Creative Notes:
This mini-trailer created by the one-and-only Distrakt - check out the book illustrated by renowned comic book artist Langdon Foss on Amazon.com! Hope you dig it ....
DINONAUTS
Dinos mix with intergalactic adventure in this superhero team story that infuses space battles, strange creatures, monsters in a fast-moving, sometimes tongue-in-cheek story about the values of teamwork, friendship and karma. Check out www.dinonauts.com for more!
Project collaboration:
Open
Synopsis:
On a distant, primordial planet somewhere in the vastness of space, several intelligent apelings wrap up an all-nighter poker game. The smart aleck of the group, Rufus, makes a final run for munchies and happens upon a dinosaur egg.
Before a snack can be made of his find, Rufus is startled as the egg hatches and out pops an infant tyrannosaur. A brief lock of their eyes shows a hint of some special bond, but suddenly an immense UFO blots out the sky - the two are whisked upward into the ship by a transporter beam, just before the planet is decimated by a massive asteroid.
On board the mothership, the evil Plutonian race make ready their insidious plans for universal domination – the incredibly powerful BLACK BRAIN is prepared by surgeons to be inserted into a waiting host, the infant T-Rex. But before the task is completed, Rufus swipes a weapon and breaks free of his holding cell. Holding the Plutonian surgeons at bay, he hastily inserts the mysterious WARRIOR BRAIN into the unconscious T-Rex.
Incredibly, the baby dinosaur transforms into something awesome and powerful! Trexx! Dinonaut! Using his new-formed intelligence and skill, Trexx leads Rufus on an escape of the massive space vessel with a stolen shuttle.
Ebo Kalif, chancellor of the Plutonians, is informed of their escape by his assassin, Unagi. Furious, he warns Unagi of the potential danger the Warrior Brain poses to the Plutonians. Unagi boards his Assassin Ship – the hunt begins.
Their shuttle damaged in the escape, Trexx and Rufus plummet out of control down onto a dark and ominous planet. Mortally injured in the crash, Trexx’s consciousness expands and enters the realm of Lasherie, the mystical Grey Alien Funk Queen.
Lasherie’s psychedelic afro leans close to Trexx and tells him of his great purpose – he is destined to become a force for good and justice in the galaxy. She gives him the Magic 8-Ball. Life creeps back into his body.
Now on the surface, he and Rufus walk smack into the giant monster, Tekkila! They are saved from this 3-headed menace by the planet’s inhabitants who take them underground.
As it turns out, this race of creatures, the Sashimi, have recognized the incredible power of Trexx’s recently implanted brain - and want it for themselves. The power at his command starting to be realized, Trexx evades this new threat – he and Rufus escape through a nearby elevator.
But Unagi has tracked them down and attacks! In a mega-kung fu battle, Trexx defeats this powerful foe; they scramble back onto the planet’s surface.
But Tekkila returns and takes advantage of their exhaustion, swallowing them whole. Within the creature’s stomach, they encounter a mechanically-inclined stegosaur - the engineer, Zuk. He leads them to an abandoned spacecraft: the Hyundai Intergalactic Piranha, explaining that the ship is actually operational - but all attempts at escape are futile.
Undaunted, Trexx expands his consciousness and enters the mind of Zuk. A piece of Trexx’s being imparts itself into Zuk. His negativity and spirit restored, Zuk gets the Piranha in gear and they blast out of the monster.
Meanwhile, Unagi returns in defeat back to the Plutonian Mothership and informs Ebo Kalif of his failure. Enraged, the tyrant electrocutes him. Near death, Unagi crawls to the operating room and locates the Black Brain.
Incredibly, in an act of self-surgery, he implants the brain into himself. He transforms into Mecha-Unagi – awesomely powerful cyborg assassin!
Trexx and Rufus along with Zuk, return to their homeworld, now a smoking ruin. It is here that they once again encounter Lasherie, who explains further their great destiny. They are to locate the remaining Dinonauts.
The missing members of their team are spread across the universe. Each dinonaut is an integral part of the whole – spirit, strength, skill, wisdom, grace and passion. Once united, the dinonauts can confront the insurmountable odds that face them.
Lasherie departs, and in doing so leads them to the next member of the team. On the ruined planet, they encounter the wise and mystical Gratch, an ankylosaur.
Next on the list is the saber-toothed feline, Fly. After a show-stopping rap standoff on a black-and-white planet filled with retro-sci-fi characters, they cross the galaxy in search of the crucial remaining Dinonaut.
En route to Toro’s (an awesome bruiser of the Triceratops family) last known whereabouts, the Dinos encounter a blockade of massive, sentient asteroids. Trexx tackles their leader head to head (or rock) on the outside of the Intergalactic Piranha. After heavy fighting, they get caught in the gravitational pull of a nearby planet and tumble into its atmosphere.
On this planet’s surface that Trexx faces his most intense challenges -
First, he discovers that this is Toro’s planet – but mistaken for an opponent in an alien boxing match, he squares off with Toro himself. It’s an intense fight. Only by tapping into his incredible raw power does Trexx overcome Toro and win his trust and allegiance.
Before they can reunite with the other Dinos still on the Piranha, Mecha-Unagi appears and attacks! The new-and-improved Plutonian seems invincible - but once again it is the spirit of Trexx that saves the day with the aid of a new found ally in the form of the sentient asteroid creature.
The Dinonauts are now complete. But the massive Plutonian Mothership has arrived and has launched its planet-decimating attack. The Dinonauts are held in stasis on the planet and Trexx is kidnapped, beamed aboard the huge craft.
Ebo Kalif, through a deceptive distortion of historical facts regarding Trexx and his Warrior Brain, manages to break the all-but-indomitable spirit of the saurian leader. Kalif incapacitates him and dumps his lifeless body back on the planet.
On the planet, Lasherie appears one last time. She must convince the Dinonauts that the purpose they serve in the universe is a choice they make for themselves - but that choice will serve the good of all life everywhere. If they do this, they can help Trexx regain faith in himself by giving him back a piece of the spirit he gave to them.
If this is accomplished, only then can this small band of Dinonauts, with their tiny but powerful craft, defeat the Plutonians and their awesome Mothership and restore freedom to the universe….
Before a snack can be made of his find, Rufus is startled as the egg hatches and out pops an infant tyrannosaur. A brief lock of their eyes shows a hint of some special bond, but suddenly an immense UFO blots out the sky - the two are whisked upward into the ship by a transporter beam, just before the planet is decimated by a massive asteroid.
On board the mothership, the evil Plutonian race make ready their insidious plans for universal domination – the incredibly powerful BLACK BRAIN is prepared by surgeons to be inserted into a waiting host, the infant T-Rex. But before the task is completed, Rufus swipes a weapon and breaks free of his holding cell. Holding the Plutonian surgeons at bay, he hastily inserts the mysterious WARRIOR BRAIN into the unconscious T-Rex.
Incredibly, the baby dinosaur transforms into something awesome and powerful! Trexx! Dinonaut! Using his new-formed intelligence and skill, Trexx leads Rufus on an escape of the massive space vessel with a stolen shuttle.
Ebo Kalif, chancellor of the Plutonians, is informed of their escape by his assassin, Unagi. Furious, he warns Unagi of the potential danger the Warrior Brain poses to the Plutonians. Unagi boards his Assassin Ship – the hunt begins.
Their shuttle damaged in the escape, Trexx and Rufus plummet out of control down onto a dark and ominous planet. Mortally injured in the crash, Trexx’s consciousness expands and enters the realm of Lasherie, the mystical Grey Alien Funk Queen.
Lasherie’s psychedelic afro leans close to Trexx and tells him of his great purpose – he is destined to become a force for good and justice in the galaxy. She gives him the Magic 8-Ball. Life creeps back into his body.
Now on the surface, he and Rufus walk smack into the giant monster, Tekkila! They are saved from this 3-headed menace by the planet’s inhabitants who take them underground.
As it turns out, this race of creatures, the Sashimi, have recognized the incredible power of Trexx’s recently implanted brain - and want it for themselves. The power at his command starting to be realized, Trexx evades this new threat – he and Rufus escape through a nearby elevator.
But Unagi has tracked them down and attacks! In a mega-kung fu battle, Trexx defeats this powerful foe; they scramble back onto the planet’s surface.
But Tekkila returns and takes advantage of their exhaustion, swallowing them whole. Within the creature’s stomach, they encounter a mechanically-inclined stegosaur - the engineer, Zuk. He leads them to an abandoned spacecraft: the Hyundai Intergalactic Piranha, explaining that the ship is actually operational - but all attempts at escape are futile.
Undaunted, Trexx expands his consciousness and enters the mind of Zuk. A piece of Trexx’s being imparts itself into Zuk. His negativity and spirit restored, Zuk gets the Piranha in gear and they blast out of the monster.
Meanwhile, Unagi returns in defeat back to the Plutonian Mothership and informs Ebo Kalif of his failure. Enraged, the tyrant electrocutes him. Near death, Unagi crawls to the operating room and locates the Black Brain.
Incredibly, in an act of self-surgery, he implants the brain into himself. He transforms into Mecha-Unagi – awesomely powerful cyborg assassin!
Trexx and Rufus along with Zuk, return to their homeworld, now a smoking ruin. It is here that they once again encounter Lasherie, who explains further their great destiny. They are to locate the remaining Dinonauts.
The missing members of their team are spread across the universe. Each dinonaut is an integral part of the whole – spirit, strength, skill, wisdom, grace and passion. Once united, the dinonauts can confront the insurmountable odds that face them.
Lasherie departs, and in doing so leads them to the next member of the team. On the ruined planet, they encounter the wise and mystical Gratch, an ankylosaur.
Next on the list is the saber-toothed feline, Fly. After a show-stopping rap standoff on a black-and-white planet filled with retro-sci-fi characters, they cross the galaxy in search of the crucial remaining Dinonaut.
En route to Toro’s (an awesome bruiser of the Triceratops family) last known whereabouts, the Dinos encounter a blockade of massive, sentient asteroids. Trexx tackles their leader head to head (or rock) on the outside of the Intergalactic Piranha. After heavy fighting, they get caught in the gravitational pull of a nearby planet and tumble into its atmosphere.
On this planet’s surface that Trexx faces his most intense challenges -
First, he discovers that this is Toro’s planet – but mistaken for an opponent in an alien boxing match, he squares off with Toro himself. It’s an intense fight. Only by tapping into his incredible raw power does Trexx overcome Toro and win his trust and allegiance.
Before they can reunite with the other Dinos still on the Piranha, Mecha-Unagi appears and attacks! The new-and-improved Plutonian seems invincible - but once again it is the spirit of Trexx that saves the day with the aid of a new found ally in the form of the sentient asteroid creature.
The Dinonauts are now complete. But the massive Plutonian Mothership has arrived and has launched its planet-decimating attack. The Dinonauts are held in stasis on the planet and Trexx is kidnapped, beamed aboard the huge craft.
Ebo Kalif, through a deceptive distortion of historical facts regarding Trexx and his Warrior Brain, manages to break the all-but-indomitable spirit of the saurian leader. Kalif incapacitates him and dumps his lifeless body back on the planet.
On the planet, Lasherie appears one last time. She must convince the Dinonauts that the purpose they serve in the universe is a choice they make for themselves - but that choice will serve the good of all life everywhere. If they do this, they can help Trexx regain faith in himself by giving him back a piece of the spirit he gave to them.
If this is accomplished, only then can this small band of Dinonauts, with their tiny but powerful craft, defeat the Plutonians and their awesome Mothership and restore freedom to the universe….
Latest Work
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Test Movie 1 - snappy mini-trailer11/26/10
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Script 1 - michele's Original Draft11/21/10
Creative Notes:From the book of the same name, illustrated by DC Comics artist Langdon Foss.