Borgia Apocalypse screenplay - my goodness, it is awful!

A whole mess of things happen. I recommend that all fans read it, so we'll feel blessed about Showtime refusing to commission this terrible screenplay. It's not that it ends tragically, because it should... it's that a lot of what happens is unappealing.




Rodrigo ends up dying... Lucrezia poisons him and Cesare.

Cesare survives the poisoning, but there's a montage at the end showing him dying vainly in battle. Micheletto, ever loyal and loving, dies while arrows pierce his body as he tries to meet the dying Cesare who is calling out for him. (They are so "subtly" gay in this, LOL.)

Lucrezia lives on, she runs away and marries the gay, old Duke of Ferrara and is hot in the pants for some guy named Bembo. She moves with her son and Vanozza. And I guess she gets to live happily ever after with her lover (though, she doesn't deserve it and should die like the rest of them).

Earlier on Rufio dies, Micheletto murders him as he tries to betray Cesare.

Catherina Sforza attempts to kill the pope with a poison lip balm and Cesare slices off her lips... letting her know she will live just like that.


ETA: To the incest fans. The incest is done and over with here. Lucrezia cannot get over Cesare killing Alfonso (although, Alfonso was drunk and tried to kill Cesare himself, wtf). She runs off to a nunnery and pretends to be a lesbian to escape him (yeah... that happens!). When he finds her, they commence with their relationship, but Lucrezia is just over it and wants to be free of him. Cesare is possessive and controlling of her. He wants her to marry the old Duke of Ferrara, so they can continue on with their relationship and she won't have to have sex with anyone else.

She begins to fall for an artist named Bembo from the court at Ferrara who comes to arrange the marriage and when Cesare finds out he doesn't want her marrying the duke anymore. She ends up trying to poison him and Rodrigo so she can go to Ferrara and blames it on della Rovere (who actually comes to make amends and ends up getting framed for murdering Rodrigo and attempting to murder Cesare).

Yes. Neil Jordan, himself, eloquently explains that it is more of a rough draft of how things could have gone, more than anything else, in the introduction.

I was just incredibly disappointed after reading it. I anticipated something as spectacular and wonderful as the third season. The screenplay put a damper on all of that.

If the movie were made (hypothetically), I hope they would have scrapped Lucrezia's entire storyline, rewrote it and also removed the part where Catherina has her lips viciously sliced off. I believe that character should go out with dignity. Lucrezia, I feel like she is every bit of a "Borgia" as Cesare and Rodrigo... therefore, she should go out like a Borgia and die in some awful way. I don't care about her actual history.

Also... Neil Jordan completely forgot that Cardinal Sforza exists! Dude, my favorite character!

natalie0407 - Yes, there is talk. In a silly plot twist, della Rovere suddenly reappears after his season long absence as a French ambassador and therefore, an untouchable "ally." The Borgias actually convince him to break bread with them and they speak about him potentially becoming pope in the future. The entire thing goes to hell when Lucrezia takes the opportunity to poison her father and brother. She blames the entire thing on della Rovere and he becomes Cesare's mortal enemy once again.

eugenia_katze - Catherina is supposed to die as well. When Rodrigo kisses her, they both will ingest the poison. She is willing to die and that's why Cesare is extra cruel when he tells her that instead she will have to live with her mouth mutilated.

He wrote the second half of season 3, didn't he?