MARIA:      Don't worry. Soon, your Dad will return from his military assignment in Europe. Everything will be alright.

Maria forces herself to sit.

MARIA:      Now take me home. I have a story to write and a magical world to illustrate for you.

FLIP:      But they said you must stay here for a few more days.

MARIA:      Flip McKnight...listen to your mother. I will not allow this silly thing to control my life. As long as I'm alive...cancer must toe the line.

EXT. THE DARK CANYON - DAY

Steep and sharply angled rocky hills ominously stand guard to the deep narrow valley.

The sun is rising but the black ground and scanty vegetation of this part of the badlands stamp the atmosphere with darkness and danger.

The Dark Canyon hides a mysterious secret...

EXT. THE HIVE - DAY

The dome-shaped iron building lies solitary on the valley's artesian basin of porous rock, between layers of hard rock, in which bubbling, polluted water is trapped.

Smoke billows from it, blanketing the building with crawling fumes.

The huge door slides open with ominous techno hissing, revealing a 50-foot robot...

HOLLYWOOD VERSION