1940 The Duke and Duchess of Windsor with Ricardo Espirito-Santos and his wife in their villa in Caiscais, Portugal. The part of Wallis Simpson is written for Angelina Jolie. The Duke of Windsor is written for Pierce Brosnan. The part of Ricardo E-S is written for Brad Pitt.

A senior MI5 operative (Tom Cruise) is thinking about a career change. He isn’t sure if his life has made any difference, so he is taking a three-month leave from the firm to pursue publishing luxury travel magazines in six locales in Southern Europe. In Lisbon, his first stop, he is given a journal by the matriarch of Portugal’s most prominent private banking dynasty. Then, he is chased out of Lisbon by unknown assailants. He begins to read the journal to try and find out who is chasing him and discovers it is the story of modern-day Portugal and how four men saved Portugal from destruction during WWII; Prime Minister Salazar (Leonardo Di Caprio) and the three brothers who run the largest private banking dynasty (Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Matt Damen).

The story has a double narrative or meta-narrative, and just as you think you are going to discover the key to a puzzle, it switches to the other narrative, leaving you hanging on a cliff. The two narratives are essential for another reason besides breaking up the action. The first narrative is a photo travelogue through Portugal and Spain. If the four horsemen had not succeeded, Portugal and Spain would be much different today than what you see in the pictures.

It has an extensive cast of A-list actors, reminiscent of the sixties movie, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad Mad World, who all appear in cameos throughout.

To read the first sixty pages, please click on the PDF file on our website http://www.warfleetpress.com. The rest of the story is available by request for directors, producers, production companies and investors. There is a ten percent finder’s fee if anyone can put us in touch with the following Tom Hanks (producer), Paul Greengrass (Director), Leo di Caprio (Salazar), Brad Pitt (Ricardo Esporito Santo), George Clooney (Jose Esporito Santo), and Matt Damon (Manuel Esporito Santo).

BIG BUDGET $400 MILLION, NEED 400 INVESTORS

Cast & Characters

Movies of the sixties like It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad World and Around The World In Eighty Days, had just about every actor of the day playing themselves in a cameo role. While they won’t be playing themselves, I see the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse as the same. It is a salute to action heroes past and present as well as it tells a story that has never been told on screen.

Lisbon during WWII is full of spies, counter-spies, double agents, refugees both rich and poor, wheeler dealers trying to make a buck off the war, European royalty and military officers from both sides all trying to get off the continent to safety one step ahead of the German army.

When Hitler invades France and marches into Paris, everyone flees south and across the Spanish border into Portugal, eventually winding up in Lisbon. If they have money, they can book a boat to America, South America or Palestine or even fly to New York. Those who donn’t have money have to get it any way they can from others in Lisbon.

Salazar the prime minister along with Ricardo Espirito-Santos the charismatic, playboy head of the largest banking dynasty and his two brothers, conspire to keep Lisbon neutral and carry on doing business with both sides. They have to treat both sides equal or one or the other or both might overthrow the Portuguese government. It is a delicate balancing act.

Lisbon is full of Gestapo and several branches of the German army. Britain has its military officers including a young Ian Fleming. The Americans are late comers but eventually Lisbon is full of OSS agents who seem to cause more problems than good. they are the forerunners of the CIA and after the war Truman has them disbanded.

Each side has its ambassador and an embassy that tries to influence the others. The Germans are often the most successful thanks to the charisma of its ambassador played in our movie by Jack Nicholson. For along time it seems the Germans will win the war so they are regarded highly in the beginning until after several losses and gains by the allies, all realize the outcome.

Tommy Lee Jones plays Galvao the antagonist intent on getting the journal from Tom Cruise’ character.

Arnie Schwarzenegger plays Wild Bill Donovan the head of the OSS forerunner of the CIA.

Bruce Willis play Major Ludovico von Karsthoff the top German spymaster in Lisbon.

Nicholas Cage plays Johnny Jebsen aka double agent known as Artist who brought Triangle into the espionage game.

Bill Murray plays Jose Maria do Espirito Santo e Silva, Godfather and Founder of the Espirito Santos Banking Dynasty.

Daniel Craig is Dusko Popov, WWII double-agent who inspired James Bond, aka Triangle

Antonio Banderas is Alfonso Silva aka Silver, sidekick to Matt Barnes and comic relief.

Jean Claude van Damme is Melchor Marsa, OSS agent in Portugal.

Chuck Norris plays Robert Ullman who works for Pathe News in New York.

The Four Horsemen

The saviors of Portugal are Salazar and the Espirito Santos brothers. Thanks to them neither side attacks Portugal and it remains neutral until the end of the war thus preserving its architectural wonders for us all to see today.

Besides everyone trying to escape Lisbon, both sides are looking for WOLFRAM or tungsten for their war effort and Portugal is a world supplier. The British are allowed to buy on credit but the Germans have to pay in gold upfront because Salazar doesn’t trust them. Publicly they praise them but privately they lean more towards Britain because of a long standing treaty between the two countries.

Our story begins in the present when an aging MI5 operative decides he needs a career change. He plans to visit six locales in southern Europe and develop luxury travel magazines. His first stop is Lisbon where he meets the matriarch of the banking dynasty which is still going strong since the war days. She gives Matt Barnes, our main character a diary written by her father Ricardo during the war. It isn’t soon after that Matt finds himself being chased by unknown assailants through the streets of Lisbon. He makes a narrow escape hopping on a train to the Algarve.

For comic relief, when Matt arrives at his hotel in Lisbon he befriends the desk clerk named Silva played by Antonio Banderas who knows who he is right away. Not an MI5 agent but the grandson of Hemingway’s character Jake Barnes in The Sun Also Rises. He quickly nicknames him Hemingway. On the train, Matt is surprised to find Silva, his friend from the hotel and when he finds out he loves American westerns he nicknames him Silver after the Lone Ranger. The team of Hemingway & Silver is born.

On the train Matt starts reading the diary and the story of the four horsemen unfolds.

George Clooney plays Jose Maria do Espirito Santo e Silva, the third horseman of the apocalypse and first born son of the founder of the Banco Espirito Santos.

Brad Pitt is Ricardo Espirito Santos the second horseman and the charismatic head of the largest private banking dynasty in Portugal during the war years.

Dolph Lundgren, aka Dreadnaught, Dusko’s brother Ivo who runs a sabotage ring in Yugoslavia.

John Goodman plays The British Ambassador to Lisbon Ronald Campbell.

Matt Damen is Manuel Espirito Santos the fourth horseman and the third son of Jose Espirito Santos, the founder.

John Travolta plays Agostinho Lourenco da Conceicao Pereira, head of Portugal’s secret police PVDE.

Javier Bardem plays Arsitides Sousa Mendez, Portugese consulate to Bordeaux.

Angelina Jolie is Wallis Simpson the American divorcee who married the Duke of Windsor.

Characters

The movie puts a face on many of the characters who pass through Lisbon in the 1940-44 period. There is Mr. 5% who trades with both sides. The Duke and Duchess of Windsor who stay at Ricardo’s villa. She use to be an old flame but now she is more interested in his younger brother Manuel. While the story is true to history, we do take a few liberties with the characters. Jennifer Lawrence plays Charlotte the Grand Duchess of Luxembourg fleeing the Germans, However by night she is Red Sparrow jumping around from roof top to roof top.

Besides refugees, there are all the double agents the highest profile being Popov played by Daniel Craig. He is spotted by Ian Fleming who models James Bond after him. Another double agent is Garbo whose part I wrote for Robin Williams. He dupes the Germans into believing he has turned twelve British agents into double agents and is paid a monthly salary for each by Berlin. Immediately I thought of Robin Williams. The part will be played by someone in the style of Robin Williams.

Then, there are the OSS agents who descend on Lisbon near the end to amount an attack on the gold trains carrying wolfram back to Germany through the north of Portugal. Led by Arnie Schwarzenegger and Sly Stallone and a cast of Hollywood’s best but aging action heroes, they are successful and have lots of fun doing it.

Because I wrote the parts for many of the actors in their prime it will be up to the discretion of the director whether to play certain scenes tongue-in-cheek.

Penelope Cruz is Marie Aline Griffith, Spanish OSS agent.

Sylvester Stallone is Donald Downes, recruiter for the OSS.

Tom Hanks plays Mr. 5 Percent, Calouste Glbenkian an American oil dealer who spends the war working out of a hotel room in Lisbon.

Benito Del Toros the Maverick Mayor of Marbella in the ’90s.

Catherine Deneuve the matriarch of the Espirito-Santos banking dynasty.

Leonardo DiCaprio is Antonio Salazar the first horseman and the Prime Minister of Portugal during and after WWII.

Robert Downey Junior plays Henry Torres a French lawyer escaping through Lisbon.

Harrison Ford is Gregory Thomas head of OSS in Portugal and Spain.

David Suchet plays Baron de Rothschild who passes through Lisbon on his way to America.

How it ends!

After a chase through six locales in Southern Europe and over to Transylvania and Dracula’s castle, our hero makes it back to Madrid where he faces off with the leader of the bad guys in a bull ring. All I will say is it doesn’t end well for Tommy Lee Jones.

Hemingway meets back up with Silver and he tells him what he has discovered in the diary and why they are being chased. They head back to Lisbon for the final act. All I will say is it has to do with a fortune in stolen Nazi gold left over from the war, two hundred SS officers and two submarines from Argentina.

Jake Gyllenhall plays Otto von Habsburg heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne.

Jason Statham is Allen Dulles, OSS head in Berne.

Jennifer Lawrence plays Charlotte Grand Duchess of Luxembourg and reprises her roll as the Russian spy Red Sparrow.

Kate Blanchet is Peggy Guggenheim who passes through Lisbon en route to America.

Nicole Kidman is Francesca Valesquez an old flame of Matt Barnes and now a hotel manager in Seville.

Jack Nicholson plays Baron Oswald von Hoyningen-Huene, the German ambassador to Portugal ’34 to ’44. He charms everyone with his personality.

Robin Williams is Garbo, a Spaniard who ran a network of 12 fictitious spies in Britain.

Ryan Gosling is Ian Fleming a British Naval Officer passing through Lisbon,

Samuel L. Jackson plays Mr. Alvarhao an African representative from Portugal’s former colonies.

Ghosts

Two ghosts pay Matt a visit and help him decide his future. Hemingway’s is one and the other is Sean Connery who he meets briefly in Marbella.

With an all star cast from all over the world, I would like to maybe see Paul Greengrass bring a British film noir style to this war story. Not a gun is fired and not a person is killed.

The producer needs to be one that is well-respected IMO in order to get all the actors to agree to appear in a cameo because they certainly couldn’t be paid their regular salary. My first thought is Tom Hanks.