This article contains my submission for a screenwriting exercise from the Aaron Sorkin Screenplay Masterclass.   The objective is to take a famous (public domain) short story and adapt it to the first ten pages of a screenplay.  The story I chose from the list provided on the course was “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allen Poe.

I have tried to adapt the story so that a) Vincent Price could not possibly be envisaged playing a part and b) it wasn’t just another story about the protagonist fridging the only woman in the story and then experiencing a lot of man pain.[i]  I’d really like to know if it worked out!

I have never written a screenplay before, so I’d appreciate feedback.  Don’t feel you have to be nice or lie to spare my feelings, but do remember Bill and Ted’s maxim.[ii]  Yeah. I’m dead nervous about sharing this.  Here goes:

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