OVERVIEW:
GARGOYLES was one of my favorite shows as a kid growing up. I have always envisioned what it would be like to have one made into a live-action feature film franchise spanning many sequels. The Gargoyles would be done using the same technology as used on in the film "AVATAR" while the rest of the human cast and environments would be live action.
SYNOPSIS:
The gargoyles are a race of very powerful winged beings who were the defenders of a keep in the year 994 A.D.. By day, they are immobilized in stone as statues on the castle parapets. When the sun sets, the stone turns to flesh and they take to their task of defending their home. They do not have names of their own, but eventually take names to deal more easily with humans. Thanks to a betrayal, all but six of the gargoyles were destroyed, and the remaining ones were turned to stone "until the castle rises above the clouds".
A thousand years passed and the year was then 1994. A rich businessman, David Xanatos, bought the castle, and moved it stone by stone to the top of a skyscraper in Manhattan. The sun set on the gargoyles and they came back to life, free of their curse. They had a hard time dealing with their new environment, and had to deal with their feelings of mistrust toward humans--a mistrust that was deepened by another betrayal. It was revealed that one other gargoyle, Demona, survived the destruction in 994, and she was also at the heart of both betrayals. Her hatred for humanity runs deep, and fuels her less-than-honorable intentions. The gargoyles had one human friend, a police detective named Elisa Maza. With her help, the gargoyles began to assimilate into the twentieth century, and began to trust. They abandoned the castle and set up a secret home in the clock tower of the New York Police Department 23th precinct station where Elisa worked.
DIRECTOR:DAVID YATES
Yates needs another film franchise to direct now that Harry Potter is all wrapped up. Gargoyles would be another great fantasy film for him to develop and not only the story themes but the characters as well. His dark and gritty storytelling would be perfect.
GOLIATH:MICHAEL JAI WHITE
He is the leader of the gargoyles. Noble and intelligent though a bit naive and set in his ways. His sense of honor and loyalty are his greatest strengths. His physical strength and anger can be very impressive. He does not trust humans, but he thinks that an understanding between human and gargoyle can be reached. He is very traditional and has had some difficulty adjusting to the modern world with his relationship with Elisa being only one of these challenges.
DEMONA:OLIVIA WILDE
She was originally the mate of Goliath, but that relationship was totally gone by the time the clan was revived in 1994. He could not accept that fact and made various attempts to sway her back to him. He only accepted it when an attempt to influence an earlier version of Demona during a time trip to the 10th century failed to change her. When she turned New York into stone by night, Goliath resolved to kill her to end her menace, but was swayed by the Weird Sisters that life was too precious even to allow the murderous renegade to die at Macbeth's hand.
HUDSON:JAMES COSMO
Oldest of the gargoyles, this one-eyed warrior is a voice of wisdom among his peers which serves him well as Goliath and Brooklyn's advisor. He is terribly fond of the pastime of television and interestingly, is the only clan member who regularly fights with a weapon, a sword in this case. His greatest shame is the fact that he can't read. However, with the help of a blind veteran, he is learning. He was captured by Xanatos for use in an immortality experiment. Using his resourcefulness, he escaped unharmed. Although it has never been said on-camera, according to the creators, Hudson is Broadway's biological father.
BROOKLYN:JAMIE BELL
One of the trio of younger male gargoyles and the least human looking of the clan with a pronounced, but not unattractive, beaklike mouth. While he does not have the sheer physical strength and presence of Goliath, that is more than compensated by his keen calculating nature. He is much more a planner and usually tends to carefully consider his moves before acting when he has sufficient emotional distance to the opponent. As a result, he is capable of leading devastating assaults that leave his enemies reeling. When the situation requires it, he can also be quite subtle and patient in his methods, making him a superb leader in most situations. Leather jackets and sunglasses suit him well. He is young and impetuous with a strong sarcastic wit, but a fine warrior.
BROADWAY:SETH ROGAN
He loves to eat, and it shows. A true gourmet, he believes in experiencing every conceivable form of culinary delight which he enjoys as the clan's cook. His somewhat pudgy exterior hides a fierce and intelligent warrior underneath, however. He, like Hudson, was also illiterate, but the idea of being to able to vicariously experience the past through reading later enthralled him and he set out to learn the skill.
LEXINGTON:ANTON YELCHIN
The smallest of the Gargoyles and the only one whose wing construction is web based like a flying squirrel. He is also the most technically proficient and he clearly enjoys the modern period more than anyone else with its abundance of high technology.
BRONX:CGI Character
The clan's pet gargoyle beast. He is very loyal and loving toward his masters, but cunning and quite fierce when roused. Lack of wings make him less mobile than the others.
HUMAN CAST:
ELISA MAZA:KATRINA KAIF
The police detective who is the gargoyles' first true modern human friend. She shows them the world of 20th Century Manhattan, and they help her out with the occasional thug.Her loyalty to the Gargoyles goes much deeper than owing Goliath her life. By the end of the series, she realizes that she truly loves the Gargoyle. However, the implications of that still have to be worked out between her and the Gargoyle.
MATT BLUESTONE:PATRICK WILSON
Elisa's police partner. Capt. Chavez assigned the two together after Elisa recovered from her gunshot wound. He is a conspiracy fanatic, and believes all of the paranormal stories such as UFO's, secret societies, etc. He used to work for the FBI and worked on uncovering the Illuminati, a secret society, in his spare time. That lead to an obsessive search that got him fired from the bureau.
DAVID XANATOS:RALPH FIENNES
The businessman who is responsible for breaking the spell that the gargoyles were under for a thousand years. A tremendous case of megalomania pervaded his actions. He used to quest for power at any cost. Xanatos found his true love and only weakness in Fox, whom he married. The honeymoon was spent in the tenth century, where Xanatos was revealed to be a member of the Illuminati Society (though apparently only a low-ranking member). He mailed a tenth century coin to himself in 1975, and from that, he built his fortune. However, that came at the cost of alienating his father who was offended by David's machiavellian ruthlessness. Xanatos also seems to fear death. His genetics research and other intellectual pursuits tended to focus on prolonging his life.
OWEN BURNETT:PAUL BETTANY
One of Oberon's Children. He is the mystical being who is featured in the Shakespearean play, A Midsummer Night's Dream. He exists nowadays mainly as the human Owen Burnett, personal assistant to David Xanatos. Unlike the exuberant trickster, Owen is extremely straightlaced and understated in all his actions with his emotions under almost Vulcan like control..