Stories by @rileycrane

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

In the fading glow of Camelot, the young and uncertain Sir Gawain accepts a supernatural challenge from the mysterious Green Knight — a bargain that will demand he answer for his courage one year hence. As Gawain journeys through plague-ridden villages, frozen monasteries, haunted forests, and pagan halls, the songs of the realm begin to follow him: whispered prayers, tavern ballads, ritual chants, and melodies that seem older than memory itself. What begins as a quest for honor slowly becomes a confrontation with fear, desire, mortality, and the stories men tell about themselves to survive. Ballad of the Green Chapel is “A mythic medieval drama with integrated musical elements.” Blending folk tradition, dreamlike fantasy, and haunting emotional balladry, the film reimagines the Arthurian legend as a lyrical descent into manhood, myth, and death. (Synopsis generated with ChatGPT.) Photo Credit: Mark Doherty (markdoc on Deviant Art)

Congo

An expedition searches for diamonds and investigates the mysterious deaths of a previous expedition in the dense tropical rainforest of the Congo.

The Island of Doctor Moreau

Edward Prendick, a shipwrecked man rescued by a passing boat, is left on the island home of Doctor Moreau, a mad scientist who creates human-like hybrid beings from animals via vivisection.

Swamp Thing: American Gothic (2031)

Loose adaptation of the American Gothic storyline. (I wrote this a while ago, before I learned Will Poulter was cast in GOTG Vol 3)

Swamp Thing: Arcane (2028)

Calbraith Rodgers has now been Swamp Thing for a while. He misses being human greatly but knows there is nothing he can do about it. That is until he meets a scientist by the name of Anton Arcane. (I wrote this a while ago, before I learned Will Poulter was cast in GOTG Vol 3)

Swamp Thing (2026)

Calbraith A. H. Rodgers was born in England in 1920. He enlisted in the Royal Air Force to try and escape the pull of the Green. However, on May 3, 1942, on his fourth mission as a pilot during the war, his plane was shot down and burst into flames. Landing in a swamp, the dying Rodgers felt the branches and petals reaching for him, delivering him to his new life as the protector of the Green. By fusing the man with the Green in the final moments of his life, the Swamp Thing was created. He is sent by the Parliament of Trees to defeat Solomon Grundy, a failed Swamp Thing. (I wrote this a while ago, before I learned Will Poulter was cast in GOTG Vol 3) (Swamp Things needs an anchor to humanity. Not necessarily a love interest.)

Grundy (2025)

Cyrus Gold was a mobster in the 1920s. His love of gold made him carry out daring and amazing capers and build a small criminal empire. Eventually, he was betrayed by his own gang and his bullet-riddled corpse was tossed into Slaughter Swamp.