or gravely mistaken. But I have learned that if one's gift is not founded on absolute love, it merely contributes to the heap of violated lives.

Still in silhouette, the president places his hand to his face in thought.

ELIJAH (CONT'D)
The one who is my life, and through whom I live, would speak to you, if you would hear him. He would tell you that man alone cannot save the world. He who was God, emptied himself of glory, taking the form of a servant. Love is our first language and our only unity.

The display turns to blue. The time and date stamp appear followed by the name Elijah Schafer.

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EXT. MOTORBOAT -- LATER

Elijah is heading back to shore. The dark and ominous Mount Tiberio stands silently in the background. The moon highlights its figure. The sea is still and reflects the moonlight. Suddenly, the president's compound explodes in a cacophony of SIRENS and LIGHTS -- reflected in the water. The president has chosen. Our view slowly moves from Elijah to the waters. In the background we begin to hear soft instrumental music [strains of "That's Amore"].

EXT. BAY OF NAPOLI COAST -- CONTINUOUS

A formal dinner party is in progress on the shore across the harbor. Patio lanterns border a wooden veranda where people are dancing. The nearby excitement goes unnoticed.

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Background on the Novel

Michael O'Brien presents a thrilling apocalyptic novel about the condition of the Roman Catholic Church at the end of time. It explores the state of the modern world, and the strengths and weaknesses of the contemporary religious scene, by taking his central character, Father Elijah Schäfer, a Carmelite priest, on a secret mission for the Vatican which embroils him in a series of crises and subterfuges affecting the ultimate destiny of the Church.

Father Elijah is a convert from Judaism, a survivor of the Holocaust, a man once powerful in Israel. For twenty years he has been "buried in the dark night of Carmel" on the mountain of the prophet Elijah. The Pope and the Cardinal Secretary of State call him out of obscurity and give him a task of the highest sensitivity: to penetrate into the inner circles of a man whom they believe may be the Antichrist. Their purpose: to call the Man of Sin to repentance, and thus to postpone the great tribulation long enough to preach the Gospel to the whole world.

In this richly textured tale, Father Elijah crosses Europe and the Middle East, moves through the echelons of world power, meets saints and sinners, presidents, judges, mystics, embattled Catholic journalists, faithful priests and a conspiracy of traitors within the very House of God. This is an apocalypse in the old literary sense, but one that was written in the light of Christian revelation.

The novel has been translated into French, Italian, Czech, Croatian, German, Spanish, Swedish, Polish, and a new Hungarian version is near completion.

"I've read thousands of books, and this is one of the great ones. I hope tens of thousands read it, and are shaken as I have been. It's a novel that grips one like a thriller -- indeed it is a thriller, but also something far deeper. There are love and friendship, interwoven with drama, but what it is essentially is faith, faith in the Christ."

— Sheldon Vanauken, Author, A Severe Mercy

 

"Father Elijah is that rare thing, a great novel which is also a testimony to orthodox Catholicism. But it is more even than this. Basing himself squarely on Scripture and human experience, O'Brien has produced a prophetic work and a manual of spiritual warfare. This compelling masterpiece will stretch your imagination in the right direction. Read it and pray."

— Stratford Caldecott, Centre for Faith and Culture, Oxford

 

"I guarantee you that once you take up this book you will not put it down until the end of the world. Here is a meaty page-turner with the pace of a thriller, beautifully written, and that something more that turns entertainment into literature."

— Ralph McInerny, Author, Fr. Dowling Mysteries

 

"… offers up a tale that is satirical, sly, and fast-paced."

—Booklist

 

"A joy to read. Smoothly crafted, the characters came to life for me. It is a classic story, told in an inspired, inspirational way … wonderfully uplifting."

— Larry Bond, Author, Red Phoenix