When Kings Go to War

Creator: Charles William Coulter
Genre: Drama
Age rating: 17 and older
In the tradition of "Troy" and "Spartacus," "When Kings Go to War" recounts the rise to power of David, the monarch whose victories overshadowed those of his rival and mentor, King Saul, only for David to end a bitter leader, hunted by the very man whose power he claimed.
Project collaboration: Open
Full synopsis
Synopsis: When Kings Go to War

In 1060 BC, the Kingdoms of Judah and Israel fell before the bloody Philistine onslaught. The wicked King Achish, a foreign monarch, looked invincible. Invaded by despots, the Hebrews whispered of the arrival of a New King, one who would unite the fallen peoples of the two principalities in ageless victory—world without end. But, in those lost days, the reigning Hebrew monarch, King Saul, had gone mad. And no true heir to the throne lurked on the horizon—save, perhaps, a certain violent shepherd named David.

“When Kings Go to War” asks are natural leaders born or are they made?

And does absolute power always corrupt absolutely?

Set nearly three thousand years ago, “When Kings Go to War” recounts the story of the rise of King David—a violent youth whose rough ways united the fallen Hebrew people. But in some ways, the tale, rendered in modern English with all the fevered battles of “Spartacus” resonates today.

King Saul is a decidedly Nixonian leader, and David, the natural-born leader, bears all the same flaws of someone easily corrupted by the bloodlust for power.

This is a saga about war.

Latest Work

  • Script 1 - Charles's Original Draft
    01/31/11
    Main1296495579._sx304_sy171_
    Creative Notes:
    This violent version of the David saga, the struggle between two gifted men, one a paranoid, delusional Nixonian leader, and another, a Kennedyesque natural born leader, who becomes corrupt with power, offers a fictionalized account of ancient political backstabbing and the violence of war.
    RTF